And We’re Off!
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007Paula and I have left the country… We planned to wake up at 7am and leave for DCA at 8am to give us plenty of time for the 9:15 flight. But while it is said that “Even the best laid plans of mice and men, often go astray”, for us it is just par for the course. We woke up about 20 minutes late, left for the airport around 8:20, hit terrible rush hour traffic because of a few drops of rain (and maybe, just maybe, a snowflake or two)…. once at the airport, though, it was smooth sailing… Tuesday is the only day to fly.
So after a 5 hour flight to LA, we had a 9 hour layover for the international flight so we rented a car and drove to Pasedena. We met up with a Elisa, who happened to be in town for work, had lunch, chatted, browsed, etc and then it was hugs and back to LAX. PS – Very special thanks to Elisa for some last minute shopping and repacking help that Paula is very happy with.
So 15 hours of flight on Air New Zealand later… I watched 3 movies, ate a few meals, acted as grand pillow for Paula, walked and stretched here and there, and grabbed a few hours of shut-eye as well. It actually goes by faster than you think. Once on the ground, we had about the shortest customs line ever. We grabbed a taxi to the Queen Street Backpackers hostel in Auckland and found that we couldn’t check in for a few hours. We left our packs in the storage room and strolled around the city for a bit. We saw an STA Travel shop so we stopped in to check out flights costs for other parts of our trip. During the stop-in, we learned from the travel agent that Americans flying into NZ often must present proof of onward travel in order to enter the country. Many people have had to buy a ticket out of NZ right then. I guess they missed that we had only booked the flight one way so we go lucky.. phew.
SO… here we are, all caught up. We’re now settled into the room, showered and happy, contemplating where to have lunch, one of the various kabob stands, perhaps. By the way, we are 18 hours ahead of you guys on the east coast (i think). The fun for tonight: Apparently it is salsa night a local bar so we’re going to go shake out our weary travel legs and try and kick the thing into high gear….
dan
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