second time around

This morning I packed up and chatted with Poe. I went ahead and went up to the lobby and out of the room a bit early, 12:45 instead of 13:45 and Serge came over and we talked for a while about travels and family and such. Alberts transport pick up was right on time, despite my nagging concern after Rarotonga. A direct ride to the port and leaving shortly thereafter. The catamaran ferry to Papeete was very quick and smooth. It was a pretty large boat, so the rollers really didn’t affect it. Once here and disembarked I ran into a transport guy who asked where I was headed and he gave me a lift to the airport with his scheduled guests for 1000xpf. I checked my bag into the storage area and then found out that the wifi I had bought in Moorea (WDG) was not able to work here at the airport! Quelle Dommage. I found some incoming surfers for the big competition and gave them the log in information. At first they were “oh, we aren’t staying here, we’re leaving”, but when I explained it works all over and it is free for about 4 hours of time they were ok with it. I walked into city center. About 6 km. My hip is a little sore now, but it was ok. I had dinner at the Roulottes in the square (Place Vaiete). Think of a food court at the mall, but each one is a vending truck. The same as the “roundup” of trucks Poe and I saw at the Discovery Church one night. They were very clean, and do this every night. Probably twenty or so offering everything from chinese to fish to chicken to crepes. I had a very good roasted chicken and rice. Then caught a cab back to the airport. Now I just have to pass the time until my 01:20 flight. I do wish I could get the wifi signal here.
Finally broke down and bought another hour of internet for mail check and all. The time at the airport passed slowly, finally at 10:30 PM they started check in. Being business class I get to use the short line, but unfortunately the two people at the front of the line had some issue, and so both of the “business class” check in slots were at a dead stop. FINALLY, I got checked in and found out the plane would be arriving an hour late. Now I am starting to stress. I only have an hour and a half connection in Auckland, and since I am going on to Fiji on a different ticket, they don’t give a crap about my bags. On to the VIP lounge for a nice stiff whiskey and coke and use the internet there to check on flights from Auckland to Sydney if I miss mine. There are several more in the morning, so I am a little more at ease, but still, it is one in the morning, I am sore, tired and want the plane. The plane showed up, unloaded, cleaned, loaded and off we go. I pretty much tried to just get some sleep and did for around four fitful hours. The eye covers have different pictures on them, and the lady across the aisle had ones that had wide open eyes and the skin tone was kind of pasty like hers. The effect was creeping me out, with her head rolled to one side, she looked like she was dead with her eyes looking right at me. We made it into Auckland 50 minutes before scheduled take off time of my Sydney flight.
A smooth transition in Auckland, through transit customs, and on to the gate. Turns out the flight to Sydney was delayed about 20 minutes and so I had plenty of time, and even had a very nice dump, to clear the mind. The flight on to Sydney was fine, and I had a bit of breakfast. Looking out the window I saw the top of Rainbows. I had never seen them from this angle, it was kind of nice and thought provoking. Like some colorful stems on mushrooms made of clouds. We passed over Sydney downtown and circled back to land. Very lovely from above. They do love their sailboats. In all the river and harbors there were hundreds and hundreds of them anchored, not to mention the mooring docks full. I saw the Bridge, the Opera House and the Tower.
Immigration was smooth and on to carrousel 3 for the suitcase. While waiting I changed my paper francs for Australian dollars, not much of a rate, but what does one expect and what can I do with it here? The bags came and went, people came and went, and then no more coming and I started being unhappy. After a few minutes (?hours in the mind) more bags, and at last mine arrived. I cleared customs and went on up to the check in. They only check in three hours ahead, so I had a chicken sandwich which was very tasty and then eased my way over to the check in area.
When I opened there were easily 150 people already in line. And what a mess of families, little kids all over the place. I waited my turn, and checked in. I did notice one screamer and hoped he might be at the front of the plane. He was not in the row behind me, he was two rows back and screamed all 3+ hours to Nadi.
On through security and into the international terminal. Out of security one is fed into the duty free shop, just like coming out of a ride at Disney. This place was easily the size of Costco!! Every kind of liquor, smokes, candy, perfume, jewelry and designer duds. I passed the three hour wait and was getting tired of games, reading and just sitting. I felt stiff and tired. The plane was one of the huge double decker models, and I had row 47. The flight was fine, and we got a nice cold chicken on rice meal and wine. I saw “Thor” and toward the end was really over traveling for the day. The last 1/2 hour I was counting the seconds. After touchdown we all herded into the immigration, lined up and passed through. I am always amazed by the older folks being the ones to “crash” the line. One lady strolls up to the middle and says, “is this the line?” when several people said yes and indicated with a thumb that it went back there, she sort of looked around in the distance and just eased on in and kept her place. People are always entertaining, I had to smile and it helped me to move along.
The Raffles Gateway was a great choice for hotel, right across the street from the airport, a one minute ride, very clean, and I beat the crowd coming in. Checked in and first thing jumped into the shower. There was hot water and lots of pressure. It may have been one of the best showers of my life. I felt so revived that I went on down to the bar and had a couple of beers. Chatted with a gent from Belgium over the rugby match on the Telly. Turns out he teaches Rugby in Belgium. Very nice guy, and then to bed. I slept wonderfully and this morning got up for a great breakfast. Now I am checked in and waiting for my flight to Savusavu. 


Tags: Travel

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 20th, 2011 at 3:54 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.