I think interesting is the best way to describe the past couple of days. My internal clock is super messed up from all the traveling, so I haven’t really been hungry, just eating when it’s the right time here in New Zealand. New Zealand is 19 hours ahead of Minnesota, so it’s not a horrible time change, just weird. Essentially, how we calculate it is from New Zealand, we just add 5 hours to get Minnesota, and then think a day behind. We completely missed February 2nd in the mix of flying around, which was weird. Trying to explain how long it took to get to New Zealand is very difficult-for us, it was around 30 or so hours of traveling for us, but not thanks to crossing the date line.
We left our house at 8:30am on the 1st, and sat through an hour of traffic to get to the airport. It was icy and wet, and also conveniently rush hour. We were excited to be driving around in the slush for the last time for a while (around 7-8 months). We got to the airport and checked in and everything, which was low key. After that, we sat by the gate, waiting for flight 1 to Phoenix, which left around 11; there were two 50 year old women sitting behind us discussing whether they wanted to get “maggies” or “bookies” for the plane. We had to try very hard not to laugh (they were American). Matt and Gavan, two guys from our trip, flew over with us. It was fun to have someone to talk to in the airports and stuff. This flight got in later than expected, which was fun for the four of us because we only had an hour in between.
Flight two left around 14:30 or so, and we touched down at 13:45 from flight one, I think. The annoying part was waiting for everyone in front of us to get off the plane. Amanda and I had not eaten lunch yet, and didn’t really have time in between, like we thought we would originally. Thus, we grabbed food quick in the airport, and walked fast to our gate. The man sitting next to us on the plane was not very happy because we were the annoying people eating on the plane; I’m sure he got over it. He kind of looked like Richard from LOST, but Amanda doesn’t think so at all.
We got to LAX around 15:30 or so, and our flight didn’t leave until 21:40. There was beautiful weather in LA, and there was quite a long walk to the terminal our flight was going to leave from, so that definitely helped. We said goodbye to Matt and Gavan, as they were taking a different flight and traveling separately from us. Amanda and I decided to change into shorts since we were too hot! It’s nice to say that in February. We checked our bags, and went through security. I got stopped in security because they thought my laptop cooling pad was an explosive device-that was not fun. I had to get patted down and everything, although it ended up being a false alarm. We were somewhat anxious for our 15 hour flight to Australia because we had never been on a flight that long before, and don’t sleep well on planes in general. However, it was a really neat experience. We met up with Amy and got some food in the airport, then sat around for a couple of hours waiting to get on the plane.
The airline we went on, V Australia, is a newer airline. The plane was humongous-over 60 rows and 9 seats across. Each seat got its own entertainment center, and the lights on the plane changed colors, from pink to blue to green. It was really neat. The flight attendants were super nice too. We were somewhat confused as to when we would get food because it said dinner and breakfast included. The dinner came at like 23:00, which was a little unexpected. It was okay, but I wasn’t hungry. It was hard to fall asleep on the plane because of the cramped space and such, so I didn’t get much sleep at all. Maybe like 2 hours or so. I watched 4 movies on the plane, and two TV shows. The movies were Red, Toy Story 3, The Social Network, and Life as We Know It. I recommend all of them; I picked good ones. I do not see, however, why The Social Network should win Best Picture; it wasn’t amazing. After watching my 2nd movie, I tried to fall asleep, to no avail. I finally went on my entertainment center and found “Zen” music, and they had some meditation-type things on there; they helped, although not sure if I ever did fall asleep. It was amusing, though, to be up when everyone else wasn’t. One of the flight attendants went around and sprayed this lemony fragrance everywhere. I am not sure if that was because we all smelled, or to help everyone sleep, or what. It reminded me of the people that spray Hollister cologne outside their store and on all their clothes. We got in from the long flight an hour early, which was good and bad. It was good because I wanted to get off the plane, but bad because we had more time to wait for the next plane. We got in at 7:00 to Melbourne, which was 14:00 in Los Angeles (again, more internal clock problems).
Our flight left for Christchurch, NZ at 9:40 or so, and we got in at 15:00ish. When we finally arrived, we had to go through customs, which was not bad at all. They had to take a second look at Amanda’s Oreos because the box looked like a cigarette box in the scanner. That was pretty funny. We left the airport and got on our shuttle, and made it to the hostel around 17:00 or so. We had to go to the ATM because they would only accept cash, which was interesting because it was quite a large amount to ask for all cash. The first room they put us in was a mixed gender with a bunch of beds-not what we reserved. We are currently in an 8-person room, with only 3 of us. It is quiet and nice, except there isn’t a window. We then went to Subway for dinner because it was one of the only places open. We are like a block from the beach, so everything around here it seems closes at 16:00 when everyone leaves. We walked around and found the beach, but it was super windy, so we didn’t stay too long. It is really awesome here, even though it was kind of a rainy/windy day. We then went back to the hostel and showered, and are going to bed soon-around 21:00 our time. We are all exhausted, but want to go explore some more tomorrow. Will try to check in again sometime in the next couple days. Coming up: tomorrow-Tamaki cultural experience, as well as exploring town; Saturday-might go to the Antarctic Experience center.
No comments:
Post a Comment