Hola again armchair travelers! As usual, I’ve waited so long to update this
that I have forgotten everything that has happened since we last tuned in….I’m
sure you all will be glad to know that some things never change and my
advancing years seem to ensure it will get worse so you lucky people at some
point will probably get to start reading multiple blog entries that are carbon
copies of each other since I have forgotten that I already wrote about it. But thankfully for all of us, today is not
that day J
So the cliffhanger of our last episode was multiple hours
spent contemplating pit toilets at the Beijing airport. Thankfully that episode is over…..unfortunately
it was replaced by an equally uninspiring visit to the Singapore airport. I was able to escape the confines of the
boarding area and make it into the city, which was very interesting and
diverse, and did enjoy a whole half hour of walking around until the sky opened
up and released a downpour of rain.
Which lasted for the next eight hours.
We’re not talking about the kind of rain where you can pop the umbrella
and continue your stroll—we are talking the kind of rain where if you stick
your hand out the door a whole half of your body comes back wet since the
howling wind is blowing the rain sideways.
After huddling in a bus shelter for a half hour or so, I hopped on the
Singapore Airlines hop on hop off bus (No, I was not travelling on Singapore
Airlines I was travelling on some such drivel called JetStar) and continued my
tour of the city…without really seeing anything through the sheets of rain….but
whatever.
For a moment I considered boring you with a story about the
grief I got from the Business Class lounge attendant at the Qantas, BA, AA
lounge who did not want to let me in:
But you are on
JetStar, not a Qantas flight.
Yes, I know that, but
I BOOKED a Qantas flight and am feeling pretty pissed that they shoved me into
the shitty “Business Class” of some ridiculous airline called JetStar instead.
Well, I cannot let you
in.
Um, my itinerary says
I am on a Qantas flight, I haven’t slept in two days, and although I am
normally a pretty sedate person, I am going to get really snotty if you don’t
let me in right now.
Well, I guess you can
come in and no one will really know…
.
But decided that issue is better left dead and buried. But if you are listening One World Alliance,
if someone books a business class ticket on a particular airline it better look
a whole lot like Club World on British Airways! And not like some red-headed
stepchild airline that people probably don’t actually pay money to travel
on. No offense JetStar, the people working
there are lovely, but you really gotta do more that give out the hot wash cloth
to call it business class. So enough of
my whining about that.
Anyway, I eventually made it to Auckland, which was sunny,
warm and empty. It was New Year’s Day after all, and everyone else was sleeping
it off. I spent a lovely couple of days
sleeping and seeing a bit of the city with another New Yorker I met in the
hotel, who was travelling around New Zealand and Australia with his mum for her
80th birthday! They were lovely and interesting people and it is
nice to do a bit of sightseeing with others.
We went out to Waiheke Island, where they have many wineries and spent
some time poking around.
A day or two later I hopped an Air new Zealand flight for
Dunedin and here I am now! ANZ has really capitalized on the opening of the
Hobbit and chosen to have the Hobbits and others conduct their in-flight safety
talk. You can watch it here:
When we arrived, we were greeted by the cows that apparently
like to graze near the runway….really near.
Thankfully there is a small fence that keeps them from roaming onto the
actual runway! It’s a little like flying
into Asheville, although they do have about 3 more gates than the 6 you can
find at AVL. The plane actually has to do a u-turn at the end of the runway in
order to come back to the terminal…..
That’s probably enough for now as I know the few of you that
are still reading at this point are dying to watch that youtube video...so go
and enjoy it.
It’s unclear what I will talk about in the update so will
keep you in suspense on that—as well as making you wait for a few more
pictures. J
Cheers!
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