We got up and packed without any difficulty. It was a crime to fold my nicely starched and pressed jeans into my suitcase, but there you are. Since we didn’t buy anything in Sydney everything fit back into the suitcases with no problem.
We grabbed our last breakfast at the Four Seasons (they finally had crumpets again!) and a car met us to take us to the airport.
Our flight to New Zealand was delayed, but not too much. It was originally supposed to take off at 11:30 and I think we were in the air by 12:45. The international terminal at the Sydney Airport looks more like a shopping mall than an airport. There are signs everywhere promising every gate is within a 10 minute walk but I can’t believe that. By the time you find your way through all the shopping and walk through many many hallways filled with more shops to get to your gate I cannot believe that everyone can get from anywhere in the terminal to anywhere else in 10 minutes or less.
Signs throughout the terminal promised free wifi, but Dad was disappointed because our gate was so far into the terminal that the wifi didn’t reach it.
The New Zealand Air plane (an A320) was really nice and new. The seats seemed a little bigger than normal coach seats and also seemed cushier. Every seat had its own entertainment consul with music, movies, games, and a variety of other features. Best of all they weren’t turned off during take-off and landing so you could actually listen to music the whole time if you wanted.
This airline has a very practical way of selling tickets. They don’t play games with a lot of fees, but there are four levels of tickets you can buy: just a seat, a seat and a bag, “The Works” (a seat, bag, and meal), or “The Works Plus” (a seat, bag, meal, and extra bag). We had The Works, so we got a lunch, which was pretty okay. The little pre-packaged carrot cake was really good anyway.
This airline also wins an award for funniest safety video ever. There aren’t really words to describe it... Let me just say I don’t think you could get away with Granny streaking down the isle at the end of an American safety video. Check out the video below.
I decided to make use of the entertainment system and watched Love and Other Drugs. After seeing the first trailers for that movie about a year ago I thought it looked interesting, but its lukewarm reviews on Rotten Tomatoes kept me from trying very hard to see it. I actually thought it was pretty good. Rotten Tomatoes’ major beef with the movie was that it couldn’t decide if it was a comedy or a drama, but that didn’t bother me. I just thought it was a drama that was funny in spots. Both Anne Hathaway and Jake Gyllenhaal gave good performances. I’d be interested in seeing it again on a larger screen because I suspect the cinematography was quite good as well.
I didn’t miss any scenery out the window while I watched the movie because all waves look the same (ie blue) from an airplane. It ended in time for me to watch our landing into New Zealand. My impression is that the coastal areas of New Zealand are incredibly flat. There is almost no discernible rise from the beach to some of the residential districts we saw. But when the plane banked and turned, there were suddenly very hilly and picturesque landscapes as well. Just as we dipped below the clouds the sun lit up one of the rivers, turning it into a ribbon of gold winding through a verdant landscape. It was spectacular! I can’t wait to get a real look at this country...
We reset our watches because there is a two hour time difference between Australia and New Zealand, which now puts us 16 hours ahead of the East Coast. New Zealand is very serious about you not bringing in any food. I abandoned an energy bar on the plane but I had two mint chocolates left over from Fish at the Rocks, which were too good to get away, so I had to eat them ;-)
A driver from Tauck met us at the Auckland airport and took us to our hotel, the Langham. The rest of the group arrives tomorrow night and the tour proper begins on Saturday. The hotel is very nice, although our view is not quite as good as our previous view of Sydney Harbour... They have a nice lobby with an attractive wine bar. The room is large and there are actually chairs to sit in! And this room wins an award for the largest variety of provided toiletries I've ever seen!
For dinner we decided to try the Langham’s restaurant Eight. There are two dining choices there, an a la carte menu or “the journey.” The journey is actually where the restaurant gets its name from. There is a buffet set up as eight different stations, each representing a different are of the world or food group. There is an Indian, French, and Japanese station, an American grill, a salad bar, stir-fry, seafood, and of course, dessert.
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| A sushi sampler arranged by Dad |
We were both quite pleased and suspect we’ll go back for dinner tomorrow.
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