|
| 8:36am |
Largely for reasons of fitful sleep,
I overslept a bit. I had a rather challenging go of getting to sleep,
which I'll blame on my rotund bedmate as he flop about. Humans. |
| 9:21am |
With sufficient prodding, I was able to get everyone else to pack
up their stuffs and roll on our of here, on time, and on budget...
or something to that effect. |
| 9:34am |
We checked out of the hotel, and the
hotel manager was kind enough to help us settle the bill. Despite
untold hours of being dialed in, it cost us nothing extra, further
leading me to the conclusion that the (08) area code number, despite
not being a freecall 0800 number, seems to be just that. Alas. |
| 9:46am |
It seems that the signs were quite clear until we got to the "Y"
in the road, which wasn't labeled. We opted for the right-most path,
which turned out to be incorrect. The logic that on a peninsula, all
things must loop, failed to immediately be proven. |
| 10:11am |
The logic finally kicked in, and we
arrived at the Wellington Zoo. Despite the television ads and mention
in travel guides for this place, the parking was only street parking
that we could find, and would not have been described as "abundant."
Never the less, we found a spot to park. |
| 10:24am |
After paying $10 for Tubby's admission -- ducks and children under
2 are free, 3-11 are NZ$5 we began our exploration of the Wellington
Zoo. |
| 10:32am |
It took a bit of walking before we
found the first exhibit where there were animals to be found, but
once we managed that, the quality of our visit increased immeasurably. |
| 11:48am |
We beat feet (conventional and webbed) from the zoo and headed back
to town to kill the remaining two hours before having to be checking
in at the airport. Plus, I was peckish. |
| 12:22pm |
After some wandering, and finding
a parking spot on Vivian Street, we walked down toward city centre
in search of food. Much to the human surprise and my dismay, we ended
up on Courtenay Place. (Where we could have started with in the first
place.) But I had to giggle when good citizen Tubby put $2 into the
parking meter. It's Sunday. |
| 12:38pm |
Extending the anti-fast-food programme, we found ourselves in Subway
(if it can make Jason skinny in the commercials, maybe I can get Tubby
to shed a few kilos as well). Unlikely, but we shared a sandwich and
a Coca-Cola (given the notion of Pepsi is foreign virtually everywhere). |
| 1:13pm |
We finally broke free of the fresh-bread-daily
establishment and took again to the streets, wandering for a final
ice cream bar and the walk [uphill] back to the car. |
| 1:21pm |
Safe and sound, we loaded up and headed for the airport, by way
of a Shell station to fill up with petrol, as required by the terms
of our rental agreement. And surprise! -- petrol was $1.239 a liter
there, too. |
| 1:29pm |
The car was parked in spot 23 and
we headed into the terminal to check in, pay the departure tax (NZ$25
for adults and kiddies over 12, NZ$10 for ages 3-12, and free 2 and
younger, and apparently, ducks). |
| 2:01pm |
We soared through the immigration gate (we didn't get a rubber stamping
on Tubby's passport, though, drag), and the security check point.
No shoes to remove, no laptops to unpack, nothing -- they just x-ray
the whole lot of baggage. (It may also have something to do with having
numerous security screeners -- five presently -- and only three passengers
checking through.) |
| 2:21pm |
We're comfortably arranged at Gate
26b of the International Flights section of Wellington airport. For
the time-conscious, Sydney is -2 hours hours from us, and Perth -4.
(Which also means, upon landing in Perth, we'll only be +15 hours
from California, whereas we were previously +19 hours. I was only
briefly interrupted when someone took
my photo. |
| 2:32pm |
Okay, I grasp the notion of having fire rescue at the airport, but
why the
boat? |
| 3:23pm |
Our flight began boarding, and by
virtue of being in row 19, we were called up first, along with them
super-duper flyers club folks. Yea! |
| 3:30pm |
Well, mostly "yea!", since being in row 19 of a 21 row
plane also means we have plenty of time to sit and contemplate our
departure. |
| 0:00pm |
Okay, I'm bored. And I'm looking out
the window. And it's there I see a red
security vehicle parked. Aviation Security Service. Does anyone
want to bet me a dollar (U.S. New Zealand, or Aussie money all accepted)
that the employees of ser Service rarely, if ever, refer to themselves
by corporate abbreviation? |
| 3:56pm |
We took off a few minutes later than the 3:50pm time on the schedule,
but no worries. Captain Stuebing (not his real name) still promised
we'd be touching down 5 minutes ahead of scheduled in Sydney. |
| 3:57pm |
Goodbye, Wellington -- here's the
harbour as seen from the flight path outbound. |
| 3:59pm |
And the departure
of the North Island... |
| 4:03pm |
And us beginning to fly
over the South Island before turning slightly more westerly than
southerly. |
| 4:45pm |
And now peering down from 33,000 feet (meter? lots of them), I can't
see too much more than clouds. But Katie, a lovely girl and employee
of Qantas, presented us with a 250ml Coke (about 8 ounces), which
have come to be known as "whorehouse sodas," stemming from
a Colonel-based story wherein they wanted to order drinks at a brothel.
The proprietor asked them if they where there to drink or screw; both,
they'd answered. Thus, they were served drinks, but not a full size
sort of beverage, apparently. |
| 5:35pm |
Directly behind me, and continuing
for a solid 13 minutes, was the curious cry-cough-whimpering of the
elementary school-aged passenger. Delightful, but as long as cookies
aren't hurtling my way, I suppose I'll survive. |
| 5:53pm (NZST) > 3:53pm (AEST) |
With the silence now greeting my ears from three feet (1 meter)
behind me, I decided it was time to formally bid New Zealand farewell,
and switch over to Australian Eastern Standard Time whilst in Sydney,
anyway. I've decided I like the term "whilst", and have
vowed to work to make it more accepted back in America upon my return. |
| 4:04pm |
Tests (mine) reflect the Toshiba laptop
battery claims a bit over two hours of "Super Long Life"
(using that factory setting) are pretty
dead-on. We've been up and running for about 90 minutes, and we
have an alleged 45 minutes left. |
| 4:12pm |
I figured I'd shut down the laptop for a while and stare out the
window. |
| 4:51pm |
Apparently, we are beginning the descent,
because the hysterical cry-cough-whimper has begun again -- it's the
ears popping thing. I guess I could muster more sympathy if the sounds
piercing my ears were coming from the 4-year-old, and not her 7-year-old
sister. |
| 5:08pm |
We've touched down in Sydney, hurrah! |
| 5:17pm |
It seems the protocol here is, because
we're now touching foreign soil, to clear immigration and customs
here, versus in Perth as our final destination. No matter; we had
plenty of time to kill before the connecting flight. |
| 5:55pm |
After all that, we were loaded
into a shuttle and driven from Terminal 1 (international flights)
over to Terminal 3 (domestic). I celebrated our arrival in Terminal
3 by converting money into $100 Australian (in the form of two $50
bills; makes me feel all rich and stuff... plus, I'm a duck, so I
think bills are cool). |
| 6:55pm |
The lack of power left us stuck reading
a book, and the announcement just now that we won't be boarding at
7pm -- now 7:55pm due to a late arrival of the plane -- assured me
the book idea was the way to go. |
| 7:55pm |
True to form, we began boarding, and it was probably one of the
least organized queue to board a plane. But, it was fast! |
| 8:16pm |
Our flight actually got off the ground,
56 minutes later than the 7:20pm planned departure. On the up-swing,
we were far enough back in the A330 that the centre seats were one
fewer across as the plane tapered off, so we didn't have to muck about
(as much) with flight attendants banging into us with their carts.
In apology for the delay, the first round of beverages (including
the beer and wine) was complimentary. Being a soda drinker, the gesture
was meaningless to me, but appreciated none the less. |
| 8:32pm |
Now and truly off the ground, I jumped into working my way though
Tom Clancy's The Bear and the Dragon, managing to read a
bit over 275 pages before the staggering length of this flight really
took hold. 4 hours and 50 minutes to cross Australia...? I don't recall
it taking this long from Atlanta to California. Wow. |
| 10:30pm (WST) |
Flight 583 landed in Perth, somewhat
impressively, only 20 minutes beyond the scheduled 10:10pm arrival
time. This despite the |
| 11:04pm |
Our little shuttle departed the airport, after waiting a few extra
minutes for a platinum (and bottle) blonde to board without luggage.
Curious, but who are we in this circle of life? |
| 11:28pm |
The check-in process at Hotel Ibis
was over and done with after a single signature and a credit card
imprint being taken. We then embarked on a review of our itinerary
for some reason of overwhelming helpfulness. |
| 11:41pm |
We actually got to our room after the detailed analysis of our fully
written-out itinerary. |
| 11:59pm |
I'm going to bed. When you factor
in time zone changes, yup, based on when we went to bed yesterday
four time zones later, our bodies think it's 4am. |
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