Here we go! The next stop on my epic journey is New Zealand! Specifically, I’m starting in Auckland. I have an Airbnb booked for a couple of low key days and then I’m doing...other things that are still completely undetermined.
Back in Shanghai though, I woke up super early at 6am again. This is definitely a time zone thing. But it works out okay, because Shanghai Disneyland closes at 8pm. That means that, theoretically, I could have an early bedtime. In practice, though...maybe not so much.
Anyway, I had plenty of time to shower, dress, and get everything packed up. My laundry from yesterday was still significantly wet. So, I packed it in a plastic bag that actually held my swimming stuff on the trip from Hawaii and made a mental note to unpack it right away when I got to Auckland.
After I checked out, I had the hotel peeps order a taxi for me. Kind of fun, the guy at the valet/taxi station gave me a card that had lines like “Please take me to ____” in English and Chinese that he filled out and gave to me just in case I needed it to communicate with the driver.
This direction, the taxi cost a bit more, but still only $18USD.
Upon entering the airport, travelers were swiped with a wand that I assume was checking for residues, because we and our luggage were randomly physically touched with it as we walked by the unmagic wand guy. Then, we walked through some sort of detector arch, maybe a metal detector, and our bags went through an x-ray machine. This was just to get in the door. They frown on such things as taking pictures of security there and I really wanted to make it out of China again, but looking through my pictures I found that I apparently snapped one anyway. This is the security to get through the door.
Check in took forever. Actually, I found this to be a fairly consistent thing in China. Checking in with the airline in Hawaii, passport control at the Pudong Airport in Shanghai, at the check in desk at the Toy Story Hotel, getting my park tickets, and now at check in for the flight out. It all took a long time while they put a bunch of stuff into their computers.
Since I had been through this many times by this point, I arrived plenty early at the airport just to make sure that there were no issues. It turned out to be a good thing that I did. I learned today that you have to have a flight OUT of New Zealand booked before they’ll let you in. Probably pretty standard, but for whatever reason, I had thought that it would be fine just to work out exactly when I would leave once I had more specific plans. Not so.
I’m really glad that I worked out the next bits of my trip yesterday morning, because it made this step a no-brainer. I just had to pick an actual departure date. I’m really glad that had I cell service. In fact, it’s been really nice not to have to deal with making due without any cell service or buying a local SIM card or whatever. I thought that I was going to have to, but when I took my phone out of airplane mode once I landed in Shanghai, I got the usual “Welcome to China” (or whatever country I’m in) message from Verizon saying that my foreign plan choices would take effect and I would have service. So nice! The service is really spotty and I downloaded a VPN app to secure my connections, but it’s doable.
So I used that handy cell service to book a ticket out of New Zealand in almost two weeks time. I was originally planning to spend about a week here, but decided to extend it. New ticket in hand, I was able to get a boarding pass and head through security. They made everyone completely pull out of their luggage anything remotely electronic, which was a bit inconvenient. And is apparently a regular inconvenience for everyone, because they had repacking tables after you made it through security.
I needed food, so I opted for the unadventurous Burger King option. So as not to completely betray the spirit of experiencing the unknown, I decided to order a sesame ice cream cone. Not a fan. Nope. Did not finish. Do not want again.
I wandered to my gate eventually and arrived 2 minutes after boarding was supposed to have started. There was no one there. It turns out I was the last person who hadn’t boarded. On the plane, it was largely empty, which probably partially explained why everyone had already made it through the boarding process, which now, at 30 minutes ahead of the flight time, was now completed . I heard another passenger ask a flight attendent whether the scarcity is normal for this flight path. The attendent said that this flight was normally booked full.
I wasn’t complaining, though. I had an aisle seat and there was no one sitting between me and guy in the window seat. A little extra room on a plane is always most welcome.
The pilot made an announcement that the plane was still being fueled, so we should keep our seatbelts UNbuckled. I’ve never heard that announcement before. Also, since this is New Zealand Air, I’ve got the first New Zealand accents on my trip. But, funny enough, after a couple of interactions with one of the flight attendants, he asked where I was from because he had “noticed my accent was foreign.” I don’t why, but that made me chuckle several times during the flight. I guess it’s just weird to think of myself as having an accent.
We still didn’t end up taking off until 2:30pm, 15 minutes AFTER the scheduled flight time.
Let’s see...some highlights of the flight. At one point, we had the worst bit of turbulence that I’ve experienced. I don’t have any anxiety about plane travel, but this was a little nerve wracking. It was over pretty quickly, though. At another point, I dumped my water cup all over my lap. That was fun. For breakfast, they ran out of what I would consider a normal breakfast option (I forget what it was) and had to have a spicy noodle dish. It was fine. I survived. Despite the late takeoff, we actually landed pretty early. It was 5ish in the morning.
So, guess what? It’s winter in New Zealand. Unfortunately, I forgot my jacket in the car when I was dropped off at the airport in Seattle. So, I put on a couple of long-sleeved shirts and froze while I waited for a bus from the airport. I think it was just below 40 degrees. This is also the first time this trip that I wore pants. It’s all been shorts weather up to this point. I’ll have to find something a little warmer while I’m here (which was always the plan after I realized that I had forgotten my jacket).
I made it on the bus and into my Airbnb apartment without issue. I DID remember to unpack my wet clothes. Now it’s time to relax and hide from the world for a couple of days. Good bye!