Subject: 8 amazing days and 1 so-so night!
Date Sent: Mon, December 28, 2009 8:39:13 AM
Kia ora,
Sorry for the delayed trip report email -- it's been a crazy trip so far and I haven't had any time to send the emails every night! Today I have some time :)
I'm in New Zealand -- "visited country #30" for me, and the last week was one of the more unique weeks of any of my trips. I got here on the 20th morning, arriving in Christchuch and spending the day there, then picking up a passenger (friend of my cousin's) in the evening and basically, "not being alone" for the last 7 days. It's been raining/drizzling off and on, and that's been great for the scenery, but not so great for certain other things I'll get to later :)
So -- December 20th -- Sunday -- my flight was from San Francisco-Los Angeles-Auckland-Christchurch. Just like my trip to Australia 5 years ago, I was forced to check in my roller bag on the LAX-AKL flight because it was too heavy to be a carry-on. Great. There goes my bag! This time I wasn't going to let "the Australia experience" repeat (see the Australia section on my website for THAT story); I bought another bag at the airport and transferred 4 days worth of clothes into this bag, then checked in the first one. The flight arrived to Auckland on time and I made my way through immigration and to the baggage belt -- and just as I had feared, my bag did not arrive! I had 2 hours in Auckland to make my connecting domestic flight to Christchurch, and I started getting a little nervous about the bag not arriving. There was a flight attendant from my plane waiting for her bag too and she started chatting with me asking me where I'm from, where I'm going etc. Finally I decided to give up and go to the baggage services to fill out a report. As I was doing that (writing down all the next 3-4 nights where I would be staying), the flight attendant ran over and handed me my bag with the "American airlines" tag on it -- it had just come out! (the flight was Air New Zealand)
This was at 8:10 AM and my flight to Christchurch was at 9:00 AM.
I went through customs; fortunately not delayed anymore there... then had to recheck my bag for the domestic flight, so I got in the line for that, waiting for my turn and staring at the clock... and waiting and staring... and waiting and staring... and waiting and staring... 8:25 AM my turn came!
The guy said you'll make the 9 AM flight, but don't check in the bag here, go to the domestic terminal (10 minutes walk) and check it in over there. Great. I should have known this BEFORE I started waiting!
10 minutes walk became a 9-minutes run for me. I checked in the bag for Christchurch and again sprinted (the best I could, huffing and puffing) to my gate, where the plane had just started to board -- I had made it, hopefully my bag had too!
Well, the bag made it too, and it was one of the first bags to come out on the conveyer belt. What a relief after all that!
Next it was time to go rent my car (downgrade on the car because mine was not available with a free gps unit to make up for it), then go to the hotel to check in, then head out into town for some sightseeing!
That's all for now... :)
-me.
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| Contents | Dec 20 |