Winter 2019 - NZ1 Long Flight to New Zealand

NZ1   Long Flight to New Zealand

Flight to Sydney

On our map, New Zealand (NZ) does not look that far away, but according to our flight schedule, it was a very long flight, especially with the layover in Sydney which was a monstrous 12 hours. We thought of entering Australia but our Visa was for a month later, we had to stay in the Airport Terminal. Or so we thought… 

After we finished the first leg of our flight from Denpasar, Bali to Sydney we were asked at the gate if we wanted to make a waiting flight that would skip our 12-hour waiting time. Duh!!!  YES!  The only problem we told the nice gentleman was that Carol is not a fast walker and cannot

Sunrise

make the new gate in the time allotted. Ha, little did I know, he had a golf cart waiting that zipped us to the new gate. Swoosh, we were on the connecting flight, and yes, our luggage made it, too. Amazing how an Airport works behind the scenes. We had only about 1 hour between our arrival at Sydney Airport and the next flight to Auckland but with the help of Qantas, we skipped the dreaded 12-hour wait.  Amazing trip!

I called it a good omen for NZ, a great beginning. With an efficiency that is

Coming Into Sydney

stunning we landed in Auckland now almost a day early from our projected time of arrival and our plans had to be adjusted a bit. Firstly, I had booked an Airport hotel near Auckland with the provision of a late arrival. Now we were early. I had planned a stopover at the Airport anticipating we would be frazzled and worn out from the long wait in Sydney so booked us for 2 nights. Because we had no car to get around NZ, we kind of were stuck at the airport. The hotel we had pre-booked, an Ibis Hotel, was not a good choice of hotels, but we made do.

So now we are in Auckland, well near the Airport at least, not in downtown Auckland and what is there to do at an airport? We have about a week before our trip with Fred Rau starts and we are on our own until then, we have to do something.  We are on the North Island of NZ and we have an itinerary once our Motorcycle Trip starts, but until then… where do we go? Carol and I had some chats and decided that we should go as far North on this upper Island as possible in order to be able to say we have seen the less traveled road in NZ too. 

Our Funky Blue Corolla

I had made a car reservation on line and the pick-up was near our Ibis Hotel. I walked to it the next day and received a fairly new Toyota Corolla in a funky blue color. This car had the latest Garmin already installed into it and with this gizmo, a GPS, I am dangerous. I can find almost anything. So off we went, driving north on the following days. Except… driving is now on the left side of the road… and the roads are very, very narrow with no shoulders and winding.

We just have to be back in Auckland on the 10^th of Feb., 2019 for the beginning of our pre-booked Motorcycle Tour.