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Craig had always wanted to go to New Zealand, and when the Lord of the Rings movies showcased all of the beautiful scenery there, he wanted to go all the more. He used the internet to plan a trip, which was a little bit challenging because not all of the small businesses there had a web presence.
We definitely wanted to do outdoor activities while we were there, and it seemed like there was enough to do on the South Island alone to occupy us for an entire trip. Craig found Hiking New Zealand's web site and we chose their Secret South trip, which included hiking, camping, and staying in huts. It covered a good portion of the South Island. We decided that before the guided hiking trip, we wanted to explore the island in a very kiwi way: renting a small camper van and staying in campgrounds. Craig bought a book of New Zealand road maps and pored over them to create a general route. We used the web to find things to do in each town, and Craig roughed out an itinerary. We got the Lord of the Rings Location Guidebook by Ian Brodie and found interesting places from the movie that we would like to visit. We were looking for a place to stay in Christchurch, and we found the web site of an alpaca farmstay called the Alpaca House. This sounded right up our alley. For the rest of the camper van route, we would not book accommodations in advance so that we could be more spontaneous depending on weather and other factors. We booked the small camper van and looked forward to the trip. We bought our first digital camera for this trip: a "weather-proof" Olympus Stylus. It was a new model which had just been released. In fact, it was so new that extra proprietary batteries were not available for sale yet. They were scheduled to hit the market while we were in New Zealand. Because we had only a single rechargeable battery, and we didn't know whther we would always have electricity for charging, we took our backup film camera as well. We would have to conserve battery power and we didn't know how long each charge would last. As trips and technology progressed, we started taking many more digital photos. But as this was our first foray, we were conservative due to circumstances in New Zealand. Looking back, I wish that we had more pictures from this trip. We purchased blue mummy-style sleeping bags for camping, and we already had trekking backpacks. I was active on message boards for Michael Palin's travel website, and was friendly with a woman named Ellen who lived with her husband and two saughters in Christchurch. She invited us out to dinner on our first evening in New Zealand to welcome us to her beloved adopted country (she's originally from England). We were excited about this opportunity, as we enjoy meeting new friends as we travel. |
Testing out the new sleeping bag
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Craig's mother took us to the airport at a little after 2 p.m. We arrived at the American terminal to see a check-in line longer than we had ever seen. This winter has been infinite; and today's early April snow and ice were wreaking havoc on the airport. People were desperately trying to reschedule flights, etc. We were lucky, however, as our flight through L.A. was still running.
We still had to stand in line for about an hour and a half to check in, but we had allowed enough time. We ate a functional Burger King lunch and then headed to our gate. Our flight left more or less on time (5:25 p.m.) despite the de-icing the plane had to undergo. We listened to some music on Craig's minidisc, and I fell asleep. They served us a meal of tortellini which was okay, and we had an uneventful flight to Los Angeles. |
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We arrived at LAX at 9 p.m., and we needed to catch a 10:30 p.m. connecting flight. After being pointed in the wrong direction several times by airport staff and circling the entire concourse, we found Air New Zealand in the last terminal in building 2. We had enough time to hit the bathroom and exchange some currency before boarding.
The plane was a 747. Craig sat in a window seat, I was in the middle, and on the aisle was Andrew, an avocado oil entrepreneur from NZ's North Island. He was on his way back from a business trip to Mexico. He was very friendly and pleasant to talk to. We all had a good laugh when we noticed music entitled "The Funny Avocado" on the in-flight entertainment. AirNZ is apparently renowned for its food. It was delicious! Hot lamb casserole, mashed potatoes, green beans, Egmont cheese and crackers, and cheesecake. Our seats were in "Pacific Class", which is AirNZ's equivalent of Coach, but much more pleasant. Comfy seats with headrests, footrests, and adequate legroom. We slept through at least two movies, then awoke well rested and happy. We listened to the minidisc for a while, and then watched James Bond "Die Another Day", very formulaic but fun and entertaining. After that we were served a tasty breakfast of cheese omelet, strawberry yoghurt, a muffin, fruit, tomato, and potato puffs. We had orange juice and very strong coffee. We then watched some programs about New Zealand on the in-flight entertainment. We could start to see the sun rising on the left side of the plane (though we were on the right). We landed in Auckland at 7:15 a.m. on Sunday 4/6/03, local time in 120 kph winds. The flight had been much more manageable than we had anticipated due to the comfort of the plane and the fact that we were both able to sleep. We both felt really well in the morning. Our time spent going through customs nearly caused us to miss our connecting flight. We would have to walk to a completely different terminal in the humid weather, but we were afraid we wouldn't make it in time. We talked to a nice employee who hailed a cab for us and negotiated a price of $10 to the domestic terminal. We re-checked our luggage at the domestic terminal as they were making the boarding announcement for the flight. We passed through security, and were running up an escalator when they made the final boarding announcement. The humidity of Auckland and the stuffiness of the airport despite the comfortable and cool outdoor temperature caused us to be quite sweaty, and the airline staff teased us as we huffed and puffed our way onto the plane. With this kind of rush, we thought there was no way our baggage would accompany us to Christchurch. And if that were the case, we'd be totally understanding. I mean, how could they possibly pull that off? |
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