Jan 29th, 2020 – Auckland Airport

I left home 12 days ago. It feels shorter, as a large part of that involved flying a tortuous route:

MRS -> LHR -> LAX -> NAN -> WLG

I chose that somewhat odd route, as I had enough airmiles with BA to be able to fly the LHR-LAX leg in first class, a final treat to myself before roughing it for the next three months.

Arriving in LAX, the luxury promptly ceased with a bang. Given I had redeemed my airmiles for one leg of the trip, but not the totality, I had to collect my bags at the airport and check them in for the next part of the flight. In what I discovered must be one of the worst airports in the world. The queue for immigration on the way out took a good three hours to clear, at which point I was on US soil for all of 5 minutes prior to having to queue for check in and security, which took another 2 hours. I had a 6 and a half hour layover, and spent the large majority of that queueing. I had hoped to maybe leave the airport to catch up with Barrett, but unfortunately, the WiFi at LAX was broken, meaning that I had no way of contacting him to arrange to meet up. I had also hoped as a backup plan that my first class ticket might get me access to the lounge once I was through security, but due to obscure lounge access rules it was not to be. Ah well, can’t complain, I made it through in one piece, and even got to set foot in America for five minutes! Next stop was Fiji:

Before landing in Fiji, I was able to check something off my bucket list: crossing the international date line! It does mean that I left LAX on the evening of 17th Jan, but arrived in Fiji in the morning of the 19th Jan, having travelled forward in time and completely lost the 18th January. I know how timezones work, but it is still a bit puzzling to experience the missing day. I’m due to fly back in the other direction, so I’m never going to get that day back!

I then flew onward to Wellington. Landed in Wellington at around lunchtime, which gave me enough time to figure out how to get the bus into town, the cable car up the hill, and walk to the university digs I had booked to stay in for my first few nights. It had been 30 years since I was last in New Zealand.

I was due in Wellington for a briefing event the VSA (Voluntary Services Abroad) had organised that week, but I hadn’t realised the Monday was a public holiday, so had a while to catch up on lost sleep and explore the town. As it turns out, the VSA people were still working hard to secure my onward flights and visa for Vanuatu, so I ended up staying over a week there. It gave me ample time to explore what is quite a cool town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I left Wellington by plane earlier today. It’s been a quick hop to Auckland, and then after a 7-hour layover here, I’m off to Port-Vila, Vanuatu this evening, expecting to arrive there around 8:30pm local time. The adventure is starting!