New Zealand to Australia

My travel began early on the morning of March 30th, with a ride from our hostel to the Wellington airport. After the complete airport security experience, in which I was grateful my slightly overladen bags weren’t weighed (7kg combined limit for both bags!), we boarded the flight. I tried to appreciate some of my final grand views of the country, but quickly found the plane descending towards Auckland. Once we landed and received the green light to exit the plane, my main focus was getting my grandmother off on her way to her flight early that afternoon. After a false start, we made our way over to the international terminal, found the line where she was supposed to check in, and upon seeing that it was completely still, took the opportunity to say our goodbyes. Sad to see her go but extremely happy we made it through our time in New Zealand without any real incident, we gave each other a final hug and I set off walking towards my airport hotel. I had a 7:25 am flight scheduled the next morning, so I had booked a slightly more expensive hotel about 5km from the airport. I took my time on the walk over, trying to appreciate the scenery, but found that it was almost entirely industrial and office buildings. I grabbed a small lunch along my walk but eventually found myself at the hotel. Instantly impressed with the lobby (I believe this was the nicest hotel I have ever booked for myself) I filled up my water bottle at the lobby bar and waited in the nicely air-conditioned room for a little while until I could formally check-in. When I finally got access to my room, I was happy to find a small selection of complementary snacks from New Zealand companies. This and other food odds and ends got me through until dinner, when I ordered a nice biryani for dinner, took a shower, set my alarm, and went to bed early.

The early morning went smoothly, and the airport shuttle picked me up right on time. After briefly disembarking at the domestic terminal, and luckily realizing my mistake in time to run back to the bus, I made my way into line for flight check-in. As mine was the only flight from Latam Airlines, this went smoothly, and I made my way through security without any slowdowns. I even had enough time to enjoy the free airport massage chairs before boarding. I finally boarded my flight, and saying goodbye to New Zealand as the sun began to rise, I settled in for more than 3 hours making my way over the Tasman Sea.

Arrival in Sydney was fairly uneventful, and after some time deciphering the surprisingly obtuse airport signs, I made my way through immigration. The bio-security station took a moment to examine my shoes, now adorned with a slight patina of New Zealand dirt, and made me throw out some roasted seeds that were no longer in their original packaging. Luckily this was the biggest problem I ran into, and before I knew it, another international trip (and my first on my own!) was complete and I was out in free Australian air. I quickly connected with my dad’s cousin, (my first cousin once removed?) Heidi, who I had been in touch with and had graciously agreed to host me during my time in Australia. We walked together to her waiting car and began catching up on personal and family goings on, as well as getting me acquainted with Australia and Sydney. We returned to her house in a suburb just a touch north of the center of the city, I got settled in and also continued chatting with her and her husband Tony, and got acquainted with their two chickens. Heidi had some work to do, but Tony was able and excited to take me around the area, so the two of us drove down to Manly Beach, took in the sights, and managed a wonderful swim of about 1.5km. After some passionfruit ice cream, we made our way to North Head, a beautiful peninsula with a great view of much of the harbor. Eventually, we went back to the house and had a delicious home-cooked meal of chicken ragu and tagliatelle. After dinner, still feeling tired from the early morning and now the swim as well, I had another early night and settled into bed for what I could already tell would be a wonderful week.