traveldiary.stracke.us

On the clock, it took us minus 15 minutes to fly from Australia to Los Angeles. The only problem with this calculation is that we lived August 8th twice, crossing the date line one more time.
We left the Ibis Hotel in Brisbane at 9 AM on August 8 and took the Airtrain from Roma Street Station to Brisbane International Terminal. It only took 20 minutes to the airport, which was much faster than taking a taxi through the morning rush hour.
We were lifting off the runway at 12:30 PM on August 8, starting our long haul home. We are on Air New Zealand #6 and have a nice view of the beaches and islands near Brisbane.
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We are “on holiday” and don’t have “to throw a sicky” (call in sick) in these islands. It is a different English down under.
The New Zealand weather report is mostly one word long. It is “fine”!
In Auckland we had “cool Southerlies”, but otherwise it was “fine”.
In Bora Bora the forecast was: “Beautiful Breaks and Scattered Downpours”. The first day at the Club Med those downpours were pretty much continuous, and we only saw the next island, “Raiatea”, the following day.
The Samoa government was “shouting a dinner” (paying for dinner) for a New Zealand couple, who had all their belongings stolen from their beach Fale.
Road signs in Samoa: “Do Not Overspeed”, or if that is not obeyed: “Do Not Speed, Heaven Is Full”.
” How you’re walking, Mate?” is Aussie for “How are you”.
In Brisbane airport : “as you shoot through…” and they offer a “Tax Free Scheme” here!
According to an opinion poll, the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, is “past his use-by date”.
When I asked in Australia, where I could recycle a coke can, the answer was: “Just bin it, mate!”
Back at the Auckland Airport, we heard a familiar( and not very politically correct) announcement at the departure gate:
“Mr., Mrs. Smith, please go to your gate immediately. Your flight is ready for departure, all the other passengers are on board and are waiting for you”.
It is nice when you can say what you really feel!!

Today is July 21 in Auckland, and this is the 4th time on this journey, that we are in the airport here in New Zealand.
Today we flew from Papeete,Tahiti to Auckland, crossing the International Date Line again. We only had the morning of July 20. For us, this date did not have an afternoon or evening. This might be a way to save on hotel and restaurant bills, by traveling always in a westerly direction!
The check-in with Air New Zealand in Tahiti took 45 minutes, just for us at the counter, holding up the other Business Class passengers behind us.
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With 2/3 of our mini sabbatical complete, we’re back from where we started our Pacific journey, Auckland International Airport. After a six hour flight from Tahiti, on free miles, we are back on our economy plus ticket.and since there is no such class on our next Air New Zealand flight to Brisbane, Australia, we got bumped up to business class. Life is sure grand. Being awful exhausted from getting up so early this morning, I was contemplating getting some shuteye in the Stressless lounge chairs here in the Business Lounge, when Lothar reminded me, that here, we could take a shower. I was sitting in an exit row on the last flight; they tend to be a bit drafty and thus I felt a wee bit chilly. Needless to say, upon our arrival, it wasn’t any warmer here in Auckland, it is deep winter… brrrr.
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After only 5 hours of sleep the rude alarm woke us yesterday at 4:30 AM. Lothar, as usual booked the earliest flight possible, so not to get caught into the quagmire of delayed flights, that could occur over the course of a day. Actually on the news the other day, it said that only about 50% of flights in the US arrive on time; so maybe he’s right. The day before the flight,Sonja inquired
as to what time she would have to shuttle us to the Albany International Airport (Canada is still a foreign country and Mexico has not yet been fully annexed) . Lothar at first is always vague about an exact departure time comittment, but we do notice that as the pre-flight day commences, the time seems to get earlier and earlier, usually in 15 min increments. I don’t think he likes to hit us with the reality until the last possible moment. He has become better in that I now know my real departure time, the evening before, instead of the day of. the flight. Each time, there is a reason why we should arrive early. This time…….school vacation started yesterday and there could be horrendous lines since many people go on vacation as soon as school is out. I don’t know about many people, but we sure seem to.
So we were out the door at 5:30AM, one of the first to check in for our 7 something flight. As we are going up the escalator to the security check, Lothar points out, that “the lines are getting longer”. I hate to admit it…..they were.

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We are south of the Equator. At latitude 36 degrees 52 South and 174 degrees 45′ East in Auckland, New Zealand. It is sunny and cool, about 6 degrees Celsius. We just flew on Air New Zealand 1 from Los Angeles to Auckland, flying time 12 hours and 20 minutes. We were traveling on a 747-400 on the upper deck in Premium Economy Class. The service was great and the attendants very friendly and resourceful. We toasted to the beginning of our journey to the South Pacific with Mumm Champagne, while the plane was stuck in traffic on the taxiway at LAX. It was dark for the whole duration of the flight and I slept for more than 8 hours. We were sitting at the upper deck’s exit door with plenty of legroom. The only problem was that the footrest did not come up high enough, for my legs to be comfortable. The flight attendant just took one of his catering containers from the kitchen and placed it in front of our seats, with a fat pillow on top. Now Gabi and I had very comfortable seats with legs horizontal, same as in Business for 1/3 of the price. We crossed the equator, still snoozing.
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The time is finally here. We had planned this trip for the last 9 months, the ticket for the Air New Zealand flights were purchased already in January of this year. Today is June 23rd and we are flying from Albany to Los Angeles. Up at 4:30 AM and Sonja drops us off at the airport. Our flight actually leaves the gate in Albany 10 minutes early and I had planned an extra day stop-over in Los Angeles, in order to make sure that we would not miss the next flights. That’s how it goes.
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Christchurch is actually the name of one of the larger cities on South Island, New Zealand. From our hostel, we headed down to the Avon River and the first monument we encountered was the 2001 Memorial to firefighters all around the globe. A large steel piece of the Twin Towers was erected next to the River, with a sign, asking you to think of the men and women, that give their lives daily, so that others may be safe. It showed such a positive effect of globalization. Then we meandered down a beautiful boulevard of trees, right next to the river. The whole scene seemed very British and some of the 2 story houses could have been straight out of the Stockade in Schenectady. For such a small country, the British had a massive empire all around the world. In many countries , as here, their influence stuck.
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This morning on our flight out of New Zealand, I read in the newspaper, that they were looking for fruit pickers all over NZ. Had we known before, we could have enhanced our budget.:shock: I guess lots of backpackers finance their way through NZ this way. The pay is NZ$100 a day, which is about US$70. We met quite a few people that take on a job here for a few weeks or months, then go there(wherever that might be) for a few more, and continue so on until they tire of the vagabond lifestyle. If we ever get tired of our permanent jobs, we know where to find others.:razz:

New Zealanders do not say good-bye, but say ” see ya ” . The Auckland airport announcements this morning go something like this :
“Mr. Smith, please go to your gate immediately. Your plane is ready for departure, all the other passengers are on board and are waiting for you ! ” We noticed that New Zealanders are very friendly and helpful, but also very direct and to the point. To be ” politically correct ” is a foreign concept here.
One highway sign says : ” Death is for a long time, so what is your hurry ” or ” The fast ones are going to be the dead ones “. There are no Buddhists here and nobody believes in reincarnation. The Maori go back to the magical Hawaiki, the place they came from according to their belief.
We are sitting in an airport business lounge ( Qantas in Auckland ) and are on our way to Perth on the West Coast of Australia. It is 22 degrees C here, 31 degrees in Perth. Back to the summer weather !
We called Sonja in Germany last night. It was 8 PM here and 9 AM the same day in Biberach. We also spoke with Carsten 2 days ago, when it was 12 noon here and 5 PM the previous day in Grenada. It is not that easy to keep track of the time zones. Today we will cross another 4 time zones.