New Zealand chronicle

As they often do, my thoughts today turn consistently to New Zealand. As a means of unpacking all that I experienced, I thought I would do a series of chronological posts, starting with my arrival in Auckland on March 1st 2010.


I set off from High Bentham train station at about 9:30 in the morning and spent the day in London (Feb 27th). I changed about £800 of cash into NZ$ at what eventually turned out to be an excellent exchange rate (near enough $2.2 to the £), before going to a cheapo Travelodge for the night booked right next to Heathrow. Rather embarrassingly I managed to get lost on the way there, having only some poor, briefly scrawled directions on a scrap of paper to guide me in the dark. I had to resort to ringing my dad and he guided me there sitting at the computer using Google Earth. Not a particularly auspicious start to the journey! My feet were killing me, having spent hours walking about in the dark so I went to bed early and woke up about 4am and set off for the airport. I believe my flight was around 9 but can't really remember. Check in went smoothly, and I treated myself to an overpriced Full English before I boarded.



The flight itself was 24 hours long, with 3 stops; one in Dubai, one in Brunei and finally one in Australia somewhere, I can't remember where. Technically due to the +12 hour time difference it was a 36 hour flight. Its certainly one of the longest flights you can take in the world, and it really was so dull. I watched all the usual in flight movies and TV series on the build in screens but they only entertain for so long. It was dark when we stopped in Dubai so I don't remember it, Brunei was SO humid, even walking to the terminal and back bought me out in a sweat. All the windows were dripping with water! 



Eventually we touched down at Auckland International Airport, built a couple of miles out from the city proper. It was about 3am when we landed, and the first thing I remember was the freshness of the air, it was like a fresh sea breeze magnified many times. It took many days to get used to it, for whatever reason (presumably far fewer people) the air is much cleaner over there. I managed to find a minibus service delivering people to central Auckland for $30. It was still dark, and I couldn't book into my hostel until 10am so I wondered around central Auckland for a while eventually tiring and finding a seat in a near empty plaza. 


It was then that it hit me: I was on the other side of the world! I didn't know anyone here. It was very exciting! I had arrived with no plans at all (other than 2 nights booked in a hostel) and no real experience of foreign travel. If I could go back in time to any moment it would be this one with everything stretching out before me. Finally 10am arrived and I chucked my extremely heavy rucksack in my 16 person dorm room before striding out into the city to attempt to plan something resembling a holiday.