NZ Trip 2000
Paddington 13:55 10/11 - And so it begins... The mammoth round-the-world excursion to New Zealand. I think I changed my emails auto-response to "Sorry for not replying, but I am currently 18,335km away from my computer..". The increased awareness of blood-clots is about as exciting as the fact that I'm flying Singapore Airlines (fatal Taiwan crash about 2 weeks ago), ahh well only 30 odd hours to go.
Heathrow 14:51 - Sweet beer. A time to sit and await boarding. Just
me, a pint of Grolsch, and time. A mere £2.70 in the bar Parallel 54, steep compared to
the supposed London average beer price of £1.65 (yeah right!).
Terminal 3 departure lounge 16:36 - Maate! call the fire brigade! got through security to
the main lounge, it is full of people chain smoking, this is too sickening for words,
gotta find somewhere else to wait; that fake ye olde English pub didn't look too tacky...
Gate 27 17:01 - just another 49 minutes to go, waiting this time in a pink faded, dated cattle yard. I wasn't disappointed, the "Singapore Girls" on TV wear sarongs, and although these aren't true ones, they look far better than the typical skirt-suits all airlines seem to use. Other observations? well spotting kiwi's is like shooting fish in a barrel - the backpack, comfy clothes, the faint smell of a hastily downed pint.
Flight SQ319 - All together now, MOO! that's it, be passive. I'm sure they would shoot us up with happy drugs except for the legality of it. I think I caused a slew of others standing/stretching, of course the plane was pretty full and might have been the queue for the dunnies. Chatted to a trio of Aussies off to Cairns, and fortunately the baby and childlet in the next isle over were mostly quiet. I had specified "Asian meals", for this flight I got sushi, chicken in white sauce, rice, and stir fried veggies. Desert was chocolate ice-cream (too rich and sweet to finish), fruit bits and blamange stuff (plus the ever-present cheese and crackers). Breakfast included noodles with a beancurd, mushroom, green veggie mix, a muffin, fruit and something else (?).
Gate E4 Singapore departure lounge 9:18 11/11 - a huge time sucker this transfer. Terminal 2 is great, the shopping is better than most high streets, and even superior to some malls (Surrey Quays for one). The electronic shops have a fantastic range, but the clothes are all designer stuff. There's also a mini-supermarket, health spa, movie theatre and science funhouse for kids! I remember fondly Frankfurt's 3 near identical duty free shops, and single coffee bar... met a guy also waiting early, Chris Cornejo (cpfcornejo@yahoo.com), a friendly sort, had a coffee and showed off our gadgets (he had a massive camera lens). ooooo, I'm inside at 11:29 with another hour or so to go.
Flight SQ6281 12/11 - This is actually an Air NZ plane, complete with Stienlarger, DB, Villa Maria and kiwi-fruit wine, pity there ain't any Montieths, Mac's or Leon Rouge (Maate!). Also they don't have personal LCD screens in cattle, the seats are more ergonomically hi-tech, with lumbar supports and such, but unless you fit some theoretical range of body types, the initial feeling soon degrades when one tries to stretch out (this happens in all airline seats, I just don't think these ones are an improvement). Food was better too, entree was Cantonese Duck, then egg fried rice, stir fried veggies and excellent lamb in blackbeanish sauce. Desert is the usual cheese and crackers with a lemon sweet thing. Breakfast is normally an omelette or scrambled eggs, but my oriental one was bizarre - a congealed rice and funky mushrooms (not the good ones either :-) with fruit and museli/oat stuff, unimpressed...
NZ - "home", dropped into a bakery to get fresh hot bread, a (NZ non-BSE) steak and cheese pie, right next door for beer - Mac's Gold, Mac's Dark, Montieths and some Red. Head to Jorin's place, and there is a convenient patch of real sunshine overlooking the green vista that is Waitakere, bliss.
Kicked around Auckland, did some shopping, toured the new malls. I also went to the ASB bank to get a new ATM cashflow card, it took all of 6 minutes, from walking into the bank, to get a new card issued and to add my PIN number. As the AA was just next door I thought I'd try to get a new photo drivers licence. My UK licence confused them somewhat, and after a quick sight check and digital photo, I was told "it might take up to one week, sorry...". Sweet! I mean it takes minimum of 2 weeks to get a cashflow card in London, and don't want to ponder the hassle when I got my UK licence (in the end it took 3 days for my NZ photo licence).
Of course there was other stuff I had missed, Ponsonby pies, cafe life, smooth roads and sunshine. Satisfying 3 years of yearnings, and storing up some reserves till next time, took a while and many bloated loosenings of one's belt :-) Did some tourists things too - going up the Sky Tower, cruising Scenic Drive for a different view of Auckland, checking out the new Planet Hollywood complex, and much lurking with a camera... The weather was a little random, but still vastly better than London at my time of leaving. The bouts of glorious blazing heat are totally appreciated, this'll be my vitamin D dose for the next 6 months.
The differences are subtle and blatant at the same time, first up One Tree Hill is missing it's tree since some Maori activist hacked into it with a chainsaw, the tree has been pulled down since I left a definite change to a major Auckland landmark. Most other stuff falls into the realm of things that hit you more subtly, buildings built or gone, vineyards sacrificed to the urban sprawl, and favourite restaurants changed or under new management. Cezzane's is still there, and the food is still fantastic, I think the prices are up about a third, but very reasonable compared to London (especially since the quality is excellent).
Ice-cream. Ice-cream on a real sand beech. With sunshine.
Flight SQ286 15:30 26/11 - Dodged Death once more, just 3 takeoffs or landings to go. I can see this return trip appearing long, I've seen the movies I wanted to see and there ain't any new ones, and sitting around avoiding Longbone Thombrosis isn't the most fun thing to do for nine odd hours.
This time around I am on "Vegetarian Lactose" meals. First up I had dinner - entree was eggplant/tomato/mixed veggie salad thing, main - vegetable ravioli, zucchini, and lentil mix, with the usual cheese, crackers and a fruit tart. The next meal was also suspiciously like a dinner. This had a moist sun-dried tomato, goat cheese and onion salad. Followed by a cous-cous, spinach and omelette thing. Sorry for the descriptions but the foods are not always quantifiable into a normal category. Of note is the fiddly/crumbly nature of the vegetarian food, takes a little more care to eat, also the flavours are more subtle (result of low fat?), no desert this time around.
7:23GMT - only like 4 hours to go, the great thing about flying is that one gets from A to B real quick, it's just a pity that they haven't improved the comfort levels significantly since the late 80's when I had my first flight. The planes are more crowded, and if anything because the numbers have increased, it seems less efficient. There are the problems as companies tried to squeeze more (then less) economy class people on board, and they haven't significantly increased safety. We should all sit facing backwards, with no windows (more weight, less structural strength), there are things like mesh for fuel tanks (which stop explosions of petrol, not sure about av. gas), redesigning known faults (deemed too expensive, and bad PR to admit), and utilising more autopilot features (don't trust the software!). The conspiracy stuff which gets uncovered is great too - flammable seats, reversing tail-fins, AI which loves the ground, and failing airtraffic controllers. Let's not even go into the lifejacket/oxygen/crash position thing... Still better than spending 4 weeks on a boat I guess, and ironically, it makes getting to Spain quicker than getting around the M25 at times.
Gate E8 Singapore 12:36 - got me a PC link kit for my wrist camera, so all those piccies can now be flashed around. Didn't do much else except to cruise the shops (internet place still being worked upon), and then sat for a wee rest, while trying to surreptitiously snap people.
SQ322 16:08 - The plane was a little late leaving, and once airborne the turbulence kicked in (pretty moderate really, the lightning was cool though), a friendly Aussie sat next to me, and she chattered on a good number of subjects. Starting to get tired, just awaiting the food, and then some undisturbed peace. Strange food - pasta salad, chicken-substitute patty on a bed of long, thin noodles with zucchini and some unknown white (root?) vegetable, finished with a white square of maybe pureed tapioca? Also I didn't have any butter or milk even though last flight I did. Can't wait for breakfast, or can I? pretty weird, an omelette thing (is it egg?) with green stuff and deep-fried potato circles. I got ice-cream somewhere along the line too, was that last night? errr, brain not work.
1:56 27/11 - seems like I've been here forever, so many souls, their inactivity like the ranks of the living dead When the master gives the word they shamble to unlife, mindlessly obeying the given commands. Hmmm, maybe I should say something about plane/tomb analogies too. Just spotted the seats to get, near the back there are isle and window seats where the tail narrows. Nice safe tail section, only one person to clamber over you, bit more room to put handluggage by the window side. Only downside is it is closer to the toilets, so you get a few people wandering past. Looks like they are about rows 61-64.
4:35 - Just another 50 mins till landing.
Heathrow Express 6:15 - erk, I smell bad, a quick de-stenching improved things considerably, but a shower is definitely in order. No home sickness. Really nothing about NZ was outstanding, but it was very comfortable and relaxing; mellow one could say. Hope I can get some sleep before work in 17.5 hours, I am sorta pumped, no flu or phlegm stuff. <emote twiddles his thumbs>
Bakerloo tube 6:39 - The sweet joy of puke-smelling grubby efficiency. Just have to grab a taxi from Waterloo (about £10) and it's back to Nunhead. The thing is I can smell the pollution, I'm sure this will "wear off" shortly, but it sure is unpleasant thinking that you don't normally notice this!
