A little bit about the flight and arrival in Auckland

In the wee hours of the morning…

Things are beginning to stir aboard our Qantas flight.  We’ve been in the air for twelve hours.  Tom is still asleep, and I’m remarkably chipper having actually slept in my blessed flat bed for at least six of those hours.  This is by far the most comfortable plane I’ve ever been on and I will be forever ruined for further air travel.

It’s almost ten in the morning Dallas time but I don’t even know what day it is let alone what is the local time as we fly westward across the Pacific.  Somewhere along the way we pass the International Date Line where we will gain a day, which miraculously will be returned to us as we make our way back home.  I’m going to leave my watch set on Dallas time for the time being just to know our progress.  We’ll be in Brisbane in about four hours—5 AM Brisbane time but two in the afternoon of the previous day Dallas time.  The strange thing is that it has been dark the entire way. A fun mental exercise is trying to figure out why that should be.

Tuesday morning:

Here are a few pictures from our harbor room at the Hilton Auckland.  The weather is not perfect—a little chilly and drizzly but we’ll be fine—it’s better than being hot.   We checked in yesterday afternoon and after a good night’s sleep we are again functional.  Tomorrow we begin a twelve day “air cruise” of New Zealand, which is the highlight of our trip.  We will meet up with our Bill Peach Journeys tour director and a mere five other guests (or so we’ve been told) and after a welcoming dinner here at the Hilton, we will be up early the next day to go to the airport for the first leg of our journey.  Our plane is a Cessna Reims 406 twin engine turboprop with a capacity of 11 seats.  It is a single aisle aircraft with one seat on either side so that everyone has a window view.  We will be flying at a maximum altitude of 8,000 feet, so I guess there are no excuses for bad pictures. We really have no idea what to expect and our experience with airplanes other than commercial is limited.  For now we are going to walk around Auckland Harbor and go get some lunch. 

The Ferry Building visible from our Hilton balcony

The white thing at the top is called The Cloud and is directly across from our room. I think it is kind of like a convention or venue space.  Right now a major triathlon is just finishing up and we can hear the awards ceremony from our balcony.  They have played God Save the Queen several times and the Star Spangled Banner once.

The Cloud at night