As I type this the first Lord of the Rings movie is playing in the background. Classic sign that we're on NZ soil! Have to get the girls familiar with the movie & characters in anticipation of our Hobbiton movie set tour in a few days time.
Bye Trisha & Ben...for Now
We said goodbye and a massive thank you to Trisha & Ben early this morning and were out the door just after 7:00am to catch our Uber to the airport. We've shared many special times - in many special places (Sydney, Kangaroo Valley and Byron Bay to name a few) with Trisha & Ben. If all goes according to plan we'll return to Australia for a chunk of April and will be able to recruit them to meet us somewhere in the Western part of the country for more fun together. We are immensely grateful for their gracious hospitality and local tips.
Trisha & I met as work colleagues years & years ago. I remain grateful our paths crossed and that our professional relationship quickly morphed into a friendship that continues to be strong, supportive, uplifting, genuine and fun, even thousands of miles from each other! She's a gem and I'm so happy we were able to visit and spend so much quality time together.
Happy Hovig
In years of taking Uber, and across many countries, we had probably our very favorite Uber driver yet! Hovig was an Armenian, Lebanon-born man who has lived in Sydney for 40+ years, over 30 of those driving a taxi and the most recent 10 months for Uber. He had an incredibly pleasant personality and was a joy to speak with. He kept a guitar in his car to play between rides, and even played a few riffs, much to the delight of us & the girls. We peppered him with all kinds of questions, including his more memorable clients, and he told us about the time he gave a ride to Justin Timberlake, having no knowledge of his mega stardom :) A lovely way to say goodbye (for now) to Down Under.
We wiled away an hour or two in the airport lounge before our flight headed off.
It was a short 2.5 hour flight from Sydney to Auckland. Our dreamliner plane was continuing on to Santiago, Chile, so it had seat-back screens. It was our first flight with screens in months and the girls were excited. We all indulged in movie watching for the flight. The girls watched Frozen II (much better than the first Frozen, according to them!), I watched Crazy, Rich Asians which I fully enjoyed, and Doug watched a Brad Bitt space movie called Ad Astra (only OK). Before we knew it we were landing in Auckland.
Country #23
Arriving in New Zealand marks country #23 in our travels. The airport was eerily empty. We walked into the immigration hall, literally the only people there on non-ANZ passports. Not entirely clear if the nonexistent crowds were a function of coronavirus or simply a function of the time our flight arrived. Our guess is the majority of flights going to/through NZ are long-haul, arriving in clusters either earlier morning or later evening. Our short-haul flight from nearby Sydney arrived late afternoon, we're guessing during a lull in arrivals. Either way, it was a bit jarring to arrive to an airport almost devoid of people.
No Fine This Time
When you arrive into New Zealand there are signs posted all over the place, warning of $400 NZD fines for any food, nut, seed, etc. product that is brought onto the island. I made a mistake when I was last in NZ in 2005 for work . . . I brought a plum unknowingly into NZ and it cost me a dear $360 NZD!! That's a steep fine for a small fruit I never got to eat! :) So as we prepared to enter NZ this time, we did an exhaustive mental checklist of our luggage and remembered that we had a pack of ground coffee. It was vacuum sealed so it might not have been an issue, but we weren't prepared to find out the wrong way. Into the bin it went!
Provisions
We picked up a snack of sushi rolls and our rental car and hit the road. We stopped in a neighborhood adjacent to ours to pick up groceries, ensuring we're fully stocked for the next few days. Our Auckland AirBnB is part of a neat residential development of over 250 apartments/condos.
While I unpacked us, Doug & the girls prepped dinner of meatball sandwiches and sauteed broccoli. A tasty meal.
That brings us to right now . . . all cozied up on a couch watching Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring. We've had to fast forward it quite a bit; forgot how many dark/creepy parts there are in it! In spite of that, it's upping our excitement level for being in NZ with all the natural beauty scenes.
Also of note...an NYC moment where we spotted Doug's office in the New York poster behind the couch. Last time we saw it, was in a poster at the Shack Shack in Dubai.
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