October
24, Wednesday &
October 25, Thursday NEW ZEALAND
Packing up again this morning for my flight to Sydney and
onward to Christchurch. First problem
occurred as I was bringing my luggage down the two flights of stairs at the
hotel; my back went out.
Second problem was that the Shuttle Bus I had booked
arrived 15 minutes late, narrowing my check in time at the airport.
Third problem encountered when I checked-in for my
flight. I’m flying with Virgin
Australia, and if you fly into New Zealand with them, you have to show an
onward ticket. Now this was a
requirement in many other countries, upon arrival, but when I would explain
that I was travelling around the world, showed them my passport, and said that
I had not booked an onward flight ahead of time to provide me with some
flexibility to stay a bit longer, or leave a bit earlier, it has never been a
problem. They could see by all the
stamps in my passport that I would be travelling on. Not so this time since Virgin Australia would
not issue me a boarding pass without the
onward ticket. There was no time left
for me to try to book a flight from Cairns, so they only issued the boarding
pass for my flight to Sydney, where I had 3 hours between flights to organize
that flight. Oh by the way, if my onward
flight is to Fiji, I need an onward ticket from there as well. Both countries are very strict about this I
am told.
Fourth problem was that because they were not issuing me
with the boarding pass for the New Zealand flight, I would not be able to use
their luggage transfer service in Sydney so that my bags were automatically
sent to the next plane. I would have to
take my luggage at the carrousel, book my flight, then check-in at the
departures counter.
Do you see a pattern developing here? It wasn’t even 11 am and I had already
encountered 4 problems. Not a good omen
at all.
In any case, the flight from Cairns to Sydney took off on
time and landed on time.
Fifth problem: we were stuck on the taxiway for ½ an hour
before a gate became available, cutting into my 3 available hours to try to
book the additional flight from New Zealand to Fiji and from Fiji to
Tahiti. Finally deplaned, got my luggage
and was advised that I would need to go to the International Terminal to book
the additional flights; there would be computer terminals available there.
Sixth problem: he
further advised that no printers would be available with those computers. When I asked how I was supposed to prove to
the check-in counter that I had in fact booked my onward flight out of NZ the
guy just shrugged his shoulders. By this
time I was getting pretty annoyed, but I managed to keep my cool.
Seventh problem: Although there is a shuttle bus service
between terminals, I would be required to haul my luggage up on to it and back
off again, by myself. There was
absolutely no way my back was going to be able to do this, so I was advised to
take a taxi instead. Did I mention that
before I checked-in for the flight in Cairns I had exchanged all my Australian
dollars for NZ dollars?
Eighth problem:
Not only did I not have $4 change to get a luggage cart so I could get
to the taxi stand with all my luggage, I had no money for the taxi. One kind lady from my flight was willing to
give me 2 $2 coins for $5 NZ and told me that the taxi would take credit
cards. Thank you, thank you !
It was less than 6 minutes to drive from one terminal to
the other and it cost me $26 ! ! !
What? “Just pay the man Aline
and don’t say one word”. Well at least
he helped me with my luggage. I got to
the International Terminal and went to the Virgin Australia counter to explain
the problem. After being passed on to
two different people, one kind lady advised me that there was now a travel
agency at the airport and they could help me with my flight arrangements. She even went to get a luggage cart for me
since they would not let me leave my luggage with them while I went to make the
flight arrangements. I got to the
travel agency and the two people working there were just GREAT. Not only did the lady find me a flight from
NZ to Fiji (in one month’s time) with NZA but she told me that I did not need
to make any flight arrangements to get out of Fiji until I got to NZ. It wasn’t up to Virgin Australia to “control”
this part since I was not flying with them to get to Fiji. While she was doing the booking, the man who
also worked there started giving me advice about what to do in NZ. When I mentioned that I would be renting a
car, he advised me to ensure that is was a powerful one, to tackle the
mountains. “Don’t rent something like a
Yari, get something like a Corolla or something bigger. And if you are planning to go from the south
island to the north island, don’t take the car on the ferry, it will be much
too expensive. Arrange to leave the car
on the south island and rent another car on the north island.” How nice is that. My list of things to see in NZ has grown
immensely in the last few days. Thanks
to Lise M., and the lady at the reception desk at the Cascades Hotel, and now
from this travel agent.
I made my way back to the check-in counter for Virgin
Australia and got in the extremely long line of waiting people, only to find
out that….
Ninth problem: The
flight is delayed AT LEAST TWO HOURS. They
were checking people in for 3 different flights and they only had 3 counters
open! Absolutely ridiculous. It took 1 hour to finally check-in. I showed the young lady my onward ticket from
New Zealand, and she insisted that I needed to also show her the onward ticket
from Fiji. “No, you don’t need to see
that since I’m not flying with Virgin Australia for that leg of my trip.” She still insisted and said she would have to
speak to her manager. She came back 5
minutes later to confirm that No, they did not need to see the onward flight
out of Fiji.
It is now 8 pm. I’ve
sent an e-mail to the motel I booked in Christchurch to let them know I would
be arriving 2 hours later than originally planned, and asked them to keep my
room for me. I’m going to make my way through Customs to the boarding
gate.
Hopefully there is no Tenth problem today.
Thursday: We
landed in Christchurch at about 2:30 am and by 3 am the taxi was pulling up to
the motel. The office was closed but
there was a note taped to the inside window saying “Mrs Menard, Room 4”. As luck would have it, room 4 was not on the
ground floor of the motel but up a long outside staircase on the second floor.
Problem # 10: I
wrenched my back hauling my luggage up the stairs. By 3:30 I was in bed. I slept quite late, but was waking up on a regular
basis every time I turned around in bed with a jagged pain in my back.
I really did it this time; my back is SO PAINFUL I have
to take medication to numb the pain.
Thank God I still have a good supply of Mersyndol…. My life saver
whenever my back gives up… the codeine really helps.
I spent the entire day resting. My only outing was to go to the reception to
introduce myself, provide my passport and credit card, and get some tour
pamphlets. The manager was very nice and
spent more than a half hour providing me additional tips about what to do in
Christchurch and surrounding area. He
also indicated that there was a grocery store about a 10 minute walk away. Despite my back pain I decided to venture out
to the store to get some basics, since I had a kitchenette I could use. Eggs !
I haven’t had eggs for breakfast for quite awhile.
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