October 24, Wednesday & October 25, Thursday NEW ZEALAND

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.