November 15, Thursday

November 15, Thursday

Checked out of the Motel in Wellington, but left the car at the motel while I walked downtown to a travel agency to try to work out a travel problem.  Because I had to purchase a flight out of New Zealand in order to fly in, my flight to Fiji was pre-booked in Sydney on October 24, just before my flight to Christchurch.   It meant that my departure from New Zealand was “pre-ordained” as November 23^rd, giving me only 9 days to visit the North Island.   Time has now become a going concern, which is not how I like to travel.  

I stopped at a “Flight Centre” office downtown to attempt to switch the flight I had pre-booked with Air New Zealand.  When I had purchased it, way back when, I had clearly indicated to the lady at the “Flight Centre” office at the Sydney Airport that I wanted to be able to change it if I needed to.  I also needed to book a flight “out of Fiji”.   I had started researching this on the internet and it was not looking good.   My plan had been to fly from Fiji to the Cook Islands, onward to Samoa, then to Tahiti, then to Easter Island before returning to South America.  I couldn’t seem to find any flights out of Fiji going in that direction and I was hoping that someone at “Flight Centre” could help me with that as well. 

 I’ll make a long story short:  They could not change the date of departure on my Air New Zealand flight!  WHAT? “So sorry, not sure what the other office told you, but it cannot be changed without severe penalties.”   When I asked about flights out of Fiji, I was informed that I would have to fly back to either New Zealand or Australia in order to get to ONE of the other islands.  There was no guarantee that I would be able to find flights from there to the destinations I wanted.   WHAT? The three people in the office didn’t seem very interested in finding a solution for me.  No options  provided.  NOTHING.  So I decided that I should probably find another travel agency to try to assist me.  The other airline that flies out of Fiji is Air Pacific.  I had seen their name pop up when I was trying to research flights on the internet.  Their web-site wasn’t the best however and would not simply allow me to search for “ANY” flight out of Fiji on “ANY” day in December.  It required that you enter specific dates and specific destinations.  I needed to find an Air Pacific Office.   There was a 0800 number to call on their web-site, and I called it when I got back to the motel, only to be told that I would have to go to the Air Pacific office in Auckland for that type of information.  Things were not looking good for my very future travel plans.

I got in the car by 11 and headed north east towards Napier.   Although I had planned to taking in the views from Mount Victoria before leaving the city, I decided to give it a miss since I was heading in the opposite direction on Highway # 1 to get out of the city and then Highway #2 all the way to Napier, 323 kms.

God… New Zealand is such a beautiful country.  The sceneries are just amazing.

 From Wellington to Napier

 
Just a few kms outside Napier the road was blocked with a L O N G line of cars.  I could see smoke in the distance.  A fire truck went by towards the fire… an ambulance came towards us from the fire… and we snail-paced ahead for about half an hour before finally coming to the police car where they were redirecting traffic.  I asked for directions to Napier and was given complicated instructions.  I memorized the first three turns he gave me and figured I would ask someone after reaching the third stop.   When I turned at step number 2, there was another accident, another car on fire with ambulance and firemen on the scene… and another detour.  YIKES.   Luckily when I came to a stop sign, there was also a sign showing that Napier was to the right.  EXCELLENT.

As I drove in to Napier I worried that I would not be able to locate the motel I was trying to reach, since I had not driven in on the main highway.  Luckily, off to my right I could see a tall line of Norfolk pine trees and they kind of matched the photos on the brochure for Napier’s beach front.  I zig-zagged my way through the streets towards those trees and sure enough, I was on the waterfront.  Only a few blocks before I was able to spot the street numbers on one of the motels and only a few blocks more before I arrived at the Shoreline Motel.   And there was a “Vacancy” sign up.  Got a room on the ground floor (I’m no longer hauling any heavy cases up staircases).

 The Shoreline Motel

 My unit has a separate bedroom with a huge jacuzzi bath tub

Really nice room.  Really nice big round tub; but the thought of all the water it would require to fill it up made me cringe… how wasteful that would be…. 

So I settled for a hot shower and spent the next few hours researching flights for my island hop across the Pacific.  It’s NOT LOOKING GOOD. 

It’s a matter of “You can’t get there from here!”  I can get to Fiji, since I already have my flight there, but after that there are very limited options unless I want to fly back to New Zealand or Australia. 

I may be missing a few check-marks on my bucket list.