Arrival in Auckland

As you can see by the time stamp it has been a long evening of travel.  We just arrived at our hotel in the center of Auckland after a bus ride from the airport (the easiest part of the journey by far).  While we are very tired, I suppose we are incredibly lucky we got here at all.  After boarding the plane and sitting for some time the captain pointed out that there was some lighting in the area.  It took a very short time for one or two flashes to become one or two every few seconds, accompanied almost immediately by loud thunder.  We were not given permission to push back until almost 30 minutes after our scheduled departure time – we could tell we were in for a long night.  The trip toward the runway was excruciatingly long (enough to the point where I questioned if the runway was actually in Melbourne).  When we finally made it out to the queuing spot, we proceeded to sit for almost a half hour as lighting lit up the blackness out the window, revealing a vast expanse of water just past the wing.

Finally, the captain announced that we were fourth in line to take off, but that the storm clouds might cause the airport to be down subject to their movement in our direction.  By some stroke of luck we finally accelertated up the runway and were airborne, though immediately petrified as the plane sounded more like a riding lawn mower than an Airbus.  As we ascended through the clouds, the plane shook violently – the type of flight that results in skin loss on your hands and wrists when travelling with certain nervous flyers who have a propensity to squeeze anything within reach – it took fifteen minutes or so to find relative calm.   The pilot came back on and announced that we were quite lucky because they closed the Sydney airport after we took off.  Armed with that knowledge, we all settled in for the duration of the flight, punctuated from time to time with turbulence.  I was fortunate to sit next to a woman who grew up on the North Island (where our trip is unfolding) and she gave some great recommendations.

We made it to the gate at 12:20 and were happy to be in the enviable position of row 4, allowing us to get off the plane quite quickly.  We made our way through border control, another stroke of luck, as we were one of the first groups moved to a much shorter line after things got backed up behind a massive tour group.  Customs was an interesting affair – I have never flown into a country that screens every bag despite what you put on your declaration card (they are really passionate about quarantine in New Zealand – they mentioned it about 53 times).  We made it outside the terminal with a few minutes to spare to catch the “Airbus” which offers 24-hour service to the Auckland CBD.  The trip was supposed to take 45 minutes, but considering there were only 5 of us on the bus we made it to our hotel in 25.  After a trudge up a massive hill we made it to check-in, weary from our travels.  We are excited to see what Auckland has to offer come morning!