Cairns to Auckland, New Zealand
[ Main Index ] [ Previous Day ] [ Next Day ] [ Photo Gallery ]
A travel day. Not too much exciting to report. We were up a bit late because the extra time showing off pictures to the hotel staff caused the web log writing to go late, so we slept a bit late too. We had a fairly big job getting everything that had started out in 6 bags, back into 6 bags. That took awhile. We had to dump some food but not too much. Some old friends like the ketchup. Did the dishes in the hotel sink (sorry, Penny).
That left us just enough time to upload the last of the Australia web pages, take the camper back and get a taxi to the airport. There was one person in line ahead of us to check our bags, no one ahead of us through passport control, and no one ahead of us at security. *That’s* what air travel should be like.
The flight was about four and half hours long. We had a bit of a meal and watched the movie Timeline which is fairly hokey but distracting, and we were there. We gained 3 hours on the way over so it was 9:30pm by the time we got in.
We found a shuttle bus into town, along with about 7 or 8 fellow travelers and headed into Auckland. We learned from the driver that Auckland is the 10th largest city in the world in terms of geographic area. That was kind of interesting. But it has about the population of Portland so it’s pretty sparse. The drive in, much like the cities in Australia, is not on major freeway, but two-lane traffic-lighted streets. It’s not what you expect as an American. Takes a lot longer. Normally we don’t mind because it gives us a chance to observe the surroundings but it was dark so there wasn’t much to observe.
The hotel room may be the smallest room I’ve ever been in. Certainly top two (there was one in San Jose this one time…). It has two twin beds that are about a foot apart. Each bed is against the wall on either side and about 18 inches from the back wall. There’s hardly enough room for our luggage. Fortunately, we’re only staying one night. And it is conveniently located in the middle of downtown.
We went out to Burger King for dinner because it (or other fast food) was the only place open. Tomorrow we need to acquire a vehicle and there are rumblings that it may be difficult. We had checked at the Apollo place (camper van) and they were booked. But they’re small in NZ. So no worries. But I checked the Avis website tonight and it says they’re booked too. So just a minor warning bell. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.
[ Main Index ] [ Previous Day ] [ Next Day ] [ Photo Gallery ] [ Top ]