So I arrived in Auckland after what can only be described as an epic...and I really mean epic journey! It began at San Francisco airport at 4pm on February 1st and took me through to Auckland at 12.30pm on February 3rd...okay, not all of that time was actually spent travelling, and there is the small matter of crossing the international date line in the middle of that which effectively means that I only have a 364 day year in 2011 and that February 2nd never really existed...which I find a little strange, but believe me, it felt like I was travelling for that long regardless. The journey involved 7 hours aimlessly wandering around the quietest terminal in LAX airport with my bags (comprising of two backpacks, one weighing 7kg and the other 17kg), no money and NOTHING to do...good start! Finally I was allowed to check-in and was informed by the very smiley lady at the Air Tahiti check-in desk that I was going to have to take the shuttle bus to the other side of the airport to catch my plane and wait there for the remaining 2 hours until my flight took off...”Oh goodie!” I thought, more lugging around of now only the 7kg backpack and more sitting/wandering around airport terminals with no money and now even less to do as everything that was open has now closed because it is the middle of the night! Finally after what felt like a lifetime of sitting and contemplating the meaning of life in an attempt to pass the time, I boarded the flight only to find that I had the pleasure of spending the next 6 hours on this plane right by the toilets...always the best place to sit I always think! Just to add insult to injury my television wasn’t working properly and the flight was full so I was left to the joys of more contemplation or risk going crossed-eyed attempting to read by the painfully inadequate spot lights which were all that were on offer given the fact that it was a night flight and so the ‘cabin lights were dimmed’ and everyone around me was snoring and drooling in the delightful contented manner of people with no concept of social etiquette! It’s fine I thought, once I am off this flight I have a couple of hours stop off in Tahiti, it’ll be early morning (5.30am local time) so it won’t be too hot and I can go for a wander and stretch my legs before I embark on the final 9 hours and get to Auckland. Sounds like a nice way to pass a few hours right?! Like it was going to be that easy after the journey I had had up until that point. We arrived in Tahiti slightly ahead of schedule and considering most of the people on the plane were transit passengers and not actually getting off in Tahiti the majority of passengers were ‘politely’ (I don’t think Tahitians know the meaning of this word) ushered through to the transit centre...this is where the fun began! My first mistake was to assume that at 5.30 in the morning Tahiti wouldn’t be too hot, it was unbearable...roughly 34 degrees and 98% humidity...AT 5.30AM...this is not a country I will be returning to in a hurry! Of course to add insult to injury the transit centre wasn’t air-conditioned but as I have previously stated, I assumed this would be a fairly swift and stress-free process and I would be able to go off to the air-conditioned cafe quickly and get myself a nice cold drink and relax before getting back on the plane! At this point I am going to give you a little mathematical equation...350+ passengers, 1 ticket desk (manned by 1 woman), 1 security gate open, 1 working scanning machine for bags, 1 working scanning machine for people, 2 security staff (both male), random bag checks of approximately every 8th passenger...2 hours. Does anyone out there think these numbers add-up, because if they do I can assure you, THEY DO NOT! They began calling for people in my area of the plane to begin making their way to the departure gate while there were still 9 people in front of me, which meant that through my calculations meant at least 1 more random bag check and therefore at least 20 minutes!! I was not happy. Finally I made it through security and ran to my gate (distinctly flustered and stressed by this point) where a very disapproving Tahitian woman looked and my ticket and stated in a tone that can only be described as despairing that they had been calling my seating area for over 15 minutes now...I will never forgive myself for what I did next...I looked at her, looked at my ticket, took a deep breath and said in the most sincere fashion...”I know, I’m so sorry!” Oh I do hate being English sometimes! So there it was...my relaxing break in Tahiti was spent in a queue of sweaty, tired and aggravated transit passengers, in a non air-conditioned transit centre dealing with completely incompetent and unhelpful airport staff and to top the whole thing off...I wound up apologising for the experience. By the time I got on the plane I had resigned myself to the fact that this was destined to be the worst journey ever and that everything that could go wrong was going to...thankfully, the final leg of my journey went without any problems...this was probably largely to do with the fact that I joined the socially retarded masses and after about 4 minutes of sitting in my seat, passed out, mouth open, snoring and drooling all over myself...but boy did it feel good to wake up and know that I was only 30 minutes away from my final destination.
I would now give you a rundown of my first week in Auckland, but recounting the tale of my nightmare to get here has absolutely exhausted me and now I need to go and make a cup of tea. So, on that note I will leave you. Suffice it to say it has been a lovely week, lots of sunshine, some very good job prospects and met some lovely people. And to be honest, the journey here may have been a nightmare, but it is all part of the fun of travelling and it’s definitely one I won’t forget in a hurry, so there we go, every cloud has a silver lining!
Love from the City of Sails in the Land of the Long White Cloud (that’s Auckland in New Zealand for anyone who was wondering)
xxx
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