Day 5- October 15 '11

Day 5- Oct 15’11

iron cutout on boulder outside CDC

845a shuttle ride to CDC (Christchurch Distribution Center) where the first half of the group would be receiving our issued cold weather gear. ECW (Extreme Cold Weather) sizing forms were filled out during recruitment. 2 orange bags with our names were waiting for us to dive in and start trying stuff on and exchanging what didn’t fit. I was allowed to bring some of my own, but kept some of theirs just in case.

The whole process was so hot and uncomfortable. Trying on layers and layers of extra warm clothes in a large open room with 20 other girls was so far the least fun thing.  Along with deciding what to keep and turn back in, was also the decisions of what to check, what to carryon and how to stay within the weight limit of 150#.  I was worried most of the day that what I was carrying on was not enough to keep my checked stuff under the 150#. It ended up working out fine and I worried needlessly.

Being part of the first group early in the day definitely had the advantage of time to explore Christchurch a little.  Our core group was making plans for lunch and a walk to the botanical gardens.  Knowing that I would probably want to take my time and take lots of pictures, I told the group I  would meet up with them there. They also wanted to do lunch at a Japanese joint and that didn’t appeal to me, so I headed out on my own in search of palatable food for lunch and a leisurely walk to the gardens.

Firefighter Jake from Hawaii

I spotted a pizza/Italian place called Spagos and as I was about to cross the street, I heard someone shout my name. It was fireman Jake from Hawaii. I enjoyed a nice lunch of chicken/bacon carbonera while he ate venison pizza and he introduced me to Isaac’s Cider- a delicious carbonated beverage.

Jake had bought a new Canon T3 camera and had a few lenses but not the knowledge to use them. I was happy to help him with some pointers as we walked along to the botanical gardens. He seemed content to go my pace of slow and quickly picked up photo composition.  He had some jokes about the size of the lens I was carrying ( my new 28mm-300mm hefty) asking it if it was a telescope or if I could see the Hubbell Telescope itself.

Springtime in New Zealand is gorgeous. It was a 70 degree day. A little too hot for me but a little too cold for Jake. We moseyed along. He didn’t seem to mind the frequent stops to take pix of ducks and flowers. Our group eventually met up with us but was walking at a faster pace than I cared to walk and still take my time to take pix. So they went on ahead. Jake and I came upon Mikey K reading on a bench. We sat and relaxed a bit with him and watched the male ducks mercilessly chase and harass the female ducks.

On our way back, we went past the barricades blocking off downtown Christchurch. Downtown Christchurch was the epicenter of a horrendous earthquake in February of this year. From what we could see, it looked like a warzone, shell-shocked and crumbling. Surreally, it could have been a movie set for a post apocalyptic drama. February was the time when the Antarctica summer contractors are coming off the Ice back into Christchurch. Many Raytheon and NANA employees were affected. Both the girls I work with in Air Services were in Christchurch when the earthquake hit. Christen and her boyfriend Kevin had just left the hotel to go exploring. They had on them their cameras, passports, wallets and other essentials.  Moments later, their hotel sank into the ground along with the rest of their belongings and clothes. New Zealand has recently emailed some people letting them know that officials are slowly opening certain sites, allowing recovery of personal effects of  guests and that they hoped to have their belongings by the end of November.

Broken windows, cracked and crumbling walls, split foundations…. The devastation is still quite evident.

 

Day 4- October 14'11

Day 4

Finally boarding for New Zealand.

Qantas is officially the best airline ever in my book. In your seat there was a care package with a bottle of water, toothbrush, toothpaste, headphones, pillow and blanket. There were movie screens on the backs of all the headrests and the seat’s armrest had a removable remote for ease switching channels. They offered several recent theater run movies, TV shows, games and a flight status screen showing your location and informed you how many hours and miles since the flight departed, how long and how far until destination, the plane’s speed and altitude and where it was daylight or nighttime in conjunction to your location. It was very handy. Probably became a necessity after too many passengers over the years asking the age old travel question “Are we there yet?”

The Qantas Airbus 330 has a seat configuration of 2-4-2.  I was on the aisle end of a 4 row. In my row were Mike and Chris from the program and a random girl who was not. As the 4 of us were getting settled in, she excused herself to go to the bathroom. Why would you wait to get on the plane and then go to the bathroom? There was a restroom close to the boarding gate. Anyway- the jet is winding up, the safety schpeel has ended and we are taxiing, but this girl has not come back. A stewardess comes by and tells Mike he can move over a seat (the missing girl’s) to put a little space between him and I. That girl’s bag and stuff is still under the seat, so we tell the stewardess about this missing girl who left her stuff. She gets a concerned look on her face and leaves for what I assume is a search and rescue in the bathroom. Meanwhile, the pilot tells the staff to buckle in, that we are cleared for takeoff.

After takeoff and the seatbelt light is off, the missing girl comes beebopping to her old seat to retrieve her bag. Apparently she found a nicer seat towards the back of the plane and claimed it her own. So that left the 3 of us able to kind of spread out.

Dinner and drinks are served. Qantas does not treat any seat as 3^rd class. Everyone receives a delicious hot meal and everything, including beer and wine and other liquor, on the beverage cart is no extra charge. Splendid! The dinner tray included a roll of breathmints- how considerate. The dessert was unbelievably yummy. It was a Caramel Custard Cake. So smooth and creamy!

After dinner and people were starting to settle down to start sleeping, the stewardesses all came around and had everyone close their shades, so that when the sun came up, it did not disturb or wake anybody sleeping.  Wow! Way to think ahead. I cannot say enough how kind, considerate and friendly Qantas stewardesses are.

I managed to get a good 6 or 7 hours of sleeping. I also watched ‘Midnight in Paris’ and ‘Arthur’. Yes 2 full length feature films and slept 7 hours. It was a 14 hour flight after all.

It was for the most part an uneventful flight. The only issue I had was the lady across the aisle. I probably would have slept better if not for her. Every time she got up to go potty or let her husband out, she managed to knock her butt into me-without apology. She also hit me with her book and dropped something on my foot. Never a ‘Pardon me’, ‘Excuse me’, ‘I’m sorry’, ‘My apologies’. Nothing. Evidently manners weren’t her thing.

So we landed in Auckland, New Zealand (the north island) and the airport is crazy busy. Apparently, New Zealand’s Rugby team the ‘All Blacks’, were in the Rugby World Cup semi finals and New Zealand happened to be hosting the Rugby World Cup this year in Auckland. Despite my best efforts of inquiring of locals what mascot or what was an ‘All Black’ even was, no one could tell me. I did learn that the symbol associated with ‘All Black’ was a common fern that was bright green on the top side and silver on the bottom side. I was unfortunately not able to locate such a fern to examine its coloring.

Walking from the international terminal to the domestic terminal (with yet another luggage cart loaded with my bags), I noticed that Auckland looked and smelled a lot like Hawaii- clean air and flowers.

In the air leaving Auckland, I saw the north islands coastline of gorgeous turquoise water and cliffs and hills along it that looked a little like Kauai’s Na Pali Coast.  Flying over the south island, it was luscious, vibrant green in patchwork fields dotted with hundreds of sheep. It was springtime in New Zealand and it was beautiful.

Airport shuttle vans all come equipped with mini clamshell trailers on the back for all the baggage. The vans were all assigned to take people to the different hotels. The van assigned to The Pavilions, was looking full in the back, so the driver opened the left side front door and motioned for me to get in. I was at first worried and nervous. I told him, ‘I can’t drive; I don’t know where we’re going.’ He again told me to get in the left side door. I was still confused and then realized- the steering wheel is on the right side. He had opened the passenger side door- not what would be the driver’s door in the USA.  Duh. They drive on the left side of the road and sit on the right.

After we checked in, a group of us wanted to go to dinner. So we walked down the street to a small Thai place. Pam(took the pic),Mike, Trudy, Tricia M, Jeff, CJ, Craig, Caitlin, Joey, Chris, Jason, Randy, Jake. It was my first Thai food and it was pretty good. I also tried New Zealand’s beer Speight’s (spayts) and it was really good.

The group wanted to go out for drinks and explore. Tricia M and I were too tired and chose to go back to the hotel for sleep…….