They did feed us lunch, kind of. We got ‘Picnic to Go” lunches, which were actually worse than any MRE I’ve ever eaten. Flavored tuna in a can, some kind of vegetarian friendly pasta or bean salad in a tin, crappy cheese, and some other stuff. The only good part was the nuget candy and the pita chips.
We had to wait for our luggage to make it from the hotel. Evidently they were running a bit late. Still, we got off to the airport in Denver 2 minutes early.
At Denver we had a bit of time. We got there around 1300, and our flight didn’t actually leave until 1720. We had some real lunch, and just kind of vegged till it was time. I found out that Verizon had cancelled my phone service early, and had some fun times trying to sort that out over the payphone. Luckily, I could call my mom’s work with an 800 number, and she helped me get things sorted out. The woman I talked to on the phone was actually very helpful.
After that I called the people I needed to call and hung out. The flight to LA wasn’t that long, and I was all the way in the back of the plane, with an empty seat between me and the other girl. Once we got to LAX, we had to leave the terminal we were in and walk outside to get to the international terminal. The lines were really long, and our gate was under construction. While we were waiting at the gate, I saw one of the actors from the movie Ladder 49. I think he was either the truck driver or the engine driver, but he was the guy I saw at Firehouse Expo the year the movie came out. He signed my ball cap. It was kind of neat to see someone semi-famous.
The Quantas airplane was by far the biggest I had ever been on. It was one of the ones with an upstairs and everything. I was supposed to have an aisle seat, but the girl sitting in the middle seat said I could have the window. We didn’t have anyone sitting between us, so we got to stretch out a bit. I didn’t get much sleep though, since we were right next to the kitchen, and the flight crew hung out in there all night talking. They had little TV screens in the back of each seat, so you could watch movies and stuff. I got to see Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer and the third Pirates movie again. I started watching the 5th Harry Potter movie, but fell asleep. I have to say though, that the food was horrible. I managed to get a couple of 1 to 2 hour naps in once they turned the lights out. At one point in time I woke up, and the lights were dimmed, and I could see out the window at the ocean. I couldn’t see much cause it was dark, but the white clouds against the darkness of the ocean was beautiful.
We landed in Aukland, NZ, and had to go through customs. I thought I would have more trouble than I did, but it was no trouble at all. We had a bit of time to kill before our flight to Christchurch, so we got some real breakfast (the airplane breakfast was horrid), and did a little window shopping after changing some money. New Zealand money is neat; it’s plastic, with little plastic windows in it. Every bill is a different color too. The smallest bill they have is a fiver (as they call it). Anything smaller is in coins. They have $1 and $2 coins, and then the 50, 20 and 10 cent pieces. There are no pennies, instead they just round up or down to the closest amount when giving you your change. And the tax is built into the price, which is nice, since you don’t have to figure out any extra money to pay.
We had an hour flight to Christchurch, which I actually fell asleep on for a bit. I had an aisle seat, which sucked, since I was really looking forward to taking pictures of the mountains. I did hand my camera to the girl sitting in the window seat, and she got some decent pictures of the mountains. They were breathtaking. Totally covered in snow, with some pine trees poking through in some places. Just like in Lord of the Rings.
We collected our bags and headed to the hostel. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to check-in until 1300, and it was only 1130, so we left our luggage in the back room and went exploring.
Christchurch is a beautiful town. Lots of gardens and stuff, and the Botanical Gardens were just down the road from us. We didn’t get to see much of them, but what we did see was incredible, even though the only flowers that were out were the daffodils (remember, it’s coming out of winter down here). We saw a bunch of ducks, and they don’t have pigeons, only sea gulls. But the sea gulls here are huge with bright red beaks and legs, and they are more aggressive than the ones in the States.
This was where I stayed. It was called Base Backpackers, and had a bar inside the hostel on the ground floor.
We wandered around a bit, checking out some of the stores and planning what we were going to get for the folks back home. Once 1300 hit, we went back and checked in. Our dorm room is on the third floor, and can sleep about 10 people. When we first checked in, there was only one other guy in our room.
The other 2 girls went shopping, but I decided to take a shower, since I was feeling rather rank from being on a plane for 16 hours. Then the other guy (there were 4 of us in our hostel the first night) and I went and did a bit more looking around. ChCh has a free bus that runs around a certain part of town, and we hopped on that to go to the Pak-n-Save, which is a grocery store. He got some munchies, and I got some new batteries for my camera, since it had died in the Gardens.
We got back and met a couple of guys in a bar near the hostel, and then headed out to the Dux-de-Lux,a vegetarian place where everyone else was meeting up. After a bit of time there, all the firefighters decided to go to a place the LT knew of, that had a stone grill. They couldn’t take us right away, so we went across the street to an Irish pub. One of the other firefighters lived at Station 10 while I was living at 33. I definitely remembered seeing him on some calls. The stone grill place was really good. You order your food and they bring the meat and veggies out on a 400C stone to cook on. I had an eye fillet, wrapped with bacon. YUM. After that, I started hitting the wall as far as being tired, so I wandered back to the hostel and went to bed.
1 comment:
which one are you?
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