Ready to take off 07.12.2016

Today is the long-awaited day: departure to the most beautiful end of the world. The anticipation for this trip has been going on for over a year now. In October 2015, the decision was made to take a longer vacation in New Zealand. In February 2016, we booked the flight and the camper van.

We want to spend 72 days in Aotearoa, as the Maori call it, (the land of the long white cloud).

According to our plan, we will leave Stuttgart with the ICE train for Frankfurt Airport at 3:40 pm. Arrival at 5:06 pm and departure with Emirates at 8:30 pm. But it is not scheduled to start on time.

Kosta takes us to Stuttgart train station at 2:30 pm, where we arrive at 3:00 pm. When loading the luggage onto the baggage cart, we notice that we are missing a backpack that is extremely important for Imola: her travel medication, her anti-thrombosis stockings, and her glasses are in this backpack. We forgot it at home in the hallway. Accordingly, the mood is tense: Imola is at 360 in no time. We accept that we will take the next train at 5:19 pm. The time should actually be enough if Kosta now goes to Altdorf and brings the backpack - over 2 hours. At 5:10 pm, Kosta has not yet returned to the train station - he is stuck in traffic, about 300 meters from the train station. We get on the train, fortunately in the carriage where the train conductor is currently present. Imola explains to him the importance of the backpack and asks him if the backpack can come with the next train (20 minutes after our departure) to Frankfurt Airport. After some initial hesitation, he contacts the train conductor of the next train and Kosta manages to hand over the backpack to the train conductor just before departure. The handover in Frankfurt works and now the vacation can begin.

The A-380 Airbus of Emirates takes off on time at 8:30 pm. After 6 hours, we have a stopover in Dubai. A huge airport where predominantly A-380 planes from Emirates stand.

Malte is doing well. The takeoff and landing of this giant aircraft are much smoother compared to other planes. Great airline, great staff. Time flies by. After 22 hours of flight time and 4 hours of layover, we arrive in Auckland, exhausted. Passport and baggage controls are quite fast. We only narrowly escape a penalty of 400 NZ dollars at the baggage control: Imola forgot to indicate on the questionnaire that you have to prepare on the plane for the baggage control, that she has a wooden stick (Idogostab) in her suitcase. It is forbidden to import wood without declaration on the questionnaire (risk of pests for the New Zealand agricultural and forestry industry). The employee is so nice and just gives us a verbal warning.

We leave the relatively small airport building and dive into the summer weather of Auckland: 27 degrees and blue sky. We pick up the rental car (an old Nissan) and drive to our accommodation (booked through Airbnb). On the way there, the lamp with the engine lights up on the dashboard, i.e. reverse to the rental station and clarify how to proceed. The employee (probably the boss) takes care of the matter and gives us a new Nissan SUV as a replacement (twice as expensive as the one we booked) without charging an additional fee. Now to the accommodation. We hope that everything runs smoothly from the beginning without any surprises. We are lucky: a very idyllic house, near the sea with lots of green around the house and a very beautiful view. Jeanette, the landlord, welcomes us warmly. We have a room in her house, a shared kitchen, a shared bathroom, and a shared living room.

We freshen up and immediately go out for a stroll in the neighborhood. Actually, we wanted to go out for fish and chips, but we are so tired that we get pizzas from Pizza Hut. We enjoy them on the terrace of our accommodation and fall into a deep sleep soon after.