Time travel in a whole new way – from later to earlier

It is still Saturday, November 9, 2024, in Papeete. We leave our hotel, which is located directly opposite the airport. It is 7 AM and the sun is shining… and after the rather short journey to the airport, we are again 'lightly moistened' upon arrival... The airport is, like many airports in the South Seas, open, meaning there is no check-in hall or anything. You stand outside... And so we stand, albeit in the shade, but still in the humid warm air... and it’s not progressing... we repeatedly notice how many people come to the check-in counter and have nothing ready... endless questioning and pondering, and above all, holding up the line... but we do manage to leave the counter before our flight to Auckland departs.

In the waiting area, we meet Petra and Michael, whose flight home via Los Angeles, Paris, and Hamburg is scheduled to leave twenty minutes before our flight. Last exchange about what has happened in the last few hours (we had met briefly in the city the day before… yes, the world is a village… J) and the promise to stay in touch via WhatsApp. We are happy to do so, as they were really nice travel companions...

Then it’s time for us to go. Unfortunately, Thorsten and I couldn't sit next to each other. While our seats booked long ago were confirmed at the time of booking, at check-in they didn’t want to know anything about that and had simply booked us with a distance of seven rows somewhere else. Nothing could be done at the counter. The plane was too full...

Five hours after takeoff, we landed in Auckland. Due to crossing the date line during the flight, we are – snap – one day ahead. The journey is a time of crossings: first the equator, now the date line. Let’s see which boundaries we will cross next... J

Weather-wise, it’s quite a change. It was cloudy, raining, and the thermometer showed 20 degrees... Somehow we had experienced that differently in the last three weeks... Well, better weather wasn’t really promised. We hope for the coming days...

The entry into New Zealand went very smoothly. The fears that one has to declare everything, medications, possible dairy products, plants, hiking gear, or swim masks... where and when used... We found an app yesterday through which we could submit this declaration in advance. This made it quick for us to get through the immigration counter (apart from the condensed milk portions for coffee and Thorsten's medications, we had nothing else that could be problematic).

Auckland did not greet us warmly. When we came out of the airport building to orient ourselves to the rental car location, it also started to rain more heavily. We weren’t really prepared for that. Our rental place was within a short distance, but in the rain, even a short distance seems too long...

We made it – once again wet, though not as humid as in Papeete, but because it was raining – to the rental place.

The upper mid-range car that Thorsten booked turned out to be a slightly larger Polo. Impossible for us to fit both suitcases there without it being obvious from the outside that tourists were on the road... Rental cars don’t have trunk covers... everything is always open.

The young woman from the rental place makes it clear to us that this is the 'upper mid-range,' although we have a different idea of this category. But it’s no use; there's no other car, and we have to manage with our Kia Rio for a week now. We are given a 'pseudo-cover,' with which we then set off.

A big challenge for me as the driver: New Zealanders drive on the left side. And so the arrangement in the vehicle is 'backwards'... I’m glad we are driving with an automatic transmission. If I had to shift gears on the left side now, I would be even more tense than I already am.

I pull out slowly and have to concentrate very hard not to drive on the wrong side. Just setting the blinker fails because the windshield wipers go on...

But we arrive safely at the next supermarket and stock up on the essentials so that we don’t starve or die of thirst... Equally safely we make it to the hotel.

That was already a success.

At the hotel, we need to get used to the new time calculation. We departed from Tahiti on Saturday, November 9 at 9 AM, fly for five hours, and arrive the next day at 2 PM in a new time calculation. Until now, we were lagging behind our home country by up to 12 hours, and now we are trailblazers ahead of home by twelve hours. That’s how quickly it can happen. From loser to winner...

By the way: This is now my 100th post on Vakantios... J - and Thorsten gets to check the sizes of the next cars and may need to rebook them... One does treat oneself every now and then...