New Zealand - Auckland

Kia Ora Everybody,

and welcome to my adventure in New Zealand. The country that I have wanted to travel to for the longest time and which was at the top of my list. In order to get to New Zealand I had to endure some hardships. The original route was this:

• Bali -> Sydney (stay 2h)
• Sydney -> Auckland (stop almost 2 days to see the city)
• Auckland -> Christchurch (directly from the airport to buy the car and then off to the registration office and insurance)

On the day of the flight, I slowly packed up my three things and, after blogging a bit, went out for tempeh again. The flight was supposed to take off at 10:40 p.m. and I left for the airport around 3:00 p.m. After I waited the first few hours until check-in, the first bad news arrived at the check-in counter: The flight was delayed by 2 hours and didn't take off until 00:20. So far so NOT good because due to this delay I will definitely miss the connecting flight to Auckland. The airline already knew this and booked me on another flight on the same day (said the lady at check-in). The problem with that is that I would exceed the transit time in Australia of 8 hours and would therefore need a transit visa for Australia. It costs around €30 and unfortunately the lady can't give me the board cards without the visa. So I stand at the counter and try to apply for the visa with terrible WiFi. The website already states that there have been problems on the site for a long time and that it may happen that a visa is not issued or that it can take up to several days.

WONDERFUL!

So I'm standing at the counter - I'm trying to apply for a visa for 20 minutes - without success and suddenly the lady comes to me and says I don't need a visa because the connecting flight is also delayed and I might still be able to catch it. At that moment I thought to myself: "Trust the process! It'll be fine - I have 2 boarding tickets with seats and the rest will be taken care of!"

The flight to Sydney was okay - when I got there I rushed out of the plane to catch the connecting flight when a lady from Jetstar stopped me and told me that I had been moved to a connecting flight at half past seven in the evening. For my inconvenience, I was given coupons worth 20 Australian dollars - for comparison: a 0.33 beer costs 15 Australian dollars at the airport.

TOP!

Luckily there were others in the same boat and I teamed up with a French woman and we looked at the airport in Sydney together, ate and also slept on the floor together. Shared suffering and all that.

I also got an ear infection from a fall while surfing and possibly the bad water in Bali, and I tore the eardrum in my right ear when I landed in Auckland (or so I think). I'm not a doctor but the symptoms and Google suggest so. 😉

HOW GREAT!

Well, when I arrived at my hostel at 2 a.m. a paltry 12 or 13 hours late, I was just happy to be able to shower and sleep. The next morning I treated myself to an extra French breakfast with 2 croissants and coffee and looked around Auckland a bit.

Since I spontaneously discovered the Maritime Museum, I spent a good 3 hours looking at boats, boats, boats. There was also an art exhibition and a really impressive exhibition about New Zealand's great racing sailors. Really cool!

However, I particularly liked the exhibition on the traditional canoes and sailing boats of the Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. It's incredibly exciting and impressive what kind of boats and carvings have been created here.

Afterwards we walked through the park in the drizzle and then had some really great pizza! This is what I was looking forward to most after a month in Indonesia! Really good pizza!

The next morning we went back to the airport early and then off to Christchurch. This flight was also delayed and one of the passengers was removed from the aircraft by security personnel. We arrived safely but again so late that I couldn't pick up the van in time and the rest of the planning was probably delayed by a day. (Luckily I have time!)

But I'll tell you more about my van and Christchurch in the next post.
Until then: feel hugged,
Your Britta