It was a rush to get to the airport in time; my phone had kept beeping on Monday with SMS messages to advise thaqt the flight between Sydney and Auckland was being delayed incrementally. I had a killer sinus headache and wasn't happy with the constant arrival of notes, and ended up switching my phone off.
Unfortunately this meant I missed talkaing to Aki, the PRB and Lucky Legs, but I hope that they will understand.
Rad picked us up and took us to the airport - gotta love the small provincial nature of Canberra which allows you to check in to an international flight less than an hour before the domestic leaves with no hassles and everything checked through. Qantas Club provided a welcome respite, good snacks and soda water (I ended up having less than my usual daily coffee quotient, as I stuck to their excellent decaf espresso), and a pleasant way to while away the delay. We were both tired, and my head hurt like hell; flying might not have been perfect, but luckily the flight up from Canberra was on an uncommonly large 747 and the sinuses (generally) are better on bigger planes.
We were on the same flights as an M55 from Brasil who opted to change his T-shirt with Bob after the presentations (I have photos - but not here!) and we chatted as best we could. We ended up on a LAN Chile flight to Santiago de Chile via Auckland, which was pretty interesting and got us dreaming once again of our lust to spend a while (6 monthish) in South America. I practiced my gracias and de nada where I could! It was the worst Asian Vegetarian special meal I had come across though - two triangles of polenta (very asian); some anaemic looking mushrooms (they always look like that on airlines though); and a few cubes of tofu with a splash of something pretending to be tomato sauce.
Despite the late arrival, we were soon in our Apartment near the centre of Auckland, rugged up against the shock of an icy wind and max of 18 (long since gone since we arrived), and went exploring for local restaurants. Not too excitingm the choice of kebab and chips; burgers and chips, chicken and chips and chips with chips wasn't too exciting in the district of the CBD and Sky City. We returned to a small chinese cafe and bar we saw earlier which was full to bursting, and chose Bok Choy with garlic, beeef with chilli and black bean, pork with black (woodear) fungus with the soup and rice thrown in for $40 with a couple of TsingTao beers for Bob. It justified its popularity with the third or fourth shift of diners for the evening coming in as we headed our weary bodies back to bed.
Unfortunately this meant I missed talkaing to Aki, the PRB and Lucky Legs, but I hope that they will understand.
Rad picked us up and took us to the airport - gotta love the small provincial nature of Canberra which allows you to check in to an international flight less than an hour before the domestic leaves with no hassles and everything checked through. Qantas Club provided a welcome respite, good snacks and soda water (I ended up having less than my usual daily coffee quotient, as I stuck to their excellent decaf espresso), and a pleasant way to while away the delay. We were both tired, and my head hurt like hell; flying might not have been perfect, but luckily the flight up from Canberra was on an uncommonly large 747 and the sinuses (generally) are better on bigger planes.
We were on the same flights as an M55 from Brasil who opted to change his T-shirt with Bob after the presentations (I have photos - but not here!) and we chatted as best we could. We ended up on a LAN Chile flight to Santiago de Chile via Auckland, which was pretty interesting and got us dreaming once again of our lust to spend a while (6 monthish) in South America. I practiced my gracias and de nada where I could! It was the worst Asian Vegetarian special meal I had come across though - two triangles of polenta (very asian); some anaemic looking mushrooms (they always look like that on airlines though); and a few cubes of tofu with a splash of something pretending to be tomato sauce.
Despite the late arrival, we were soon in our Apartment near the centre of Auckland, rugged up against the shock of an icy wind and max of 18 (long since gone since we arrived), and went exploring for local restaurants. Not too excitingm the choice of kebab and chips; burgers and chips, chicken and chips and chips with chips wasn't too exciting in the district of the CBD and Sky City. We returned to a small chinese cafe and bar we saw earlier which was full to bursting, and chose Bok Choy with garlic, beeef with chilli and black bean, pork with black (woodear) fungus with the soup and rice thrown in for $40 with a couple of TsingTao beers for Bob. It justified its popularity with the third or fourth shift of diners for the evening coming in as we headed our weary bodies back to bed.
Watch out for that iceberg FD. :)
Enjoy the break, FD.