So...getting there.
We found a good deal and "saved" almost a thousand dollars by flying out on Christmas Eve, therefore we flew out on Christmas Eve. Between our domestic and international flights we spent a couple days with some of Greg's family in Los Angeles.
I got to meet his grandma! I love grandmas.
But as you can probably imagine, I was mostly just antsy during this time. In hindsight, we should have gone to Disneyland or done something equally adventurous to burn off the energy...but I didn't want to dig into our New Zealand budget.
Christmas Eve came...we boarded a Boeing 747...6'3" husband got us exit row...Kyoo foolishly popped a Dramamine (important tidbit for later)...and we zoomed off to Nadi, Fiji.
Also, let's pretend I saw Rudolph. It was Christmas Eve, after all.
Fiji has a tiny, make-shift airport with no WiFi. We landed at 5 in the morning on December 26th (flew right over and skipped Christmas!) and stood in a super long transfer line. Also important, my bladder was FULL. Our layover there got longer and longer and I increasingly felt how vital it is to pack your toothbrush in your carry-on. Yeah...
But we got to watch this glorious sunrise from the terminal! And gawk at prices while browsing the few shops. And also feel just a little exotic, because really, we were in Fiji.
Eventually our flight to Auckland finally left and we got there and collected our luggage without any problems. This is when we high-fived each other and felt like quite the successful little travel duo.
It was premature.
Lesson of this post: NEVER CELEBRATE ARRIVING IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY UNTIL YOU HAVE PASSED THRU CUSTOMS.
Especially New Zealand. Their customs are intense. We'd packed all sorts of camping and hiking gear and they made us unpack it all, even taking our tent back into a "Biosecurity Area" for soil testing. It was in the midst of all this unpacking, that they discovered we had a small isobutane/propane fuel canister.
Holy alarm bells.
It was immediately confiscated and we soon found ourselves sitting at a corner bench with a big "INFRINGEMENTS" sign hanging above our heads. An elderly woman was off to our right, distraught and arguing a $200 fine.
I felt about 20 stress pimples immediately surface and my stomach started tying itself into knots. They informed me we broke air travel rules and could have brought down the plane with that tiny canister. I tried to counteract it by saying I'd flown with the canisters before without raising any bells (not wise) and also pointed out that our luggage had now been screened at 3 different airports without any notice (didn't matter). A long debate ensued with many official-looking people behind a desk. Phone calls were made. Glances were shot in our direction.
And then a man in turquoise pants came and informed us we were being fined $500.
Coincidentally, this was also the exact moment that I broke out in tears. Greg took over talking to the man, since technically the canister was in his bag, and I sobbed harder, head buried in my hands. Nooooot one of my shinier moments.
Welcome to New Zealand.
I was really tired. And $500 was a big chunk of our trip budget! And, yes, packing a fuel canister might not have been one of my wisest moves...but if they're really that dangerous, why don't they get noticed during luggage screens??
In the end, I think they took pity on me. There was more debating, another more powerful official was consulted, and eventually the man in turquoise pants came back.
"We're going to give you a warning."
Sunlight began breaking thru the clouds!
(that's really just an unrelated picture of me and blurry ducks...but it's not hard to imagine the puffy eyes and tear-streaked cheeks...)
I raised my puffy eyes and tear-streaked cheeks and thanked him. We were given a very stern lecture about carrying flammable gases on airplanes and sent on our merry way...without the fuel canister.
We spent the afternoon in Auckland with some family friends (fish and chips!) and then found ourselves back at the airport for a flight down to Christchurch.
The Dramamine chose this time to kick in and I spent that evening passed out and sprawled across three benches in the domestic terminal, completely dead to the world. I couldn't keep my eyes open on the drive back and I don't even remember boarding the plane.
(this post is getting too lengthy. but i'm choosing to ignore my better judgement and keep typing)
Another long story short, I'm a cheapskate. We landed in Christchurch and needed to get to the holiday park we were staying at, but all I could see were signs advertising cabs at $46. And it was too late for anything else to be operating. And also related, it was Boxing Day, which is no small thing in that part of the world.
"Ha!" I announced to the Gregman after consulting Google maps. "We can walk! It's like suuuuuuper close to the airport."
So walk we did, backpacks shouldered and wheelie bags dragging behind us down the darkened Christchurch streets. (no sidewalks). Five minutes later it started raining. Fifteen minutes later it started raining harder. Ten minutes later I saw my first New Zealand sheep! Though that excitement died down real fast. Three minutes later I wondered if we were going in the right direction. Then I wondered if the park would even be open to let us in our room. A total of over an hour's worth of minutes later, (still raining) we were there and discovering the happiest of envelopes taped to the office door with "HALL" scrawled across it in big letters.
That would have been a more appropriate time to high-five and feel like (somewhat) successful travelers. We were there alive AND with our luggage AND access to our room AND $500 still in our bank account.
Greg's impromptu contact lens cases for the night...he couldn't find his.
It doesn't look like much, but that bed was nothing short of luxury after enduring the longest travel day of my life.
If only we'd discovered the heater that night instead of the following morning...
And now I declare this dump of "How we got there" stories over! Whew.
Have a great day :-)
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