I'm right-side-up again! - 11/22/05 09:27 PM
Hey FoLCs. Going to be quick this time, but I'm home and I thought I'd do a quick flyby to check in and stuff.
The trip was great. We did a lot of touring and saw people and cities and animals and beautiful countryside and lots and lots and lots of sheep. We also took over 800 pictures (totalling about 1.5 gig). I'll have to pare them down before sharing (if anyone is interested), but that gives you some idea of just how many really cool things we saw.
Unfortunately, the trip home was not so good. We had the longest Monday ever. Our flight got delayed and then cancelled due to mechanical problems. They brought in a new plane (scheduled to leave 12 hours later than the original) and put us up "overnight," but we only had a few hours at the (beautiful and luxurious) hotel before they bussed us back to the airport in the middle of the night for a first-thing-in-the-morning departure.
Of course, we missed our connection, and the airline said they couldn't arrange a new one for us until we took off (so they'd know for sure when we were due in).
Over the course of the flight, we crossed the International Date Line (always sounds like a 1-900 number to me...). We were originally scheduled to leave Monday night. We left the following morning. We arrived Monday evening.
When we arrived, they told us they'd booked our flight and we just had to check in like with a normal e-ticket.
This was after we went through the slowest and worst organized Customs line I've ever seen. Which brings me to a very important point.
People of the world (especially those of you who come into the country across the Pacific) I personally apologize for the existence of Los Angeles, and particularly LAX airport and its immediate vicinity. Americans probably have a reputation for being rude, greedy, etc, but most of us aren't nearly that bad.
It was quite a shock after the politeness, friendliness, and good service we'd found on the other side of the world.
Getting through customs was a hassle. Getting to the hotel was a hassle. Trying to get the hotel to let me send an email without charging $10 for internet access (what kind of hotel charges for net access in this day and age??) wasn't worth the hassle (but later we'd have reason to wish we had just paid them).
Getting to curbside check-in, standing in line, and finding out that curbside is $2 a bag and the skycaps expected tips on top of that... it wasn't good. Especially since we'd already tipped on those bags four times getting them to and from the airpot. (All the more so because the bellhop in Aukland had refused to accept a gratuity.) We decided to put up with it, though, because for 2 weeks on the other side of the world, we'd packed a fair amount of baggage.
Then the curbside guy told us that he had no record of us in the system. He got someone to take our bags to the counter. We arrived at the counter, tipped the guy, and were immediately greeted by another baggage handler who told us that getting the bags to the check-in desk was only half the job. He was the one who'd take the bags to be x-rayed, and he needed to be tipped, too.
We got the rudest and angriest check-in attendant I've ever encountered. It got worse when Dad tried to ask a simple question and she cut him off, assuming he was about to voice a complaint. She couldn't find us in the system, either.
I ran off to call Air New Zealand and got a sweet and polite operator who had, in fact, been working with my Mom to help us get the tickets booked. Unfortunately, she needed a bit of information that I didn't have. I got her extension and told her I'd call her back. It took a minute or so to get off the phone while we exchanged parting pleasantries.
Back at the ticket counter, I found that we had been squeezed on to the plane, but that with all the time it had taken getting to that point, we were running late. (Despite having again woken up a few short hours after arriving at the hotel in the middle of the night.) We got through security and out to the gate in time to find it boarding.
I ran to call Mom before we left, then dashed back to the gate. Just as I got there, they found our original tickets.
We had a long but smooth flight home.
Mom, it turns out, had worked with various agents for half the night to get us our tickets, and had emailed us with the confirmation numbers... If only we'd spent the time and money to check email rather than collapsing into bed.
So, since Monday morning (the first Monday morning, that is... you can figure out how many hours... I think it's around 60), I've gotten roughly 6 hours of sleep. That's including the 30 minute naps I took once on each flight. At least I don't have to worry so much about adjusting to the time change.
Poor Dad has to go back to work tomorrow, though.
I'm going to go get some sleep now.
Just wanted to let you guys know that:
1. Up until the end, we had a great time! (Wish we'd had even more time to spend down there.)
2. I'm home safe. Finally.
3. I'll be kind of slow in catching up on things, especially with Thanksgiving right around the corner.
Oh, and the drains went clockwise. Just like in the northern hemisphere. I checked several times to be sure. After being thwarted by various irregular designs on several occasions. I did see one bath drain which went clockwise the whole way, but then paused at the very end and seemed to go counter-clockwise. That was wierd, but interesting. Might have been an optical illusion, though. Anyone else want to add some data points?
One Very Sleepy Paul
The trip was great. We did a lot of touring and saw people and cities and animals and beautiful countryside and lots and lots and lots of sheep. We also took over 800 pictures (totalling about 1.5 gig). I'll have to pare them down before sharing (if anyone is interested), but that gives you some idea of just how many really cool things we saw.
Unfortunately, the trip home was not so good. We had the longest Monday ever. Our flight got delayed and then cancelled due to mechanical problems. They brought in a new plane (scheduled to leave 12 hours later than the original) and put us up "overnight," but we only had a few hours at the (beautiful and luxurious) hotel before they bussed us back to the airport in the middle of the night for a first-thing-in-the-morning departure.
Of course, we missed our connection, and the airline said they couldn't arrange a new one for us until we took off (so they'd know for sure when we were due in).
Over the course of the flight, we crossed the International Date Line (always sounds like a 1-900 number to me...). We were originally scheduled to leave Monday night. We left the following morning. We arrived Monday evening.
When we arrived, they told us they'd booked our flight and we just had to check in like with a normal e-ticket.
This was after we went through the slowest and worst organized Customs line I've ever seen. Which brings me to a very important point.
People of the world (especially those of you who come into the country across the Pacific) I personally apologize for the existence of Los Angeles, and particularly LAX airport and its immediate vicinity. Americans probably have a reputation for being rude, greedy, etc, but most of us aren't nearly that bad.
It was quite a shock after the politeness, friendliness, and good service we'd found on the other side of the world.
Getting through customs was a hassle. Getting to the hotel was a hassle. Trying to get the hotel to let me send an email without charging $10 for internet access (what kind of hotel charges for net access in this day and age??) wasn't worth the hassle (but later we'd have reason to wish we had just paid them).
Getting to curbside check-in, standing in line, and finding out that curbside is $2 a bag and the skycaps expected tips on top of that... it wasn't good. Especially since we'd already tipped on those bags four times getting them to and from the airpot. (All the more so because the bellhop in Aukland had refused to accept a gratuity.) We decided to put up with it, though, because for 2 weeks on the other side of the world, we'd packed a fair amount of baggage.
Then the curbside guy told us that he had no record of us in the system. He got someone to take our bags to the counter. We arrived at the counter, tipped the guy, and were immediately greeted by another baggage handler who told us that getting the bags to the check-in desk was only half the job. He was the one who'd take the bags to be x-rayed, and he needed to be tipped, too.
We got the rudest and angriest check-in attendant I've ever encountered. It got worse when Dad tried to ask a simple question and she cut him off, assuming he was about to voice a complaint. She couldn't find us in the system, either.
I ran off to call Air New Zealand and got a sweet and polite operator who had, in fact, been working with my Mom to help us get the tickets booked. Unfortunately, she needed a bit of information that I didn't have. I got her extension and told her I'd call her back. It took a minute or so to get off the phone while we exchanged parting pleasantries.
Back at the ticket counter, I found that we had been squeezed on to the plane, but that with all the time it had taken getting to that point, we were running late. (Despite having again woken up a few short hours after arriving at the hotel in the middle of the night.) We got through security and out to the gate in time to find it boarding.
I ran to call Mom before we left, then dashed back to the gate. Just as I got there, they found our original tickets.
We had a long but smooth flight home.
Mom, it turns out, had worked with various agents for half the night to get us our tickets, and had emailed us with the confirmation numbers... If only we'd spent the time and money to check email rather than collapsing into bed.
So, since Monday morning (the first Monday morning, that is... you can figure out how many hours... I think it's around 60), I've gotten roughly 6 hours of sleep. That's including the 30 minute naps I took once on each flight. At least I don't have to worry so much about adjusting to the time change.
Poor Dad has to go back to work tomorrow, though.
I'm going to go get some sleep now.
Just wanted to let you guys know that:
1. Up until the end, we had a great time! (Wish we'd had even more time to spend down there.)
2. I'm home safe. Finally.
3. I'll be kind of slow in catching up on things, especially with Thanksgiving right around the corner.
Oh, and the drains went clockwise. Just like in the northern hemisphere. I checked several times to be sure. After being thwarted by various irregular designs on several occasions. I did see one bath drain which went clockwise the whole way, but then paused at the very end and seemed to go counter-clockwise. That was wierd, but interesting. Might have been an optical illusion, though. Anyone else want to add some data points?
One Very Sleepy Paul
Missed you, though - glad you're back!! 
]
