Thursday August 20 (Journey home)

Thursday
A coffee and a coffee bun from Dunkin Donuts was my start to the day. As I have walked around this part of the city, I have been amazed at the number of people who have been outside their building smoking. There are also quite a few homeless people asking for money.

I went down to the lobby at 9.50 am to wait for the Airport Express shuttle booked for 10.10 am. It arrived only a couple of minutes after that time and we then had to go and pick up a couple more people. One of them was very late and I heard him say to the driver, "Am I late?", LOL!! He did have the grace to apologise!

The driver, David, was a nice guy and told me the best view of the Chicago skyline was from beside the Adler Planetarium, I must remember that for the future.

I must make a comment about the Blue line rail connection that goes to O'Hare. It is cheap and the trains run at regular intervals. The problem I have is with the stations, many of which are elevated in the central city. Try going up/coming down all those stairs with a suitcase. I am less than impressed with the thinking behind not having an elevator or an escalator. I know it would be expensive but the people who make these decisions are certainly thumbing their noses at travellers.

We were on the Kennedy Expressway but once we neared the Rockford/O'Hare exits we were in a traffic jam three lanes wide. We were moving very slowly with lots of stops, fortunately, the time we lost waiting for the late guy did not cost us! As we approached and turned off for O'Hare the traffic finally cleared. Journey time was well over a a hour!

It is such a pain having to take shoes off through security and, yet, on occasions I have been chosen randomly to go through the TSA security where shoes can be left on. It is so very illogical, lol!! I then went to the United lounge after purchasing a sandwich to eat on the flight. They do have some better snacks but soup on a warm day seems a bit incongruous!

We boarded on time, a fairly full flight, and then the pilot came on and said there was a small technical issue with a radio and the would get it fixed before departing to San Fran, he said he did not anticipate it would take very long. Ha Ha, it took ages, well over half an hour! However, after a good flight we were only about ten minutes late into SF.

You know you have to love United (he any sarcasm here!). The aircraft was tied up with Direct TV and so you had to pay for watching anything, even the maps of the trip, lol! Of course, the aircraft had not been updated for personalisation which would have meant I could have watched the movies etc for nothing on my IPad! Trust United to do the paying thing first, lol!

I headed for the lounge as I had a longish layover and it was very busy so ended up sitting with a young lass and her grand parents. We got to chatting, as you do, and they were from Portland, Oregon. It helped pass the time nicely and their flight was delayed a wee bit! I decided a Baileys on ice was in order but forgot that cash was not accepted for payment. 

This was an issue as my card had been blocked, I was told "We would like to inform you that your account has recently had activities that could be indicative of unauthorized activity transactions." Well, I receive an email every time my card is used and there is nothing there I have not authorised, neither are there any large amounts so I am very unhappy about it! I did not miss out on my Baileys though, thanks to the kindness of the grand parents!!!

Looking out from the lounge, a typical San Francisco sea mist was evident. I could not decide if the sea mist was coming, going or just hanging over the hill behind the airport, lol!

We took off a wee bit late as the plane waited or a passenger who was on a delayed flight.

SaturdayWe landed on time in Auckland and, apart from some turbulence for a while as we crossed the equator, it was a good flight. The Duty Free people are less than impressive, it took them ten minutes to find my order an there were only eight bags to choose from, LOL!!

It was a doddle going through passport control, our luggage was off on good time and it was straight through security. After re-checking my bag to Napier, I walked to the domestic terminal and spent the layover time in the lounge there. The flight was a quick one and was very smooth, the sun was shining in Napier,a lovely welcome home. 

It was good to see Seb and Sylvie, and also good to hear that they have been pretty good for my flatmate! The next two weeks are going to be frantic as I clean out and clean the house before settlement date! I cannot wait until it is finally all done with!!!