I had a reasonable night's sleep and was up in plenty of time to carry out final chores and spend some time with Seb and Sylvie before I leave. The weather in Napier was fine, mild and a wee bit breezy, we have had days in the low 70s recently and this is mid winter, lol!
After farewells to my two fur babies, Grant took me to the airport. My bag was checked through to Vancouver and I settled down to read. The flight to Auckland was on time and it was a bit wobbly taking off due to the breeze but the rest of the flight was very calm. There were showers around Auckland but none appeared as I walked to the International terminal. They have installed new smart gates at the airport and they are linked directly to the camera that checks who you are so it was a very quick pass through. There were NO queues through security so all was good.
I spent several hours in the lounge waiting for the flight and hoping that I get an upgrade to a lie flat bed. It is a 13+ hour flight so if no upgrade I know that my ankles will swell up and I will probably get no sleep. I spoke to some other ex pats and we were all discussing the referendum results as they were coming in. I am surprised that the vote has come out on the side of leaving the EU and not sure what people think they will accomplish by leaving. The world is a very different place from even twenty years ago and there is no going back. The next few years are going to be very interesting indeed.
I did miss out on my upgrade, grrrr, I intend to try and find out why as I know there were empty seats in Business class that were given out for upgrades! This is the first time I have missed out and I would love to know their process.
The lights of Auckland were laid out beneath us as we took off. It was good flight, apart for the usual turbulence around the equator and the seat was not too bad, I managed about three hours sleep falling asleep while watching a film, lol! We landed five mins early on the tarmac and as we came in I was reminded abut how much the rivers are used to transport logs. We were through passport control fairly quickly, with the usual questions - how long... where next.... he asked me how I knew the friends I was meeting, lol?? When I told him through a cat rescue webcam you could see his eyes rolling, and I think he was pleased to get rid of me!!! The luggage took ages to come off the plane, it seemed 3 or 4 bags would come through then there would be a long pause! Finally, I saw my bag so I could go out and meet up with the shuttle people.
Silly me!!! I had booked the next day's shuttle, no worries, I had help from, lovely lady, an airport volunteer and she let me use her phone to sort it out. the shuttle lady was lovely and there was room for me on the next shuttle, phew!! It was a very pleasant drive, with lots of gorgeous views. I chatted to a lass from the UK here on holiday, she used to work here. Of course we talked about Brexit as well. The driver, a pleasant guy, lives in Whistler and has been a climbing guide for 15 years. We arrived about 6 pm, Friday afternoon traffic in Vancouver lol.
There were no problems checking in and I discovered they have bikes FREE for guests. I unpacked a few things, freshened up and took a couple of photos of the reasonable view out of my bedroom window. It had been a cloudy day but the sun was just trying to peep through! Then I went out to the Old Spaghetti Factory for some food. It only cost $10.75 for whole meal, sourdough bread, salad and a spaghettti dish plus Icecream, they even stocked my sparkling water! The server was lovely and very friendly and there was bonus WiFi! It was very cool on going back outside and I popped into the grocery store to buy some sparkling water. Then I went back to hotel and fell asleep on the bed. I woke some time later, showered and went back to bed.
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