We woke up today on the very bottom of the South Island and are going to sleep on the North Island - not at the top, but about 1/3 of the way down. It was the day of our flights from Invercargill to Auckland via Christchurch. There are no direct flights from Invercargill to Auckland.
So, you can imagine they pronounce Auckland as Ockland (hard O sound). Our B&B host was telling us this morning there's a story about a guy from the U.S. who was in Invercargill and went in and wanted to purchase a ticket to Oakland. Well, as you probably have realized, he didn't end up in Oakland.
I love the Invercargill airport! There is NO security. We just got our tickets and baggage tags at the kiosk, handed our bags over to the one person looking after taking them, and went to the lounge and sat down. That easy! Having said that, we had to circle through security when we got to Christchurch before we could go on to Auckland.
They have really annoying people on cellphones here too. This guy in the airport must have paced about 5 miles while talking the whole time on the phone gadget in his ear. I wanted to trip him.
So this was our plane to Christchurch. The only good thing is they don't fly that high. Not a baaad flight actually.
Sorry, these photos are through the plane window which was kind of fogged over. The landscape leaving Invercargill with the ocean behind. It's the Foveaux Strait between the South Island and Stewart Island, then it opens to the Tasman Sea.
The changing landscape - a very short time later.
And again.
I could actually watch the landing gear come down. Yeah.
So, you can imagine they pronounce Auckland as Ockland (hard O sound). Our B&B host was telling us this morning there's a story about a guy from the U.S. who was in Invercargill and went in and wanted to purchase a ticket to Oakland. Well, as you probably have realized, he didn't end up in Oakland.
I love the Invercargill airport! There is NO security. We just got our tickets and baggage tags at the kiosk, handed our bags over to the one person looking after taking them, and went to the lounge and sat down. That easy! Having said that, we had to circle through security when we got to Christchurch before we could go on to Auckland.
They have really annoying people on cellphones here too. This guy in the airport must have paced about 5 miles while talking the whole time on the phone gadget in his ear. I wanted to trip him.
So this was our plane to Christchurch. The only good thing is they don't fly that high. Not a baaad flight actually.
Sorry, these photos are through the plane window which was kind of fogged over. The landscape leaving Invercargill with the ocean behind. It's the Foveaux Strait between the South Island and Stewart Island, then it opens to the Tasman Sea.
The changing landscape - a very short time later.
And again.
I could actually watch the landing gear come down. Yeah.
We were a bit late for our flight to Auckland from Christchurch, so we had to catch the next plane, which was only an hour later. That was one of the worst flights I've been on in quite some time. Just for 3-4 minutes, but it was enough to make me grab the seat in front! We flew up and over the Southern Alps and then over the ocean to Auckland. It was while going over those mountains it felt like we were on a roller coaster. Yikes!
However, we landed in Auckland safe and sound.
We got our ride to our hotel, checked in, and by this time, it's almost 5 pm. We went out for some dinner and a short walk around downtown Auckland.
This is from the base of the Sky Tower...maybe tomorrow.
Getting ready for Christmas.
The harbour - full of yachts. Along the same harbour is the cruise ship pier and the main shipping port of Auckland, as well as ferries to the several islands around here.
St. Matthew's Anglican Church down the street from our hotel.
Auckland is very much a cosmopolitan city. We'll check that out tomorrow.
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