[Nz2003] Arrival in the City of Sails

[Edmund A. Hintz]

We departed LAX at 8:30 PM PST 11 March, on Quantas flight 26 for
Auckland. Rather an enjoyable flight. I've not flown internationally
since my 1992 trip to the UK on Virgin, so I'm not exactly a connoisseur,
but I was impressed with the level of service. Free booze, real
silverware (even knives), glassware, etc. It was about the level of
service one normally sees on domestic first class flights, and we were
flying in the cheap seats. Anyway, we had a 12 hour flight, arriving in
Auckland at 6AM NZDT 13 March. Again, I was pleased with the level of
service; customs was quick, relatively pain-free, and they provided free
coffee and tea during the process. Much nicer than Canadian, US and UK
customs in my experience-but more trouble than Mexican (where if you slow
down past 30mph or so the Federales get mad at you for holding up the
flow of Dollars). Got a cell phone for a monthly rental fee of $90NZD,
costs $1NZD/Minute for local outbound, about $2.50NZD/min international,
but it's free for inbound. If anybody's dying to talk to us the number is
64 21 379 631. 64 is the country code, the rest is the area code and
mobile number.

Got to the Hyatt about 8AM, they weren't ready for us yet, so we toodled
around the corner to a little cafe and had some coffee and breakfast with
a copy of the New Zealand Hearald. Top story, a 747 leaving Auckland
yesterday afternoon rotated way too far, totally scraped the tail on the
runway, trashed the APU and had to make an emergency overweight landing.
 We saw the bird this morning on the way out of the airport, gonna cost
bank to fix that thing up.

http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2327508a10,00.html

Anyway, after a bit of breakfast we killed some time in Albert Park,
directly across the street from the Hyatt. Ran Hunter around to run down
the batteries, and just kicked it. Auckland is a very green city, much
like Austin TX. Probably because they get so much rain-3 inches minimum
per month year round. So that's pretty much it for today, just getting
settled and resting after all the travel. Tomorrow we meet with a
relative of one of my co-workers, who's a lawyer around these parts,
hopefully he can give us the skinny on the place. 

Photos here:

https://www.hintz.org/photos/private/3-13/3-13.html

Regards,

Ed Hintz
ed@hintz.org