So for those who’ve travelled across the International dateline, you’ll know that you can arrive earlier on the same day that you depart. The only problem with this, is it often involves a lack of sleep on a plane.
I kicked off Tuesday #1 by finding a nice little cafe, I’d seen before in a refurbished church. Had a lovely breakfast and several coffees and watched the Aucklanders in everyday life. I rarely got asked if I was Australian here. Maybe they just don’t give a shit, which is pretty much the way I’d love the world to be. Sure its nice to know where someone is from, and I love foreign accents, even a kiwi one. I tell you what though. If you ever see a Burgerfuel in NZ (or elsewhere) I recommend their burgers. Don’t have the preceding meal though, if you can plan it!
I had plenty of time and spent too much kiwi dollars (you know those kiwi 10 and 20c coins we occasionally find in our change. Well they don’t use them any more and don’t want them back. Plus they got rid of the annoying 5c coin as well.
Auckland church now Cafe
So lack of funds and plenty of time, I caught the excellent Innerlink bus to the harbour and then the Airport express that did a lot of stopping in the suburbs for an express bus.
I did a lot of waiting around in the NZ airport. and we eventually boarded 30 minutes late (which is nothing yet!).
The flight was as uncomfortable as planes are. I snagged a bulkhead seat with extra legroom courtesy of being a silver Frequent Flyer and complaining about lack of legroom! My bag even got marked as priority luggage along with the others in the business class and FF queue. A lot of good this did as on arrival everyones worst fears eventuated. Bags were not there. I passed through the $95 fee for being Australian (I noted Albanians are in the unlucky 5 countries that have to pay to visit, I didn’t realise that many Albanians could afford to travel let alone to Chile) and then also trough immigration in 10 minutes. The only thing keeping me calm was it seems a large number of people were missing bags.
90 minutes later and while several of us are filing paperwork for lost bags, my bag comes out on the baggage conveyor belt…… I check for two things, anything stolen and a stash of drugs. Not that I thought drugs would have been stashed in their, it just seemed weird.
I then got conned into the taxi ride into town, by then I’d passed 30 hours without sleep. I’m currently at 35 and its 7pm so i’m probably ok now and will beat the jet lag. The hostel is nice enough, neighbourhood is great if you need car parts. I went on a reconnaissance of Santiago as I’ll be back on the way home. I managed to walk up Santa Lucia hill, which has a kind of gardens, castle and fountain theme all over it. Its got paths all over the place and its a great place for locals to go and makeout. Trust me its hard to miss them.
I also managed a few metro rides to get back and write this blog. The joys of free wifi are upon me!
Tomorrow I fly to La Paz and I have some adventures coming towards the weekend before my mysterious travelling companions arrive in La Paz.