Blog Day 1 – Trip to Auckland
I am writing this first entry to the journey in the middle of the Pacific at 38,000 feet – to be posted from Auckland.
As I have said this is a different sort of journey – not our normal long cruise, but rather a long stay in New Zealand (the month of February) followed by a cruise across the Pacific to San Diego.
If one is leaving for 2 or 3 months, preparation is quite different from a brief vacation – advance rent and utilities to be paid, 70 days worth of prescriptions to be gathered (the insurance companies love to dole them out slowly), packing is more complex, more contingencies to consider, etc. Ok, you are at home and I am headed to the South Pacific, complaining – I’ll stop.
Tina picked us up at 3, for a 6 pm flight. Gone are the days of my youth, racing to catch a plane at the last minute. I don’t know if all older folks get there 3 hours early, but we do – fear of traffic or TSA, I guess. Tina labelled her transport as TUber – very cute.
For both legs of the trip, we are on American 787 Dreamliners, a wide-body jet with seats that make into beds in business class, which is wasted on the Los Angeles leg, but has been really nice on the 13 hour Auckland leg – I actually got 4 or 5 hours sleep.
I will continue in Auckland