I’m lying in me beautiful white bad, sleeping in this beautiful summer morning in the beautiful city of Christchurch, NZ, and I read emails from my family and mates in Europe, half a planet and 12 hours on the clock away. They all say ‘bring winter clothes, it’s bloody freezing up here’ and I think: ‘what an idiot I must be to leave NZ this time of the year, when the country is, weather wise, at its best, with camping on the beaches, mountains, wherever, with cold beer, ice blocks and open swimming pools, with girls in sun glasses and short skirts, with tennis and cricket, fishing for salmon, cod, tuna or marlin, sailing… What for? To going to the cold and expensive old continent. Prince William is coming to NZ while I leave for Europe. Guess who’s right!
How I’m Gonna Go to Europe and
January 15th, 2010How I’m Going to Travel from New Zealand and Maybe Back: 4 Days to Departure
January 13th, 2010Hey!
Here’s the deal: I’m gonna live on Sunday 17/02/10 (NZ time) from Christchurch, New Zealand and I am supposed to go to places like: Australia, the Emirates, Austria, Romania, Switzerland, Austria again, Dubai, Australia and back to New Zealand in about one month.
I am taking with me just a smarty phone with wireless capability and I wish to post via email all I can as mockoposts of my travel. I am emailing these posts, so they’ll have no tags and no pictures. However, I shall take photos on my way, using the same phone and I shall try to email them whenever I can, using #G or any other connection, to the alien who helps me, so he can publish the images later.
What you should see are texts from wherever I am, whenever I can post via em@il. Maybe pics later.
For the moment I’m weighing my luggage, as Emirates allow me 30 kgs 95% of the way but a cheap carrier in Europe only lets me take 20. Sorry, no presents for my auntie, I’ll leave the vice and sledge hammer behind.
Travel for Real: How I’m Gonna Go to Europe and Maybe Back – Part 6
November 28th, 2009I’m leaving Dunedin today.
This is Air New Zealand style! This is arguably the friendliest national carrier you’ll ever fly. My propeller flight is one hour late thus they put me into a jet half an hour early. I’m just about to board the Boeing that takes me back to Christchurch. It may actually take a while, as this aircraft has just landed and passengers are still coming through to the terminal. The weather has been desperately strange during these less than 24 hours in town: 27 Celsius yesterday afternoon and 7 at night, sunny in patches today but very cold Antarctic wind. (…)
On board now: This plane again is packed, many youngsters, exchange students from Otago University, I guess. And only three little kids all of them crying and all of them seated just behind me. I had taken window seats with my booking, but yesterday a farmer’s wife sat on mine and I surrendered the room with a view. (…) Again I had my Nokia switched off for takeoff. We are flying over the Pacific and all I can see is deep blue water.
We are announced that the weather in Christchurch is pretty bad: wintry drizzle. This is supposed to be summer. At least in Dunedin I could walk for a couple of hours and I took these photos of houses, churches, the old railway station and the new Chinese Gardens, where I enjoyed a cup of oblong tea.
Now, as we approach Christchurch, we’ve caught up with the clouds. This flight is so short for the 737-300, that it actually climbs to 25,000 feet and it then starts descending straight away. This time all flight attendants are quite nice, but a blonde in particular is very easy to look at (sorry, no picture). I should have booked an aisle seat. The service is minimal: a choice of packed snacks and a glass of mineral water but that’s more than enough for about 35 minutes in the plane. Four our peace of mind, the captain told us not to worry this flight is running late, it’s just a replacement for the one that broke down (because it was replacing one that had broken down?). Then the captain goes on and on about what we can see outside (if you are on the western side you can). Then we land. No sign of drizzle. Just a quick note: today Air New Zealand commemorated 30 years since its only crash involving passengers. This was on Mount Erebus, in Antarctica.
Soon I’ll have to carry on with the English girl’s story.
Travel for Real: How I’m Gonna Go to Europe and Maybe Back – Part 5
November 27th, 2009Dress rehearsal before the trip to Europe: my boss flies me to Dunedin and back to attend a work function and meet one of the top two guys in this country. No, I haven’t forgotten the story with the girl with coloured bracelets, how could I? But I’m on board a plane right now and that’s worth commenting.
If you ask me what Dunedin is, hey, it’s a town in New Zealand, even smaller than Christchurch and definitely colder ’cause it’s further South. So I fly from the domestic terminal in my town after spending an hour playing pool in the friendly restaurant they have up on the top level of the old building. I expected a small craft but instead I found myself in this Boeing 737-300 configured as a one class only. As I’m sitting at the back I can see most of the cabin, really full of comuters and business folk. Loads of people travelling this maybe 250 mile distance in a blue carpeted Air New Zealand plane with blue uniformed air hostesses, of whom one is really nice. If you like the flat chested skinny type of girl with long hair and high heels. I have lollies. The packet contains five. (…) We are descending already and I have to switch my Nokia of. (…) As soon as we boarded the plane the captain said: ‘it’s going to be a bumpy ride’. And it bloody was. If you ever come this way, hire a car, get a bus or do the old hitch hiking. Nice scenery, too. As Dunedin is wedged between some rugged hills and the Pacific, its airport is a zillion miles away from the city and this kind of sucks, too.
The town itself is lovely, Scottish styled and full of students, not all drunk. I can’t say I’d like to live here, but its Octagon Square and the new Chinese Garden are worth seeing.
(More pictures in the next mockopost.) If this gusty Nor’Western wind is on tomorrow again, I’m not looking forward to my flight back.