Day 310: A Month in Australia Complete — Off to New Zealand!
We’re off to New Zealand this morning. The trip started with a rare, suuuper early pickup. Woody Woodpecker worked his magic.
It was a 5am ride to the airport, followed by a 3+ hour flight to Auckland. It was a 10 minute walk from the international terminal to the domestic terminal. We spent the long layover in the Auckland at an outdoor bar, having “lunch” (few appetizing options) and read / caught up on the news. The kids were allowed to use iPads which made everything relatively relaxing.
Then we took a short 45 minute flight on a dual prop plane to Kerikeri / Bay of Islands, rented a car and drove a little over an hour to where we’re staying near Russell in the north east part of the North Island.
It was a long travel day but none of that mattered when we pulled into our “Vineyard Cottage” at Paroa Bay Winery.
This place is awesome. Newly built or refurbished, two bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, amazing winery views, fireplace, grill, pool, jacuzzi and two golf carts for our use on the property.
We were welcomed by Rachel. She has 5(!) kids and was thoughtful enough to have a basket of games and puzzles for the kids and a nice bottle of red wine for the grownups.
The onsite restaurant is supposedly fantastic, but it isn’t open Mondays and Tuesdays during this time of year. No problem — the place was stocked with breakfast provisions that we dug into: toast, jam, smoked salmon and a little yogurt.
Margaret made a fire while Lobsy read to the kids. We were all happy to be in New Zealand.
MISC:
One last fun Aussie slang: to “lash out” means to spend a lot of money.
The month in Australia was fantastic. It went by faster than any other month we’ve had so far — a scary thought as the end of the year quickly approaches.
Australia and New Zealand are automating the airport checkin process more so than any other country we’ve visited this year. Self-check in and printing bag tags is nothing new of course But today we also did our own bag drop, including weighing and scanning the bags.
The machine in Sydney was even hands free — these infrared lasers scan the bag and bag tag while it’s being weighed and then off it goes. In the Auckland domestic terminal for New Zealand Air the tech was less fancy. We had to use a hand held scanner and the software kept freezing, requiring a staff member to come by and reset the system.
