here we go gathering horse chestnuts in May...

Weds 07/05/2008 18:42 GMT (Thu 08/05/2008 05:42 NZT), Auckland airport international terminal:
$5.59 for a litre of water? Is this a normal NZ price or special airport-price? I would hope it to be the latter seeing as the same shop wants $20 for a travel plug. "A long espresso" would also seem to be localspeak for an Americano which might come in handy. The people on the desk seem to think that our baggage is "in the system" though that was probably true as soon as it was tagged in Glasgow but they implied it would be on the flight to Christchurch with us.
Cool. The one footstep between the departure lounge and the shuttle to the aircraft (which turned out to be 200 yards away) was my first on NZ soil, albeit rather concrete-y soil. It's almost light enough to see the world now and even though we're still in an airport it's all quite nice.

Weds 07/05/2008 19:25 GMT (Thu 08/05/2008 06:25 NZT), above some clouds somewhere above North Island:
Not only was my allocated seat for some reason not next to Nicky's I'm also trapped on an aisle and unable to see properly out of either the east or west windows. Grrr. Beneath the clouds there's the odd bit of nice-looking scenery peeking through but rather than craning to attempt to see it I'll just read for a bit.

Thu 08/05/2008 07:18 NZT, Christchurch airport:
Our baggage was with us the whole time; if they're going to go to the trouble of whipping it out of the flight from Glasgow and whizzing it across the tarmac to the flight to LA they could at least have taken us with it, especially when it came so close to getting on the flight without us in which case they'd only have had to remove it from the aircraft again by which time we may well have arrived at the gate. I'm slightly less happy about the fact that mine is flapping open and the topmost bag protruding from the drawstring; hope it hasn't been like that all the way and that it's just because someone inspected it rather than grabbed it roughly by the wrong strap. Nothing seems to be missing but it was so long ago that I packed it that I can't remember exactly what was there. As well as something being removed there's always the risk that someoneone sneaked something into it. As long as it's not an agricultural sample it'll probably be OK; there's a bloke currently washing our walking boots after Nicky's dad's quick wipe turned out to be insufficient in the eyes of the biosecurity official.

***

All arrived: weather pleasant. Traffic light. Taxi relatively cheap. Unfortunately there were no already-ready hotel rooms so we had to dump the bags and go for a wander - still planning to try and make it to nightfall before sleeping to try and convince our brains that they're not eleven hours out of kilter. Occasional things like familiar species of tree are mitigating that not-in-Kansas-anymore impression even if it is distinctly odd to encounter conkers in the spring. I always try to get an impression of the layout of a place from maps thereof before visiting somewhere so I generally know which way is supposed to be north but remembering that the sun will swing around it rather than about the south will probably take a bit of getting used to. At least the coffee and muffins are the right way up and very nice indeed.

***

This staying-awake thing didn't work out; fell asleep at about 1pm and then woke up at about half-six in darkness. This is always odd enough when performed at home so on top of an already-skewed sense of when it doesn't help things much. Bleg. Maybe some food will help.