Off to New Zealand

Today, we fly to New Zealand via Sydney. So far, our pool pump isn’t working, and our first flight was delayed by 2 hours. Delta swears we will make our connection in Los Angeles. My last nerve is frayed.

I was able to get Ben from Crystal Pools over who said the front of the pump is cracked. Thank goodness it gave up the ghost today rather than tomorrow. It was working fine yesterday. What the heck? He can replace it with a variable speed pump, probably on Thursday. Just spend away. 

Orlando airport was chaos. Dogs, babies, lots and lots of people. The tram from terminal to gates wasn’t working properly; only 1 car on one tram was taking travelers out each trip. We had 3 hours to takeoff, so not our worry. Other people were a bit more anxious.

            *****


Now, sitting in Sydney airport, I can relax. We did make the connection. We flew Delta Comfort+ which gave us plenty of leg room, and the seat tilted well-back. I’m reinforced for not buying the next level up. Sadly, no complimentary upgrades on international flights, so we didn’t get to try it for free. Originally, we were middle and aisle of the center section, but our seat mate moved elsewhere on the half filled plane, so we had room to stretch out. I read 1 book (Our Kind of Game by Johanna Copeland), slept 5 hours, and watched 2 movies (Everything Everywhere All At Once and Ratatouille ) for the 14 hours we flew across the Pacific. We were well fed with dinner (baked chicken and veggies for me, manicotti for Grant), mid-flight pizza twist snack, and breakfast (egg calzoni, fruit, yoghurt). Plus several Proseccos for me and bourbon and red wine for Grant probably made our attitudes better.

                    *****


Wellington: Last leg was a small Qantas Air jet (Delta scheduled for us.). Seats 24A and B. We are definitely too big for economy. Grant’s legs didn’t fit so he leaned against mine. I saw a rugby team at the airport and was glad I wasn’t sitting next to any of those big guys. What do all the morbidly obese people do? 

Delicious lunch of wagu beef stew and vegetables with mashed potatoes, Little Creatures beer. We certainly would not see that on a US flight. Is it Australian or international standards?

We took a bus from the airport to our Hotel TRYP by Wyndham. Easy peasy since we could pay for our fare with a credit card. Our king studio is small with no bureau for our clothes but has a stacked washer/dryer in the bathroom. Mini fridge, microwave, stovetop, and dishwasher means we can skip eating out some times,

                    *****

For the past 2 days, we have been sleeping, waking, and drinking coffee according to protocol from a time-shifting app I downloaded. It may have helped, but after 32 1/2 hours of travel, we were walking zombies. We checked out a nearby grocery store then ate dinner at Joe’s Garage, a small NZ chain, sharing a cob salad. Delicious. I had a glass of Otago rosé, Grant had a Founder’s IPA.

 Back to our room. Showering then staying up to read until 8:00 was the best we could do to get on local time. Good night.



Steps today: 6,249



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