On an unusually warm Chicago January day we begin our journey to New Zealand. . The car picks us up at 2:15pm for our planned 24+ hour journey to New Zealand. starting Saturday afternoon in Chicago and ending Monday morning outside of Auckland. The first leg of our flight is scheduled for 6 pm to San Francisco, a 4 1/2 hour flight. We have a 2 hour layover, then a 13 1/2 hour flight to Auckland where we will rent a car and drive 45 minutes to our first rental cottage in Devonport. We started talking about this trip a little over a year ago and made our first booking 10 months ago when the flights became available using Mileage Plus points. At last we are on our way.
Our flights are on time and without issues. We paid for extended legroom on the San Francisco - Auckland flight and it is definitely worth the $240 per seat to be able to stretch a little bit. The plane is configured 3-3-3 and we are in the middle section. Although the gate attendant warns repeatedly that the flight is full, we luck out and there is an empty seat between us., and because we booked the middle section of the plane we both have aisle seats. Yeah!
Auckland has a nice international terminal. After baggage claim and customs we find a cell phone provider and get a local chip for William's phone. We then call Omega Car Rentals to pick us up. The rental agent is very helpful, providing advice on driving in New Zealand, taking the ferry between islands and other general tips. William says he will be happy if he can just remember to drive on the left side of the road. We plug the address of Devonia Cottage into google maps and are on our way - with me trying to help with navigation around traffic circles and how to turn right when you are on the left side of the road. We don't run into anything or get lost, so we are off to a good start.
Our flights are on time and without issues. We paid for extended legroom on the San Francisco - Auckland flight and it is definitely worth the $240 per seat to be able to stretch a little bit. The plane is configured 3-3-3 and we are in the middle section. Although the gate attendant warns repeatedly that the flight is full, we luck out and there is an empty seat between us., and because we booked the middle section of the plane we both have aisle seats. Yeah!
Auckland has a nice international terminal. After baggage claim and customs we find a cell phone provider and get a local chip for William's phone. We then call Omega Car Rentals to pick us up. The rental agent is very helpful, providing advice on driving in New Zealand, taking the ferry between islands and other general tips. William says he will be happy if he can just remember to drive on the left side of the road. We plug the address of Devonia Cottage into google maps and are on our way - with me trying to help with navigation around traffic circles and how to turn right when you are on the left side of the road. We don't run into anything or get lost, so we are off to a good start.
RSS Feed