Post VIII: The Journey to New Zealand

Well our spate of good luck while travelling seems to have run out. At the end of the day, or at the end of two days, we are finally here in New Zealand so it’s hard to complain too much. However, if I had to describe the past few days of travelling in one word, it would have to be … shitty. Or more just unlucky, as I am now an unintentional international customs criminal… but more on that in a bit... First, our flight to New Zealand was cancelled. We spent just about the whole afternoon and into the night at the airport waiting to hear what the situation was. My mom and I were joking about how incredibly patient and calm everyone was being. People were being told they would have to wait a full day before their flight could be rescheduled and everyone was just nodding and politely agreeing. If this were happening in the States, there would have been blood in the water (said in my best Russian accent – Mickey Rourke style from Iron Man 2.) It was almost frustrating how calm everyone was, but also was nicer not having to hear people scream. One thing that made the wait more enjoyable was showing one of the woman working at the gate my photos from the Great Barrier Reef. Not to toot my own horn here but she was loving my photos. Her reactions and excitement were really great to see.

 So … our flight was cancelled, but they were nice enough to put us up in a motel 30 minutes away. The couple running the motel was amazing and managed to reopen the kitchen and feed 30 unexpected guests. Turned out Jetstar put us on a 5:30 A.M flight from Brisbane to Sydney and then a 9:05 from Sydney to Queenstown. After an hour or two of sleep we woke up and started another day of travel. Just a quick little side note: over the past 5 days I have gone through 5 different time zones. It gets a little confusing on the body but more confusing in terms of just trying to figure out what time it is for everyone. 12 P.M in New York is 12 A.M in Perth, 6 P.M in France for Marina, 2 A.M in Brisbane, 3 A.M in Sydney and Heron Island, and 5 A.M in New Zealand. Yikes! Okay, but back to the unlucky travelling bit.  So all seemed to be going well again – we got our flight from Brisbane to Sydney and from Sydney to Queenstown. So far all going according to plan. Throw in the fact that the views from the plane were amazing and what could go wrong.

Then, in typical fashion, Qantas thought our trip would be more enjoyable if they lost my mom’s bag. They did give her a pair of underwear and toothpaste that they keep in emergencies though. Phew! Apparently, this happens all the time on tight connecting international flights so hopefully the bag will be here tomorrow. Based on what happened to Kristen’s bag, I am a little doubtful but hopefully I will be proven wrong. Tired from only getting two hours of sleep and frustrated that they lost my mom’s bag I accidentally ended up purchasing the two most expensive oranges in my life, as I forgot that I had packed two teeny weeny oranges in my camera bag. Five feet from exiting customs is not a good place to remember this and an even worse place for them to find forbidden fruit after you just declared that you had nothing on you. As a result, I was slapped with a pretty hefty fine for trying to smuggle fruit into New Zealand. I think I am on some Customs Alert list now, so that should make travelling internationally that much more fun for the rest of my life. Yay! But enough complaining… after all I am in New Zealand and it is shockingly beautiful. The landscape just doesn’t seem real. It really looks as if it is just a poster of some generic ideal scenery.

 Despite the forecast for snow and rain we landed and were greeted with patches of sunny skies. A trend that would continue throughout our time in New Zealand. It seems like just about every five minutes the weather would change from being completely overcast and raining to these moments of sunshine. We asked for a recommendation for lunch and were told to go to Ferg Burger, where we would find the best burgers in the world. I was a little skeptical at first as I feel as if I have had my fair share of most excellent burgers. Turns out I’ve been living a lie. This was by far the best burger I have ever had. This burger made Shake Shacks burgers in NYC look like McDonald’s; Jus’ Burgers’ in Australia seem like a joke, and Five Guys Burgers up at Hamilton seem ... cute at best. The burger meat itself was juicy but not greasy, the bread was fresh and perfectly toasted, and to top it off … this burger was huge. Now normally it is not really a question for me that if there is food left on my plate, I will finish it. With a burger this big though, I’ll admit that I doubted myself part of the way through. That being said, I was not going to let something this good go to waste so I managed to eat the whole thing.

Might be shedding a tear after finishing the burger.

 With half a cow in my belly, it seemed like the perfect time to try a Gondola ride (basically a ski-lift type cable car ride) 450 M up the side of this mountain.

The view from the top looking down.

 Pretty incredible views at the top. 

Taught my mom my standard poses. She is a quick learner.

My mom bungee jumping ... har har just kidding.

 Burnt out from travelling and the small farm inside our bellies we went back to our hotel / apartment-set up and called it a night. Here is the view from outside of our window ... not too shabby.