The trip as part of the adventure

Well, I'm here, but it was a long ride! Tuesday morning, up at 6am to have time for breakfast and final prep. I had a ride set up for 7:30, so, compulsive as I am, I didn't want to be late.
The flight was only for 12 noon, but they say you should be at the airport 3 hours ahead, so I don't fool around. The ride took just over half and hour, so now I have three hours and a bit to wait around.
I had an e-ticket and with only the slightest duh-ism, I got through that with a little help and (wow) had three boarding passes for my trip. Bag gone, I only have my backpack and a shoulder purse thingy with my books, camera and drawing stuff. A good coffee is in order at this point, since it's still early.
I sit around, write in my journal, watch planes unload, load and leave and generally relax during my wait. It sounds boring, but I quite like just watching. Yes, I do have some pictures, but haven't taken the time to try all the possible connection things yet. Scared I guess.
The first part of the flight is to LA. 5 hours over the mid United states. There was a fair bit of cloud cover, so there was not a lot of view from the window. I read my book, about war brides from Australia who are sent by aircraft carrier to meet their husbands back in Britain. An interesting view of post wartime.
We land in LA at about 2:30 their time. This is after passing over the desert... must have been Nevada? So beautiful to see the lacy patterns that water forms in thin river formations after a rain. The mountains you cross after the desert, and there is LA in all it's glorious smog.
I got out in the same hideous terminal that I was in the last time I came through. Not a particularly large part of the terminal, you are trapped there till you leave on your flight. Otherwise you have to leave the secure area and come back into security. I hated how vehement they were the last time, so I just don't bother to try to go out this time. Here, I have a seven hour wait. Well, a little reading, sleep, writing, more sleep (now the time for me, just before we leave is after midnight) walk around and have something to eat, sleep some more and then... wait with two other groups of people in a very crowded area till they load us all into three different planes all pretty much at the same time. Talk about noisy!
One flight was Air France with a ton of people going home...noisy French going on here.
The next was Virgin airlines going to Heathrow London, different cacophony.
Then there was my flight, a mixed bag of people leaving for, going to or in transition to New Zealand.
Remember, it is winter in New Zealand, so it's not the same gang of tourists going down.
I saw a very (very) big Samoan man waiting and said to myself, He's going to end up sitting with me.
Sure enough, he did!
He was maybe six feet tall, but he also had to be about three hundred pound easily. He filled a seat and ahalf, had a seat belt extension to go around his belly, that touched the seat in front of him. His belly, that is.
He slept leaning his head on the back of the seat in front of him too.
He told me he was a cop in Salt Lake Springs, but I just could not imagine him doing any kind of "beat". Super nice man though, with a niece on board as one of the attendants.
This flight took 12 hours from LA to Auckland. Very uneventful as I read, ate, slept and watched "last chance Harvey" I really enjoyed that. Laugh out loud at a couple of the things. I got what I would call an okay enough sleep, disturbed only by trying to find the right place for the pillow, the blanket, my head, my feet or the bathroom. Getting up to stretch my legs meant I had to wait till the Samoan was awake, since I did not want to wake him up, as he had to get out of his seat so I could get through.
We land in Auckland at 5:20 in the morning. Still dark. After going through customs, you have to go through a bio security check (sniffing dogs etc) for bad things coming into the country. They are fairly serious about this. After all that, I walk over to the other terminal for domestic flights. How civilized is that? A walk (10 minutes) in a such a large city and there are birds singing away.
It was a short commuter flight to Wellington (one hour) and I am here! Nina is there with her husband Colin and we drive back to their place. A shower to put me to rights, a nice walk downtown with Nina, a bit of grocery shopping and a walk along the waterfront, home for dinner (I made a sponge fruit thing...cake like on top, stewed fruit underneath.
To bed by eight thirty and I slept like a top.
What a great first two days.
I have some great photos of walking from today that I have to shoe you. It shows the topography of a city, the way it is all vertical, the impossible configuration of the residential areas and the beauty of a real urban forest. AMAZING!