Sun, Sept 21, 2008

I'm a bit behind getting this all posted... but here's where the journey starts. [Excerpts from my travel journal.]

No air flight goes without some hiccup it seems. I board the United flight to LAX on time only to find that there's a malfunction with... we later find it's only the A/C unit. Everyone de-boards and we're waylaid over an hour. I arrange a backup flight out of LAX to Aukland in case we arrive too late - indeed, at 8min past departure I just miss my 9:30pm Air New Zealand flight. The 10:30pm one is boarding as I get my boarding pass at the gate and I hop on the flight - after of course, flying across the parking lots of LAX running and getting directions to Terminal 2 and kindly being hurried through security. I would have made it if I hadn't had to re-enter the 'secure area.'

Itinerary changes mean a domino effect on down the line - a now 3hr layover in Aukland before going to Christchurch where I may arrive too late to make the transit to Little River, where I can get picked up by the welcoming wwoof host for a quick jaunt over to their home, Okuti Garden. It could be worse - if our plane hadn't gotten fixed at Dulles before 7pm I would have had to start all over tomorrow.

[from LAX, waiting to take off]
It's true, New Zealand hospitality is superb - I can already feel it at the gate and with our flight attendants. We get our first meal an hour into the flight. I'm so excited. I didn't really eat lunch on account of late breakfast, nerves and an ever quesy digestive system. I've had some dark chocolate (my favorite on flights!) and pumpkin muffins (also w/ chocolate in them) and a little PBJ. I also had one of my little red plums which bled all over my fingers, much like my black pen did when I tried to start this journal on paper. Ooh, and the person who was in 57A apparently baled on flying, so I've got seats 57B and 57A for my 12hr flight. So luxurious for economy! Back to the hot meal coming soon - I don't know why I'm so excited about airline food, but the idea of a hot meal of interesting goodies just makes me so happy. I know it's cheaper for them not to serve on domestic flights and it's probably not great nutritionally and I'm normally an organic gourmet food girl. Whatever, it brings back memories of childhood and the last meal I had on a flight was a paneer curry on the way to India. Ii thought it was the best tofu I'd ever had. Whoops.

And did I mention, ever the airline reeks of outdoorsiness. I'm already at home. My biggest goals are to get to know farm life and pick up lots of farming knowledge and go climbing a lot! I brought 30lbs of climbing gear! I better use it. I got my roll in a kayak a week ago so I'm set to get on some easy Class I and II rapids.