New Zealand - Day 1

November 3, 2010

The long journey begins...

This morning was a bit of a blur as we rushed around preparing for our departure. Thankfully I started preparing a few days in advance so we were able to depart from a clean and orderly house on time.

Our friend Becky Jantz picked us up at 8:30 am and drove us to the train station. We caught the 9:22 rapid train to Hachinohe, then took the Shinkansen (bullet train) south to Tokyo. This was a very relaxing part of our commute. The cabin we were in was quiet and comfortable, so we were able to talk, read, and work on other projects as the beautiful Japanese countryside whisked by our window. James even napped for a good hour, but because I have trouble sleeping on planes I needed to stay awake and make it easier to rest on our over night flight to Auckland.

When we arrived at Tokyo Station, we entered unfamiliar territory. We knew we needed to buy tickets for the train that would take us to the airport, but where and how to accomplish that task was yet to be discovered. Thankfully we left ourselves plenty of time to make this exchange, so haste didn't make things more difficult. It was actually fairly easy to find the ticket booth and terminal we needed. We had to walk a long way with our luggage on the way to the Narita Express platform, but we didn't begrudge the exercise as we knew we would be sitting a lot in the next 18 hours.

The ride to the airport only took about 50 minutes. My eyes were too tired to continue reading my Jane Austen drama-fest of a novel (called Persuasion) and so I kept them glued to the screens displaying which airlines operate out of which terminals at Narita. It was a bit of an eye-opener to see how many possible destinations one could visit from this one massive hub. Our hearts skipped a beat when familiar U.S. cities popped up. Sometimes it's tempting to abandon an unknown adventure and head toward the familiar - but this is one trip I wouldn't miss for the world!

When we arrived at the airport, we exchanged a wad of left over Korean Won for some Yen. We were hoping to be able to get some New Zealand dollars instead, but I suppose we'll just have to wait till we're in the country to get our hands on some kiwi currency.

The plan was to meet up with Derick and Lisa at the gate. But when we arrived at the check-in counter for Air New Zealand, it was closed. They wouldn't begin checking people in for another 45 minutes. So we window shopped at the airport stores until it was time. Finally, we spotted Derick through the crowd a level below us and reunited with our travel buddies!

Checking in and going through immigration was pretty painless. I took some pictures of the adorable stuffed New Zealand animals they had at the ticket counter, plus some of the funny signs they had up on the walls. Then we looked at a few more of the duty free stores in there and marveled at how much money some people must spend in airports.

Sheep and Penguins. Classic New Zealand!

We thought this was hilarious since James'
squadron mascot is the Samurai.

Derick and Lisa were pretty hungry by this time, and even though James and I had recently eaten some sandwiches on the train, we decided to join them for an early dinner at a restaurant in the airport called Miso Kitchen. The atmosphere was actually really nice. We were given our own private nook for four, overlooking the twilit tarmac. We then feasted on some truly fantastic Japanese food while dreaming of the many meals that awaited us in New Zealand. We are so excited to be leaving Asia behind for a while and visiting a place with Western style food and bathrooms! Being able to read a menu will be as big of a treat as the food itself.

By the time we were finished, we only had about an hour to wait until our plane boarded. Lisa and I had fun taking pictures of our plane and starting to play with some of the photo filters I bought specifically to enhance our travel pictures. Then we killed the rest of our time with some lively games of speed with the deck of cards Lisa brought. Thank goodness for cheap entertainment!

The tail of our Air New Zealand jet!

SO EXCITED!! (The boys were too, they just didn't
want to pose for a picture. Boo...)

Finally, at 6:00 pm, it was time to board the plane! James and I were assigned to an exit row, which is bad for my back. So Derick and Lisa graciously switched with us. We felt really bad at first because we were afraid we'd deprived them of the TV screens most seats had in the seat-back in front of them. But thankfully they had their own entertainment units that folded out of their arm rests.

The TVs were an exciting luxury. We had our own remote controls and got to choose from dozens of free movies, TV shows, music and games! James and I watched Toy Story 3 together, which was fun, and now we are both writing while listening to music. He's got his iPod out, but I decided to try out some of the local New Zealand music provided. I found a folk type artist named Jackie Bristow that I am enjoying as I write this! =^)

But it's currently 2:30 am New Zealand time so perhaps I should try to get some sleep...

(P.S. - if you see a word or name underlined in bold pink font, that's a link to a webpage that provides more info about whatever I'm talking about. That should come in handy for those interested in following in our footsteps and planning their own Kiwi Adventure!)