After a not very good night sleep, because Lola was trying to get on the bed all night long, we got up, did our final packing, and had brother Jeff dropped us off at the airport at about 11:30 am. We were fortunate in that we had heard President Trump was flying in today, and were afraid that might cause some traffic snarlups, but evidently he was lunching in DC and wouldn’t be coming south until later in the day. After an extended inquiry at the AA desk, trying to learn what our chances were at getting an upgrade to business class on the final leg of our journey, LAX to Auckland (we were evidently #5-6 in the queue), we breezed through TSA and arrived at the gate with about 20 minutes to spare, which was perfect. Usually we get there WAY too early and sit around for 90 minutes, but I planned it better today. We had already upgraded to First Class on our domestic flights, so we had a very pleasant flight to Dallas, including lots of hot nuts and a Vietnames salad with chicken for lunch. We arrived on time in Dallas, took the Skylink to Terminal D, and ended up at a little Irish Pub, where we’ve eaten before. I wasn’t hungry after the lunch, but of course, my insatiable Hubby ordered eggs and toast while I drank my pint of black and tan. Then I opened my computer and checked my email, and the fun began! After almost a year of careful planning, essentially knowing where we would be and what we would be doing for almost every hour of our trip, I knew that not everything would go according to plan, that some things just wouldn’t work, and we’d have to just go with the flow, but it didn’t take long for the vacation gremlins to rear their ugly heads on the one part of the vacation where I had the least control: the cruise. I received an email from Norwegian that they were having trouble with their engine (they put it in much more technical terms, but it amounts to the same thing) and because they couldn’t run at full speed, they were changing the agenda. Gone was the stop at Bay of Islands (and so our 90 minute ride and swim with horses was gone). Gone was the stop at Brisbane (and so our half-day Winery Ride, two hours of riding from the ranch to a local vineyard, lunch and wine-tasting, and two hours back again, our one and only ride scheduled in Australia), and gone was our stop at Bali (and our full-day private auto tour of most of the island). Grrrr! They added a stop at a place called Port Klempa, which is just a stone’s throw south of Sydney, and there are no cruise line excursions and not a lot to do there. I did manage to send an email to the nearest stable that offered riding, so hopefully we’ll be able to ride at least ONCE in Australia! The dates of all the remaining shore excursions save one had to have the dates changed, but fortunately I had booked them through a service called Viator, and they were very accommodating and quick to change everything. Norwegian Curise Excursions, I assume, will make the changes automatically, though we only had a few of those. I found that it was cheaper, and had a lot more variety, to do it outside the cruise line. Anyway, after all that fun and excitement, and spending nearly a half hour on the phone with Norwegian, we boarded our next flight, from DFW to LAX. Turned out they had upgraded the equipment to a new 787 Dreamliner, and we ended up in these brand new cubicles with all the mod-cons, including a seat that completely lies flat, exactly the type of plane we were on for the LAX-Auckland leg, and were hope to get upgraded to. As it turned out, it was EXACTLY the same plane! We landed at the same gate we were going to be leaving from, and on the same plane, except now, we learned from our AA friend Julie, that we had dropped down to #13-14 on the list, because of a whole bunch of “VIPs” that took precedence for some reason. As it turned out, the flight was fully booked and there were NO upgrades available, so we had to be happy with our extended main cabin seats, that just provide a little bit more legroom, and got us out at nearly the front of the pack, thought it ended up not helping much, as they ran out of customs cards, and we ended up being at the back of the pack anyway. I managed to get about 4-5 hours of sleep during the 13+ hour flight, though Hubby got somewhat less. Felt pretty good by the time I washed up in the morning, fortunately. Turned out that it didn’t matter much that we were at the front of the plane, because even though we stopped along the way to fill out the custom card and the money exchange to get some NZ$, we ended up in line right behind the folks that were sitting next to us on the plane anyway! It really doesn’t pay to be impatient at an airport! Once we got through immigration and customs and into the main terminal (it was a long walk from the international terminal to baggage claim), I tried to call the company where we had rented a campervan, and couldn’t get my phone to make the call, even though I had updated to an international plan. I confirmed with the paperwork that I was dialing it according to Verizon’s instructions, but that still didn’t work, I just kept getting a recording that if it was an emergency dial 911, information 411, and help making the call 611. So I dialed 611 and got put on perma-hold, never did get through. Eventually Hubby went to information looking for something the camper company had called a “freephone” and was directed to a phone. I dialed the “freephone” number and it went straight through to the camper place, and they sent a driver out right away. I finally realized that by “freephone” they weren’t talking about a particular type of phone, but a toll-free number good on any phone, duh! The driver showed up in a nice van, pulling a small trailer behind it, and discovered that many of the shuttles had such trailers, used to transport luggage. What a great idea! A short 10 minute trip to the office, and less than an hour of paperwork and instruction later, we were on the road! We stopped at a grocery store and spend nearly another hour stocking up on everything we thought we’d need (and naturally, still managed to forget a few things!), then set off down the road toward Hamilton. I was hoping to avoid using my Google maps, but we got a bit turned around and had to capitulate, using it just long enough to get us on the highway south before turning off the data. Had to turn it on again once we got to Hamilton, as none of the road names I had on the printed map turned up, and we got turned around again. We soon made our way into the Hamilton Holiday Park around 2:30 local time, and not a moment too soon! Despite drinking a bottle of 5-hour energy at the airport, I was serious flagging on the drive down. Driving on the left didn’t bother me too much, but trying to shift the 5-speed manual with my left hand required some getting used to! My right hand kept coming off the wheel looking for the gear shift! Even when my left hand was on the gear shift, I had to remember that first was AWAY from me and fifth was TOWARDS me. I was settled in with it by the time we got to Hamilton, though, despite my exhaustion. It didn’t take long to check into the camp (they didn’t require and entire litany of information like so many of them do here in the U.S.), and we were soon nestled under a couple of big trees, getting the bed set up, and finally settling down. Unfortunately, I was so wired from the 5-hour energy, and was just too tired to sleep, so I tossed and turned for a couple of hours. Hubby managed to sleep a bit though, not surprising, he can sleep practically anywhere! I had set the alarm for 6:30 so we could have a meal, but we were both so tired we just decided on eggs and toast for us, and cereal from him. We ate, took showers, and were back in bed by 8:30, reading for just a bit before finally turning the lights off, about the same time as the sun went down. Took a while, but finally feel asleep solidly, waking up around 2 a.m., tossing and turning some more before getting back to sleep again, and got up just after six to work on my diary and get the day started. I haven’t taken the time yet to calculate exactly how many hours it took us to travel here, but by going over the international date line, we had left on Friday and arrived on Sunday morning. We knew this day or two was going to be the toughest, and things should get more normal after this, hopefully! Can’t wait to get this adventure REALLY started!
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