Part 1
I'll be honest: I just took a Valium. Turbulence is bad and I feel tired even though I only woke up 8 hours ago. I have experienced three time zones in 12 hours and lost a day, my body is fucked. In Singapore it is currently 00:21, in Auckland it's 05:21 and in the UK (the place my body is desperately trying to cling to) it’s 16:21. So, to recap: I had 7 hours sleep 8 hours ago, but it’s 00:21 here and pitch black and very sleepy with blankets, quiet cabin crew, neck pillows and darkness. I want to curl up and get some shut eye but I have to be careful to only sleep 4 hours, that was I will line up perfectly with a NZ lazy morning.
I have been thinking about what is awaiting us at the other end of this journey. We have filled out the entry paperwork which asks anything and everything about your movements in the last 30 days. New Zealand boarders are not easy to get into so if I can offer some travel advise to you, it is this:
Tip #1: Before you travel and before you pack your case, visit the New Zealand Customs Service website and look at what you're not allowed. Read it, read it again. Highlight it, annotate it and memorise it whilst you go over your belongings and suitcase must haves. Clean your hiking boots, no food, declare everything even if unsure or face a $400NZD fine. The fine is only issued if you haven't declared something not for having it in your case so just be 100% transparent and ask questions if you need to. This will hopefully lead to stress free travel and a hassle free end to your journey.
I am trying to imagine the worst for the 10 day managed isolation room, this way I am prepared for the worst and if we end up with a big room and balcony... what a lush surprise! The thing I really hope doesn’t happen is being shipped to Christchurch to quarantine. If we are that means another flight all the way down to the south Island which is travel time I could do without. The other two options are that we quarantine in the city we land (Auckland) or we plane or bus to Wellington.
There are perks to be seen with Wellington, Ben’s boss can drop off our new debit cards, work contracts and (per my request) an equal ratio of work laptops to bottles of wine.
Before I set off on this adventure the longest flight I had been on was to the USA and that was about 8 hours. I didn’t enjoy it much, it was packed and I didn’t sleep well. One of the luxuries of C-19 is the extra space we have due to very few people qualifying or being able to travel. I think I will be rather travel spoilt after this with all of this space. Another awesome benefit of being one of the few allowed through the boarders is when we do get to NZ there will be very few tourists and the sights will be unencumbered by crowds, stress or queues... I cannot wait to take it all in.
We are just waiting for the seatbelt sign to turn off so that Ben can adjourn to the north wing (the three seats in front) and then I can sprawl across the row I’m in now. Sleep seems to be needed more than I thought and at the risk of sounding 'far out', time is an illusion and I have no idea what’s what.
Sleep deprived Ben is breathing quite heavily now so hopefully he’s getting in some good quality Z’s.
Let’s pray for Auckland or Wellington as the final destination. Night y’all.
Part 2
Amazing job body! What a champ. I slept for about four hours and am feeling mega refreshed. Not only that but it is morning time in New Zealand... get in!
To surmise:
22:30 England (Wednesday)
04:40 Singapore (Thursday)
09:30 Aukland (Thursday)
I just went down to the snack bar after a quick stretch to get a nature valley bar, a glass of OJ and a full bottle of water, breakfast: tick. I have also managed to fashion an ear saving mask holder. My ears were really feeling it after 28 hours of wearing one with no to very little break. So, I threaded the elastic velcro straps from my eye mask, through the elastic loops meant for your ears on my mask. The result? Perfect. In fact I am still sat here with my eye mask on my head so that my ears can continue their mask free vacation.
I have had a very quick peak out of the drawn window and it is blue skies and sunshine over the top of Finders Range and Broken Hill. We are doing 1007km/hr (ground speed), we're 3079km outside of Auckland... EEEEEEEAK! It's also -56 degrees C outside right now. Turns out high places be cold 🥶
Ben has just returned from his snooze. He didn’t actually adjourn to the North wing but about 7 rows south of mine. I have promptly sent him back there to watch his movie as he agreed all 6 foot 1 of him would be move comfortable spread across three seats. Plus, I did point out that we are about to spend 10 days locked in a room together so our own little areas is no harm done.
Lets just talk about the service on the two flights I have taken in the past 24 hours with Singapore Airlines. Fucking phenomenal!!! They can’t do enough for you. They are so polite and friendly, every member of the cabin crew could work for a modelling agency with thick, black, gorgeous hair with not one strand out of place. The women are actually wearing dresses that make me a little envious. I would wear these dresses on date night and they are wearing them at 3am serving the likes of me tea coffee orange juice and meals that put restaurants to shame. I am very impressed.
Now, there are just over 3 hours left until arrival and there will be another meal at some point so that’s just enough time for a movie of some kind. Being the indecisive woman I am, I better get perusing. 😂
In all seriousness; I wonder if they will let me into New Zealand?
Part 3
Welp, we are 24 minutes from landing and I am really feeling the pressure to make sure I have declared everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! When we originally filled out the paperwork at Singapore airport just before boarding, I thought we were in the clear other than my hiking boots, Swiss army knife and first aid kit scissors... I was wrong. I forgot about the lovely gift from R and K which is made of wood (also a problem)... the Badminton racket, the wetsuits, the tea bag, the pain killers, the holy christ shit tonne of things that you need to disclose.
***
I had quite a nice experience just before disembarking the plane. A very lovely stewardesses came over and said; “Miss Alicia, Mr Benjamin, did you enjoy your flight today? Was everything to your liking?” Ben almost didn’t react because “Mr Benjamin” is very different to the usual ‘Oi, you’ he is used to 😂. Apparently they had noticed that we had been very grateful on the flight for the amazing food and service and asked if we would give some feedback online. Normally, feedback and surveys are a hard pass for me, there are too many of them. Honestly I think they are a clever way to make manager-seeking-narcissist's (MSN) feel heard. However, on this occasion I was more than happy to help, they really are spectacular at their jobs.
I am currently sat in a large arrival lounge with rows and rows of seats. In Bens ever brilliant wisdom, he selected seats next to two toddlers who are finding great pleasure in stamping, slapping and climbing every surface whilst yelling at the top of their lungs. But hey, we were all kids once and I don’t envy parents... that job looks hard. The reason we are not making our way through the airport to sweet NZ air is that the flight before us was delayed and have yet to finish being processed. Checking every passengers bag for threats to the NZ eco system is a time consuming job I am sure and additionally, once completed the whole area needs to be sterilised to avoid cross-contamination.
I have never been this far from home. I think the travel partner must make it easier as I don’t feel anxiety (only over the possible $400 fine)... I feel pretty calm. Ok, typing during this much 'mummy!' screaming is becoming a challenge so I will sign off for now. Fingers crossed for quarantine that’s close, I don’t think I could face a 4 hour coach ride.
Part 4
Fuck me. That last three hours was harder than the whole journey combined and we traveled about 2km. As you know after disembarking the plane we were guided to a seating area. The walk to this seating area was long and ended with a serious uphill stint. We waited here for over an hour in the presence of excitedly loud children as the area for checking we weren’t trying to smuggle in bananas, honey and switch blades was other wise engaged.
Finally, we made our way back down the steep slopes and along the corridors so far that my muscles could barley carry my bags another step. Finally we reached the first desk where we did passports, C-19 passes and New Zealand Arrival cards (restricted item disclosure tick list). They also took our temperatures, asked us all the normal C-19 contact/wellbeing questions and welcomed us to the country (I’m a big fan of the NZ accent). After this desk it was four flights of stairs (luckily down and not up), I swear my muscles were shaking and near to failing under the weight of our luggage. It's not like I am unfit! I do sprints, I weight train, I do yoga… WTF? This is where I reminded my brain that we had just done 48 hours of intense travel which included non-stop mask wearing and 3 sunsets in 36 hours.
Then there was another desk for passports and NZ arrival cards, this next lady doodled on our arrival cards with letters and ticks which was followed by more walking to another lady who annotated the arrival cards further and asked to inspect my hiking boots. Finally, a scanning machine. All luggage went in (to the relief of my shoulders), and we came out peachy! We handed our arrival cards in to a man who looked at all of the annotations by three different officers and he checked our passports - (you know, just incase we hadn’t brought them with us). Before we walked to the final lady who told us where we would be quarantining… AUCKLAND! Just after she... checked our passports 😂.
Lucky us! We have been assigned to a place in quarantine in Auckland! That shouldn’t be long. We managed to score the bus with all of the screaming children and tired parents that didn’t move for 15 minutes. It was a 10 min trip down the road before we arrived at a hotel that I am sure looked welcoming and exotic in the days of regular cold and flu. However, in C-19 times the iron gates that were chained around the perimeter and the guard that stood before the bus made me feel like I was being sent down for a crime I didn’t commit. There was a huge piece of tarpaulin that hung between the two front seats and driver is read “EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY” on big black and red letters and separated him from the rest of us (‘the infected’). After a 10 minute wait for the bus in front of us to clear, a man dressed head to toe in PPE entered the safe zone behind the tarp with a microphone and a beautiful kiwi voice, he told us the instructions we needed to know. One bubble at a time we came off the bus where we were handed single use masks to be placed OVER THE TOP of our current masks, (a simple instruction that the first man off the bus failed to follow). A snack bag, room key and NZ SIM later, we were in our room and the bags hit the floor faster than gravity should allow.
Our bodies collapsed onto the beds and finally, the masks came off.
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