Far Side of the World

11/10/2005

Well I skipped the 9th crossing the International Date Line. Flying over New Zealand I was awestruck by how green everything was. Then we touched down in Auckland.

Because our LA flight was delayed an hour - the plane had to wait to take off against the wind and therefore traffic - we had only an hour to get through Customs in Auckland and make our 0830 AM flight to Christchurch. Like most airports, the international terminal is separate from the domestic terminal. We each had our luggage on carts and made our way the 1/2 mile or so to the domestic terminal, following the 'red' line on the ground. When we got to the domestic terminal, we noticed Marijke wasn't with us. Apparently she got held up in Customs. We waited for her, but the plane was leaving. She'd get the next flight.

As we were waiting for Marijke I eyed this girl who was on the flight from LA with us. She looked familiar, so I told her that. Great pickup line right? Well it wasn't because she thought the same thing. So we started with Colorado, but when I learned she was doing the Southern Traverse adventure race I figured out how we knew each other. She'd been at Lake Tahoe in 2003, for the Subaru Primal Quest adventure race. This is a picture of her (right) with her friend Renee.


After saying goodbye to Shannon & Renee, Kevin, Chris, Craig, John, & I headed over to the Clothing Distribution Center where we spent a good hour trying all our 'Extreme Cold Weather Gear' (ECW), which totaled 50 lbs. Afterwards, we had only half a day in ChristChurch, but it was still a sight! The architecture reminds me of Bermuda in a way, but bigger. We first headed over to a bar called 'Bailey' which is frequented by those heading down or coming back from Antarctica. I didn't really suffer from jet lag, but just the travelling wore us out so we all turned in around 1030 PM.