New Zealand Express: Day 2 Flying visit to Whangarei

By the numbers

7.21kms

8,813 steps

Bag 15.6 kilos

 

I was up early enough after going to bed late. The bed was soft and nice to sleep in, but I needed to get up and running. There looked to be some rain floating around in the clouds and the tarmac looked like it was wet. I did however watch planes take off before going to find breakfast that included a coffee of sorts. I needed to get to the domestic terminal and since my other bag was unavailable since it was in use elsewhere, I had to use a bag that didn’t attached my my main bag when walking. The bag actually fit inside my main bag, so the 10 or so minute walk meant I was carrying around a 15 kilo bag, but I could have taken a trolley if I had thought about it, but I also though I couldn’t.

There were plenty of people walking between the terminals and it was great that the weather was kind to all of us. Once I found the Air NZ bag drop, I removed my backpack out of the main bag so I could print off the tags and boarding pass. When I wandered over to drop the bag off, I found I was actually in the wrong area. I was meant to be in the regional hub and not the main area as I would have been heading to the main transport hubs like Christchurch or Wellington. The smaller planes left from elsewhere. The last time I had used bag drop in the domestic terminal was quite a while back and they had separated the areas since then. The scanner at the regional terminal liked me instead and my bag went off into the depths of the airport underbelly. I had to wait for around an hour before it was time to board the plane.

The flight to Whangarei was actually uneventful and relaxing as all I did was read and eat a sandwich that I had bought along the way. It was interesting watching the clouds and then the refinery as we are about to land in Whangarei. It was good to see family waiting as I was whisked away from the airport once I collected my bag. We ended up at the hospital as that was the main reason for my travel as my grandfather was actually unwell and I wanted to visit to see how everything was going. I spent most of the day at the hospital with a food run to a nearby cafe as I wasn’t after any of the hospital cafe food. It was interesting seeing the different wards though. There will be some changes in the future, but that can be dealt with when the time comes.