Sunday, December 2, 2012

Day 34. The long journey home, not an unexpected journey from Auckland to Gold Coast



Day 34 The journey home from Auckland

I did get some sleep and woke up well before my alarm went off at 250am. I had no problems getting downstairs and waiting for the shuttle bus to pick me up although I did see a lady wandering the street offering services of another sort. How do I know? I seen several vehicles stop to talk to her. At the same time my ride turned up offering the service I was after. Once at the airport I weighed my bag to see how heavy it actually was. It turned out to be at least 1kg over and I took one book out about the archives and the bag was alright, but now my pack might be heavy. At least my bag was now the right weight and I wouldn’t have to sort out my 10kg backpack.  I found another Hobbit character that was one of the dwarves floating around, which was cool.  I had breaky as I was wanting coffee and filled out my departure card.

Something I found out when I was going through the gate did not impress me at all. The epassport gate area was actually closed and I did hear from the lady in front of me that last time she went through several weeks before it had been the same way. Not impressed when you are stuck in a huge line, when your passport could get you through quicker with the chip. Maybe Auckland airport will lift their game or stop being scared that it will take jobs away from others. I did hang around the shops until I had to visit the departure lounge where I would catch the flight that would send me home. The flight was not that bad at all and I did misplace my ipod that ended up somehow falling down the back of my pants. I never knew it had fallen there as I had to put my bag in the racks above my head as it couldn’t fit by my feet for obvious reasons.

Once we had landed back in Australia, I found that my epassport wouldn’t scan for some reason that I do not know. It could be because it was never scanned on the NZ side, but the customs lady was very helpful about it and she was just as myserfied as I was. Still I made it back into the country and once the bag came, I was able to bypass everyone else and go right through to the arrivals as I was given the all clear. It was really warm wearing my big jacket as I had no room to put it anywhere. Once through I had to wait in line while the money converters did their job while some people seemed to think they were up for a debate. This was the official end of my trip to New Zealand as I as back on home soil. The trip hoe meant getting back into the reality of work and sorting out the contents of my bags. The weather was really warm and bright for my return when it had been overcast in Auckland.

 I did have an excellent trip and found more about New Zealand than what I had learnt before. I renewed my interest in LOTR and did leave with two of the Lord of the rings trilogy. The film industry was not the only thing I had gone for as I had tracked down some elusive areas of NZ history. The next couple of days will tell me how I am after my trip. Along the way I did find some locations I would like to visit in the future and I think that is the whole idea my going travelling to another place as you want to learn more and extract that little bits of information out of places. In some ways I am like a hobbit that takes aimless wanders to far off places. Was the trip worth doing, yes it was will I go again and that answer would be a hell yes.

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