By the numbers
10,001 steps
6.90 kms
Bag 23 kilos after removing two books
1 plane
1 Jack Reacher novel
The day has come where I would be returning home from the city
of Auckland in New Zealand to return to Australia. It has been an amazing time
and the funny part is the adventure did not end with me arriving at the
airport. It was to be another nice day from the looks and I was ready to face
the day. I got up just after 6am where the night before I had packed my bag and
stuffed everything inside trying to make the books and things fit and hoping
the bag would not be too heavy.
 |
| Home and coffee |
Off I went to have breakfast as everyone in my room was
still sleeping. I knew of a place around the corner from the hostel that opened
at 7am and I wanted their food. It was a café sort of place and while I was
there, I listened to the Fallout 3 sound track as I recognised the music. I
thought this was funny and mentioned it. That was what they were in the mood to
listen to. Who was I to judge though I wanted to have a little bit of a wander
before I returned to the hostel and checkout before 10am. I wanted to wander
the Catholic part of Symonds Street cemetery not thinking about going too far
as I didn’t want to run out of time. I did have a really good view over the
motorway from the cemetery of St. Benedicts Catholic Church, which I soon found
the cemetery ran right up to the front. Its now motorway so the cemetery and
church are divided and it has its own dedication memorial to those who were
removed like the Anglican cemetery nearby. There are information panels talking
about different aspects of the cemetery and what to look out for like a
headstone with a weeping willow or a certain police officer who was well known.
I decided for a closer inspection of the Catholic Church as
I had plenty of time after my short wander through the cemetery. I was only
going to take pictures outside before I wandered off, but I noticed painters
outside doing the doors. Other than them, there was no one around and I slipped
into the church for a gander. It was just as interesting inside as a sign did
say they had the biggest manger scene either in the area or country. The church
had been around since 1888 so it was well over 100 years old. There was heaps
of space on the inside and seemed they were doing a bit of work inside. It was
getting time for when I left so I headed back to the hostel by which it was
just after 830am and people were still sleeping. No wonder one of the guys
thought I had been new to the hostel. No one noticed that I was around as I was
always out.
Heading to the airport once I checked out was pretty mundane
and I got there with plenty of time, although that could have been the end of
the story. I had around 20 mins before checkin would open, so I weighed my bag
and found it was close to 25 kilos. After removing two books it was the right
weight. Turns out once I could checkin once everything was working and open, I
had a slight problem. I had booked as Brad instead of using my full name of
Bradley as per my passport. The lady did not like that and told me in the
future to use my full name or else I could have to buy a whole new ticket or
pay to have my name changed on the ticket. At the time I had not thought about
it as it’s the same person. It would have been worse if I had included my
original surname of Watson then that would put the cat amongst the pigeons. I
thanked the lady for her advice and proceeded once I had filled out the
passenger card. I was hoping not to have been pulled up for that again on my
trip especially with customs or immigration. No one was worried the entire time
when I got onto the plane. I bought the obligatory alcohol before boarding.
The plane was late getting in and we had to wait a little
bit longer, which wasn’t a problem and I watched as they unloaded and then
loaded the plane. My bag I actually watched head into the cargo hold, which was
cool. My seat was actually at the back of the plane and I never found it to be
that bad. I plugged in my headphones and had audio going for the trip along
with reading my Jack Reacher novel. It took over two hours for the flight and
it was windy when I returned, not that I was worried as I was happy to be back.
I think it was actually time that I was back this time around. I was feeling
sunburnt and walked out from my time away, which was all good. Another trip
gone, but there will always be others on the horizon.
No comments:
Post a Comment