New Zealand 2022: Day 1 Back to New Zealand

By the numbers

1 plane

1 car

The day started pretty early as we had an early morning flight. This time the journey to New Zealand was different due to the fact I was going with mum. This was also the first time we had returned since the pandemic had forced me to return home the last time as both New Zealand and Australia were going into lockdown. It was going to be a happy and a sad trip at the same time, but the best thing is that we will have a car on this journey as I usually catch the bus when I visit New Zealand.

 

We left in darkness to the airport and the lady at reception had to check our travel declaration passes as this is a thing we now do before leaving the country. Its not the customs card, but to say we are vaccinated and where we will be staying. The lady was shocked we were born at the same hospital in New Zealand. Security wasn’t that bad at all as it was moving and people only needed to put their loose stuff with computers under the plastic flap with bags on top. That was just to get into domestic as international was another lot of security. That wasn’t open for a little bit and while waiting we both had a coffee. The Air New Zealand flight from Auckland had been cancelled, so I would guess the flight back would have been the same as well. It did seem that people didn’t quite understand the message when being told no liquids when going through the second part of security. A whole family suddenly realised then needed to do something about their water. It was easy going through that part of security and I didn’t get checked, but mum had to go through the body scanner, while I laughed when I seen where she was. She had been right behind me.

 

There wasn’t that long of a wait for the plane and strangely they did not call for the row numbers to board first, but it was basically every man for themselves being scanned in. We were told to board from the rear and when we went to it was raining and they said no to boarding from the rear. No airbridge and everyone had the feeling they would be wet on the plane in winter. If they didn’t want us to have the rona, we would have a cold instead. We did dry out pretty quickly and the flight was actually quicker than we had first thought. It did not seem to be a very long flight at all. We did have to fill in the customs card and I even filled out the wrong part, but crossed it out so hopefully no one noticed. I could blame the light on the plane or that I was still pretty much tired. At least the only long wait in New Zealand was for our bags.

 

Even going through customs was pretty quick as they pretty much asked mum the questions and stamped everything. Along the way we had to take a rats test as we had to test ourselves on day 0/1 and again on day 5. Once we were spat out the other end into the main part of the airport, we were picked up by the car hire company to be taken to the car. There was an issue since the car was keyless and soon found the reason we had troubles was that the keyless key had a flat battery. Once that was sorted we soon found the GPS was going flat and soon dawned on us the cigarette lighter wasn’t working as a powerpoint. Down the road I also learnt that I should turn off my data as I had spent $50 outside of my plan. That is a great lesson and a better message instead of a month later when I got the bill. Mum went as far as Albany to show me where she grew up. Many of the now busy roads she rode her horse on as a kid, and she went to school opposite a cemetery that was no longer a school. We did turn off for the back roads and mum was shocked the bridge was still one way. We did go up hill and that was a narrow road where you couldn’t exactly pull over.

 

On our way to Whangarei we did stop along the way at Wellsford to have our tests and a pit stop as well. The tests came up negative, so that wasn’t a problem at all even though I got the email at the airport telling me to have the test and to report it. There was no barcode or anything, so you could actually answer in anyway you like, so its a honesty policy. It was dark by the time we made it to Whangarei. We got over the hill and we could see the weather moving in as it was going to rain and it hit us when we entered the city. It was great to finally get there and to get some rest after the long trip from Auckland though it took nearly all day basically. We caught up once we arrived and parked the car, so it was all good for the first day.