New Zealand 2023: Day 16 Whangarei to Auckland

By the numbers

17 kilo bag

1 plane

7.35 kms

9,322 steps

 

Usually I catch a bus on my return journeys to Auckland before flying home. This time I am flying out the next morning, so flying from Whangarei to Auckland is a good idea and cuts out having to stop in Auckland to catch another bus. The weather itself wasn’t looking too bad when I looked out the window, but there was still plenty of cloud. I had heard that it was raining at my final destination of Auckland, but that could change at anytime.

 

I was flying out at midday and as soon as Claude dropped me off at the airport the sky opened up and it started raining. I was actually happy to be inside the Whangarei airport building. I weighed my bag and found there was no self service bag tag printer, or any human waiting to check me in. It just meant I had arrived a little early. I had a coffee and in the mean time more people turned up and then the Air New Zealand ladies appeared to take the bags. After sorting out my bag, I went for a walk outside to see the clouds rolling in and knew there was more rain on the way. Once the plane arrived, which seemed to be pretty quick and was the only plane that was at the airport, we all knew it was the one to catch. There was no security when boarding as we went straight onto the plane, which is different. When I boarded I found the plane wasn’t actually full. I had a seat vacant next to me and several other seats had no one in them. The rain was pelting down as we took off and were soon in the air. The flight attendant said she wasn’t allowed to serve our refreshments due to the potholes as the flight was already pretty bumpy.

 

It was only a half hour flight and we were soon on the ground where I could see that it was raining outside. We had a short walk to shelter as it was actually raining pretty heavy. The walkway to the main terminal building took me out to the regional New Zealand section of the airport terminal, which was smaller than the rest as the other locations are bigger hubs like Queenstown and Wellington. Jetstar is probably more strict that Air New Zealand in regard to baggage weights. I had to race to find the toilet as my teeth were swimming. When I came back, I thought my bag would be going round and round the carousel. It still hadn’t come through, but once I picked it up, I found my bag was wet from being in the rain. It wasn’t wet on the inside as it was only the outside. I thought I was going to catch a free terminal bus as it was raining, but the rain was not as bad as I thought, so decided to actually walk.

 

 

In around the 5 to 10 minutes that it took to walk to the international terminal, it had not rained, but I was just lucky. I had a destination in mind as I was going to be staying in the airport hotel over night so that I would not need to catch a bus or transport from the city, which means I need to be up really early. All I need to do is walk out the door and into the terminal. I was able to check myself in around half hour early, so I ended up with a view of the international terminal from the 6^th floor. Once I had settled, I checked myself for the flight, where I could have upgraded myself though its only a 3 hour flight so its not worth it. It meant I had the boarding pass and only needed to do the bag drop. I wandered around the international terminal that had opened up all its food places that was closed 12 months ago, then I wandered over to the domestic terminal for something to do. There seemed to be more in the way of shops as in books, but I probably should hold off. It was trying to rain again on the way back to the international terminal. Around 40 mins before there had been a long wait to get through customs, but on my return it was less that 5 mins. I think my jump into the airport in the morning will mean I might be stuck in line and should get there early enough that if I do get stuck going through I should be alright.

 

Not long ago I received a text from the airline to say that there will be protest action in Auckland in the morning. Its something that is registered with the police and are told to make sure you have plenty of time to get to the airport. Something to be aware of as I didn’t know about that until I got a message. Good lesson to stay at the airport overnight.