Tuesday, December 5, 2023

New Zealand 2023: Day 17 Home coming



By the numbers

Second Breakfast

1 plane

17 kg bag

 

I was out the door to the hotel just as the check in opened. I made sure to check online to see what it was doing as I didn’t want to have to wait half hour. The departures said the gate was open, so I made my way down and there was no rain in the sky for the time being. I was happy not to be getting wet while walking over. I should say the bed was comfy too. With my bag still on my back, I was able to print off a bag tag and the nice lady from Air New Zealand attached it for me. I was still attached to the bag, so had to close it up so the straps were tucked away. Off to bag drop and the bag was away.

 

I was worried that there would be a mass amount of people trying to get through to the airside of the terminal. It was less than 5 mins for everything. Security wanted a second look at my bag, but it wasn’t my keyboard this time as it was in my checked luggage. It was actually my power bank they wanted to look at on the x-ray. I was also told to stand behind the line as I stood right in front of the security guys wanting to know what the issue was. No problem there, and I was off again going to find first breakfast. I had a Maccas breakfast with a coffee before moving on. At this time I was at gate 17 and that was on the other side of the terminal. The gate number will become important later. I ended up at gate 2 to use the loo there as one nearby was shut. I spent this time wandering the shops, many that were not open last year. I ended up with several extras in my bag that I hadn’t intended on getting.

 

On leaving the bookshop, I noticed I had a gate change as I was going to walk to gate 17. It had been changed to gate 7, near where I had been earlier. I headed that way to see if it was correct and the gate change was correct. As the time for boarding became closer the gate was becoming crowded and there were some families gathered. One group of teens right as boarding was supposed to open appeared and were telling their parents that they hadn’t noticed the gate change so had to run from one side of the airport to the other. Once boarded I soon found the protests of that day seemed to have caused some airport chaos and our bags were being loaded as we were being seated. I had a screen in front of me so decided to listen to the music selection. We left a little late, but we would make up the time on landing. During the flight, I got Second breakfast that was scrambled egg. I didn’t like the other choice.

 

On landing at the Gold Coast I found that it was a nice sunny day and it was warm too. I was happy that I had packed my jumper in my bag as it wasn’t needed. I got to go through the new part of the terminal for the first time and that was interesting. It was like any customs area except there was a part on the floor that showed you the state border. The border runs through the airport, which is unique. The new rules as forget isn’t an excuse was read out when we all we waiting for our bags. I think telling people I forgot isn’t an excuse means they want to treat people like adults and bigger fines will clear up memory issues. I had two customs people come for a chat while I waited, which was nice and I told them about my trip and they asked where I work, so I told them. Think they were checking to see if people were legit or not. I had said that my boots were used in the wilderness areas, and the customs guy who looked told me they were very clean, and I said everything I wore has been through the wash twice. I had some friends waiting to pick me up and then came the fun part and that was unpacking everything, ending another trip away.

 

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