Auckland to Wellington

February 10, 2010 1030 (Auckland Airport)

I'm waiting for an 1130 departure to Welllington. Things continue to go well, but I'll be glad to see the last of airports for at least the one day, tomorrow. Woke sometime around 0300 this morning and rested until I simply got bored, somewhere around 5. I guess it'll take me another day or so to get fully into the time zone change. Did some photo editing, used the hotel's computer for a while, went to the health club and then packed and grabbed a cab to the airport in plenty of time to have to wait for two hours.

The weather is perfect. Warm, soft and sunny. I asked the cab driver how cold it got in their winter and he said w/ a laugh, "13 to 14. When it gets to 9 people grumble that they're cold. Usually it's 13 to 14." Pretty moderate winters. For the C to F conversion it's always helpful to remember 30 is hot, 20 is warm, 10 is chilly and 0 is cold. Always worked for me

Dinner last night was very good. Italian restaurant across the street served a wonderful veal scaloppini. It's amazing how different the dish is outside of the US. Simple and elegant. This one had a bite of spice-heat that I liked a lot.

I can't say that I'm blown away by the appearance of the people I've seen. There are tons of tourists and they all look like working class mid-westerners who don't get out very much. Lots of men in shorts w/ white socks and sneakers or brown leather thingamajigs. The women look equally bleak. I probably don't look like a fashion plate myself with my now 3 day growth of beard, so I hadn't better throw too many stones.

Hard to get a handle on how the Kiwis look. There isn't really any way to differentiate natives from visitors aside from the idea I have that anyone not looking like a mid-westerner is one. In my small sampling those that meet that criteria are few and far between. Maybe they're all on holiday.

There were lots of kids going to school this morning on my way to the airport. It was after 9am. I asked the driver when school started and he said 9. But clearly it must be around 9.30. Everyone was in uniform. Can't help but think that practice does eliminate some social problems among kids. They all looked just right…like kids.

I got burned with my luggage. Too heavy. I may have gotten away with the big bag. Max for carriage is 25Kg. Mine weighed in a fraction over and I ignored the overage. We'll see at the other end if anyone picked up on it. My carryon, though, was a different story. Max for that category is 7Kg. Mine was more than double, so into the hold it went. It's got my most important stuff: meds and paperwork, so I'll be pretty unhappy if something happens to it.