I live for traveling, but man do I hate flying. It's long, it's boring, the food sucks and did I mention its long and boring?
My trip to Sydney (1 Feb 2014) was especially long. It started a Saturday morning at seven. Cape town - Johannesburg - Bangkok - Sydney (21 hours of flying without lay overs). Cape Town to Johannesburg was uneventful. As I boarded the Thai Airways flight to Bangkok I thought to myself: Ugh man eleven hours of sitting squashed up against some stranger ... Fun! To my surprise (and for the first time in my life) the plane was pretty much completely empty. I couldn't believe my luck! I had three seats to myself. What?! I had dinner (delish) and watched 'The Butler' (hectic!!) and slept the rest of the way. They woke us up for breakfast and half way through my movie we were on the ground. Nice, I can like to be traveling like so :)
Bangkok airport was a little confusing - I have to add I was also still half asleep. I sat outside my gate waiting to board without a drop of water or coffee. There was nothing to buy (plus I discovered that I forgot my Baht at home). As boarding time came closer I realised that the gate is still not open but that there are people on the other side. All the time I was waiting at the wrong side. Off course I was stuck at the side with nothing to do, nothing to buy and only about 3 chairs. All the open shops were just around the corner. fml
The flight from Bangkok to Sydney was pretty crappy. It was full, long and boring. Nine hours of doing nothing. Yay!
I did fall asleep once or twice. Also managed to finish watching Hugo (such a cool movie). Further more I watched Turbo and Tintin - still it felt like the clock was standing still.
Andy, Maggie and Michael were at the airport in Sydney to meet me and took me to their house. Andy and Maggie met my parents on a cruise in 2004 and have been friends ever since. Michael have visited us in South Africa and now I've visited them as well. It was so cool to see where they live and to hang out with them. Enroute home they took me the scenic route - we crossed the big Sydney bridge and I could vaguely make out the opera house. It was pretty amazing and very surreal.
We had a couple of beers at home while catching up. I slept like a baby, literally woke up every hour but felt pretty refreshed the following morning.
Arriving at the Sydney airport the next morning, I was told that my ticket to New Zealand didn't include luggage, so I had to pay $80 for my suit case. Not a nice way to wake up. Nevertheless I had to do it cause I was going away for one week and really had nowhere else to leave my stuff. The flight to Wellington was uneventful and by the time I got off on the other end I was proper sick of flying. Didn't want to see the inside of a plane anytime soon. Dave picked me up from the airport and drove me their house. I met Frankie and Dave back in Korea and saw this as the perfect opportunity to come and visit! Dave and I went home, made cheese sandwiches and had a chilled afternoon. Was so nice to see their house and their pets all the way from Korea. It was even more surreal being in New Zealand than in Sydney.
Our first night was spent out in the front yard with some friends of Frankie and Dave, eating pizza and playing cards.
Petone, where Frankie and Dave lives is a pretty little town. It has an American feel to it, super suburbia. On my first morning I went exploring down Jackson street, grabbed a cup of coffee and headed down to the beach. Thereafter I took the train to Wellington and walked all along the quay. Wellington is beautiful, just a pity it was a bit windy. The weather is a lot like Cape Town. I walked, I sat, I shopped and had Burger King :)
Our first official site seeing was that of Zealandia. It is a beautiful bird sanctuary that forms part of the green belt that runs around the city. Its over looks the city centre but feels like you are miles away.
The Friday was probably the highlight of my trip. We woke up to a drug bust in our street and watched the whole thing unfold. It was pretty exciting to see them catch the bad guys. It was a gorgeous morning so we headed off to town and rented some stand up paddle boards on the wharf and paddled up and down the coast of wellington city. The views were breathtaking, just wished I had a water proof camera to take it all in. We even managed to do downward facing dogs on our boards without falling off. We then headed to a little hill overlooking the airport for a picnic and went home for a well deserved nap.
It was a good weekend to be in Wellington. Waitangi day as well as the Sevens. The Sevens is almost like Halloween in Wellington. Everybody dresses up and takes to the streets to get hammered. We had cheerleading outfits but they didn't fit so we just headed out looking funny. We partied on the wharf and then went to a house party in cuba street where we got stuck in a lift. The house party was such a mood killer, there was only 6 people and we knew no one. It was on the way out that we got stuck in the elevator. Luckily it was only for a few minutes but it was really scary - it was so tiny and we were six people squashed up against each other. When we finally made it out we went to Courtenay place to check out a few bars.
So tuned for what happened next ...
My trip to Sydney (1 Feb 2014) was especially long. It started a Saturday morning at seven. Cape town - Johannesburg - Bangkok - Sydney (21 hours of flying without lay overs). Cape Town to Johannesburg was uneventful. As I boarded the Thai Airways flight to Bangkok I thought to myself: Ugh man eleven hours of sitting squashed up against some stranger ... Fun! To my surprise (and for the first time in my life) the plane was pretty much completely empty. I couldn't believe my luck! I had three seats to myself. What?! I had dinner (delish) and watched 'The Butler' (hectic!!) and slept the rest of the way. They woke us up for breakfast and half way through my movie we were on the ground. Nice, I can like to be traveling like so :)
Bangkok airport was a little confusing - I have to add I was also still half asleep. I sat outside my gate waiting to board without a drop of water or coffee. There was nothing to buy (plus I discovered that I forgot my Baht at home). As boarding time came closer I realised that the gate is still not open but that there are people on the other side. All the time I was waiting at the wrong side. Off course I was stuck at the side with nothing to do, nothing to buy and only about 3 chairs. All the open shops were just around the corner. fml
The flight from Bangkok to Sydney was pretty crappy. It was full, long and boring. Nine hours of doing nothing. Yay!
I did fall asleep once or twice. Also managed to finish watching Hugo (such a cool movie). Further more I watched Turbo and Tintin - still it felt like the clock was standing still.
Andy, Maggie and Michael were at the airport in Sydney to meet me and took me to their house. Andy and Maggie met my parents on a cruise in 2004 and have been friends ever since. Michael have visited us in South Africa and now I've visited them as well. It was so cool to see where they live and to hang out with them. Enroute home they took me the scenic route - we crossed the big Sydney bridge and I could vaguely make out the opera house. It was pretty amazing and very surreal.
We had a couple of beers at home while catching up. I slept like a baby, literally woke up every hour but felt pretty refreshed the following morning.
Arriving at the Sydney airport the next morning, I was told that my ticket to New Zealand didn't include luggage, so I had to pay $80 for my suit case. Not a nice way to wake up. Nevertheless I had to do it cause I was going away for one week and really had nowhere else to leave my stuff. The flight to Wellington was uneventful and by the time I got off on the other end I was proper sick of flying. Didn't want to see the inside of a plane anytime soon. Dave picked me up from the airport and drove me their house. I met Frankie and Dave back in Korea and saw this as the perfect opportunity to come and visit! Dave and I went home, made cheese sandwiches and had a chilled afternoon. Was so nice to see their house and their pets all the way from Korea. It was even more surreal being in New Zealand than in Sydney.
Our first night was spent out in the front yard with some friends of Frankie and Dave, eating pizza and playing cards.
Petone, where Frankie and Dave lives is a pretty little town. It has an American feel to it, super suburbia. On my first morning I went exploring down Jackson street, grabbed a cup of coffee and headed down to the beach. Thereafter I took the train to Wellington and walked all along the quay. Wellington is beautiful, just a pity it was a bit windy. The weather is a lot like Cape Town. I walked, I sat, I shopped and had Burger King :)
Our first official site seeing was that of Zealandia. It is a beautiful bird sanctuary that forms part of the green belt that runs around the city. Its over looks the city centre but feels like you are miles away.
The Friday was probably the highlight of my trip. We woke up to a drug bust in our street and watched the whole thing unfold. It was pretty exciting to see them catch the bad guys. It was a gorgeous morning so we headed off to town and rented some stand up paddle boards on the wharf and paddled up and down the coast of wellington city. The views were breathtaking, just wished I had a water proof camera to take it all in. We even managed to do downward facing dogs on our boards without falling off. We then headed to a little hill overlooking the airport for a picnic and went home for a well deserved nap.
It was a good weekend to be in Wellington. Waitangi day as well as the Sevens. The Sevens is almost like Halloween in Wellington. Everybody dresses up and takes to the streets to get hammered. We had cheerleading outfits but they didn't fit so we just headed out looking funny. We partied on the wharf and then went to a house party in cuba street where we got stuck in a lift. The house party was such a mood killer, there was only 6 people and we knew no one. It was on the way out that we got stuck in the elevator. Luckily it was only for a few minutes but it was really scary - it was so tiny and we were six people squashed up against each other. When we finally made it out we went to Courtenay place to check out a few bars.
So tuned for what happened next ...
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