Although I had taken a few short trips this year, to Nepal and Taiwan, I had been saving my annual leave for a bigger journey through South America. This trip will probably be my last for quite some time. This morning, I woke up and finished preparing for my flight. I had some difficulty organising my seats because the departure time kept changing, I couldn’t check in online, and calling the hotline proved futile. The check-in lines were long, but I could use a shorter queue because I had no checked baggage.

After getting a quick coffee and muffin at the airport, I boarded my flight to New Zealand, although my bag’s size and weight were questioned. This was unusual because, despite countless flights on Jetstar, Virgin, and AirAsia, I had never had a problem. My bag also weighed less on this trip than on any previous one: I had switched to more expensive wool underwear, which meant packing fewer pairs, and brought only the essentials. Even with a litre of water, I was confident the bag weighed less than 7 kg.

My flight left a little late, and soon we were at cruising altitude. About 30 minutes into the flight, I realised that the passenger beside me had become very ill and had been sick over her clothes and seat. It was certainly memorable. The area was cleaned, and there were no further incidents.

The 737 had recently been upgraded to include personal entertainment and a USB charging port. The port was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. Although I had brought a larger battery after learning from past travels, it was still nice to arrive with my devices fully charged.

I watched Argo, which was brilliant.

I will land soon; we are now descending, and I will then transfer to my flight to Santiago. The announcement to turn off electronic devices has just been made, so I had better play by the rules.

After arriving in Auckland I proceeded through international security and found  the Air New Zealand desk. My next flight to Santiago, on LAN Airways, had a delay (which I knew about), and there was nobody at the check-in counter to check me in. This was not such a problem for me, as I had my luggage, but the other people in the line had no idea if their luggage was still spinning around the carousel, or if it was properly collected.

The desk was distributing meal vouchers, so I picked up a few. An Air New Zealand representative finally came to the gate and checked in several passengers, and I was assigned seats 18J and 18L, near the front of the aircraft. Nice. I also received a few more vouchers. The woman in front of me gave me hers because she was going to use the Qantas lounge. I left the gate with $75 in meal vouchers, went to the bar, and ordered two large pizzas, some wine, and a beer.

We ordered the Rotorua and Milford Sound pizzas. Both were excellent: mine, with prosciutto, went well with beer, while hers, with salmon, went well with wine. Afterward, I ordered two coffees and a cookie, with only 45 minutes left to wait.

I am a bit uncertain if the long wait (about five hours) was a good thing or not. I will arrive in Santiago a bit later, but it meant I had a few extra hours to get ready back in Sydney, which was really needed.

Being back in Auckland, even in the airport, made me miss living there. I missed Thursday Night Curry and the genuineness of Kiwis. They seemed to have a cheerful spark, whether they were a High Court lawyer or a baggage handler working on the tarmac. 

My flight boards in about 30 minutes, and I am now well fed, feeling happy, and ready to stay up all night in preparation to adjust to the time zone in Santiago.