Shoot! What the heck was I thinking?

So the problem with booking everything on miles and reward points is sometimes you’re at the mercy with what they have available… I remember at the time (because I booked most of this trip), when something was available I would jump and say “we’ll take it!” but the last few days I have been gritting my teeth with how tired all of the “we’ll take its” has left us… but oh well, free is free, and that’s what you have to remember, right?!

So we did take naps on our flight from Cairns to Sydney, and then caught a cab out to Parramatta – we were considering doing the train thing but I was so, so, so tired, it was already 9 p.m. and I knew if we did that it would take forever to get out there, and I just didn’t have the energy. Curt even did a one up from the taxi – we got a car and negotiated it for the same price – ahhh… Curt would insert here “nothing too good for my baby,” haha! Then we had a nice dinner at the Irish Pub and watched the Olympics at the hotel and went to sleep (knowing we had 4 hours of sleep ahead of us – ugh).

Up at 4:30 a.m., to the airport again with the same car company (ahhhhh), and then we went through the RINGER trying to get everything in line to go to New Zealand, which when you’re hardly awake at 5 something a.m. is a lot. Not that it was hard, but they just ask you a million questions, and since we didn’t already have our boarding passes we had to wait for a desk to open, blah blah blah…

Got on that flight, slept the whole time, and made it to Auckland around lunchtime (NZ is 2 hours ahead). We made it to our VERY CUTE B&B and hurried out to the Auckland Museum to try and catch a show I read about in the cab on the way about the Maori culture! We walked there (more like half ran for 45 minutes because we were going to be late, and we were late, but we got REALLY lucky because they had added a last show that wasn’t in the brochure), and got there not a moment too soon as the guided tour was just convening!

And the whole thing was worth half running to – we learned a lot about New Zealand’s indigenous culture, and got to see an AMAZING Maori performance with singing and chanting! It really was beautiful – Curt and I were mesmerized and we were so happy we got to see it! Then we spent some more time at the museum, which was great, and then made our way (leisurely) back towards the B&B, stopping at a pub along the way for a late, late lunch and NZ beer.

We were able to relax for a while at the B&B and chatted with other guests, watched the Olympics, and hung out until we decided to go hit the movies to see Valentine’s Day! We got there in plenty of time – thank goodness because just purchasing tickets was the most chaotic experience! We got there (and it’s a Tuesday night, mind you), and it was packed like it was Friday night and another Star Wars had been released! The line for concessions and movie tickets were for whatever inefficient reason combined, and the line was maybe 100 deep with just a few people working getting food and ticket orders. Then there were people picking up tickets from phone and internet pre-orders, so a whole extra long line for those people, but no one seemed perturbed so we guessed after awhile that it must be normal? And then we had assigned seats (weird), but they were good thankfully, and we were able to enjoy SUCH a cute movie!

Then home to the B&B, knowing we wouldn’t get the great breakfast and that we’d have to wake up AGAIN in just a few hours for another very, very early flight… ugh.

(continued in next post)