A Rainy Night in Auckland

That could almost be the name of a song, couldn’t it?  We arrived at Sydney Airport mid morning, and went through security, that was certainly an eye opener.  Both of us were directed to the body scanner, stand there and hold our arms up.  Nope, that wasn’t right, and a female guard was called in to pat me down – oh dear.  The trouble seemed to be the passport and money I had in a holder around my neck, that had to be removed, put through the bag scan, and I went through the body scanner one more time.  Robin was getting the once over as well.  And all the while people are looking on, wondering what these people had been getting up to!  After waiting, and waiting at the correct terminal gate, we were finally boarded.  Oh look, Air NZ knows our names!

Refreshing hot towels arrived, followed by a glass of bubbly, gotta love this service!  The meal was served, and very nice it was too – it was a much shorter trip this time, just under 3 hours.  Hopping aboard the Sky Bus we drove through the rain as it got progressively darker, luckily the driver told us when to get off, as we didn’t really know where we were in the dark.  Booked in at reception, where we were upgraded from a Queen to a King room, thanks very much.  It was a bit of a wrestling match to peel those extra tight airline socks off, and then we could relax.

Our room for the next few nights

I was a bit foxed by these plugs by the desk, and plaintively told Robin there was nowhere to plug my lap top into.  But I was wrong, seems that these strange things were universal power connectors, my 3 pin plug had to be turned upside down, and then it would fit.  How was I meant to know that?

What do I do here?

Up to the 13th floor we went the next morning for breakfast, and what a lovely view.  The rain had eased and the weather was clearing.

View from the 13th floor

The breakfast buffet was amazing, so much choice, and all beautifully presented.  Robin was in Honey Heaven when he found this delightful honey comb – liquid honey was ready and waiting to be poured into a dinky little dish and spread on his breakfast toast!

Honey Heaven

What shall we do in the big city, we wondered.  So we went to Britomart Station, which was only a short walk away.  There we organised a tap on, tap off AT Hop Card, and we were good to go.  The cost to Kiwis was $10.00 for the card, $1 to load on it, and for Seniors, all our travel would be free after 9.00am, trains, buses and most ferries.  Pretty good value, don’t you think.

Britomart Station

So we took a train ride to Sylvia Park, just because we had never been there before, had a look around, then stayed for lunch.  Like all malls, it was a very busy place.  Robin remembers when the Post Office Stores were at Sylvia Park many years ago, and not much else.

Sylvia Park

The next morning we took the ferry across to Devonport, using our cards.  This was just a short trip across the harbour, about 10-15 minutes.

The ferry to Devonport

Devonport is a historic seaside village, with interesting Victorian architecture.  Maori settlement is believed to date  back to the mid 14th century, the time of the great ocean going canoes in which Polynesians migrated to New Zealand.  The suburb of Devonport was settled in the 1840s by European merchants and was originally called Flagstaff, because of the flagstaff raised on nearby Mt Victoria. 

Village of Devonport

After a wander around, and a coffee in a very attractive wharf side café, it was time to board the ferry back to the Auckland.  Auckland is also known as the City of Sails because of the numerous yacht marinas and sailboats anchoring offshore.

Heading back to the big city

Once back on land we passed a huge hole in the ground  near by Britomart Station.  Work is being done on the Auckland City Rail Link (CRL), a 3.4 km double-track underground rail line running beneath the central business district from Britomart to the Western (North Auckland) Line near the existing Mount Eden Station, with two underground stations in the CBD.   With several years to completion, it may well be up and running by the next time we are back in Auckland.

Auckland City Rail Link

What better way to celebrate our last night in Auckland with a live show.  We had tickets to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical School of Rock at the beautiful Civic Theatre.

Civic Theatre Queen Street

This tells the story of Dewey Finn, a washed up former band member who poses as a teacher at a prestigious prep school purely to earn some money for his long overdue rent.  The only teaching he is interested in is rock music, and he turns a class of straight-A pupils into a mind-blowing rock band. Their aim is to qualify for Battle of the Bands.  The children in the show are amazing, singing, dancing and playing their own instruments like professional rock musicians.  Well worth seeing if this show comes to a town near you.

Time to gome Home

Our time in Aussie had come to an end.  Another early morning start, much too early for the hotel restaurant to be open, so we only had a cuppa in our room.  Never mind, we are sure to be eating on the plane.  The taxi arrived promptly and whizzed us to the airport, a much quicker trip this time being Saturday morning with not so much traffic around as the night we arrived.  Sydney Airport is rather big and bustling, full with tourists all looking for their particular carriers to book in with.  As we were, and being Murphy’s Law, the Air New Zealand stand was right down the other end of the concourse.  A nice young staff member stepped forward to help us out on the machines – no doubt we were looking rather harassed and elderly by this stage. 

With our big bags handed over we then went through the very busy security area: slide passport in, stand on the yellow feet on the floor, look up, and flash, photo taken.  Put bags, jackets, everything in your pockets onto the trays to be x-rayed, and finally we were through.  The only thing left to do was to go and wait by our boarding gate, pick up a coffee and a paper to while away the time, and wait for the boarding call.  And there’s our plane, waiting for us, to whisk us home to New Zealand.  And yes, we did have lunch on the plane, but we had to pre-order (and pay) when we booked our flights.  Obviously, there is no such thing as a free lunch on these shorter flights.

 Landing at Auckland Airport we collected our bags and caught the free bus to the Domestic Terminal.  More waiting, of course, but that’s what air travel is all about, isn’t it.  Our last plane ride of our trip was taking us to Palmerston North, no air bridge for these regional flights, but a brisk walk over the tarmac, and up the metal steps to board the flight.

It was dark and cold by the time we landed and collected the car from the Long Term Storage area.  Once in our little home town we just needed a trip to the supermarket to pick up some milk and something quick for tea, and we were finally home.  Holidays are great, but it’s always good to come home safely again.  For some added insurance, we had packed a folding walking stick after hurting my knee and needing a visit to the hospital previously in Australia.  And we are pleased to report, that just because we had taken it with us, we didn’t need it.  Just as we had hoped.

What can we say but B*#?*#

And it all started out so well – our long awaited train trip on the Indian Pacific, so named because the rail trip goes from across Australia from one ocean to the other.  We joined the throngs at Perth Station and met up with our travelling companions Dot and Derek, checked our big bags into the baggage wagon, and took our smaller bags into our room.  There's just time to get one of the staff to take our photo as we posed outside on the platform.

Happy Travellers

And this is our small room – the top bunk gets pulled down at night when the beds get made up.  With a small bathroom too, this is just what we had when we rode on the Ghan train (Adelaide to Darwin) in 2016.

Our cabin

The Indian Pacific train pulled way from Perth Station bang on time at 10.00am, leaving Australia’s most remote capital city behind.  We went slowly through the suburbs, soon reaching the outskirts of Perth, and the countryside.

Out in the country

Happy people all met in the Lounge car, everyone looking forward to 4 days of travelling and adventure.  Coffee, beer, wine, or in my case, lemon, lime, and bitters, were sipped as we got to know the other passengers and waited for the call to lunch, our first meal onboard.  The train had stopped at Avon, with huge wheat silos towering over us on one side, and rows of empty wagons on sidings on the other.

Wheat silos at Avon

While the train was stopped, the lunch service commenced, and we were ushered into the dining cart, sharing a table with Dot and Derek.  The choices were Beetroot Tart, Caesar Salad or Monkfish, followed by dessert, all very tasty.

 

Queen Adelaide Restaurant

Back in the Lounge Car for a coffee, we were starting to wonder why the train was still stationary.  Perhaps a freight train was coming through?  Then it was finally announced that there had been a serious incident further up the line where a freight train of  two locos and four carriages had derailed, badly damaging the track.  As repairs to the track would take several days, or even longer, our journey was cancelled, and the train was returning to Perth.  What a disappointment, we could hardly believe what we were being told.

The train manager and all the staff were full of apologies as we all discussed what on earth we would do now.  During the afternoon further announcements were made – accommodation would be found for us all, plus the cost of an evening meal and breakfast.  That was one weight off our minds.  Matt, the entertainer kept or spirits up as he strummed his guitar and we all sung along.  As he sang the first line of the Kenny Rodger’s hit song, The Gambler, he commented that the song was rather prophetic.  The words go “On a warm summer's evening on a train bound for nowhere…..”  So true.

Matt the train singer

Buses were waiting at Perth Station to take us to the hotel for the night, Pan Pacific.  You can imagine the time it took to get everyone off the buses, luggage collected, and then we all had to queue up to register, 90 rooms we were told.  By this stage the hotel had been advised of our names and the dealt with us all as quickly as they could.  Likewise, the hotel restaurant manager did her best to get us seated for dinner as soon as tables became available.  With a $50 voucher each for a meal, she decided to cut the price of the sumptuous buffet from $55 to $50 for all of us from the train.  “You have been through so much”, she told us, as we went to pay the extra. How kind was that!

During the night the management and staff of Indian Pacific were working hard trying to find a solution to the next part of the problem, how to get us to our destinations of the train trip, Adelaide or Sydney.  A letter was delivered to us all announcing that flights had been arranged and buses would be available to take us to the airport.  The following morning we were all given our final flight details, and it was announced that we would all get a full refund for the cost of our aborted rail trip.  I was too disappointed to take photos during our extra time in Perth, most of it was spent waiting for the buses.

Although badly disappointed, we were impressed with all the work that went on behind the scenes dealing with a train full of passengers.  Our travel agent managed to book us two nights in our Sydney hotel prior to our expected arrival, (at our cost) so all that was taken care of.  We will have 5 days in Sydney instead of 3 originally planned.

Our extra flight, Perth to Sydney

To top it all off, the collapsible pull handle broke off Robin’s suit case, so he had to lug it all through the airport.  Then he forgot to pack his Swiss Army knife safely away in his checked luggage, so it was confiscated at security.  We finally arrived at our hotel in Sydney close to midnight.  Straight to bed, it must be a better day in the morning.

The Adventure Begins

It was an early start to the morning, with the alarm clock awakening us at 4.00am.  Just time for a quick shower, a cold drink, then we loaded the bags into the car and set off on our new adventure.  First stop was the long term car park at Palmerston North Airport and a flight up to Auckland.  We  were heading to Perth – and the Indian Pacific train journey which has been on our bucket list for some time. Taking off in utter darkness, the skies slowly lightened, and what lovely views.  To the East we saw the colours of a lovely sunrise, and out to the West, the rather hazy Mt Egmont away in the distance.

 

On the way to Auckland

There’s always a lot of waiting around at airports, and it wasn’t helped that the plane leaving before us from our gate was waiting for 15 passengers making it over half an hour departing despite repeated calls.  It turned out that there was a bit of a hiccough going through security which made all these people late.  So we had to find our way to another gate, and were taken by bus out to our plane waiting out on the tarmac.  No air-bridge way out here, we had to climb up some rather steep stairs, but were finally aboard and settled into our seats.

Boarding at last

And look, they were expecting us

As it was a reasonably long seven and a half hour flight to Perth, we decided to treat ourselves and upgrade to Premium Economy.  A good decision we felt, a lot more legroom, comfy seats, beautifully presented meals chosen from the menu, hot towels, and great service.  If this is what they do in Premium Economy, goodness knows what Business Class passengers get.  We were served a three course lunch not long after take off, and after a little snooze, another three course afternoon tea later on – a bowl of refreshing fruit salad, dainty sandwiches and  a fancy cake.  Coffee, tea, orange juice, soft drinks or wine was also available to passengers.

It’s always interesting to see what the people around you chose to watch on the TV screens.  There was a huge amount of movies on offer, and Robin decided to watch The Hobbit, and later listened to music.  There were people playing Patience, the lady in front of me binge watched about 10 episodes of Big Bang.  I’m a bit boring, and I’m quite happy watching the progress map as we went on our journey, as we get closer and closer to our destination.  Then of course I’m always on “wing watch”, making sure the wing doesn’t fall off, or the engine catch fire, and I take these duties very seriously!

Our journey was uneventful, just how we like, with a nice smooth landing in Perth, putting our watches 4 hours back to the local time.  I managed to get a much better photo of our plane once we disembarked, it was a Boeing 787.

We’ve arrived in Perth

We are staying in the Duxton Hotel for the first few nights, and could hardly wait to get into our room and take those tight compression socks off – oh, the relief.

A wander up the road to find an inexpensive but not very satisfying meal and that was us done for the evening.  Although our watches are telling us it it still early, our brains (and bodies) remember it being 4 hours later, so it’s time for bed.  Then hopefully we wake refreshed for more sight seeing tomorrow.