Auckland - Nov. 14

Travel............
I had a 9:40am flight from syndey to auckland this a.m.

i told the guy at my hotel that i needed to get my car out of the gated parking lot at 6:30. so, all packed and ready, i tried to find him at 6:30...not a sign of any management in the building. the office sign said "office hours 8am-8pm." 8am = me missing my flight.

so, I was runnning arond the hotel, ringing the front doorbell, banging on doors, honking my horn in the driveway, waking up all of the guests, trying to find the property manager. Inexcplicably, there was no one there!

then i tried the break-open/ram-the-gate strategy, to no avail.

finally, i sat down on the front steps and was calling air new zealand to re-schedule when dude walked in at 7:35am. Needless to say, I was FLOATING to the airport...flipping bitches in the middle of 6-lane overpasses, weaving through traffic ny-style, dipping through side streets....

i got there and there was a line at air new zealand check-in that doulbed back 4 times, then wrapped around the entire building, all the way down to the food court. probably 400 people ahead of me at 8:40 am.

A spirited older lady who was on my flight and i were chatting, and i managed to snag a cart and bring it ovewr, and offered to put her baggage on so we didn't have to constantly scoot it. we became a team.

she went over and somehow (it was amazing, rreally) got an agent to check us in at another counter...the "secret" check-in (there were other people on our flight there....how this worked out i have no idea).

well, the agent said shhe couldn't check me in b/c my flight out of nz was in march, and i didn't have a visa to stay longer than 3 monnths. so now, at about 9:10 (flight's at 9:40), I had to run across the terminal and change my outgoing ticket to Feb. 10! (Amazingly, no charge).
then, came back, checked in, and madeit.

now im in auckland at a quiet, sunny B&B...i think when you first get off a plane, you should go somewhere nice and mellow. ill deal with the hostel scene tomorrow.