January 1, 2019
Flight: Sydney, Australia (SYD) to Auckland, New Zealand (AKL); Air New Zealand; 777 econ
Hotel: ibis Budget Auckland Central; $89
During the flight I had contacted my cousin who lives in New Zealand. Originally I wasn't going to have time to visit them as they were taking a campervan around the North Island. She wrote back and said they were in the Coromandel, which wasn't too far from Auckland! I had also been in touch with another 193'er who lived in Auckland and he said he might have a place to stay.
We arrived into Sydney quite a bit early. I had over 3 hrs layover before the flight to Auckland and decided to try to make it to the Opera House for a quick photo.. it had been over 15 years since I was last in Sydney. No lines at the kiosks but it wouldn't read my passport.
I headed to the train station, just missing one as I was buying a ticket. No worries, the next one left in a few minutes. Got on the train only to sit there waiting another 10 minutes, they said there were delays due to a storm the previous evening. Not good! We finally set off though and I figured I still had enough time. But then we kept stopping, eventually stopping for 30 minutes just before Central Station. By then I was definitely worried about getting back to the airport and decided to cut my losses once we finally got to the station. It still took another 10 minutes to go the last few hundred meters into the station. I walked outside, trying to find a place to catch an Uber back to the airport, but with construction around the train station it took a few minutes.
Got back to the airport and through security with still an hour to spare. I popped into the Air NZ lounge for a few minutes before going to the gate. They called out my name and needed to verify that I had a return ticket from New Zealand, since this ticket had been part of a one-way award.
The flight was on a 777 and arrived into Auckland about 3pm. Arrival through the kiosks was easy (no more passport stamp though). Tudor hadn't been able to arrange a place though, so I sat around at the airport awhile trying to book a hotel. The ibis Central seemed a good choice, not too far from his place and the Skytower. I caught the Skybus into town then walked the last few blocks to the hotel.
Air New Zealand Y SYD-AKL
I was able to book a car for tomorrow, but finding a place to stay was trickier.. it was summer break and everything in the Coromandel was booked out solid or super expensive. I ended up booking a B&B in Tairua on the eastern coast and found a cheap hotel in Thames, that would take care of the next 3 days at least.
Tudor came by at 7PM and we had dinner at his place. He had finished visiting every country as well and had some amazing souvenirs he had brought back, including a coco-de-mer nut from Seychelles. We sat chatting about travel for nearly 4 hrs!
