The Auckland Shuffle, part 2
Apr. 7th, 2024 04:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerNew Zealand Travelog #4
AKL Airport lounge - Mon, 8 Apr 2024, 11am
If there's one place where the phrase "Hurry up and wait" applies, it's the airport. Actually it's more like, "Hurry up then wait." You hurry to get from one stage of the gauntlet to the next, only to wait in a slow moving line, only to hurry after that to the tail of the next line. At the moment we've got our heels up in the Air New Zealand flight lounge. Just like we were able to use the United flight lounge last night— er, two nights ago— my lifetime elite status gets us lounge access with Star Alliance partners. And, no coincidence, we booked our ongoing flight to Queenstown, NZ on Air New Zealand, a Star Alliance partner.
Oh, but before we could go "heels up before wheels up" in the lounge, there was more hurry-up-and-waiting to do. After claiming our bags— with all drugs, weapons, and wads of cash intact but without eco-terrorism pork products— we had to transfer to the domestic terminal for our flight to Queenstown. We were able to recheck our bags in the international terminal but we still had get get ourselves over to the other building. And it was a hike!
"It's a 10 minute walk," the desk agent cheerily informed us.
Silently I figured that meant it'd take us 3-5 minutes. Walking times in the US always seem to be calculated for morbidly obese stupid people carrying armsful of Walmart shopping bags and 7-Eleven super Big Gulp Slurpees. But not so in New Zealand! Kiwi walk times are calculated for healthy adults who actually want to get there. (FWIW it was the same in Australia.) The 10 minute walk actually took us about 10 minutes. It was quite a hoof across the airport grounds!
Well, it was satisfying to get our exercise in. It was also satisfying that security checks in the domestic terminal were swift. We had to pull all our computers out of our bags, but we didn't have to remove belts or shoes. I also didn't have to pour out my bottle of water. That's one of the (many) infuriating things about the security theater we've been forced to accept in the US.... You can't carry a bottle of water through security "for safety reasons", but you can buy a bottle of water on the other side.... And those bottles of water, conveniently priced at $4+ literally go through the same scanner you're not allowed to carry water through.
Hurry up and wait... until it's time to relax! We planned our itinerary with a few hours of slack time (just in case shit happens). And we've been spending it in the elite lounge.
The food spread here isn't as spiff as at the Singapore Airlines lounge we visited in Australia before flying back to the US a few months ago. It's mostly bread and other carbohydrates. Those "sausages" are basically hot dogs with veins of cheese inside them. They taste... better than going hungry. 😨 And I'm washing them down with a few glasses of Coke Zero. Like the SQ lounge they do have a good selection of beer and wine here, but I actually want to be awake later today, because this is the start of our actual vacation in New Zealand!
AKL Airport lounge - Mon, 8 Apr 2024, 11am
If there's one place where the phrase "Hurry up and wait" applies, it's the airport. Actually it's more like, "Hurry up then wait." You hurry to get from one stage of the gauntlet to the next, only to wait in a slow moving line, only to hurry after that to the tail of the next line. At the moment we've got our heels up in the Air New Zealand flight lounge. Just like we were able to use the United flight lounge last night— er, two nights ago— my lifetime elite status gets us lounge access with Star Alliance partners. And, no coincidence, we booked our ongoing flight to Queenstown, NZ on Air New Zealand, a Star Alliance partner.
Oh, but before we could go "heels up before wheels up" in the lounge, there was more hurry-up-and-waiting to do. After claiming our bags— with all drugs, weapons, and wads of cash intact but without eco-terrorism pork products— we had to transfer to the domestic terminal for our flight to Queenstown. We were able to recheck our bags in the international terminal but we still had get get ourselves over to the other building. And it was a hike!
"It's a 10 minute walk," the desk agent cheerily informed us.
Silently I figured that meant it'd take us 3-5 minutes. Walking times in the US always seem to be calculated for morbidly obese stupid people carrying armsful of Walmart shopping bags and 7-Eleven super Big Gulp Slurpees. But not so in New Zealand! Kiwi walk times are calculated for healthy adults who actually want to get there. (FWIW it was the same in Australia.) The 10 minute walk actually took us about 10 minutes. It was quite a hoof across the airport grounds!
Well, it was satisfying to get our exercise in. It was also satisfying that security checks in the domestic terminal were swift. We had to pull all our computers out of our bags, but we didn't have to remove belts or shoes. I also didn't have to pour out my bottle of water. That's one of the (many) infuriating things about the security theater we've been forced to accept in the US.... You can't carry a bottle of water through security "for safety reasons", but you can buy a bottle of water on the other side.... And those bottles of water, conveniently priced at $4+ literally go through the same scanner you're not allowed to carry water through.
Hurry up and wait... until it's time to relax! We planned our itinerary with a few hours of slack time (just in case shit happens). And we've been spending it in the elite lounge.
The food spread here isn't as spiff as at the Singapore Airlines lounge we visited in Australia before flying back to the US a few months ago. It's mostly bread and other carbohydrates. Those "sausages" are basically hot dogs with veins of cheese inside them. They taste... better than going hungry. 😨 And I'm washing them down with a few glasses of Coke Zero. Like the SQ lounge they do have a good selection of beer and wine here, but I actually want to be awake later today, because this is the start of our actual vacation in New Zealand!
