New Zealand Beauty

Day 10 - Tuesday, Dec 30 – Travel to Queenstown

It was a quick 14 hours in Brisbane, but we accomplished a lot in that time, not to mention getting some sleep. We were up and on the road at 6:50AM. Thankfully we got to the airport early as the process of walking through the front doors of the Departure Hall and getting to our Gate was laborious.

First, check-in at a kiosk (can I just talk to someone?).But Monica is very adept at these things and a “take-charge” girl. After following all of the prompts for passports etc. she got kicked out of the system twice and we had to track down an agent (didn’t I tell you wee needed a person!). The agent came, tried twice, got stymied, tried her magic override passcode, and finally gave up. But not before asking to see our visitor visas for NZ. [Note: we had to apply for those online 2 weeks before our trip at a cost of $100NZD per person!] I whipped out my printed copy that I received via email when I applied (and paid) online. Nope. That is not good enough. She needs to see the email that I was sent … because, you know, someone could create a paper look-alike. So, I got my iPhone out, opened my Australia folder, searched my email and opened the one from the NZ immigration office. She looked at it and gave me the OK! It seems to me that I could have just as easily mocked up a document that looked like an appropriate email. After all, the paper I showed here was simply a print out of the email !!! I suspect ChatGPT or some such AI tool, could have manufactured me an official looking visa on the spot!! Yes, we are in the age when electronic documents are trusted more than physical document, though I am pretty sure that is not necessarily a wise course to be on.

The agent passed us off to a manager, who politely took our group to a special station with a computer that he had access to. He worked the system for 10-15 minutes and got our passports to go through, and he printed boarding passes for each of us. Obviously, he trusts physical documents more than electronic ones!

Then off to the security checkpoint. Here, everything seemed to be going well, but several bags were pulled aside and had to be (partially) unpacked and checked. Evan won the prize for the most contraband – three cans of Coke stashed in his luggage. Ooops! But there was more, and Monica and Ruby had to survive the 10-minute ordeal as well.

Then it was around the corner, down a hall, around another corner, down the escalators, around the bend, down another escalator, down two more hallways, and finally … passport control. Once again, it is all electronic. Scan your passport, stand in front of a camera, go through facial recognition, wait for the gate to open, and the you are through. Except, our 8-year old innocent Ruby was pulled out of line and had to go through a checked by an immigration officer. So, Barry and Ruby had to return to the end of the in-person passport check line (about 20 people) and wait for an immigration officer to clear them. Another 10-15 minutes.

Amazingly, Ruby cleared passport control … probably due to the fact she had no criminal convictions (who asks that question of an 8-year-old??). So, it was finally off to our gate … Gate 69. We were starting at Gate 80 and had to work our way back to Gate 69. Seems OK. Three-quarters of a mile (over 1 kilometer) into our walk down the terminal we made it to Gate 76! Whoa! Thankfully, there was a cluster of Gates at the end of the terminal that wasn’t too much further along. One has to appreciate Ruby trucking along, keeping pace with adults, wearing her own backpack as big as she is and rolling her luggage.

We walked another half-mile from the gate across the tarmac to our plane where we boarded from the rear again. We took off at 10:10 with a projected landing of 4:40 (there is a 3-hour time differential from Brisban to Queenstown, NZ). The flight was smooth, but in the ultimate in stinginess, Virgin Australia provided complimentary water, coffee and tea. Everything else … everything … was for purchase. Want 250ml (8oz) of a soft drink - $5. Juice $6. Food … forget about it. I am writing a letter to Richard Branson.

Our flight over the Tasmanian sea was uneventful until we got to the coast of New Zealand. We immediately saw rugged snowcapped mountains in every direction. The scenery was stunning, and it was difficult not to take pictures every 10 seconds from the airplane window. As we look flew a little further inland to Queenstown, we flew in between the mountains and saw some dark green broad valleys. Our approach to the Queenstown airport was over the exceedingly large Wakatipu Lake on which the town is built. We had a driver take us to the Hillview apartments, which were exceptionally nice, and overlooked the lake in towards the Remarkable Mountain Range. Yes, the mountain range is truly remarkable and that is truly its name. The view from our patio was amazing – too hard to describe in words: lake, trees, mountain ranges, beautiful sky all wrapped in a single package of natural beauty.

We went into a bustling small lakefront downtown area that was congested with many, many tourists, apparently from just about every country on earth. To match this diversity, there was every type of restaurant 1 can imagine as well. We settled into a restaurant, Pier, right on the waterfront. The blue cod and the green muscle were delicious.

We returned to our apartments in time to see a spectacular sunset behind the mountains, casting yellow and orange and pink hues across the sporadic clouds in sharp peaks of the Remarkable Mountains. It was so picturesque that it seemed fake. It was an absolutely dazzling way to end the day, and what we had hoped for when people told us New Zealand was a beautiful country.