Flying to Auckland

We left the Rothbury about 7:45am and we were on the Airtrain at 8:01am. We had enjoyed our night at the Rothbury. It was quiet and the bed was comfortable. I forgot to mention that it had a washer/dryer. Since we had both sweated more and dirtied more clothes than expected I did a load. It took almost 4 hours! I hate those high efficiency front loading machines! How can it be more efficient if it takes twice as long. The other thing was that our room rate included a continental  breakfast. It was in the room's refrigerator when we arrived. It was 2 boxes of cereal, 4 slices of bread, 2 small cartons of milk, 2 small bottles of juice, 4 packets of butter, 2 of jam and 1 of peanut butter and 1 of Vegemite. There was instant coffee and sugar and tea bags.. It was fine.

Since we checked our bags, checked in for the flight and cleared security so quickly, we had time to have a yogurt and Clay a Coke Zero before we found our gate. We flew Air New Zealand Premium Economy and the seats and entertainment were even better than on Qantas! It was just under a 4 hour flight. They served lunch. It was pretty good. They served OJ and sparkling wine after we boarded. We arrived on time and disembarked quickly. We got through the e-passport readers quickly. Mine failed to be able to photograph me and I had to go to the assistance desk. Clay was already on the other side and I had to backtracked considerably to get there, but Clay shadowed me from the other side and he got to see my victory dance when I scored a passport stamp and I got to see his jaw drop because he had none! So that worked out nicely. Then we all came to a screeching halt. There were at least 6 arrivals being processed through baggage claim and the customs/agriculture inspection. They x-rayed every single bag of every single person. It took us an extra 30 minutes to get through there. Our driver wondered what we were doing back there since he had been tracking delayed flights and ours was on time. When we told him he thought the delayed flights arriving the same time as our had probably held things up. It was a 45 minute ride in the car from the airport to downtown! Auckland has no major thoroughfare, rail or other public transit to and from the airport! I was very glad I had negotiated to begin our Kensington Tour of New Zealand with the airport transfer! When we got within a block the driver found that as of today, Albert Street in front of the Stamford Plaza is closed to replace infrastructure. There is a lot more construction here than there was in 2006! According to our 2 different drivers it is due to residential construction to house the Asian immigration influx of the last 2 decades. Our driver was in a panic due to his plans after unloading us and let us get  our bags out about a half block across the street. There was no way for pedestrians to get across either at that point. I looked up the phone number from our docs and asked him to call. As he waved to whoever he was talking to one of the construction workers approached me and asked what was wrong. I told him that was our hotel over there and how were we supposed to get there. He moved some barriers and saw us safely into the hands of the hotel's valet. Unfortunately we did not see the luggage he insisted upon delivering to our room until hours later after I asked for it at reception. Reception assigned us a room with a view of the backs and roofs of adjoinig buildings. This hotel is the only hotel that stayed the same through out our booking process. We  are supposed to be in all 4* or greater hotels. You could customize any Kensington Tour and I did. The room is comfortable and attractive with a big bathroom. The bed is hard though and the bathroom lights are on a motion detector. If you close the water closet door and spend more than 15 seconds in there, it is dark as a tomb! Likewise the lights go out if you are in the shower. I don't love it. The local tour provider is Pacific Destinations. They had our tour packet waiting for us at the Reception Desk. It is the tour we are getting regardless of my modifications and negotiations. Honestly, we didn't have any issues like this with Kensington in Norway, so I don't know if it is a Kensington problem or a Pacific Destinations problem. First surprise change was that instead of our first tour tomorrow afternoon that it will be at 9am. Not the way we wanted to start, but it is what it is and we'll cross our fingers that is the only misstep we'll have from here on out.

We crossed the street about 8pm for the Food Alley, an Asian food court. It was crowded, noisy and authentic. It was about 50% shut down and the rest was closing as we ate and left. We plan to try again for our 2nd dinner here though. We'll see. It was good and we liked it.