NOTE: This page needs a lot of work, mostly with formatting - why is the formatting with the photos so difficult??
Admittedly, my travel journal has a lot of holes in it - the more exciting my life is, the less time I have to write about it! Still, as I am reading and editing my journal a full year later, I am impressed with how much detail of the journey (both physical and metaphorical) I have recorded! I tell people that my 5 months in Queenstown was the best 5 months of my life and I have not yet found any reason to go back on that statement!
I originally intended for my journal to be read by close friends and family, but now my intent is to edit and revise it such that it would be enjoyed by a wider audience. My mission for this blog is to share my experiences as a true story, with descriptions, character development, suspense and drama where applicable, to entertain and to enlighten, and perhaps as an offshoot of these endeavors to develop a style as a writer, reporter, blogger, or whatever fancy buzz phrase is used these days for someone who imparts experiences or technical jargon to those unfamiliar with the subject.
I'm hoping that appealing to a wider fan base will improve my chances of landing my dream job, once I figure out exactly what that is, or preferably in reading my blog someone will scout me out and suggest or offer a position. While my passion is for travel and adventure, I find myself still as intrigued as ever when I read about topics in biochemistry, nutrition, chemistry, and all sciences, really, and hope to one day incorporate cell biology back into my every day life!
Back on topic: The reason I am writing this intro page is because I never wrote a formal journal entry about my air travel to Queenstown. I have chosen to share this remarkable experience via photos instead of words, as words cannot truly describe, just as the photos cannot do justice, to the wonderment and excitement of arriving in New Zealand for the first time and flying over the entirety of the country, north from Auckland south to Queenstown, and bearing witness to the variety of its landscape in the two hour flight across the greater part of both islands.
As my blog description states, my journey began when I awoke to a sunny morning on the 7th of June, 2010 in Albany, New York, the rays of sun filtering through the bows of the tree which had grown to block out more and more morning sun over the twenty years I had lived in that house. The house in which I was raised is my home that I always return to. When there is no roof over my head, no common language spoken, no clue of what to do next, there will always be my home, and I will never feel lost.
I had returned to this home from which I was about to leave just 7 months earlier, after my first trip to the southern hemisphere. My trip to Australia, while fulfilling in its own right, was a necessary learning experience for my trip to New Zealand. When I booked travel for Australia I had both housing and a job lined up. Amongst my belongings this time I had a printed confirmation for my 3-night booking at the Novotel in downtown Queenstown and contact information for my kiwi friends I had met in Park City. I would find both housing and employment when I arrived, now no stranger to hostels and the life of a backpacker.
I had no reason for anxiety. I had a very enjoyable and relaxing five weeks back east to visit with my close friends and family before heading off to my new adventure. We drove through the rolling forested hills of New York State's interstate system in 80-something degree weather, sunny with only a dabbling of clouds in the sky, perfect driving weather, and perfect driving conditions. Door to door it took us no longer than three and a half hours to get to terminal 7 of JFK International Airport. Just as we had done a year before, at the same terminal of JFK, I checked my bags and then took the sky train to terminal 4. My aunt and uncles came from New Jersey and Long Island to see me off on my adventures, and I'm almost disappointed I didn't fly anywhere exotic this year; I was quite enjoying our annual family reunion in terminal 4 of JFK.
Unlike the previous year, I didn't enjoy a tasty beverage at the bar next to my gate, but instead waited patiently, and between waiting at the gate and my six hour flight to LAX, made a huge dent in my book. I had started reading the third book of the Eragon series, a 700 page book that I expected would last me longer than three weeks, but in the midst of solo travel there is a lot of free time, and a lot of scenery in which to enjoy a good read!
I greatly enjoyed flying over the usual scenic parts of my own country, especially in the west where diverse and majestic rock formations keep my mind entertained for the hours it takes to cross the landscape. When green appeared again below us we had already descended quite a bit, and before too long arrived in the sprawling metropolis of Los Angeles, flying right through the smoggy late afternoon skies, when the receding sun casts long glaring rays at already fatigued eyes.
I was quite glad our flight got in a bit early, and that my layover was about three hours, because I not only had to pick up my luggage and haul it, skis and all, on the shuttle to another terminal, but I was detained at the Air New Zealand check in counter because I had needed to purchase my Australian tourist visa for that part of my itinerary. Not that I was really in a hurry to make it through security, since I had plenty of time before boarding, but they had only one person checking boarding passes and IDs before the security checkpoint, and the short line somehow moved as frustratingly slowly as a late night supermarket checkout where the cashier has to keep calling the manager, there's only one lane open, and all you're buying is an apple and a pack of gum. The worst part about the entire journey, really, is waiting to get onto the flight from LAX, the anticipation of finally getting settled on the longest flight and hoping the seat is comfortable, away from crying children, and next to someone you can stand to sleep next to for 6-8 hours. Just get me on the freakin' plane.
Ironically enough, I find the easiest part of the entire journey to be the long flight over the Pacific. I tell everyone this very fact, that although a 13 hour flight might seem daunting, international airlines are quite comfortable, have a congenial crew, and are generally more worldly passengers than American air travel. After boarding it will take you about an hour to get settled and figure out what to watch or listen to (or what games to play) using the in-flight entertainment, and once you are settled into your movie or whatnot, the crew will serve dinner, generally wine or beer being included, and about three hours into the flight you will begin to get comfortable and sleepy, after dinner and a movie. For the next 6 hours or so, you will either be drifting in and out of sleep, or watching a Scrubs marathon. Personally I find no greater entertainment than watching the digital airplane figure creeping its way across the world map, and entertaining random data in my head such as the difference between our air and land speed and the fact that -40 is the temperature at which both the Celsius and the Fahrenheit scales converge. No wonder I have no trouble getting sleepy.
By the time you are getting bored of attempting to sleep without getting a crick in your neck (or perhaps watching such great classics as Citizen Kane) the crew will begin to turn the cabin lights on and the scent of eggs, toast and coffee will waft its way through the aisles, fooling your senses into thinking it's early morning, when back in NY it's about noon the day after you left. After finishing breakfast, there should hardly be another hour and a half of the journey, the first hour of which might be boring (unless you're creative enough to start watching Despicable Me in Spanish language) but after the plane reaches land and descends to the altitude where you can enjoy the view, the thrill of being in a foreign land outweighs even the strong desire to leave the plane. In fact, depending on the extent of your home entertainment options, as well as the friendliness of the crew or perhaps new friends you made on the flight, you may even want to stay on it.
A trans-Pacific flight is relatively comfortable and painless, and I would recommend it to anyone! In fact, California and Auckland are only 4 time zones apart, and if you break your travel up into sections, the jetlag would be easy to get over. I find the thing that confuses my body the most is the fact that the sun is now rising to the northeast and setting to the northwest in winter, rather than the south, and it takes me a while not to get my north and south confused (despite being upside down ^_^).
One thing I must state here and now, after my early morning walk from the international to the domestic terminal of Auckland International Airport, is that I find it strange that while the western United States has no Dunkin Donuts, there is one inside the Auckland airport. Go figure.
The first hint of light on the morning of 9th June, 2010 (I had skipped the 8th of June when I crossed the International Dateline a few hours after leaving LAX) was creeping onto the horizon as I pushed my luggage cart along the sidewalk to the domestic terminal. Having a full four hour layover after my 6am arrival, I sat outside for as long as I could manage, and began to watch taxis more busily approach and leave the curbside as the sun began to show itself. 7am passed, then 8am... and I strolled around inside the building and used the free internet kiosk, and well after 9am (as domestic security checkpoints outside of the US are quite quick and efficient) made my way up to my third and final gate of my trip.
The north island, being closer to the equator, has a bit warmer climate, and being as the islands are quite small, as well as being in the ring of fire, the mountains and volcanoes seem to jut straight up from seemingly flat land.
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| Top of the South Island, near Nelson |
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| Center of the South Island |
I had to peer through the windows on the opposite side of the plane to get a good look at one of the most remarkable things I had ever seen from a plane, the Southern Alps, mountains rising up so quickly for such a narrow land mass.
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| Snow Park |
We flew over lakes, rivers, mountains, and roadways in the heart of the island I would later drive through were barely visible. The snow on the mountains was a pristine blanket of white, interrupted by man only on one crest, in such a way that I had to take a photo, and found out later it was Snow Park ski and snowboard area, and had I been on the opposite side of the plane I would have had just as clear a view of Cardrona!
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| Arrowtown, Coronet Peak & The Kawarau River can be seen |
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| Peaks to hike to from The Remarkables ski field. |
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| Queenstown! |
