Wednesday 17 July
We spent the morning finishing off the packing, and then repacking because our cases were too much over the 23 kg limit. So our hand luggage came in for a bit of punishment. We were finished in plenty of time, so went via Kilbirnie to pick up a couple of locks for our suitcases and then on to Hayley's. After some last minute instructions from David she kindly took us to the Airport.
Our cases were 22.8 kgs each, phew! We were able to check them in all the way to San Francisco which was good and we were able to get aisle seats, so being early has its merits. We had plenty of time before our plane left for Auckland and once there we did the usual duty free shopping, had a glass of wine and it was time to go to the boarding area to wait for our plane.
These planes are so huge, when we went on board we could see to our left the rich lying down on their cuddle lounge beds being waited on hand and foot with their little tvs all a-buzz, then we passed the stairs which leads to the 'star' class passengers, I'd love to check it out one day. Then the rest of us struggle down the aisles with our overpacked hand luggage and squeeze into our allotted half- metre square sitting space. I guess it's ok if you stand up there is air to breathe closer to the ceiling, but even standing up isn't straight, there is the knee bend to accommodate the seat. It's unbelievable, how anyone could design such cramped conditions and get away with it. Maybe I'm just a bit prudish, but sitting literally cheek to cheek and thigh to thigh with strangers is a bit testing. Then of course you have just sorted out how to work the remote on the tv in front of you, settled down to your selected movie, when the guy in front decides to put his seat back and you are almost garrotted by your tray table. I won't go on, although I could make this last another three pages, but we did choose to go 'cattle' class and that's just what it is.
So we arrived in San Francisco at 11.45am Wednesday, like we arrived before we left Wellington, strange eh? It was a long 12 hour flight.
We caught our shuttle bus along with some other folk from Dunedin and arrived at our hotel around 2.30pm. Definitely 'Best Western', not exactly palatial but clean and tidy. Made ourselves a cup of coffee - it could have been anything - and sorted ourselves out. It was nice and sunny, so we changed into something lighter and hit the streets!
Mmmmmm... A bit downtown we think, I felt I needed to hang on tightly to my bag, but we saw a couple of nice buildings and a vege and fruit market which was interesting. Crossing the road some guy on a bike behind me called out "hey man, I'll give you ten bucks to massage your feet", for a moment I thought he was talking to me, but before I could accept I noticed three curvacious black girls in front of me! We also noted that the beggars were a bit more 'up market' than we had seen before, they used motorised wheelchairs and carried all their worldly goods with them, we were watching from the window of a fast food joint called 'Green Burritos', where we were trying something adventurous for lunch, and we noticed about 6 of these 'beggars' obviously hanging out at their favourite spot by the market, I bet they were having a board meeting - Beggars Cartel?
So now we are back in out hotel room about to catch up on some sleep and looking forward to tomorrow's bus tour and boat trip.
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