Brisbane Airport’s International Terminal is amazing. Lots of light, lots of space, and very comfortable and functional furniture, this is an airport I wouldn’t mind being delayed in for awhile. Our flight today was aboard Air New Zealand which was a nice respite from the no frills Virgin Blue and Jet Star. Even though the flight was only a little over three hours, they still served us breakfast and I’m still kicking myself for not getting a mimosa like all the other women. Don’t judge me, they looked delicious!
Wellington’s airport is ridiculous. It’s a single runway and taxiway between two hills with houses crowded up right next to it. We could see the control tower up on stilts, on one hill, in a neighborhood. Not only is it narrow but it’s also bracketed at both ends of the runway by Wellington Bay. The terminal itself is nice and functional and we breezed right through customs and got our rental car with no problems at all.
Being a passenger on the left side of the car and riding in the left lane is dizzying enough but actually doing the driving is REALLY disorienting! It’s really like learning how to drive all over again. Nothing is where it should be and you have to visualize each turn before you make it. Remember to check your new blind spots, your mirrors are not in the right place and neither is the gear selector or the turn signal. When I went to move out of park I rolled down the window. When I meant to indicate a right turn I turned on the windshield wipers. But eventually we made it to the hotel incident free.
The Mercure hotel is very nice and Kirsten was happy that we have a bathtub here after shower loving Australia (where water conservation is extra important). We went for a long walk around central Wellington which is very compact and manageable. The geography is a lot like Pittsburgh but the architecture is more modern. The harbor seems to be everywhere the hillsides aren’t, and aside from the downtown area there doesn’t seem to be any flat land here. Also, the New Zealand accent is much thicker and I finally feel like I’m in a foreign country.
We also rode the incline cable car up to the botanical garden and walked around up there. We were quite taken with the R2-D2 birds up there that we later learned from a postcard are called Tui. They have a bullfrog like balloon on their throat and they make all sorts of R2-D2 sounds, telephone rings, fax machine beeps and buzzes, laser beam blasts. It was hilarious! There were also a flock of what looked like ducks that were screeching (not quacking) away as they flew by – they turned out to be parrots.
From there we meandered our way back through downtown back to the neighborhood our hotel is located, Brooklyn, and had a pizza at
Hell (thanks to a recommendation from our wonderful friend Phaedre). I had the Lust and Kirsten had the Greed. We even had some lust and greed leftover for breakfast tomorrow morning. How devilish.
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