Hard to get a clear picture when you are walking and photographing at the same time. Good thing Chris has such long arms!
We soon boarded our flight to New Zealand for our three-hour flight to the North Island. I had this crazy character sitting next to me. He watched South Park the whole time. He was an older gentleman with a curly cue mustache, a funky suit, and hat. He was mesmerized by South Park the. whole. time. Fortunately I had a movie of my own to watch.
As our plane neared New Zealand, we were given more customs forms to fill out--with the threat of an instant $400 fine for not reporting contraband such as fruit or nuts...and meat, animal parts, sports equipment, dirt, plants...Yep, that's what I was bringing for sure. Still we checked to make sure we hadn't forgotten any fresh apples in our backpacks and made sure to declare our applesauce pouches and nuts.
As we were waiting to retrieve our luggage, a drug, fruit, and money-sniffing dog took an interest in Chris' laptop bag. Chris had finished off a bag of dried mango on the plane. We figured that's what the dog was smelling. Fortunately the dog and his handler moved on.
We retrieved our luggage and took a taxi to the InterContinental hotel in Wellington. The hotel was about 30 minutes from the airport and the road skirted the coastline. We didn't have a bay view from room 532, but we were close to the pier. After dropping off our luggage, we went for a walk to stretch our legs. Chris had a work meeting at 6:30 pm, and that gave us a little time for exploring.
I loved the bathroom signs on the side of the building.
The pier was teeming with tourists, joggers, bikers, along with Maori youth jumping into the bay, and lots of students practicing their crewing in the bay. It seemed like a fun place to spend time.
We made our way to Cuba Street where we waited to meet up with Franco and customers from ANZ (pronounced zed) bank. Our dinner was at a German restaurant called The Matterhorn. I ordered a salad for my Entree (that is what they called an appetizer), and then a pea-based lasagna for my main meal. I am not into eating a lot of meat, so I usually hope for something vegetable based to eat. My lasagna was green, but rather tasty.
We followed the meal with dessert as well. Always dessert. And always lots of wine, especially if you are the customer and someone else is paying the bill. Chris said the bill for seven of us was probably close to $600! (My dessert picture was much clearer as Franco suggested I turn on my flash.)
I sat across from a lady named Diane, and she chatted most of the evening with me or at me. She talked a lot. Again, it was one of those cases where I had to listen carefully to her words and accent, and sometimes it was a second or two after she stopped before I pieced together what she was saying.
Franco walked back with us to our hotel, making sure we easily found our way, it was thoughtful of him to watch over us.