Day 1 To The Land of Kiwis (& Emus)

We took a SQ flight to Wellington, capital of New Zealand, with a brief stopover at Canberra. Our plane took off the night before at 12 midnight and thankfully I was able to sleep through till breakfast in the morning. However it was really cold in the plane and by morning, most of us were suffering from running nose. Yikes what a start to our family vacation.

Have to say though the experience with SQ didn’t seem to be as pleasant as I last recalled with more self service and waiting time between requests. I guess even big airline companies have to cut costs at some point to remain competitive. This is our first long haul family trip with Ephraim, our youngest child, and I pray that he would be adaptable to the changes in environment and stay healthy throughout.

We finally touched down in Wellington after about 10 hours of flight and a short transit at Canberra. Canberra transit lounge looks like some kind of space pod and I liked that they provided charging ports quite abundantly and free WiFi to while the time away.

The flight from Canberra to Wellington was focused mostly on lunch and then a good rest in an attempt to recover my running nose but to not much avail. Guess the first day in NZ is a goner for me.

First views of NZ from the plane. Woah way more mountainous than I expected.

The customs check at Wellington was really strict and I ended up having to part with my bottle of honey and undergo several checks and interviews about the food in our bag. Basically we couldn’t bring in any fruits, honey, preserved or cooked food from elsewhere.

Thereafter we bought a local SIM card and went to pick up our rental car without much of a hitch. Thankfully the house we rented was also pretty close by though I think I must really be pampered by city life that anything remotely suburban or rural is lost to me. The house is huge with 5 bedrooms, kitchen, two living rooms, garage and a very overgrown backyard. It was too big to be snuggly but the kids in their usual fashion loved the place and very quickly explored every nook and cranny. The biggest plus point was a good and quick WLAN network. Problem solved for everyone.

After we settled down somewhat, we headed out to nearby Riddiford Street which is the main thoroughfare for food and groceries. We left Theo’s parents with the kids at Countdown to do their groceries shopping while Theo and I went across the street for a Chinese takeout place (Big Rice Burger Bar) which was opened till 12mn, this all as part of my extra research put into food options. Seemed like it paid off well. The Chinese takeaway was good (though a bit too much MSG) and we managed to throw in some home cooked greens.

Not used to the super bright skies even at 830pm! The body does not think it is dinner time but oh well we will acclimatise over the next few days. NZ is 5 hours ahead of Singapore.