UMTravels

I had wanted the flight closer to noon, but even after spending 45 minutes on the phone with United, grabbing supervisors, etc., the 10am flight it was.

Didn’t want to do the schlep to the Airport Shuttle, so just booked and Uber door to door:

NZ$49.62 (US$34.91), which is basically twice what the shuttle would have been, but it got me there in 30 minutes as opposed to an hour plus. Money well spent!

As I usually do, showed up at the airport WAY early, just after 8am and headed straight to the lounge:

For a double shot late…

And a lovely breakfast:

And let’s not forget the wine with breakfast. I tried the White, the Red, and the Sparkling.

It wouldn’t let me check in online, so I was amazed that I could still get an aisle row seat 10F, with the guy in the window gone for most of the flight, and a skinny guy in the middle seat who moved right over to the window when the guy left. Hour plus flight so no full drink service.

At the Wellington end, headed to the well-marked Uber pickup area, though if I’d kept going I could have played a few rounds:

This was the Uber ride:

Much cheaper at NZ$27.32 (US$19.22).

Staying at the James Cook Grand Chancellery on “The Terrace”. And though it was only noon, they had a room ready for me!

The pinkish redish one…connected to Lambert Quay by a public use hotel elevator. I’m on the 21^st floor:

Which has some strange amenities…like a ruler and stapler:

And they store the living area glassware in drawers…

Which is where I found the coffee pot, coffee, tea.

Look at the showerhead!

Got settled and headed out to explore and find myself some lunch. Turns out I’m about five blocks from the harbor, and where there is a harbor, that means seafood. I ended up at The Dockside:

But first, there is the mandatory Manhattan:

Before the NZ$15 Friday Special of Fish and Chips:

After that lunch, it was time to head back to the hotel for a nap!

Here are some random city scenes from around downtown Wellington:

Including the All Blacks Rugby Club team bus. They were playing France, it I remember:

And, of course, the harbor:

Having dropped a chunk on lunch, I settled for hitting the grocery store a couple of doors down…and getting a pepper steak meat pie for dinner and a quiche for tomorrows breakfast.

After the last couple of days, it was nice to chill for a bit, though air travel took its toll as well.

Just FYI, there are a couple of Maori television stations on the hotel TV – I was watching sports coverage by this Maori woman and the discussion would swap back and forth between Maori (with English subtitles) and English.

I’m amazed at the cultural integration on a daily basis here is New Zealand.

And with that, it was lights out.

[? ? ?]

For more blog posts, CLICK HERE.