2010 Trip: Christchurch to Hong Kong
1st-2nd May 2010
Well, it has been a while since I have traveled overseas, about five years. In fact I will have be in Turkey over the same dates that I was 5 years ago; I’ll have my second birthday in that country. I think that that’s a little weird but I suppose that is up to interpretation. In this trip I will start my travels in Istanbul, making my way across Eastern Europe, with the intention of ending up in Paris. Following this, I will scoot across the channel to London for a week. Then, I will head over to the big old U.S. of A. where I plan to spend time in New York, Columbus, Ohio, and San Francisco before heading home. All up, I will be away for 72 days.
While I write this, I’m waiting in transit in the very salubrious Hong Kong International Airport. Last night, at 8pm, I departed Christchurch to Auckland, my first flight of more than an hour in 5 years. I was actually quite worried, though for the most part that seems to have past. Was travel a good option? Should I have just stayed at home? Have I got everything? Done everything? Organised everything? Anyhow, with distance (in this case) comes clarity. This seems like a good idea, or at least an interesting one at that.
As the lights of Christchurch fell behind, I enjoyed the initial exhilaration and acceleration of air travel. I read my book, a Robin Hobb, and the minutes ticked by. The folding screens displayed Air New Zealand style trivial pursuit… What is the name of the straight that separates Steward Island and the South Island? What is the second largest country in South America? (by area) Which rugby player… It seemed a little quaint. Good old New Zealand!
We landed into headwind, a strong southerly, I got to witness the airframes structural integrity in full motion. I choose the word ‘motion’ quite specifically, the frame of that aircraft could move! The entire plane must have bent a few degrees at one point. The joys of flexible aluminium, I suppose. From there, I wandered across the blustery distance between the Auckland domestic and international terminals. As I was to be sitting for the next 11 hours, this seemed like a good move. I have to say that jet fuel does lend the outsides of airports a very particular and even possibly attractive smell.
From here it was through security, separating out liquids, laptop, money bag, and day pack. It has become quite a laborious process, even in little New Zealand. I suspect that the US will be much stricter in this regard. I arrived at the gate lounge that was already fairly full and eventually we started loading. There were a surprising number of 6yr old blond girls… For some random reason. I got an aisle seat in the 777-200 Boeing, which was rather fortunate as the leg room provided was minimal (especially when your legs are as long as mine!).
During the flight I watched Moon and Exam. Both of which I highly recommend. The AirNZ back of seat in-flight entertainment system was fairly ok, but someone really has to work on the usability of the system, the controls were at the very least unresponsive. Airplane food was passable and the staff were very friendly. Thus ends the review. While everyone was glued to their screens or sleeping (late night flight), they missed the most spectacular part. At about 6pm local time, the sun rose. As we were heading NW (A bearing of 320 degrees to be precise), this was nicely lengthened. The sun rose bright saffron red, the deepest red sunrise I have ever seen. This contrasted with gloomy dark clouds sitting far below us. In front of the rising sun, the upwelling of a tropical storm completed the vista with swirling clouds and the occasional clash of lightening from deep inside. Wow! This gradually morphed into a beautiful orange light which looked stunning reflected off the wing of the aircraft.
The pilot of the aircraft took great pains to thank the ‘customers’ for entering the plane promptly. Apparently, this saved three whole minutes off our flight time. Hong Kong appeared out of the smog as we descending, a classic Chinese look! The security people were less precise than in New Zealand, they made great fuss of caring more and doing less. Hong Kong airport is very impressive, it has 110 international gates in a single large terminal. I estimate this to be about 5km of frontage onto the tarmac.
The weather is a little humid and smog still covers the city. I have been here for about 3 hrs now and have seen aircraft from at least 20 different airlines. Hey… How did that happen, the 747-400 that I will be flying on next (Lufthansa) just arrived without me even noticing. The architecture of the terminal is most impressive, huge semi-cylindrical structures intersect and arch overhead. A clever combination of exposed curved steel, covered panels and expansive windows make the building light, airy, and pleasant to the eye. A surreal combination of distinctly Chinese and western style shops try and fail to fill the space. For example, two branches of a chain serving caviar (yes, its a big airport), Free Duty shops, and a shop named ‘Oriental Healing Art’ which seems to sell brightly coloured Chinese medicines.
I had breakfast at a noodle shop in one of the several food courts. It was a little bland, but the noodle soup did have a fantastic selection of mushrooms one just can’t get in New Zealand. The P.A. system here seems not to ever to be announce boarding flights, but only when the gates of a flight change, which is approximately every 15 minutes (which would be about 1 in 8 flights…). Oh and, free WiFi! Anyhow, I’m sure I have bored you all to tears and will write later, either from Frankfurt (my next transit point) or Istanbul. Take care everyone!