February 21, 2019
We got up at 6 AM, ate some of the remaining food for breakfast, and packed the rest of our luggage. The weather was mostly clear, and Heinrich told me to look outside. The just past full moon was in the center of a block of pink fluffy clouds. It was really pretty.
We walked over to the shared kitchen where there was a table for free items that people were leaving. We dropped off our chilly bin and ice blocks, remaining paper plates and silverware, pillows and condiments. Hopefully they will find a good home with someone. They served their purpose well for 35 days.
We found a BP gas station to use for the final fill close to the airport. But on the drive over, the gas gauge suddenly indicated it was full! So we skipped stopping at the gas station and I drove directly to the Ace Rental Car return. It was an easy 10-minute drive from the holiday park, although traffic was a bit slow due to the morning commuters. We did not have to go into the city at all.
The rental car return was very fast. The lady at the counter didn’t check anything and just asked us to leave the keys in the car. We boarded the shuttle bus to the airport. We weighed our checked bags and found we were still under the 23 kg limit, so we transferred more of the books and heavy items from our backpacks into the suitcases. There was a self service check in station where we scanned our passports and got the luggage tags to check through all of the way back to Denver. We still will need to pick up our bags in San Francisco to go through customs.
We went through security without any issues and had about two hours waiting at the gate before boarding. The Air New Zealand flight to Auckland was delayed about a half hour due to some bad weather and the flight route needed to be changed. Heinrich and I both had window seats in the same row across from each other: we were lucky to get them since I did not figure out how to get the Air New Zealand seat assignment selection online until 2 days prior. (I had to go through the Air New Zealand website and give them the confirmation number corresponding to that segment of the flight.)
I was sitting on the left side of the plane, and from there I took a video of the first ten minutes of the flight starting at take off. The plane took off to the south, so I was able to see the city of Christchurch, and then when the plane turned north I saw the interior of the South Island until we encountered clouds. The clouds finally cleared as we approached the north shore of the South Island. I was able to see the city of Nelson, the Abel Tasman area, Golden Bay, and Farewell Spit. As we crossed the sound the clouds rolled in again, and I saw nothing further until shortly before we landed in Auckland.
The weather in Auckland was gray and drizzly. As the plane descended below the cloud layer I was able to see the area just south of Auckland. The city came into view on the horizon and I briefly saw the sky tower.
We deplaned at the domestic terminal, which meant we had to exit security and walk over to the International terminal. After going through security a second time and passing through the customs entry area, we walked over to the Strata Lounge where Heinrich had a free pass for himself and a guest with his Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card. We spent the next hour there. There was a buffet of pasta dishes, salads and desserts. I had the lamb ragout and a couple of savory beef pies, and some fudge bars and a piece of cheesecake for dessert. I also tried some New Zealand pinot noir wine which was very tasty.
We walked over to the gate just as they were starting to board the plane. We had the same seats going back as we had coming out: two seats together at the back of the plane with the third seat missing so there was more room to spread out. I had the window seat and took a video of the first few minutes after take off. I was able to see the city of Auckland, but we ascended into the clouds quickly and lost the view.
We reached San Francisco on time and then had to go through customs. We both had global entry cards, but we got confused when an announcement was made on the plane that we could get through customs quickly by using the mobile passport program on our phones. So we entered all of the information into our smart phones, only to find out that was the wrong thing for us to do since it prevented us from using the global entry line which would have been faster. End result was we got in the wrong line and then had to get in the mobile passport line. Also annoying was that afterwards we had to go through security yet again to get to our flight to Denver. It was the full inspection since there was no TSA Precheck line. I had to wait for my backpack to get hand inspected since the bag of snacks brought from New Zealand did not pass the machine check.
The flight from San Francisco to Denver was on time. I had the window seat, and the first part of the flight was cloud free until we reached the middle of Nevada. I had great views of the Sierras and Mono Lake. There was a lot of snow in the mountains, more than I had ever seen before from the air.
The remainder of the flight was cloudy. We touched down in Denver to cold and drizzly weather. We claimed our baggage without incident and called my son Kevin, who was waiting for us in the cell phone lot. It was great to see Kevin and be able to relax while he drove us home.
What a wonderful trip. I can’t wait to go back, but it will be a couple of years before we can do so. It has been fun replaying all of the videos and photos from the trip. So many great memories.