I started the second half of my adventure in business class on a flight from LA to Melbourne. I'm the new backpacker: unemployed, broke, but with platinum status and friends in great places.People in business class always give me condescending smiles, like I'm visiting their world on a guest pass and isn't it so great for me. Sexism aside (I doubt a 29 year-old man would be simpered at the same way), I smile right back and happily take my free pajamas, cocktails and three-course meals. When I go to the bathroom, I smirk at all those suckers in economy. Ha.
Well, the joke is on me. My platinum status comes crashing to an end at the end of this month and I'll have to say goodbye to free coffee and booze in the airport lounges, boarding first to avoid the amateurs and bubbly while we wait to take off.
'Tis better to have flown in first and been downgraded, then to have never flown in first at all.
All that to say that I arrived in New Zealand completely pampered and continued to be pampered for the entire time I was there.
I stayed with Tiff and Phil - my family when I was living in London, now relocated to Auckland - and I was joined by Nicole for a week of fun in the North Island. After eight months of travel in South America, it is incredibly nice to travel with friends and share your experience.
So, New Zealand. The only rule in New Zealand is that wherever you go, whatever you see, the Kiwis have figured out a way to jump off it, into it, roll down it, climb up it or crawl through it. Abseiling, bungee jumping, zorbing, horseback ridigin, skydiving, caving...you name it, it's done in New Zealand.
Nicole and I were fearless - we jumped off waterfalls, abseiled 100 m (330 feet) into a cave, crawled our way through underwater rivers and laid beneath the glowworm night sky. We also drove on the other side of the road and didn't kill ourselves.
After Nicole sadly left, I escaped with the FloodSmiths to a friend's batch (bachelor pad = beach house) in Pauanui. Right on the beach and in a teeny tiny town. By the time I left New Zealand, I had all but forgotten the cold showers and sketchy hostels in Latin America. Hong Kong, China and Nepal would be a shock...
I leave you with some pictures and the promise of a Hong Kong episode very shortly.
Tiff and Phil's house
The FloodSmiths
Me and Nicole
