Happenings and Pictures from NZ: The End

Well, things didn't work out as expected in New Zealand so I decided to come home unexpectedly early. Overall I was able to do everything I had planned on before going. We did some climbing, fishing, sightseeing, jet boating, camping, and multi day hiking. I was hoping to do some more fishing and we had one more mountain that we wanted to climb but that just means some day I have a good reason to go back :)

The flight back was way longer then I ever want to do again but for the short term notice (about 10 hours from when Michael called to change my flight to when I boarded the first airplane) Air New Zealand did an amazing job. I showed up in Invercargill and the attendant at the front counter told me I was going to be one of the first ones to fly on their brand new Boeing 777-300 from Auckland to Los Angeles. He asked if I had any preference for seating and I told him first class would be fine. He chuckled and said he would see what he could do but no promises. He checked my bags all the way through to Bozeman which was awesome (we had to pick our bags up twice and transfer them last time) and didn't charge me anything for my extra bag ($100 when we came down).

Overall I had 18 hours of time in the air and 18 hours of layovers on the ground with 5 flights. Oh and I didn't get first class on the flight from Auckland to Los Angeles but I did get the best seat in Economy. I had the very first seat in economy which was an exit row with more leg room then I could use if i stretched all the way out and no one was sitting in the seat next to me. The airplane was spotless and economy is still the same style seats but the first class and business seats looked very comfortable. They did upgrade the tvs. They are much more like a computer now. Touch screens and you can order different drinks and foods over them other then the normal ones provided (although it costs money). But there are probably 50 different movies to watch a lot of them brand new, 500 different cds to listen to and 10 different radio stations all for free. I managed to watch 4 different movies and get 0 hours of sleep.

Overall it was a great life experience and someday I hope to go back and see/fish other parts of New Zealand.

I hope you enjoyed the blog.

Jeremy