· Free hugs!San Francisco, USA · 17th Dec 2006 · Posted by Annie
OMG. We have arrived in San Francisco safe and sound, phew. The flight up to Auckland was incredibly uneventful and took something ridiculous like 46 minutes. I hardly had time to get up and go to the bathroom.
Got to Auckland and met up with Sass-Anne (sorry Beth-Anne :P) and Richard who were on the same flight up to Auckland as us. Took our time walking over to the International Terminal until we realized that our flight was boarding in like 15 minutes. Didn't really get to hang around Auckland International for very long, which is a good thing really.
(Annie: Here, you have a go.)
So when we realized we had to get a bit of a wiggle-on, we filled out our forms and obliviously cruised right on past the women that were supposed to be checking that everyone had paid their departure tax. They were having a gossip session or something because they didn't even look in our direction. When we got to the immigration counter, the lady asked us if we'd paid our departure tax - to which we kinda went "Doh!" after realising that we hadn't paid a cent. She just went "Merry Christmas! It's their money!" while gesturing at the gossip hounds. So that was a bit of extra cash for us. Gotta love gossip eh? It keeps the world spinning. ;)
(Annie: Oi! Gimme a turn!)
Had some pizza at the airport, which Chris had to eat with a plastic fork with only one prong thing coz he pressed too hard and it snapped into a million pieces, almost gauging my eye out. OMG. (Chris: she's lying! I snapped the fork, true, but there was no personal danger involved. Honest!) (Annie: whateva.)
(Chris: Move over, I'm better at this than you are.) (Annie: Whateva!!!).
Then we had to experience huge personal-bubble violation at the hands of the wand-waving security guards. They must've thought we were carrying something illegal because they took their time. Foreign tourists must be quite touchy about the searches because the dude scanning me went through a well-rehearsed speech about how the search is physical and that there may be touching involved. Hmmmm.
(Annie: Me me meeeeee!!!)
Well, after much animated discussion regarding the 'retro-fitted Air NZ 747-400 fleet' and whether they have the screens in the back of every seat... guess what? They DO!!! At least the one that we got on did :) Yay!! Very very nice. Lots of leg room as well, hehe, although I'm sure people as tall as Ryan or Craig would have issues. Cramping issues.
We got a window seat and the one next to it, aaaaaaaaaand guess what? The lady sitting next to us works for... Arnold Schwarzenegger!!! OMG! How cool was she?!?! A-mazing. Well she works for him as a politician, campaign-advisor or something. Awesome. Food was good, sleep was ok, crying baby sucked. Pretty generic 12.5 hour flight really.
(Chris: Right. Move. Keyboard-hogger ...)
Generic my ass! 12.5 hours in a plane isn't really what I imagined. It's easy to think how it might be but it's impossible to imagine until you've done it. I'll qualify that by saying that the excitement factor waaaayyyy out-weighed any discomfort caused by the flying time. Lots of TV and movies to choose from (including Prison Break, Family Guy and all the latest movies). We managed about 5 hour sleep I reckon so all in all not too bad.
San Francisco airport ... man. Security for 'nam! And they all have guns. That's some scary shizzle. Queues were long but we were the only flight arriving at that time so it's easy to see how going through immigration can take up to 3 hours at times. EVERYONE gets finger-printed and photographed (Logitech must love the Dept of Homeland Security). Easy process though, very professional and efficient. Totally understandable too considering what could happen if security was lax.
After managing to totally balls up buying a couple of $5.15 BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) tickets we managed to get on the train towards Union Square where we're staying. The public transport system is AWESOME. It could seriously run without a single person involved. You buy the tickets yourself, get them scanned yourself, scan them again at your destination by yourself, all without talking to a single ticket-collector or transportation official. Every stop along the way is announced by a friendly San Francisco voice telling you what train you've just boarded and what stop you are currently at. Very clean trains, VERY fast for a service within a city. The NZ train people could learn a thing or two from these guys - it's that good.
Off the train at Powell St and we were greeted by an absolutel culture overload. A young-aged percussion group was playing on the street - they were amazing! And, right next to them a lady and 2 others holding signs saying "Free Hugs". Naturally we had to take advantage of this! Hugs all round, friendly discussion with the locals and confirmation that Wellington is awesome. Cool! :)
We've been invited to a private party tonight ... yeah we got the mad hookupz! We're super late for it so we'll come back later and finish off the report of today's activitied and hopefully upload some photos.
Chau for now!
Got to Auckland and met up with Sass-Anne (sorry Beth-Anne :P) and Richard who were on the same flight up to Auckland as us. Took our time walking over to the International Terminal until we realized that our flight was boarding in like 15 minutes. Didn't really get to hang around Auckland International for very long, which is a good thing really.
(Annie: Here, you have a go.)
So when we realized we had to get a bit of a wiggle-on, we filled out our forms and obliviously cruised right on past the women that were supposed to be checking that everyone had paid their departure tax. They were having a gossip session or something because they didn't even look in our direction. When we got to the immigration counter, the lady asked us if we'd paid our departure tax - to which we kinda went "Doh!" after realising that we hadn't paid a cent. She just went "Merry Christmas! It's their money!" while gesturing at the gossip hounds. So that was a bit of extra cash for us. Gotta love gossip eh? It keeps the world spinning. ;)
(Annie: Oi! Gimme a turn!)
Had some pizza at the airport, which Chris had to eat with a plastic fork with only one prong thing coz he pressed too hard and it snapped into a million pieces, almost gauging my eye out. OMG. (Chris: she's lying! I snapped the fork, true, but there was no personal danger involved. Honest!) (Annie: whateva.)
(Chris: Move over, I'm better at this than you are.) (Annie: Whateva!!!).
Then we had to experience huge personal-bubble violation at the hands of the wand-waving security guards. They must've thought we were carrying something illegal because they took their time. Foreign tourists must be quite touchy about the searches because the dude scanning me went through a well-rehearsed speech about how the search is physical and that there may be touching involved. Hmmmm.
(Annie: Me me meeeeee!!!)
Well, after much animated discussion regarding the 'retro-fitted Air NZ 747-400 fleet' and whether they have the screens in the back of every seat... guess what? They DO!!! At least the one that we got on did :) Yay!! Very very nice. Lots of leg room as well, hehe, although I'm sure people as tall as Ryan or Craig would have issues. Cramping issues.
We got a window seat and the one next to it, aaaaaaaaaand guess what? The lady sitting next to us works for... Arnold Schwarzenegger!!! OMG! How cool was she?!?! A-mazing. Well she works for him as a politician, campaign-advisor or something. Awesome. Food was good, sleep was ok, crying baby sucked. Pretty generic 12.5 hour flight really.
(Chris: Right. Move. Keyboard-hogger ...)
Generic my ass! 12.5 hours in a plane isn't really what I imagined. It's easy to think how it might be but it's impossible to imagine until you've done it. I'll qualify that by saying that the excitement factor waaaayyyy out-weighed any discomfort caused by the flying time. Lots of TV and movies to choose from (including Prison Break, Family Guy and all the latest movies). We managed about 5 hour sleep I reckon so all in all not too bad.
San Francisco airport ... man. Security for 'nam! And they all have guns. That's some scary shizzle. Queues were long but we were the only flight arriving at that time so it's easy to see how going through immigration can take up to 3 hours at times. EVERYONE gets finger-printed and photographed (Logitech must love the Dept of Homeland Security). Easy process though, very professional and efficient. Totally understandable too considering what could happen if security was lax.
After managing to totally balls up buying a couple of $5.15 BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) tickets we managed to get on the train towards Union Square where we're staying. The public transport system is AWESOME. It could seriously run without a single person involved. You buy the tickets yourself, get them scanned yourself, scan them again at your destination by yourself, all without talking to a single ticket-collector or transportation official. Every stop along the way is announced by a friendly San Francisco voice telling you what train you've just boarded and what stop you are currently at. Very clean trains, VERY fast for a service within a city. The NZ train people could learn a thing or two from these guys - it's that good.
Off the train at Powell St and we were greeted by an absolutel culture overload. A young-aged percussion group was playing on the street - they were amazing! And, right next to them a lady and 2 others holding signs saying "Free Hugs". Naturally we had to take advantage of this! Hugs all round, friendly discussion with the locals and confirmation that Wellington is awesome. Cool! :)
We've been invited to a private party tonight ... yeah we got the mad hookupz! We're super late for it so we'll come back later and finish off the report of today's activitied and hopefully upload some photos.
Chau for now!
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