From San Francisco to Auckland

The flight from San Francisco to Auckland doesn’t take off until the evening, so we still have plenty of time to pack in peace and stroll around the city again.

Unfortunately, we have to vacate our room shortly after midday, even though the hotel is anything but fully booked. Not really a plus on the hotel’s account either.

At least we can park our luggage in the hotel after check-out until we are picked up at four o’clock and taken to the airport. Unfortunately, it is impossible to buy anything with the remaining credit of 36 dollars because both the lobby bar and the regular bar and restaurant are closed. Surely this is standard in American Hilton hotels?

Anyway, we don’t let it spoil our mood and decide to take advantage of the nice weather to go for a walk in the neighbourhood. Washington Street takes us directly to Pier 1 and right next to it to the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. This is a huge indoor market where you can buy everything from butchers and bakeries to high-priced luxury items. Even here, the prices of the “simple” shops reek of luxury. For example, a plastic bag containing 500g of sliced, normal bread costs 10 dollars. Who can afford something like that?

Nevertheless, the mood among visitors is good and we resist even the most tempting offers!

We still have time and walk to Pier 7, where there is a well-preserved, unusually long jetty. The floor covering is made of thick planks, which shows that many thousands of people have already walked here. The wood has experienced a lot and could certainly tell many stories…

Via Broadway, which seems to be the center of the gentleman’s clubs, we go back to the hotel where Emanuel, who has already brought us here, picks us up on time, as agreed. By the way, the company through which we booked the relatively inexpensive service is ATT, an acronym for Airport Taxi Transfer</ a>.

The journey to the airport is unspectacular and we get through security and passport control fairly quickly and without any problems. We spend the extended time until boarding in the United Polaris Lounge. There is a kind of restaurant there where you are literally served. The food is excellent and the champagne goes very well with it.

Boarding for the flight from San Francisco to Auckland begins on time and for the first time we see seating on the plane that we have never seen before. The seating is 1-2-1, so window seat – aisle – middle seat-middle seat – aisle – window seat. The seats in the left and right window rows are all turned toward the center at an angle of approximately 30 degrees; and the middle seats facing the respective aisle as well.

The whole thing seems at least – to put it completely non-judgmentally – unusual. It’s not the case that you have the feet of the person sitting on the other side of the aisle in your face, but you can clearly see them. Takes getting used to!

But both the friendliness of the flight attendants and the catering are very good and all of us confirmed in the morning that we had slept really well although the seatbelt signs keep flashing because it bumps and rumbles again, like on an English road.

Like on an English street? Sorry, but I like the Beatles and fondly remember the song “A Day in the Life” in which the lyric appears:

I read the news today, oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire

Here the Beatles are actually referring to the high density of potholes on English roads, which is even  much higher today and is a daily problem with high levels of damage to cars and people. So please forgive me for the digression!

Nevertheless, we are making good progress and the plane from San Francisco to Auckland lands almost an hour before the scheduled time. Well, then we have more time for breakfast in the huge and at this time still almost empty Air New Zealand lounge at the Auckland International Airport.

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