Traveladventures

Hey everyone,

or to put it in Maori terms: Kia Ora.

I finally arrived in New Zealand. The land of the long white cloud. And exactly that was the situation I arrived to!

But lets start from the beginning. After a rather emotional departure in Hamburg, for some more for others less, I was soon busy orientating myself on my first international flight. Soon came the first surprise after having only flown with budget airlines in the past. A meal I didn’t have to pay for and one that didn’t taste too bad either, considering it was airplane food.

They even gave us cutlery made out of metal.

Having heard of Emirates awesome range of movies and other forms of entertainment througout the flight, I was not disappointed. The five hours to Dubai were over very fast with watching
“13 Hours – The secret Soldiers of Benghadi”, as well as “Star Wars Episode 1”.

After a quiet flight without turbulences and an amazing demonstration of light pollution as we flew over Turkey with its major cities emitting a sphere of light in the night sky we arrived in Dubai just in time to see a wonderfull sunrise over the desert.

When I departed the the plane onto the tarmac for a waiting bus, I was nearly pushed back by the heat and humidity so early in the morning. Thank God for an airconditioned aiport.

Speaking of which, the airport in Dubai is just incredible. Huge ceilings, a massive amount of duty free shops from the size of the City Park in Kiel and its own train system between the terminals.

I tried my best to capture it, but between changing terminals, as my flight got changed from one gate to another to another, I just hadn’t that much time. Luckily I am coming back on my flight to Germany in roughly eight months.

After a little bit of waiting I could then finally board my plane for the following 12 hour flight to Melbourne, Australia. An Airbus A380. And I have to say, that plane is f***ing huge.

This plane is a masterpiece of engineering. After one movie (“Star Wars Episode 2”) and dinner I slept for full 8 hours, and wasn’t disturbed once frome the barely audible noise the engines made. I think it was partly because I was so tired and exhausted, but nonetheless incredible. After I woke up I watched the third Star Wars movie and was also served breakfeast. And it was amazing to eat such an awesome breakfast, while moving 500 miles per hour and beeing 40 000 ft up in the air over an ocean which seemed to be infinite.

Shortly thereafter we arrived in Melbourne for a short touchdown. And again I had to change gates. But as in Dubai the staff was very helpfull and friendy.

After only two hours on the ground I boarded the same airplane and after a short waiting period on the tarmac we were airborne on my so long awaited flight to New Zealand. It was a rather short flight so I had barely enough time to watch the first Hobbit movie to hype myself up for the amazig landscape of New Zealand. And I got another breakfast on that plane as well.

Shortly therafter Auckland came in sight and everything happened pretty fast. We touched down, I went through immigration without showing my visa or the proof of funds officialy required or a flight ticket out of New Zealand for that matter. And I also got my first stamp in my passport.

When I first read about biosecurity checks of your lugage during arrival in New Zealand I thought they were exaggerating quite a bit, but I was tacken aback, when I went through customs myself. On the plus side, my hiking boots were never as clean as they are right now.

After I got out of the airport I hopped onto the Skybus to get to my hostel in Downtown Auckland.
It went pretty easy and before I realized I was checked in and already exploring the immeadiate surroudings of my hostel.

I am gonna leave it at that, so this article doesn’t get too long.
In the next post I am going to write about my first days in Auckland and my experiences while buying a car.

Cheers, Max