Thursday, October 20, 2011

Arrival in Invercargill

Tara and I have arrived in Invercargill.  Air New Zealand has wonderful crew and that feed you much better than American airlines.  Their on-time service- not so much.  Zero for three.  On the first leg of our trip today, the plane failed to meet specs and we had to deplane and board another plan about one hour later than the original flight.  For staff and service- A, equipment B (generally nice and spacious, but some signs of aging such as the worn remotes on the earlier trans-Pacific flight), schedule C-. 
Upon arriving in Invercargill we could see green fields, bordered by rows of vegetation, similar to what we saw landing at Christchurch.  We also saw many sheep, grazing between runways.  The wind was strong and a bit cold.  We were met at the airport by a woman who did not realize our arrival was delayed two hours.  I’ll blast a phone service provider later.
We are in a flat provided by the hospital for the first six weeks.  I also have a loaner car (manual shift, right-sided controls) and managed to get us to the KFC for dinner.  It took us awhile to comprehend our menu choices.  Tara was thrilled to find Mountain Dew, while I had Peepsie (spelled phonetically).  Tomato sauce for my chips (ketchup for fries) carried a $1.00 NZ surcharge ($1.47 with tax).  Most everything in New Zealand appears to have a charge (hotel  internet, breakfast)  but our Auckland hotel newspapers were gratis and the New Zealand Herald is a real newspaper at that- full-sized with local news in abundance.  On the way home, my driving amused Tara so much, she nearly peed herself.   It was mostly trying to stop the wipers whose control is where our turn signals are in the States.  I nearly had to lock her out in the cold until she composed herself.
Time for bed- I have some paperwork in the a.m.  We have unpacked and eaten.  I have set up a wireless network and network-attached storage.  We have several adapters for the local electricity. 

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