"One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time."   Andre Gide                                                      


The flight to Auckland was fairly uneventful except for them running out of the European breakfast option by the time it got to us, so it was kimchi and other such delights for breakfast [not that great]. We landed on time in Auckland and fortunately we had brought Rome's cool clear air with us so it was a refreshing walk across to the domestic terminal.

On arrival at the domestic terminal, everything was absolutely chaotic. They weren't allowing people to check in more than 90 minutes ahead of their flights and tempers around us were fraying, to put it mildly. We decided to pull the Air NZ Gold Card trick [even though Stuey's Gold Card had expired during our time away] and fortunately it worked so we were soon ensconced in the Koru Lounge.

We had two and a half hours before our final short leg to Wellington. A bit of a drag at this stage but it did at least give us the opportunity to have a shower so we got on the next flight feeling slightly human again...and looking forward to the final leg of our journey.