The Journey Begins

Thursday, February 17 – 19, 2000:  The Journey Begins

Side Note:  Doug and I are very different in our approach to vacationing.  I’m uber-organized:  For maximum sightseeing/experience, I like to know where we’re staying, how we’re getting there, what are we going to do each day and arrange those routes and times.  Doug is a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of guy:  Doug arrives and then figures it out as he goes.  The deal we struck for this trip was that I would arrange the first week’s lodging on the North Island and the round trip flights; Doug would arrange the activities and the South Island lodging(s).  My securing the lodging and flight arrangements/details worked for Doug; I agreed to let Doug surprise me.  The plan:  The first week we’d be on the North Island staying at a timeshare condo, the second half, we’d go to the South Island, staying at and going wherever the road takes us.

NOW the journey beings…

I drove to Doug’s house in Berkeley.  With our luggage in tow, we walked a few blocks to take Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) to San Francisco International Airport (SFO).

At SFO, after checking in two hours early for our 7:30 pm flight to Los Angeles, we found our gate then headed toward the nearest airport bar for a drink.  I’m so excited to be traveling internationally.  I hadn’t used a passport since 1989 when I travelled to China.  Now, I had a new passport and a new lifestyle.  I love an adventure.

After a short layover in Los Angeles, we headed out around 10:25 pm to Auckland, New Zealand.