Day 1 – The longest of days | Chris and Danielle's travel blog

Current Location (Chris): Orlando, Florida
Current Location (Danielle): Home, NZ

Nobody likes Monday much, but a Monday that goes on for 42 hours is next level Monday hell. Today is Tuesday morning in Orlando or Wednesday morning in NZ. I am sitting in the Hotel restaurant at 8:30am looking at my laptop clock which reads 2:30am my body feels far more like 2:30am! I managed a decent 8 hour sleep but am still jet lagged. Very glad I Have a day up my sleeve before proper conference activities start tomorrow.

Ok So Day 1 started with a regular work Morning working from Kerikeri cut short at 2pm for a trip to the Airport in Kerikeri. I travelled down to Auckland on the 3:30pm flight. Once in Auckland I walked across to the International terminal getting to experience the first day of NO DEPARTURE CARDS in Auckland Airport. This was a big deal, but I don’t think anyone will miss them or even notice they are missing. Once clearing customs and AvSec I continued my days’ work from the Koru lounge which for once was NOT overstuffed with people.

I finished up my regular work day then wandered down to the gate. Here I got to experience the new USA security procedure where I had my travel interview with a lovely lass whose grandparents where from up Pukenui way and knew Danielles grandparents. Of course! For those traveling to the USA out of Auckland remember to allow about another hour for the new security measures to be on the safe time. This happen at the gate, so you can’t wait in the lounge until the last minute.

My flight from Auckland to Houston was fairly un-eventful, I was upgraded to business premier so got a bed which was nice. I shared the cabin with a lady who enjoyed the free drink a little more than perhaps she should of… She also was not as musically gifted as she thought…. By about 2am NZ time I managed 5-6 hours of restless sleep.

Arriving in Houston I followed the cattle trail through Immigration and security. Immigration was pretty fast, TSA for my connecting flight had one of those guys yelling all the instructions on repeat. He was great value and actually managed an almost simile as he assured me that if I followed all the instructions I would never see him again, even if I were to transit through Houston. Once on the other side of security I found the United club which didn’t have showers and was on the most part average.

Boarded my Houston to Orlando flight, took my economy window seat and found the seating position of my knees around my ears to be less comfortable. Once in flight the passenger in front of me who was in economy plus, felt it best reinforce my economy place by reclining his seat into my face for the remainder of the journey. Fortunately, this was only a couple of hours.

Landed in Orlando I collected my bag and found an Uber without much fuss. Clocked 80mph on the freeway in a brand-new Chrysler. Didn’t die. Made it to the hotel in one piece.

After much fun with an automated towel machine (3 trips back to reception and a voucher for free drinks later) I managed a swim before bed. The swim was followed by an underwhelming shower and a pretty good room service pizza. I stayed up until 11:45pm local time then slept like the dead.

And that was my day 1. This blog entry is fuelled by American coffee pot style coffee… I clearly need the caffeine because it is actually pretty good!

Chris.