
Melbourne (Aust.) to Auckland (NZ)

Well, my travels started in 'sunny' Melbourne on Saturday the 9th of June. I was awoken by the house alarm going off, as Mum and Dad entered the house. They had offered to drive me to the airport. It was probably a good thing that they did wake me up when they did or I would have been late, which is not a good thing when flying internationally.
I was inline in Melbourne for about 30mins and it was lovely having Charlotte with me. After checking in the bag, it was off to the departure gate. Mum, Dad, I did turn around and wave, but you were already walking and it was probably a good thing.
I flew QANTAS from Melbourne to Auckland. However at one stage, I didn't think that the plane would take off. We had taxied out and had just fired up the engines when a split second later, the Captain cut the power and it was back to the gate to get a part changed. An hour later and it's back to take off.
We went back to her place and dropped off my bags. While doing this one of her Brazilian friends, Sislania, came over. The three of us went to the Auckland water front and ate a wonderful dinner, which included a lovely Scotch Fillet.
I told a few NZ jokes to the girls and they loved the one about the price of lamb in NZ. I had to tell them very quietly as I don't think I would be alive now, if I said them out to loud.
We then danced the night away at 'SOUL', having a great night. I received a few funny looks from th guys standing around us, as I was dancing with 2 South American girls. Hey, I was having fun...
I arrived at the airport at 4:30 and my flight was scheduled to leave at 5:50, but again there were delays and the new time of departure was 7. Joy! as I could now look at cosmetics with Paola in the duty free section of the airport... I soon said my goodbyes and it was off to the departure gate for my long flight to Santiago.
DAY 2 (extended).
Auckland (NZ) to Santiago (Chile)

Now to enter Chile, you do not require a Visa, however you need to pay a reciprocal fee of $56 US or it's onto the next plane and you're out of there. That's the first cue you need to stand in and then it's the customs cue. The customs cue took over an hour and then it was off to wait 30mins for the bags to arrive. Then it was like being back in Nairobi, with guys running at you screaming out 'Taxi, Taxi, Senor?' There were more taxi drivers than passengers.

Las Condes is the up market area of Santiago, a bit like Toorak.There are loads of high rise apartments, that have high fences and guards at the door. Every morning there is a procession of older women walking into these buildings, to either look after children, clean the houses and cook food. These ladies get paid about $20 a day and they work from 9am to about 8pm. (i.e. once the evening dinner is cooked and cleaned away. I feel sorry for them, but it is a source of income for them and helps with their family income and survival.
It was great catching up with Paul and Danni and meeting their daughter Natalia for the first time. She is 18months old and reminds me of Charlotte. I think I almost feel asleep a few times during conversations, but I survived until about 9 and then crashed. It was such a strange feeling being back in Chile.
For now it's "Asta la vista".
1 comment:
Oi! I want credit for the "Price of NZ lamb" and any other Jokes that you use! (second thoughts only the funny ones!)
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