Well the much awaited trip to BA with Jen started all to plan. We left home in plenty of time – at 3pm – for a flight at 8pm. Hamilton is not known for its traffic but today was different. Suffice to say it took nearly an hour to get to Gordonton.
I had booked a park in the uncovered car park at Auckland airport but we spent about 10 minutes hunting for a space. Tucked behind a big shed. Hopefully it’s not a burglar’s dream. Then off to get Argentinian currency. Wrong. They ran out in the morning. We were in line behind the last withdrawals of pesos from the next 2 places also. Good thing they have credit cards in Argentina.

Then to the Koru club to try and get upgrades. Well not only were there no upgrades, I have slipped back to silver (not spending enough) and evidently hadn’t renewed my membership. The lady in the Gold and Business check-in area, which is of course where I had gone, still checked us in though, which was something. We then had to find a seat and renew on line so we could get into the lounge. 2 glasses of bubbles and a cheese and crackers snackette put us back in holiday mode. Also the 4 lipsticks and other makeup we bought at duty free.

We had reasonable seats on the plane. Within sight of the premium economy curtains. Jen wanted a window seat which meant I was in the middle with a largish German lady on the aisle. However, we managed ok and got a reasonable amount of sleep. Watched one movie – about Howard Hughes – during which we both fell asleep. They have a special feature now. You can sync your screens to watch the same movie. Takes all the fun out of trying to get it right.

The food was ok. I had the chicken curry and Jen had the beef casserole.  Then we had the scrambled eggs and beans for breakfast. The toilets were a bit dodgy. At least 2 were continually flushing by the end of the flight and the lid on one of those wouldn’t stay up by itself.

We had to fill in a customs declaration form saying how many goods we were bringing and value etc.  They also wanted the make and model of my cell phone (only the head of the family had to complete this form.)  honestly I think they just want you to have something to do on the plane. No one was interested in collecting the form.

Then getting through immigration was fine except that my finger was too dry and the machine couldn’t read my print. I had to touch my neck to get some oil on it. Too wizzened for the technology.

They have a good taxi system. You order from an office inside the terminal and the driver collects you and takes you to the car. It was a long ride – about an hour – and it cost us about $60NZ. again the credit card was good.  An interesting but reasonably typical trip from airport to city. A lovely autumn afternoon with the sun on the buildings. It’s quite a flat city so the buildings disrupt all sense of direction. Loads of one way streets, in fact the inner city grids are all one way. I can’t quite figure out the give way rules but they seem to work even if it seems chaotic at times.

We arrived at the Be Hollywood Hotel at 6ish and it is just fine. We have a double room on the first floor with shower and bidet and plenty of cupboard space. The checkin man has made Jen doubt the quality of our tango reservation. She has spent an hour researching. We might have an additional tango show and maybe not do Uraguay, or maybe return earlier.  ? Too many choices and not enough time.