Graduation trip - starting out

Our planned trip to see Molly graduate from Cambridge, like Topsy, just 'growed' and 'growed'. After almost a year of planning, we finally had all our tickets, bags, passports, and connections. We discovered we could include a trip to Israel to join John and Sara at her family's reunion and Karen's keynote presentation at the ETAI conference in Jerusalem in our plans. Karen found the cheapest tickets available, but they involved some compromises. Our plans were to take the shuttle to the Dunedin airport, fly to Auckland, spend the night, fly from Auckland to Tokyo, spend the night, fly to London, spend two nights, then fly to Tel Aviv where John and Sara would pick us up. After a week there, we would fly back to London, catch the bus to Cambridge, take a taxi to JF and Molly's. There we hoped to spend a couple of weeks sight-seeing and seeing the Cambridge graduation. John and Sara planned to join us there. Finally, we had a bus trip back to Heathrow, flight to Tokyo, brief delay at the airport, then a flight directly to Christchurch, and a connecting flight to Dunedin. Finish it off with a shuttle back home and we'd be done.

We were keen to avoid stress, so we booked the shuttle to pick us up at 6:50pm to give us more than an hour before our 8:50 flight to Auckland. However, we weren't quite keen enough to get on the 6:50am shuttle when they called and said they were at our house. They'd gotten the times mixed up. Twelve hours later, I was home from work and we had our bags packed and ready to go. I took this picture because they reminded me of the three bears. Mama bear, papa bear, and baby bear each have distinctive bags, don't you think so?


After a cold wait at the top of our driveway, we shared the shuttle with several other travelers and arrived as planned with time to spare. This was our first time to fly out of the Dunedin airport, where we had a snack and discovered a new smaller size in Coke bottles. The huge size of Pete's sandwich more than made up for it, though. Our time for departure came and went along with announcements of the delay. Finally, an hour late, we boarded our flight to Auckland. I'd swear they are making the seats smaller on airplanes now. Upon our arrival at 11:00, Pete grabbed our bags, which were first off the plane. However, construction and the late hour made contacting the hotel shuttle very difficult. Eventually, we got through and were picked up by a minivan. It was 1:00 before we checked in and another 30 minutes before we were in bed. The rooms could have been built from the same plan as the hotel in Invercargill where we had our kids stay last year.
See The Visit

A short 4 hours later we were getting around to go back to the airport - much too early for the complementary breakfast that came with the room. Even though we were there by 6:30, there were six switchbacks in the queue to checkin. It took us an hour just to reach the desk. Our 8:30 flight to Tokyo was delayed until 8:50, so we took the opportunity to grab a quick breakfast. It is not very comforting to hear the plane is being delayed due to engineering checks - makes you wonder what is wrong. The flight wasn't full, so I moved up a row to give Karen and Pete more room. arrived ahead of schedule about 11 hours later. We'd been delighted to discover the new style of head rests that wrap around your head giving you support if you want to sleep. We didn't take long to doze after our short night. Breakfast was served about noon, complete with heavy-duty plastic silverware and hand towels before the meal. Also, the movies/TV on demand were great as were the viewing choices. We had to wait 30 minutes on the tarmac, though, for a place to park. The shuttle to the Narita Nakita hotel was a model of efficiency and precision.

We had planned to try to go into Tokyo, since our arrival time was only 5:30 local time; however, it was 8:30 our time, so we settled for a little R & R in our room. Pete found the kimonos and slippers, so he and I tried them out. Finding differences from what you consider 'normal' is always a treat. The long skinny towels, drain channel around the tub, electronic toilet, and TV in the shower, which had enough pressure to take off a layer of skin, all fit nicely into that category.


A 12:00 flight the next day gave us plenty of time for a leisurely buffet breakfast and a stroll around the hotel. There we found this giant can of Kirin beer. Needless to say, I had to do the tourist thing and put my face in it.


Pete found a stage and posed on it. The area was set up with lots of tables and chairs, so I expect they have outdoor dining and entertainment.


The hotel had a checkin for JAL in its lobby, so it gave us more time to browse the Narita airport before boarding our flight. Pete managed to get a couple of T-shirts. We were impressed with the huge displays of plastic food outside the eating establishments. They looked real.


You've got to read this warning sign. It says "Be Aware of Snake".