New Zealand Vacation

Wednesday, January 24:
Newark, NJ - Wellington, NZ

New Zealand? Why on Earth go there on Earth? My brother had been there about 10 years ago, and came back with some glowing reports. It had been on my mind for years, and I figured now was the time. I twisted Jenny’s arm (not too hard) and she agreed.

Jenny and I have a very agreeable division of labor when it comes to vacations. She’s a librarian. She does all the research about what was worth seeing and gets the tickets. My job is to drive on the left hand side of the road.

Our schedule was dictated by Jenny’s work situation and my gig situation. Her library was undergoing renovations, and we wanted to schedule the trip during the period when it would be closed. I had a gig on February 10, so that’s when we had to be home.

Mark Wolkoff consented to ferry us to and from airports. The flights wound up departing from Newark, but arriving back in JFK. We flew from Newark to San Francisco to Auckland to Wellington. We were something like 18 hours in the air and another 2 or 3 in layovers between flights. I had packed moderately, considering we would not be ensconced in one place for very long. I took my flying guitar (not the Martin). Even so, I wedged all my underwear into the case in the nooks and crannies to more firmly pack the guitar and keep it from shifting. I was very pleased at the way United Airlines dealt with the instrument. Without my asking, they hand-carried it from the ticket window, and it was first off the belt in San Francisco, indicating that it had been on the top of the pile. It seemed to received special treatment on other legs of the flight as well. I also made sure to pack a goodly supply of Entenmann’s Chocolate Chip Cookies. One cannot do without the necessities.

I also toted a borrowed laptop with which to write a skit for the Folk Project Spring Festival. I figured the long flight would make for some uninterrupted writing time. I had not counted on the fact that there really isn’t room in coach to use one comfortably, or that the batteries would start to give out after only 90 minutes or so.

It’s a looooooong flight. Clocks and watches and day and night sort of become irrelevant. I just resolved to sleep when I was sleepy and read or watch bad movies or look out the window at the clouds when I wasn’t. When I got where I was going, I would set my watch for whatever time they told me it was, and punch the reset button in my brain. That seemed to work.