Wellington to Buenos Aires - Day 1
Sunday has been a very long one for me. A nap in the middle of the day while we traversed the South Pacific. But first things first.
It was an early start so I could do the last of the washing and get the flat ready for my return. As a result the day went extremely fast and before I knew it Kay and Bruce had arrived to pick me up and take me to the airport.
Just before I left I got a text from B to say that she had been upgraded from Premium Economy to Business Class. The way it was worded you could see a grin from ear to ear.
When I got to the airport I checked in and found that I too had been upgraded. That meant I would have my feet up for the flight. The only issue was whether B and I would be in the same cabin. My flight to Auckland was quite tight in time. I had only about ten minutes in the Auckland Koro Lounge before the flight was called. I waited a bit longer for B to turn up but it seemed that she was late arriving into Auckland (having left late from Sydney). I wandered slowly to the gate and looked around there to see if she was there but she wasn't. When I got into the plane I asked whether B had been upgraded and it turned out she had. They had put her on the other side from me and I asked whether we could situated closer to each other and he said there was a spare seat next to me. Eventually B arrived. She had gone to the Koru Lounge to see if I was there as she thought I might be waiting for her. There was a big grin on her face the result of one or two too many wines.
One of the nice things about Business Class is that we can sit at a little table and have dinner together. And that is what we did which was as a nice a way to meet after three weeks. The food was actually quite nice, smoked hapuka for an entree, I had roasted beef cheek and B had roast chicken, for a main, and finally we had a panacotta for desert followed by cheese. The wines were very nice as well. I had Villa Maria Reserve Chardonnay, then a Burn Cottage Pinot Noir and finally a Forrest Botrytised Riesling. By the time we had finished I was ready to sleep and after about ten minutes of watching a movie I nodded off.
I think I had about four hours of sleep which was not too bad. I didn't want to sleep too long as we going to arrive in Buenos Aires at 5pm and sleeping might mean being awake half the night.
I watched a film called Thor Ragnarok which is not one I would normally watch but it had a good review and is directed by Taika Waititi. The film is actually quite funny and really good fun to watch. The dialogue is hilarious.
We arrived at Buenos Aires International Airport at 5pm. The immigration man was particularly friendly and we were through very quickly. Then it was a bit of a walk to the customs area. Bored officials were standing around and almost reluctantly took our entry cards. We had to put down our phones apparently Apple phones are in high demand. There was also a place for putting in other purchases such computers. We didn't know what to do there but recorded them. There was no interest in any of it and we spilled out into the rrivals area. We found our taxi person waiting for us and then had to wait for ages before our ride got to us. I think it was about 6pm before we negotiated the crush and congestion of cars outside the terminal. We drove on a tolled motorway into Buenos Aires, stopping regularly at toll booths. Then we wound our way through the streets to our apartment Palermo Soho. He was a skillful driver given the unpredictability of many drivers.
It was dark by the time we got into our accommodation which is quite nice although one sliding door does not lock properly. As we are 5 stories in the building I suspect we are fairly secure.
I was feeling a litttle peckish and also with a need to go and get some breakfast supplies we went in search of a supermarket. We found a small one around the corner which had most stuff. With little Spanish language the pictures on the front and the fact that some words are similar to French words we figured out what things were. I then found that the PIN I thought I had for my Travel Credit card did not work so that meant I couldn't pay with that card and then other one didn't work as well. Grrrrrrr.
We saw a nice Japanese restaurant over the road and decided the food would be nice and light. We had a lovely meal there. We wondered if it was OK as there was no one there when we went in but found out that we were early at 8pm for a meal with the people coming in regularly after we got there. The food was very nice, with the use of a lot of Philadelphia cheese for some reason. However it was surprisingly expensive.
It was very hot and humid and it was raining as we stepped out of the restaurant. By the time we got home I was ready for sleep. It was a very long Sunday!
It was an early start so I could do the last of the washing and get the flat ready for my return. As a result the day went extremely fast and before I knew it Kay and Bruce had arrived to pick me up and take me to the airport.
Just before I left I got a text from B to say that she had been upgraded from Premium Economy to Business Class. The way it was worded you could see a grin from ear to ear.
When I got to the airport I checked in and found that I too had been upgraded. That meant I would have my feet up for the flight. The only issue was whether B and I would be in the same cabin. My flight to Auckland was quite tight in time. I had only about ten minutes in the Auckland Koro Lounge before the flight was called. I waited a bit longer for B to turn up but it seemed that she was late arriving into Auckland (having left late from Sydney). I wandered slowly to the gate and looked around there to see if she was there but she wasn't. When I got into the plane I asked whether B had been upgraded and it turned out she had. They had put her on the other side from me and I asked whether we could situated closer to each other and he said there was a spare seat next to me. Eventually B arrived. She had gone to the Koru Lounge to see if I was there as she thought I might be waiting for her. There was a big grin on her face the result of one or two too many wines.
One of the nice things about Business Class is that we can sit at a little table and have dinner together. And that is what we did which was as a nice a way to meet after three weeks. The food was actually quite nice, smoked hapuka for an entree, I had roasted beef cheek and B had roast chicken, for a main, and finally we had a panacotta for desert followed by cheese. The wines were very nice as well. I had Villa Maria Reserve Chardonnay, then a Burn Cottage Pinot Noir and finally a Forrest Botrytised Riesling. By the time we had finished I was ready to sleep and after about ten minutes of watching a movie I nodded off.
I think I had about four hours of sleep which was not too bad. I didn't want to sleep too long as we going to arrive in Buenos Aires at 5pm and sleeping might mean being awake half the night.
I watched a film called Thor Ragnarok which is not one I would normally watch but it had a good review and is directed by Taika Waititi. The film is actually quite funny and really good fun to watch. The dialogue is hilarious.
We arrived at Buenos Aires International Airport at 5pm. The immigration man was particularly friendly and we were through very quickly. Then it was a bit of a walk to the customs area. Bored officials were standing around and almost reluctantly took our entry cards. We had to put down our phones apparently Apple phones are in high demand. There was also a place for putting in other purchases such computers. We didn't know what to do there but recorded them. There was no interest in any of it and we spilled out into the rrivals area. We found our taxi person waiting for us and then had to wait for ages before our ride got to us. I think it was about 6pm before we negotiated the crush and congestion of cars outside the terminal. We drove on a tolled motorway into Buenos Aires, stopping regularly at toll booths. Then we wound our way through the streets to our apartment Palermo Soho. He was a skillful driver given the unpredictability of many drivers.
It was dark by the time we got into our accommodation which is quite nice although one sliding door does not lock properly. As we are 5 stories in the building I suspect we are fairly secure.
I was feeling a litttle peckish and also with a need to go and get some breakfast supplies we went in search of a supermarket. We found a small one around the corner which had most stuff. With little Spanish language the pictures on the front and the fact that some words are similar to French words we figured out what things were. I then found that the PIN I thought I had for my Travel Credit card did not work so that meant I couldn't pay with that card and then other one didn't work as well. Grrrrrrr.
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| The Japanese restaurant |
It was very hot and humid and it was raining as we stepped out of the restaurant. By the time we got home I was ready for sleep. It was a very long Sunday!
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