My lost day

Sunday, July 12, 2009 never existed for me. I jumped from July 11 to July 13, all in the space of one 12 hour and 10 minute flight.

My flight here was essentially a red eye. Not that different from flying back to the east coast, really - I left San Francisco at 9 pm on Saturday night and got to my destination at 5 am the next day. Sounds reasonable enough, except for the fact that when you fly far enough west that it actually becomes east, it is in fact the next next day. We arrived in Auckland in the early morning hours of Monday, July 13, 2009. Amazing. The International Date Line sure works wonders.




I must say that Air New Zealand did a phenomenal job helping me cope with my lost day. I may have been more upset had it not been for that fact that I was given two free meals on my flight, along with all the wine and champagne I could possibly ask for. My flight attendant came around with a jug of water in the middle of the night, just for refills, but saw my empty wine glass and asked if I wanted another. I nodded yes, he returned with a full glass of wine, and I promptly slept for four more hours.

Really though, the flight could not have been more comfortable. No crying babies, at least not near me; this stands in stark contrast to my flight from New York to San Francisco last Monday morning, where the screaming toddler two rows in front of me may have been the most personally effective condom advertisement I've seen in a while. And in addition to the wine and champagne, the crew was on top of both service and refills for tea all night and coffee the next morning. And the food they did serve was actually pretty good. I did my best to copy down the flight attendant's description of the dinner menu, which was served about 1 hour in flight:

Air New Zealand supper menu:

-Choice of spicy chicken with pesto and ricotta cheese, or braised beef in red wine sauce (I chose the chicken)
-Appetizers: Potato/egg salad with "mustard mayo." Cheese and crackers. Hot roll
-For desert: A delicious orange cheesecake

Yeah, wow. It was nice to fly on a foreign airline. Most of the flying I've done has been domestic, and domestic airlines can treat you like crap because they run so many flights and at the end of the day, you really have no choice but to fly on one of them if you're traveling within the US. You buy your ticket, and after that the rest is on you. Foreign airlines, however, are often more specialized. Especially the national ones, like Air New Zealand. Air New Zealand's bread and butter is their ability to offer really good customer service on trans-pacific flights. If they flew to many more places, or had less of a specific focus, they probably wouldn't put as much emphasis on the quality of the flight experience.

With food, sleep, and a comfortable window seat, I had pretty much everything I needed. I'd be lying, however, if I said that unlimited TV access to 30 Rock and Eastbound and Down weren't nice to have as well.

The worst thing that's happened to me so far was probably blowing a fuse in my room this afternoon, after I'd gotten to my residence and taken a long nap. New Zealand electrical outlets are different, and I had to get an adapter to convert my American equipment, and while I was trying to plug in my power stick I heard a huge POP and all of a sudden the entire room smelled like an electrical fire. Whoops.

Despite the electrical hazards, I did arrive across the world this morning, safe and sound. It was interesting. Yesterday - two days ago, on Saturday - I was about to take a shower and get ready to go the airport, when I started thinking about how I wasn't going to see America for five months. Although I thought of the exciting adventure I was about to embark upon, my heart still sank for a second. Five months is a long time. But before getting in the shower, I decided I should probably open the window to let more air in and prevent the mirrors from fogging up. I opened the window, thinking wistfully on my last day in the United States about hot dogs, baseball, and Ray Charles' brilliant cover of America the Beautiful.

And then, and it couldn't have happened more smoothly or perfectly, the very first thing I saw when I opened the window was a hardcore American flag, with the intimidating-looking eagle and everything. And since I opened the window only about 8 inches, this American flag/banner was actually one of the only things I saw when I opened it. What are the chances? I busted out laughing, taking care to appreciate the fact that it will surely be a little while before I see another one of those banners.

It may be, but I've got bigger things to worry about in the meantime, like whether or not New Zealand actually has more sheep than people. You'd have to figure I'll know sooner or later...

And do the toilets really flush the other way?