Leaving early
I try not to escape from New Zealand so early in the year as the cold and wet doesn’t normally set in till later. But this year, I couldn’t wait to get away as it has been horribly wet in late May.
My early departure was prompted by Air New Zealand suspending flights to Seoul, my springboard to Kazakhstan. This had been due to shortage of Rolls Royce engines for their Boeing 787, grounding them and hence the flight cuts.
As I was on a staff ticket, I had to work out economic alternatives and which takes me today to Melbourne … and then Singapore, Kuching and Kuala Lumpur, hence requiring me to depart about 2 weeks earlier than I would have.
Another weird itinerary
This trip started with an idea to go to UK/Europe to see my niece and nephew, and I managed to redeem reward tickets eight months ago to partially get there from Seoul via Kazakhstan, Turkey and Germany.
I had left the return journey unplanned for many months as I had hoped to hear back from friends with possible travel together. Nothing came about from that and less than 2 months ago, I decided to take matters into my own hands and commit myself to travel the Pamir Highway.
Dushanbe, the starting point for that was hard and expensive to get to, whereas nearby Samarkand was easier and cheaper. Then at the end of the Pamir Highway trip, I jumped on the opportunity to use my visa-free entry into China (for this year only currently). This would take me back to Xinjiang after 26 years!
So, as you can see, the itinerary gets weirder as it evolves. But that’s quite typical for me.
Jetting away
Kim dropped me off at Auckland international airport 10 mins before the 3h mark for my 2040 Jetstar flight to Melbourne. I had been worried that the flight could be disrupted because they had an aircraft go off the runway in Christchurch this morning due to a hydraulic steering issue.
It took me about 30 mins to get to the check-in desk despite being near the front of the queue. Today I had 4.5kg of cabin bag and 4.5kg to check-in (out of the minimum purchased 20kg).
After a feed in the lounge, I boarded the flight. Some people who had two large cabin bags were seen on board with only one, meaning that they were made to surrender one piece into the cargo hold. Not sure if they had to pay for it or not.
In any case, my Jetstar fare was cheaper than a staff ticket, it didn’t worry me to pay for the baggage.