Friday, February 27, 2020:

After burning some energy on our morning hike (see previous post), we were off to the airport to sit for approximately the next 12 hours. Our flight to Auckland was scheduled for 1:30PM with an estimated flight time of 10 hours. We arrived a few hours early, cleared TSA relatively quickly, and found a seat at our gate.

This leg of the journey was also with Hawaiian Airlines. Meryem and I chose the same seats on this flight as our previous flight. Little did we know how lucky we would be to find yet another miniature flight neighbor. This one not nearly as cute as Penelope, and much more vocal. We came better equipped to snooze this time:

I also came prepared anticipating my luck with the vegan chili would soon run out, and I was right. Meatballs. I traded Meryem my spicy coleslaw and meatballs for her rice. I think she came out on top. She did throw in a token pepper.

If I wrote again that “the rest of the flight was seamless,” Meryem said she would have to interject like Ms. Rafferty from SNL’s “Another Close Encounter” and keep it real. The cookie crumbled a little differently this time. Meryem was closer to our screeching miniature neighbor, who didn’t enjoy turbulence any more than he enjoyed multiple rounds of the entire cabin being sprayed down with mystery gas from an aerosol can due to the corona virus frenzy. I thought those were banned on planes?

After 20+ hours of air travel, I started to fully understand just how far away we were from home. We made it to the other side of the globe. Our new “home” was outside my window.

Before we could call New Zealand “home,” we had one small task ahead: clear customs. Because we had to wait for my bike to arrive at baggage claim, we were last in line. Dead last. It was almost 11:00PM when we finally reached the agent’s desk. I handed him my visa paperwork, passport, and customs form.

He stamped my passport, paused, then asked me if I was here on the working holiday visa. I said yes, to which he replied, “S#*%!!” Then he took out a big red stamp that said “CANCELLED.” I heard the thud of the stamp hit my passport. I was cancelled.

I told Meryem what happened on our ride down the looooong escalator to exit the airport. She laughed and said “well, we better check mine.” Visitor Visa. We turned around to head back up to the customs desk and … no return escalator. 200 stairs again … this time with luggage. Good thing we warmed up our legs earlier that morning at Diamond Head.

New Zealand doesn’t use Lyft so I called an Uber to bring us to our AirBnb. This was our first taste of Kiwi lingo. After “tossing the bags in the boot,” we got into the car. Meryem called shotgun and proceeded for what we know to be the passenger side. The Uber driver was a bit alarmed and thought we were about to make off like the fast and furious with his Toyota Camry.

We were greeted by our wonderful AirBnb host, KK, and settled in for a real night’s sleep. After leaving a NY winter behind, sleeping with the windows open and a warm breeze felt like a dream that I was happy to slip into…

Friday, February 27, 2020:

Our 23 hour layover in Honolulu gave us just enough time for a short hike in the morning before our flight to Auckland. We woke up at 5:30AM to catch a 6:15AM bus to Diamond Head on the eastern side of the island.

Diamond Head is an inactive volcano that has been transformed into a beautiful state park. There is a tunnel to allow pedestrians and cars through the volcanic wall into the center of the crater. Here is our view on the walk up the slope to the tunnel entrance.

We arrived just before 7:00AM and saw a lot of joggers on their sunrise runs. Inside the crater, they have built restrooms, a small souvenir shop, and a stand selling fresh pineapple juice and smoothies.

We started making our way up the trail toward the ridge line. I’ve hiked a volcano before (Mt. Fuji), but not inside out. We started at the bottom of the crater and hiked up the *inside* of the volcano. Here is a view of the crater wall and the blue sky above.

The trail up the crater wall was long switchbacks, making it perfect for a morning trail run. It was inspiring to see how many runners were there to catch the sunrise at the top.

Once we made it to the ridge line, the views were like nothing I’ve ever seen before. We could see the inside of the crater where we had just climbed from, and could now see the ocean on the other side. The sun was just starting to rise as we broke the ridge line and we stopped for a few minutes to meditate and appreciate the moment.

We reached a viewpoint that overlooks the inside of the crater and faces the sunrise. This was my favorite spot on the hike.

We made it to the summit where we were greeted with even more impressive views of the Pacific. I sat here for a while and thought about how incredible it is that this volcano I climbed rose up from the vast ocean that was in front of me.

Honolulu is also visible from the summit. Waikiki Beach is nestled between downtown Honolulu and Diamond Head.

The final climb to the summit is a staircase with probably 200 stairs. We decided to snap a photo of it on the way down because the view back into the crater was stunning. It’s hard to imagine how far below the crater walls those houses are in the distance.

We finished the decent and headed straight for the bus stop and back to our AirBnb. We checked out at 11:00AM and grabbed a Lyft to the airport in time for our 1:30PM flight to Auckland. We were finally heading to New Zealand! (And what an adventure it was… stay tuned!)

Wednesday, February 26, 2020:

Today began our looooong travel from New York to New Zealand. For the first leg of our trip, we caught a flight out of NY from JFK at 10:00AM and flew to Honolulu. The flight was scheduled to be 10.5 hours, which would put us in Hawaii at 4:30PM HST, but ended up being only 9.5 hours.

I was optimistic about this flight because it was during the day (I have a hard time with red-eyes). As as accountant, I’m used to sitting and working on spreadsheets for 8 hours at a time, so I figured sitting and watching movies or reading on a plane would still be an improvement.

We boarded and were greeted by our adorable flight neighbor, Penelope.

As wonderful and generous as Penelope’s family was to us on our flight (sharing snacks, giving us tips for Honolulu), I couldn’t help but be saddened by our meeting. Penelope was given 3/4 bottle of Pepsi to drink at the start of the flight. When her mom would put the bottle down for a moment, Penelope would start to scream and wave her arms for more. It was clear that Penelope has a severe addiction to sugar, and she is only 9 months old. Moments like this make it very apparent why we are seeing such staggering rates of childhood obesity in America.

About 2 hours into the flight, we were served a complimentary hot meal. As a vegan, I was expecting the worst. To my surprise, we were served vegan chili, white rice, and a cold vegetable noodle salad. This was the only meal option (sorry carnivores!). Everything was delicious – probably because it was my first meal of the day – but for airplane food, it was definitely above average.

The rest of the flight was seamless. Hawaiian Airlines caters to Japanese travelers, and as a result, offers a number of movies in Japanese (with English subtitles). Since my plan was to study Japanese for a few hours on the flight anyway, I watched a movie in Japanese instead. I also watched “A Star Is Born,” which lived up to every positive review I’ve heard about it.

We landed in Honolulu at 3:30PM HST. Before embarking on our 23 hour layover in Honolulu, our plan was to collect our checked luggage (bike box for me, suitcase for Meryem), check in for our flight the next day and re-check our luggage again so that we could leave the airport with only our backpacks. We collected our luggage, successfully checked in. To our unfortunate surprise, were told we could not re-check our luggage until the next day. I was stuck with a 60 lb bike box in tow, and Meryem with a 67 lb suitcase. (She packed a lot of shampoo … I think).

The Honolulu airport is open air, so we got our first taste of 80 degree weather right away. We made our way to the public transport lobby to catch a bus to our AirBnb. I asked a woman waiting for the bus for directions downtown, and she told us that we would not be allowed on the city bus with our luggage. Meryem shrugged and said, “that sounds like her opinion. Let’s go for it.” Well, she was right. The bus driver laughed at us and told us our bags were too big to bring on the bus. Meryem called a Lyft and we were on our way to our Airbnb.

Our AirBnb was a condo in downtown Honolulu. The views from the balcony were breathtaking in every direction. If you’re ever in Honolulu, I highly recommend staying here – happy to give you the details.

We dropped our things and decided to visit nearby Waikiki Beach to watch the rest of the sunset and grab a bite to eat. We were allowed on the city bus this time, and made it to the beach in about 15 minutes.

Waikiki Beach is an interesting blend of city life and tropical beach. Skyscrapers sit alongside the white sandy beach lined with shops and restaurants. It was surprisingly clean considering all of the foot traffic.

Watching the sunset felt so peaceful and still. The beach cleared out and we were among the few people left listening to the waves standing in the darkness. Feeling the warm ocean breeze made the long flight feel unquestionably worth it.

We were craving breakfast food and found a place called Eggs ‘N Things. Then promptly inhaled every bite like we hadn’t eaten for 3 days. It was better than the chili.

We couldn’t find the bus route / bus stop to head back towards our AirBnb so we ended up walking just over 3 miles back. We went to bed early to prepare for an early morning hike and the next leg of travel to Auckland, NZ. Day 2 coming up next!