New Zealand - Day Ten (16/12/11)

My parents and I were headed to different destinations today. They were flying a domestic flight from Auckland to Dunedin, while I would fly internationally back to Malaysia.

It was going to be something challenging for me - because no matter how seasoned a traveller I was, I had never flown by myself before - not to mention with so much baggage and a transit through Singapore. Well, yeah, I had flown to Sabah by myself, but that was a domestic flight, for goodness sake.

Auckland had two terminals - one for their domestic flights, and the other for their international flights. And because I was early, I had to wait for the counter to open.

I observed the people around me lazily. I weighed my bag. I walked around. And heck, the counters still weren't open yet. When they finally were, I did my check-in, and specified to them that I wanted my baggage to be flown all the way to Malaysia. They gave me two boarding passes which I vowed not to lose - otherwise it'd spell disaster.

I still had a lot of time - so I couldn't resist buying something sweet.

The thing about money when it isn't earned by you is that you tend to be more wasteful than necessary.

Cough.

I sat at the terminal, sipping a Chai Latte and eating a slice of Carrot Cake. Ah, the wonders of Cinnamon sprinkled on the Latte. Simply fabulous.

The flights were unbearable. Horrible seats were one thing, but horrible neighbours were yet another source of intolerable annoyance. The Asian guy hopped into the seat next to me and promptly took off his shoes, placing his feet high up on the seat in front of him. Without batting an eyelid, he took out a tupperware of Sashimi and started eating noisily with chopsticks. After the Sashimi, came the Bento.

I was stuck with flight meals, and this guy didn't seem to mind that I was casting mild glares at his way.

Due to bad weather, the landing at Changi Airport had to be delayed. I cursed and felt miffed - what if I missed my connecting flight to Malaysia? All sorts of scenarios filled my mind - I'd have to get food vouchers and get a stay at one of the Singapore hotels - or I'd have to ring up Singaporean friends - preferably Kai Yang or Kenji - for places to stay - or...

The plane finally landed, and I had little time to get to my next departure gate. The thing was, Changi Airport was frickin' huge. No joke. If KLIA was large, then Changi Airport was mammoth-sized. I literally raced through the carpeted terminals, ignoring the stares of passerbys.

And finally, I managed to fly back to Kuala Lumpur. I grabbed my baggage, glad to know that I was finally home. By the time I reached my house, it was near to 12am - which meant that it was around 5am New Zealand time. God, I was still in the New Zealand time zone, and I felt like crap.

Sleep. It was what I needed.

And thus, my New Zealand trip came to an end.