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.

New Zealand - Day One (7/12/11)

It was the final day of SPM.

I fidgeted throughout the entire exam, feeling unsettled, excited, and anxious at the same time. For one, I had no idea what the ancient Mandarin scripts in front of me were about ; and for another, I knew my bags were back home in my room - unpacked and half-empty.

It hadn't been my fault, of course. The exams had taken up too much of my time. Of course, it also had been me who wanted to join in the excursion to New Zealand as soon as I was done with SPM here, so I didn't complain.

As soon as SPM ended, I rushed back home instead of staying back for the victory celebrations.

Thanks to the fact that I was quite a seasoned traveller, I could hastily shove everything into my bag without making a long, lengthy list.

I glanced at my watch. There was around an hour left. Damn. And the worst thing was, at that current moment, I found out that my earphones for my music player had spoilt (It worked fine the day before that, I swear.) and my new Olympus E-PL2 camera had a faulty memory card. Goodness, I wanted to scream bloody murder.

I would have preferred travelling with MAS instead of AirAsia, but AirAsia fares were much cheaper. Another downside was that we would depart from LCCT, and not from KLIA. The LCCT really lived up to its Low-Cost-Carrier-Terminal name - by having little to zero system. While KLIA exuded a classy charm, LCCT carried an exuberant pasar malam vibe to it. I practically had to squeeze past the mass of people, lugging a huge bag along.

There was a lady with a baby directly on the seat in front of me.

Said baby cried in random intervals throughout the night flight.

My parents were quite understanding, and I tried to be as well. After all, flying long flights were uncomfortable businesses that took time getting used to. I remember having nosebleeds while flying whenever I was younger due to the dry air on board - and that had been really messy. This young baby couldn't speak, and therefore could only cry whenever he felt hungry, thirsty, or merely irritated. The mother was frantic, and my mother ended up helping her out.

Basically, the entire night was full of wailing. I couldn't sleep, and the hard seats on the flight were not in the least bit comfy. My back and neck ached, (one of the side effects of having scoliosis I suppose) and I felt like just twisting the cabin doors nearby so that I could make a memorable exit by skydiving.

Not that I would really have the courage to carry that out, of course.

The hours dragged by, painful and torturous. The next meal served was a few hours before landing - 11am New Zealand time, and 6am Malaysian time. I looked at the oily meal in front of me and suppressed the urge to throw up. I never was one to eat anything for breakfasts, and the time difference, while not as large as being in Europe, was enough to make me dread the fatigue that would be arriving very, very soon.

I sighed, and left the meal untouched.

All I wanted was some solid land to step onto.