I’m typing this, somewhere above the Tasman Sea heading from Dunedin to Brisbane. It’s amazing what a good seat, headphones and a empty spot beside you does. On checkin, they asked if I would sit in one of the exit rows – Hell YES! Extra leg room, window seat, and it just so happens an empty seat beside me. My Phitek noise canceling headphones on, Pink Floyd in my gigabit (yes – no iPod here), and my iPad out. I must look like a real geek! I am winging my way via Brisbane to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea – for a “look/see” before taking up my new role in a few months time. I’m not exactly the best flyer, and this Virgin Pacific Blue plane isn’t really what I expected for a 3.5 hour flight. No movies, have to even buy a coffee, food- yup, optional extra… Funny, the food is in dollars, but it doesn’t say if the $ are Aussie or Kiwi – so I used kiwi. $14 NZ vs $14 AUD – pity the poor soles that just spent a bit more due to changing all their money over. Meal = Ham and Cheese roll, cold of course – and a bottle of Crown Lager – mmmmm. I haven’t had a Crown in years! Funky bottle too – like a mini keg, metal botttle. Made the beer taste different, however that might have been the plastic cup I had to drink it out of.
My evening consists of spending the next 2 hours mucking about, before navigating an airport I have never been to, and then catching a cab to Royal on the Park, some fancy hotel beside the Brisbane Botanical Gardens. Who… Have a twitter account, but don’t respond to a simple question, and don’t respond to an email question via their contact page. Pretty bloody slack really.
I spend the night there, before catching the 8am Air Nuigini flight to Port Moresby – I can’t wait…
My goal in POM is to check things like accommodation, schooling etc – and take heaps of photos for the whanau. I hope I don’t die of the heat – we had snow to 300 meters in Dunedin before I left, and Port Moresby is sitting between 25 and 30 degrees celcius – d’oh