One Leg Down

I do love Auckland airport.

Free internet, a welcome tea & coffee, free showers, and they didn't even give me any hassle at Customs, what with my questionable itinerary, my three passports, and my plethora of imported plant products...and yes, I have been hiking in a rural area in the past 30 days...

It's 6 a.m. according to New Zealand, 4 a.m. according to me, and I am waiting for the good people of Rotary Waitakere (you remember them from all the Aid Post Project photos) to pick me up and paint the town red until I fly to London at 10:45 tonight...

Incidentally, I came over with a group of about fifty Ni-Vans arriving for one of these new apple-picking cheap seasonal labour scheme our governments are doing. It was pretty fun watching them take the piss out of all things Auckland, their eyes lighting up with joy at that flat escalator thing that helps you get "there" just a little bit faster. Where's there? I don't know, friend, but welcome to it.

I watched them dick around at Customs and laughed out loud as the angsty official kept crying out for them to stay in line. Most were already shivering. Having been amply forewarned, most of them were wearing hats. Imagine their surprise when some short little woman behind the desk asked them to please it.

Take off my HAT?
You just do NOT dis a brata like that.