charlene75

Bags were outside the door at 6:30 this morning and after a quick breakfast, I was off to the airport to get 102 boarding passes. My pre-ordered taxi never arrived, so I spotted a group of people getting into a taxi bus. I walked over and asked if they were going to the airport. What luck! They were going to fly to Milford Sound via fixed-wing that day. They said I could hitch a ride which was great. They were ophthalmologists world wide here for a congress on glaucoma. It was fun ride with them.

At the airport, I rounded up the Air New Zealand duty manager who didn’t have the tickets printed! I had only 30 minutes to get their seats assigned, printed boarding passes, and alphabetized so we could distribute when the buses arrived. This airport is so tiny, in the middle of this project, the duty manager had to put on his vest and go land an airplane!

I barely made it and our buses arrived. We got everyone organized, and through screening in about 10 minutes – we prohibited carryon luggage! We already knew how restrictive they are based on my previous flight from Melbourne so we just told everyone “no carry-ons.” It was great.

Once we landed in Christchurch were boarded buses for one of two tours: a sheep farm or an architecturally interesting house and gardens. You would eat lunch at your first destination then switch places to tour the other one.

Our first stop was Flaxton Farms. It was an 1830’s circa farmhouse with fields of sheep. As the bus arrives, the family/hosts are waiting outside and waiving. Graham, the dad, with the most friendly smile and most charming straw hat; Emily, his wife, the cook, and perfect hostess; their two daughters, 8 and 10 (they had the day off from school because company was coming).

This is a working sheep farm that had been in his family since the gold rush of the 1830’s. There were English gardens and sheep barns. He escorted us to the first field where we find 3 border collies. They are trained to assist him with the sheep, over 6,000 of them. The dogs were great. They were chained to a small cart just to keep them away from people. You never know who is afraid of dogs so he only released them one by one until he saw that everyone was ok with them.

Individually, they all decided I was their buddy!! They would do what he asked of them, he would begin talking to the group again, and they would run past everyone to find me. It was pretty funny. Of course, I was giving them all kind of affection, something they were not used to. These are working dogs, not family pets. They were in no way mistreated, but they don’t sit around begging for treats, playing with toys on the living room floor. They thought I was great just for giving them belly rubs!

The coordination of Graham and these dogs were unbelievable. He would give them a verbal command (“wallygo” which was a contraction of a longer sentence from years past) and they would go round up the sheep. He demonstrated one dog first. Then he demonstrated a technique of the younger dog. He put about 20 sheep in a loading chute and told the dog to make them move and turn in the right direction. The dog jumped over the fence onto the top of the sheep’s backs. He walked down the sheep’s backs, all the while the sheep were turning the right direction and getting in a single line. Never saw anything like that before.

Next he sheared a sheep and let everyone feel the different types of wool. Merino was everyone’s favorite.

Next he took us to a huge field to show us two dogs working at the same time. In this field were 200 sheep. He sent the dogs to the far end, about a football field away. Then ran the perimeter and got behind the sheep and all of the sudden, the sheep began to run in our direction. It was so impressive to see. He then instructed the dogs to bring the sheep around behind us, so they completely circled us with only the dogs guiding their actions. Unbelievable!

At some point, one of the dogs took a dip in the pond and then came to me for his head scratching. I would up with a muddy paw print on my shorts and a tongue lick on the camera lens!!

They served us lunch in their garden. Amazing meal on antique china, homemade food and lemonade, nice wines, and the girls helped pour the drinks. It was a marvelous experience. They only do this for our golf cruises and after hearing him describe the price of wool and lamb, I’m sure they benefit from the income. I had about 12 people ask for their address so they can write a thank you note.

We switched to the gardens and the interesting house. It was designed by one of the famous New Zealand architects (can’t remember right now) and there were 6 acres of gardens. It was very peaceful and the art work in the house was exquisite.

We boarded the bus for the hour trip to Lyttleton to board the ship.

The Orion is a small expedition ship, built especially for Antarctic trips, able to withstand ice and turbulent seas (which you will see later on came in handy). There are only 55 cabins with luxury amenities and décor. Marble bathrooms, gleaming brass circular staircase surrounding the glass elevator, and 73 crew members to service 102 passengers. Nice ratio!

We boarded, discovered our luggage had already been placed in our cabins, had champagne, and watched the ship depart. The luggage was trucked in, nearly didn’t make it because the ferry was late, and a few pieces were misplaced. I told the passengers that when they arrived if they had strange luggage in their cabins, AND if they clothing didn’t fit them or they didn’t like the selection, to phone reception.

There was a mandatory safety drill followed by crew introductions. We all had to bring our life jackets to the lounge and put it on for inspection. We then had to walk in a line with our hands on each other’s shoulders to the upper deck by the life boats. This is the new ship and they have the enclosed life boats and we were all assigned a boat. We then met the full crew.

Earlier when I boarded, I was hurrying somewhere for some reason, and I rushed past this man standing in the foyer. Never paid him any attention. When I returned, the first officer said “would you like to meet our captain?” I said “Sure” and looked around for Captain Stuebing from the Love Boat. Instead I was introduced to a 45 year old German fellow, thin and handsome in his white uniform. He was charming and had worked his way up the cruise ship corporate ladder to ship’s captain. He has a reputation for one of the best captains in this part of the world, but is no-nonsense. It’s by the book, no deviations. Safety first. More on that later too!

This is a German built and owned ship (owned by a lady who use to work for Cunard Lines) and the officers are all German or French, and the crew is Philipino. The expedition staff is all Australian or Kiwis and is very knowledgeable about the area, the mammals and the birds.

I slept great that night. My cabin is next to the restaurant and back staircase on the 3rd level. The higher you go, the more expensive the cabins become, culminating with the owner’s suite on deck 5 with its parlor and double balcony. My cabin is really only for one person, the best place in the ship for turbulence (more on that later also) and is the cabin the captain uses during the Antarctic cruises.

Tomorrow is docking in Wellington and golfing again.

Have you ever met anyone who has enough money to hire a great golf course architect and build his own course? How much money does that take? Oh, and did I mention building your own clubhouse with spa?

Today we took everyone to play “The Hills.” Michael Hill, of jewelry fame here in New Zealand, had so much money he didn’t know what to do…so he took some of his pasture land and built his own golf course. One member. Himself. The clubhouse is half under ground with bar, dining table for 14 and spa. All of the artwork on the course and in the clubhouse was done by his son.

Through an odd twist of fate, we were allowed to play the course. It’s only 10 minutes from the resort and passengers were very excited about access. They just finished the New Zealand Open there so it was in great shape, if you like an undulating course over rolling pastures where you can’t always see the green from the tee!

Of course, the first thing everyone does is grab some clubs and rush to the practice tee. It was a beautiful setting reached by walking a small footbridge over a stream. I’m talking a bridge about 3 feet wide and about 2 feet above the water, water that was ankle deep. How do I know it was ankle deep?

I was taking photos of the area when I heard a BOOM! It was a passenger falling down on the bridge, or rather sitting down on it. She got back on her feet as several people ran to her aid. She said not to worry, it was just like when you know you are going to fall while skiing and you get ready and just sit down. That’s exactly what she did. Apparently, the practice tee was damp with dew; the bridge was slightly leaning to the back corner, and was made from treated logs (sort of like railroad ties). That was a lethal combination and though it didn’t look slick, in golf shoes, you just slide right off.

She went on her way, I went back to photos, and then I heard a SPLASH! It was another person falling on the bridge and yes, his foot went in the water ankle deep. Fortunately neither person was injured but I had to stand there for another 45 minutes saying, “Be careful when you cross the bridge, it’s slick.” It was funny however, when several other people made a big deal about being careful, taking little baby steps, pretending to use their golf club to balance themselves, etc…. These folks are very funny and are enjoying themselves very much!

I decided to take foursome shots on tee #1, for those groups who could FIND tee #1. Apparently, Mr. Hill has his farm hands put out the tee signs and markers. They had mistakenly marked hole #1 as hole #17. They also put the tee markers on the tee crooked. If you used them to line up, you would be hitting to the hole next door!

We transported them back to the resort and had dinner in the Japanese restaurant on property. Most everyone else went into town so it was very quiet.

When I got back to my room, I discovered I had left my balcony door open and the room was full of gnats. My bedspread was covered in gnats, and it was about 90 degrees! I had asked for two days for my heat to be turned on, and once the weather warmed up, they decided to do it! I called the front desk and asked them for a fan, which they gladly brought but I couldn’t get the gnats to go away. I tried to kill some, swat some, and in a momentary lapse of reason, sprayed bug spray on some.

Don’t ever spray bug spray on a comforter indoors. What a dumb thing to do. I couldn’t open the windows or doors to air out the room—no screens. The most I could do is wait for the fan to make it livable space again.

I finished packing and got to bed around 1am. Next stop is Christchurch and the ship!

Let me begin by saying I need a helicopter. Seriously.

Today is my first helicopter ride! I’m a little nervous about the prospect of flying over the earth with two small spinning blades, but I’ll not pass up the chance. We are flying to Milford Sound, a fjord with a glacier at one end. It empties into the Tasman Sea and is very dramatic in size and topography.

We board the buses for the 15 minute drive to the airport. One half of the group is going by helicopter and one half is going by fixed winged aircraft. The vendor had already assigned aircraft based on our weights and when I looked at the list I discovered that I would be flying BOTH WAYS via helicopter. Seems they couldn’t get the weights to balance and Sue instructed them to put the staff anywhere it would work out.

We gather in the heliport (first time use of that word!) and our tail number is called. We meet our pilot Scott, all of 24 years old, are warned to keep our arms down and not to walk toward the rear of the helicopter, and are escorted to our waiting machine. This is the smallest one on the field. Three passengers max! Everyone else has the larger ones with 6-8 people. He suggest that the couple I’m with squeeze into the front for the best view, thus giving me the entire back seat, about the size of a VW, to myself for photos. Awesome!

We climb in, put on our headphones, and he revs the motor. Liftoff! OMG. This thing is so smooth with only one problem: there is no where for me to hold on to. I resort to gripping the bottom of my seat because I’m terrified. Then I come to my senses and realize I’ll miss all the photos if I don’t get it together. I start taking photos and get more used to the flight. We are flying over the most beautiful mountains called The Remarkables, at about 6000 feet going to 8000 feet. Doing ok at this point. Then he starts flying over the top of the peaks when the shear drop offs on the other side, you know the kind, the ones where you go “ooooo” when you watch them on IMAX.

Scott radios us that we are going to land on the glacier. He swings around the mountain top and find a portion of the glacier big enough to land. Now I know this has been done many times and carefully planned, but it was awesome. His landing was pretty quick in and pulls up the nose. The large helicopters have to come in very slowly. We are allowed out to walk around in the snow in sandals and take lots of photos.

Back in the helicopter it’s more over the peak flying, finally landing at Milford Sound. The ride was 45 minutes and everyone in all the helicopters were crazy about the trip. We bused over to the small lunch cruise ship and cruised the sound. We saw seals and waterfalls. It was on such a grand scale you really had to see another boat in the distance to estimate the height of the fjord walls.

Once we were back to the heliport, I realized that I would be flying with Scott again, in the small, what I like to refer to as the aerobatic stunt helicopter, for reasons I will explain.

On this trip, the husband of the couple in the front had flown Huey’s in Vietnam. He and Scott spent the first part of the trip talking about the differences between then and now. Unbeknownst to me, when we were on the glacier, they decided to give his wife (with me thrown in the middle) a taste of more exciting flying. Instead of the simple takeoff from the glacier, he did a nose dive down the side with a hard bank around a cliff face. He proceeded to scare the crap about of me and the Mrs. No photos were taken on the flight after the glacier landing. I’m not sure any breathing was done on the flight after the glacier either!!

We landed safely back at the heliport and came back to the resort to pack for our flight to Christchurch the following morning.

It was a spectacular day for everyone except for Couple A. Couple A had shipped a bag of dirty laundry from Melbourne to Queenstown, hoping to repack them into the major luggage prior to their US flight. Now this just seemed a bit odd to me, but they have the funding for such a project, so it seemed logical to them. Problem was they didn’t itemize the contents and New Zealand customs rejected the bag and sent it back to Melbourne.

They wanted me to handle getting it sent again, coordinating a delivery day with one of the golf courses we were playing on the ship cruise. Our advice to them was to ship it home, but they insisted they needed it here prior to departing the country. I called the hotel and got their new shipping form faxed to us, called a company Luggage Free who we recommend and got their shipping forms for them to use.

As expected, they wrote their cc number on the firm and gave everything else to me to complete. We faxed to both parties and that was that (or at least we thought so – more about this later).

The good news about packing is that we truck the entire luggage to Christchurch to board the ship. No baggage checking, no limits on weight or quantity, no screening. Packing is pretty easy when you can stuff something full, and then use the hotel dry cleaning bag for the rest!

This morning we held our first of many golf outings with the full passenger list, all 96. It was held at the Millbrook Resort where we are staying. The resort is a former wheat farm and mill. They have preserved many of the original buildings and still have a working water wheel. There is a stream that runs through it (should make a movie out of that!) with lots of ducks and geese. Most everything in the area of Queenstown and Arrowtown are a result of the 1860's gold rush.

My room is in the Village Inn area which are restored laborer housing buildings from the gold rush, very spacious with the stream running under my balcony (down by the old mill street!- couldn't resist). All of the passengers are housed in the villas, newly built upscale buildings above the mill house. Each building on the central property houses reception, bar, restaurant, spa, etc... and are restored to the original rustic glory.

There was a shotgun at 9:30 and my job was to assist people with finding the staging area. Jose and Heidi had already placed all the bags on the carts. Next I was to go to the driving range where the shotgun would originate. After that, I was assigned to marshall speed of play. Basically I just watch the timing of those playing through near the pro shop and encourage those who are not keeping up. We do have some purists who are walking, and one 80 year old who insists on carrying his own bag all 18 holes. He and his wife are remarkable. She actually hugs trees and rocks. She says she communiccates with them and receives energy from them.

Lunch was a grilled barbeque under the trees with venison and lamb burgers. I don't like lamb. I just don't like the taste, but the venison burger was the best venison I have ever had. The species of deer is very diferent down here. It's smaller and farm raised in some areas. I learned it's called Cervena if it's farm raised, and venison if it's wild. All of the food down here is without pesticides and hormones. Boy it really makes a difference in the taste.

At the end of the day, I assisted passengers returing their clubs to their travel cases. Sounds easy but I kept them on pace so well, they all finished at the same time!! When 96 people arrive in carts to unload, it's a bit chaotic, but we made it.

We did a quick dinner in Arrowtown, which reminds me of Park City Utah, but on a smaller scale. Very quaint main street with lots of shops and restaurants. We ate at a pasta and pizza place hoping to escape the passengers and who turned up there too: 6 passengers. Fortunately, they were some of a favorite ones, so it was lots of fun.

I have downloaded the photos to the camera but with the limited internet capabilities, which will be getting more scarce when we board the ship on Wednesday, it's too much for the system to handle.

Tomorrow is the trip to Milford Sound, the fjord. We go there by helicopter and return by fixed wing. It will be my first helicopter ride. I'm very excited!

Wait a second---was there no crisis? nothing gone awry? That's right folks, it was a normal day. Finally!

I'm sure tomorrow will make up for it though. Karma is always lurking behind the next sunrise!

I was packed and downstairs with my luggage at 5:00am. Everyone was instructed to place their luggage outside their door by 5:30 am with bus departure at 6:30am. Both buses arrived and the one bellman on duty and Jim both started going floor by flooor bringing luggage outside. I counted and marked them for confirmation with the passengers. We left the hotel at 6:30 a.m. on the dot and arrived at the airport at 7:00 a.m. Based on the earlier confusion of departure, we hired 3 men to meet us there with the carts and load them. We instructed passengers to wait on the bus and when their luggage was loaded on a cart, we would call them off the bus one by one and they can roll it into the ticketing line.

As I feared, the departure area sidewalk was jammed. It was very difficult to load the luggage, match it up with the golf bags. Then in the middle of everything we were trying, the trolly company came by to fill the trolley machines. I asked them to wait but all I got was a stare. Then the passengers got impatient and started getting off on their own. It was a bit more of a controlled chaos, but not by much. Eventually everyone had their luggage including me and we got in the line. The lines were very short and everyone was checked in and on their way to security in 30 minutes—all except me.

Remember when I told all the passengers about the carry on allowances, 15 pounds and that’s it. Well, I asked about my briefcase and they said it would not clear security so I would have to check it. “The charge for the extra checked bag will be $60 and you will need to go to the next BUILDING to pay that, then return to the line to obtain your boarding pass.” The next BUILDING? You have got to be kidding me. I had no choice, Jim was handling the rest of the passengers to security, so I started walking. I had to go literally to another building but at least there was no line. I paid the money and asked the agent if there was anyone to avoid standing in line again. Fortunately, he said to go to the service desk and they would issue the pass.

It worked and I sailed through security. I arrived at the gate and turns out I was the only one who got stopped. They all had a great laugh about that one. The real reason they didn’t get stopped is they were all traveling on a business or first class ticket and they get to have 2 bags.

We boarded the Air New Zealand flight and departed on time to ChristChurch. It was 3.5 hour flight. So many people said to me they thought New Zealand was right next to Australia. Surprise!!

There was no fog, no delays, like Sue had two days before. This was great! We exited our plane at the same time several other wide body jets from Asia did. OMG. Immigration was a sea of people. There were no lines. I knew there would be stantions eventually but for now, it was a horde. I took a deep breath and thought “we’re in big trouble.” We waited 30 minutes and barely moved.

Did I mention we had a one hour connecting time. Forgot to say that I think.

At this point the passengers began to look at me and ask me simple questions like “are we going to make it?” “what do we do if we don’t make it?” “why aren’t you up at the front of the line telling them we need to get thorugh.” Fortunately, I had spent 48 hours with ½ of these people and they trusted me. I said it would be fine and they started passing the word.

Meanwhile, our ground agent Frank was calling me. He kept asking me where we were in line. I kept saying “where we were 5 minutes ago.” Sue called from New Zealand and she was calling the airlines trying to get us fast tracked. Frank was working on our behalf in the outer hall.

I told the passengers that we had the option of traveling by coach to the resort or spending the night in a hotel and reticketing the following morning. What I didn’t tell them was it was 8 hours on a bus and the city was sold out because of the PGA and Rugby. I kept a smile on my face and began texting Frank and Sue things like “high anxiety in here” “help us!”.

Finally, several passengers said to me “why don’t you go talk with someone about this?” I explained that the only people I could reach from here were immigration people and they don’t care about you , the airlines or your flight. We had people on the outside working on our behalf and they have a better chance of success. I also told them that the New Zealand government doesn’t look kindly on US tour operators working over here anyway. In fact Penny, on cruise #1, was detained and warned at the airport to never try to enter on a pleasure visa, and that next time she should apply for and get a work visa, which is nearly impossible. So I told them to keep quiet and they agreed that was best.

All of a sudden, two Air New Zealand supervisors appeared at the immigration lines and were asked the large group of passengers waiting there who was their tour leader. It took them about 2 seconds to give me up. Not only did they point me out, they loudly said “she’s in charge, she’s the tour leader of our cruise.!” OMG. Traitors! I thought for sure I was on my way back to North Carolina. It was just like the scene in Invasion of the Body Snatchers when she thinks Donald Sutherland is not one of them, and he points at her and a horrible noise emits from his mouth!

Turns out Frank and Sue pushed enough buttons to get things rolling for us, literally. The supervisor said “we are holding your plane for you but you must run, all of you, with your luggage.” I quickly told everyone and we were off. Immigration took 10 seconds for a stamp, and we ran for the luggage area. Let me make this clear: they were running. Supervisors were running. They had already pulled luggage off the belt and all we had to do was put it on cart—if we had a cart! I ran all around looking for some and even a security guard with guns was running to help me. I was tossing golf clubs like they were loaves of bread (super human strength in a crisis!) and everyone was out but me (again). I failed to unload my m&m’s in the amnesty bin. They are strict about food being brought in and it's a $200 on the spot fine. He looked at my candy and I said “look, I really need those to make it through this.” “He said, "from the looks of things, I think you do. Go ahead.” Customs looked at each golf shoe, we rescanned our bags, and came out the arrivals door.

Frank and his staff were waiting and grabbed everyone’s carts and started running. The passengers were running. Ladies in cute shoes ready for the opening reception were running. Men with bad hips were running. Frank waited for me and offered to push me on the cart with my luggage! No need, so I sprinted to the luggage recheck area. They had a team of crew members grabbing our luggage and shoving it into the luggage conveyor. No tags, no looks, no matching up anything, Then the Air New Zealand supervisors began running again. (In hindsight, I think they learned this from their sheep herding dogs. Not one passenger refused to run.)

We ran all the way from gate 1 to gate 11, showed our boarding pass, I got a huge bear hug from Frank, and then walked in a downpour outside to our prop plane. We boarded and they closed the door and started the engines before we were seated. We couldn’t find storage for everyone's carry-ons so we passed them down the aisle, over our heads to the rear of the plane (where we entered) and the last person, me, stuck them anywhere they would fit. The plane was rolling and I was still stowing luggage. I sat down and we were airbourne about 3 minutes later.

OMG.

There was a huge cry of relief and a round of applause for ourselves! There were smiles all around but everyone was exhausted. When they passed out the complimentary water, I didn’t know whether to drink it or pour it over my head!

It was a 50 minute flight to Queenstown, mostly above the clouds. Then about 10 minutes to landing we dropped down and we were in the mountains of The Remarkables, flying delicately between mountains on both sides. It was very windy so it was gliding more than flying, lots of turns, banks as we came down the pass. Everyone was commenting how scary it was, lots of chatter, until we dropped below the clouds. Then silence.

It was unbelievably beautiful. The only other time I have felt this way was the first time I saw the Alps. It was just like television, movies, books. Magnificent. There was no talking. Not a word. Everyone was just stunned at the majesty of the area.

Turns out there are no nighttime flights in/our of Queenstown because of the mountains so you have to take off in time to land before dark. Smart! We landed, taxied to the terminal, and deplaned to get our luggage.

Another thing I didn’t tell them passengers was in my sprint to the finish line (just like The Amazing Race!) I was told we were 450 kilos over on luggage. Some would not be going with us and would be on a cargo plane to Invercargill, another city on the coast. It would then be trucked 3 hours to the resort. Who cares! These people just don’t want to switch hotels and fly again tomorrow.

None of the golf clubs arrived and 5 people had missing luggage. No worries though! We were met at the airport by Heidi, our German tour guide, and Jose, our Portugal tour guide. Both have been with Kalos for a couple of years and were already on the job with the luggage. We were transported to the resort, got our room keys, and hurriedly went to the opening reception.

Sue introduced the staff and when she introduced me as the staff person traveling with the Melbourne folks, I got a round of applause. The story had already been told and it seems I was to receive all the glory. I’ll take it!

Dinner was great and we had a traditional Maori tribe greeting. Similar to Samoa and Hawaii, the indigenous tribes use dance and song, but try to be very fierce in their facial expressions and the body paintings. It was very cool!

I had several people come to the staff table at dinner to thank me for my hard work and to tell Sue that I was the calm they all needed. I think they were just scared of my muscle and brawn after seeing me tossing those golf clubs about!

I unpacked and finally went to bed at 1:30 a.m. I had to be at breakfast a 7am and then a full day of golf for the passengers. I just hope they put me somewhere I can sit in the sun and rest!

Next time we fly direct!