I thought I would go back to the beginning of the trip. I was pleasantly surprised how fast the WiFi was on theAirbus ride from Monterey to SFO. In the past it was painfully slow, but this time it was not bad. Either they have improved their service, or maybe it was fast because I was the only one using it. It allowed me to get a lot of work done on the ride to the airport.
The 12+ hour plane ride went by quickly, even though I was flying coach and not on a Gulfstream IV like I fly when going to Palmyra. I was seated in the second to the last row, which meant I was able to board early and get my bag in the overhead. I was in no rush to get off the plane when we landed since I was arriving 2 hours before the rental car agency opened. I was near the emergency exit and on the aisle with the middle seat empty as planned. This meant I could put my backpack under the middle seat and stretch out in mine. I met the first of many friendly New Zealanders sitting in the window seat. We had a nice conversation while eating dinner. I then watched a movie before falling asleep. I arrived well rested.
Getting through customs was interesting. They have automated it. You put your passport into a kiosk, answer a few questions on the screen, and out pops a ticket which you take to another station where you input the ticket and stand still while the automated camera takes your photo. At that point I got rejected and had to go see a human customs agent. Did my passport photo not match the one they tried to take? Was I just a random pick to be screened by a human? Who knows, but I had a nice chat with the agent before being cleared. The plus for going through the old fashioned way was I got my passport stamped. I don't think that happens otherwise.
I had to declare food (granola bars and chocolate) and sports gear that had been outside (SCUBA stuff), so I was sent to the X-ray line. Finally cleared, I emerged well before I needed to phone my rental car agency which was off-site. I had a couple things to do before I called anyway. First I needed cash, so I found an ATM. The first one I tried did not work, which got me a bit worried that I was't going to be able to get some cash. I found another ATM and it worked. Whew! Next I wanted to get a SIM installed in my iPad so I could get online even if there was no WiFi. I had determined that Telecom was the one to use since it had the best coverage in the remote areas I would be traveling. The other service had good coverage in the cities, but not so good outside metropolitan areas. The problem was I didn't see Telecom which was supposed to be at the airport. It turns out the company decided to change their name only a few weeks ago to Spark. I eventually figured it out.
I purchased the SIM and let them install it, but it was not working. It took a LONG time for them to get it to work. As part of their attempt to get it functioning, they asked me to remove a couple files. These files may or may not have caused the problem as he was trying several other things. Much later that day I discovered that removing one of those files resulted in my losing my Stanford email account. For a while I got around this either by reading my email using my iPod when I had WiFi access, or reading it on my iPad using Webmail in my Safari browser.
I had just sat down around 6:30 am and was going to catch up with my email until it was time to phone for the pick-up when a stranger came up to me and asked if I was if I was Joe from California. It turns out the car rental agent was meeting his daughter who was arriving the same morning. I was impressed he was able to pick me out from the crowd. I was also happy not to have to figure out how to use the pay phone.
I rented on older car from Scottie's. It turns out I was happy the rental place was not right at the airport. This meant I didn't have to negotiate airport traffic while I was getting used to an unfamiliar car and driving on the left. As is often the case when renting cars, I got a free upgrade. Normally I complain when they do this because I prefer a smaller, more fuel efficient car. However, the one I was supposed to get probably would not have held all my gear inside the trunk which is a disadvantage when trying to keep things hidden when leaving your car to go off exploring. The one thing that you get in most newer cars are multiple places to plug in electronics. This Nissan only has one which I need for the GPS. I had hoped to also plug in my iPod or iPad.
This is a very text heavy post, but I will throw in one picture of my rental car. I promise to get more photos posted, but I do have one more long winded tome in me about New Zealand driving that I will do later.
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