Is There a Top or a Bottom to One's Bucket List?

When asked what was on my bucket list of travel destinations, New Zealand has always been at the top (or does one seek to get to the bottom of the list?) of mine.  Ever since seeing the first Lord of the Rings movie back in 2001, I have wanted to visit.  I had never been to Australia or New Zealand, and when faced with the reality of just how far away those places are, we were invariably asked "why don't you do both countries at the same time."  I never seriously considered that, and if I asked if I had a preference, New Zealand was always the clear and easy winner.

Traveling as far as the literal other side of the world would demand more than a traditional week-long vacation, and with the reality of the southern hemisphere having reverse seasons, I guess I always knew we'd have to visit during our winter.  Earlier this year, we decided to finally bite the bullet and go "down under" over the Christmas/New Year break.  That would allow Anna to come along -- and she had threatened us with bodily harm if she couldn't go with us -- and also make the fact of missing so much time from work more palatable.

Planning started early in the new year, as I tried to secure award airline tickets the day the booking calendar opened.  Even with that foresight, it was very quickly evident that the holiday weeks are, in fact, the highest of high season for New Zealand, so the reality of finding award tickets quickly dimmed.  I even went against my normal modus operandi, and retained a "booking expert," to track ticket availability.  After weeks of searching, she too admitted that our prospects were all but non-existent.  This was all compounded by the reality that I did not think I could make such a long trip in a coach airline seat.  I dreaded the thought, and we decided that if we were going to go, we were going to make it worth our while and do everything we could to book business-class tickets.

As I continued to search for award tickets, I also tracked revenue fares, and tried every conceivable combination of fares that could be upgraded, or buying multiple tickets, and all kinds of "creative" routings.  I can't recall how I first stumbled onto it, but I found a very attractive round-trip business-class fare on Air China, from New York to Auckland, via Beijing.  While Air China flies non-stop from Dulles, the cost of that routing was about 50% more expensive than the New York routing.  Having decided to pull the trigger on those tickets, an extended period of planning followed.  I wanted to maximize our time, and seeing that it was high season, everything I read emphasized that I had to book as far in advance as possible for hotels and activities.  With the tickets purchased in March 2019, I then spent the next month or so finalizing our itinerary and booking everything I could in advance.  Even with the two weeks we had managed to squeeze in between Anna's end of term and New Years, it was clear we could only see a subset of what New Zealand had to offer.  Our favorite tour company -- Gate 1 -- actually does a two-week trip to New Zealand.  We looked into booking it, and taking out all the guess work, but they did not offer an option for triple rooms, and the trip left a day earlier than we planned.  Having no idea that far out when Anna's final exams might occur, it was too much of a risk to book the earlier date, aside from the prohibitive cost differential.  In the end, I ended up pretty much parroting the Gate 1 itinerary, day for day.  That also allowed us to augment things as we wanted, but also gave me an idea of what was feasible on a day-to-day basis, especially for traveling between towns along the way.

With everything in place and, for all intents and purposes, everything booked in advance by April -- even our Christmas Day dinner -- that left us with eight long months of anticipation.  Even with all that, our ultimate departure was fraught with uncertainty up to the very end.

The Gate 1 Itinerary We Closely Mirrored

No Plan is Foolproof...

With so much time between booking the trip and actually leaving, I began to think we were never going to leave.  It was not until Thanksgiving rolled around that it really started to sink in.  With a shorter-than-usual period between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, the departure date seemed to sneak up on us.  We also had some worrisome time earlier in the fall, while we waited for Anna's schedule for final exams to be published.  As it turned out, exams at GW were not due to end until 19 December, the day AFTER we were to leave.  Forcing ourselves to not try to plan for a contingency were Anna to have a late exam, we were very relieved in early November, when we learned her last exam would be the 17th, giving us a whole day of cushion.

As we counted down and reached the two-week window, fate decided to challenge us.  Exactly two weeks before we were to leave, almost to the hour, K announced that she could not see clearly out of her left eye.  Out of the blue, she had what she described as a veil or spider web across her field of vision.  During an eye exam earlier in the year, her ophthalmologist had noted that the vitreous fluid in K's right eye was contracting (as happens with time), which was causing "sparkles" to appear from time to time.  He told her at the time to contact him if they ever got worse, as it could be a sign of a retinal detachment.  The problems K had just developed, however, were different, and in the other eye.  She elected to go to bed and hope it improved by morning.  It didn't.  In fact, it had worsened.  She elected to go to work while I tried to reach the ophthalmologist.  I called their emergency number, and the doctor immediately called back and said K needed to got to a retinal specialist immediately.  He called to expedite a visit, while I called K from work.  She had driven to the office, but was already regretting it.  She had a very hard time seeing, and the vision was getting worse.  I turned around, left work, and drove to pick her up.  The doctor was located close to her office.  Long story short.  After almost three hours at the doctor's and after multiple tests and exams, they determined that she had had a vitreous hemorrhage; basically, she was bleeding into the inside of the eye, and the expanding blood pool was causing the vision problems.  There was too much blood for them to clearly determine if the retina had torn, separated, or if it was "simply" a burst blood vessel.  The only way to know for sure was to perform a vitrectomy, in which they essentially drain the eye.  That would allow them to see (and repair) a tear, or reattach the retina.  The doctor explained that as part of the surgery, they would inject a bubble of noble gas into the eye.  While that would dissipate over time, it would be impossible to fly with the gas bubble in place, as the change in pressure could lead to blindness.   When we told the doctor we were to leave in less than two weeks, his first statement was, "well, you will to file a claim on your travel insurance, yes?"  He further explained that if the retina was detached, it would be six to eight weeks before the gas dissipated and K could fly.  If there was a tear, it would be three to six weeks.  If it was a burst blood vessel, it would depend on the size of rupture before he could estimate an "all-clear-for-travel" window.  None of that seemed important at the time, and the practice was able to find a surgeon and surgery window for the very next morning, Friday, 6 December.  In the end, the surgery was a complete success and there was no detachment or tear.  The surgeon advised that he added a small gas bubble, and was hopeful it would dissipate before our planned departure.  K left the hospital with a wrist band clearly stating that "the patient" had a bubble of nitrous oxide in their eye, and they weren't to fly or be transported by air ambulance.  It would not be until her follow-up appointment with the doctor, a week later, and five days before we were to leave, that we'd know if the she was cleared for travel.

In the end, the doctor was very pleased with her progress and he pronounced her clear to fly.  I was in Tokyo at the time, and she texted me at around 4:00 am their time with the good news.  We had been in somewhat of suspended animation up until then, but all of sudden it seemed as though we had a lot to do in only a few days.  Work was crazy for us both those last few days, and we also went down to bring Anna home with a lot of summer things she no longer needed at school.  I even had my appointment for my new Invisalign braces the afternoon of the day we left, and Katherine worked a full day at work.  It seemed very rushed in the end, but the hour of departure finally arrived.

A "Short" Hop to New York

DC to JFK

As I mentioned earlier, our flights to Auckland left from New York.  Our outbound flight left from JFK, which is an airport I have successfully avoided for almost three decades.  This time, however, I was excited to return.  Our flight to Beijing was leaving Thursday night.  Planning so far out and not knowing what the winter weather might hold for us, we had contingency plans to get to New York.  I booked a one-way car rental, for us to just drive up, whereas we also had a plane reservation.  In addition to not wanting to risk missing a same-day connection, we elected to go up to New York a night early.  My ulterior motive was for us to stay in the new TWA Hotel, which opened up in the former TWA flight terminal earlier this year.  In fact, I booked our room several months before the hotel even opened.  I had been reading about the multi-year effort to convert the long-abandoned iconic building designed by Eero Saarinen in the early 1960's.  It was famous for, among other things, having no right angles anywhere in the structure.  When TWA went bankrupt, the terminal was left empty.  Being registered on the list of historic structures saved it from the wrecking ball.  A private company elected to restore the building to it's '60's roots and open up as a hotel.  I couldn't resist the chance to stay here, and it made the idea of a return to JFK almost palatable.

Our flight from Dulles to JFK should have been very short.  Check-in was smooth, but as we waited in the lounge, we got an alert from Delta telling us the flight was delayed due to snow in New York.  The plane was inbound from JFK, and we ended up about an hour late.  Though our phone apps said the weather in New York was clear, we did end up arriving in the midst of extended snow squalls.  The snow was heavy as we landed, and we even skidded a little on the runway.  The snow was causing havoc at the airport though, with dozens of delayed flights, which left us sitting on the tarmac for more than 30 minutes just waiting to even get to a gate.  The airline -- Delta -- was also short staffed, so it took another 45 minutes for our bags to come out, by which time it was already after 11:00pm.  None of this was giving us good omens for the coming trip.

It was a relatively short and easy ride on the shuttle train between terminals for us to reach the TWA hotel.   We did have to walk outside in the snow for a ways, but we had luckily brought along winter coats, even though we were destined for a New Zealand summer.

The hotel was beyond beautiful, and felt more like a museum than anything else.  We reached the room close to midnight, and were all ready to go to sleep.

I should mention, too, that we left DC on Anna's 20th birthday.  We had formally celebrated the night before, a day early.  It was also the day that President Trump was impeached.  Anna now says she'll forever remember her 20th as the day we left for New Zealand and the day of Trump's impeachment.

Is Murphy Following Us?

The TWA Hotel at JFK Airport

Our hotel room looked out directly on the tarmac of JFK. When we arrived the night before, we could see out, but the hour and snow made it hard to see too much.  We closed the blackout shutters, and it wasn't until the following morning -- when we opened them -- that we saw just how close we were.  We immediately saw a huge Singapore Airline a-380 taxi right up to the window.

View from Our Room in the Morning

As our flight was not until the afternoon, we were in no hurry to get up early or rush.  We had plenty of time to explore the hotel and prepare for the long trip ahead of us.  As I wrote, the hotel was more like a museum, and we spent more than an hour just exploring the various exhibits on TWA, Howard Hughes, and the architect, Eero Saarinen.  We especially enjoyed the vintage Lockheed Constellation aircraft, which had been restored as a bar and parked outside the hotel.  The folks behind the hotel did a fantastic job with their attention to detail throughout.  I really hope they make it.

TWA Hotels -- "Tubes" With Used To Lead to Jet Bridges 

Heated Infinity Pool on Hotel Roof, Overlooking Runways

Hotel Lobby

Rear of Hotel, with "Connie" (Lockheed Constellation Turned into a Bar)

"Boarding" Connie

Inside Connie

Anna Checks Out the 1963 Chrysler Newport

View to Hotel from "1960's U.S. Living Room"

We checked out at noon and meandered back to the terminal train and made our way to Terminal 1, which houses most of the international airlines at JFK.  It is also notoriously one of the busiest and most challenging for security screening.  TSA does not even operate TSA precheck there, which has been our savior on other trips at other airports.  Several months before we left, I read of a new service which had just opened up at Terminal 1, called "VIP One."  I secured a special introductory price and signed us up for expedited screening, with no clear idea of what that entailed.

The Air China check-in queue was long by the time we arrived.  Check-in for Business Class, however, was empty, and we walked right up.  The check-in agent was very friendly and was going through all our paperwork thoroughly.  A few weeks earlier, New Zealand had launched a new visa-like program for tourists.  While they still don't require formal travel visas for most foreign visitors, they did put into place a new "eTA" program -- or "electronic travel approval."  Anyone transiting or visiting New Zealand has to apply in advance and pay a modest fee.  All of the money goes to support environmental efforts, to hopefully offset the impact from tourists.  The travel requests have to be approved and in place before you can board a flight to New Zealand; it is not possible to get the visas upon arrival.  Luckily I had read about the program, and I had copies of a previously approved visas with me.  I handed them to the agent, and then things ground to a halt.  Everything was computerized, and the system was not letting her check us in for the flight from Beijing to Auckland.  I showed her the print out of the visas, along with the electronic ones, in the nifty app for the program.  She called over her supervisor, and I watched as that women typed a mile a minute into the computer.  She talked to herself as she worked.  After about 10 minutes, she announced that she was able to check-in myself and Anna, but not Katherine.  She left to go talk to the "New Zealand person," who was sitting somewhere else in the terminal.  No one was in line behind us, which was a relief, as we had already been there for more than 20 minutes.  The agent returned and pointed out that on the printed form, the initials "KKM" appeared in the middle of Katherine's name.  She asked me if I had noticed that before; I had not.  I showed her the original application, on the app, which did not have the extraneous characters.   She smiled, asked to borrow my phone, and again disappeared to visit the wizard behind the proverbial curtain.  She came back about five minutes later, handed me my phone, and started typing furiously again.  All of a sudden she stopped, and handed us our six boarding passes.  Everything had worked.  She later explained that as New Zealand only launched the program earlier that month, they had been going through all kinds of growing pains with all the airlines flying into the country.  She apologized profusely, even though they were at the mercy of a computer server sitting somewhere in Auckland.

Relieved that we'd made it that far, we made our way to the security queue.  We could hear the line before we saw it, and it snaked all the way to the main terminal door.  I had my "VIP One" reservation in my hand and had to ask three workers where to find the VIP screening entrance before someone knew what I was talking about.  They, too, had only opened up a few weeks earlier.  We walked up a person at a podium, like a maitre de, and gave them our name.  She scanned a print out, found us, and then "invited" us into the lounge; which was, in reality, a room set up like a living room, with couches and chairs.  We were the only people.  There were security bins there, too, and we were told to put our shoes, bags, coats, etc, into the bins, just like we were in the TSA screening line.  We did that, and then she opened a side door which led directly to the front of the screening queue -- right where the agent was checking ID's and boarding cards.  The woman had all our paperwork and walked us past the TSA agent.  She then deftly cut right in front of the man next in line at the x-ray machine.  He, along with many others in line, raised confused faces, and even looked a little mad, as we essentially were cut right in front of him.  I felt self-conscious, but when I looked back at the line from where we were, I knew we had just saved at least 45 minutes of waiting.

The woman was on the other side of the x-ray machine, where she handed us our passports and boarding passes, and then wished us a good trip and merry Christmas.  Things were definitely looking up.

We were to wait in the Lufthansa lounge, as Air China is a Star Alliance partner with them.  We ended up with about an hour there, which was just enough time to eat and relax.

Anna Waiting in the Lufthansa Lounge

Our flight to Beijing was on a 747-8, which is the biggest Boeing aircraft, and smaller only to the Airbus a-380.  As such, the gate was very full when we made our way there, just as boarding started.  We were some of the first ones to board, and our seats were in the nose of the plane, which I had arranged, and forward to which I had been looking.  Having never flown, needless to say, Air China, I was dubious as to what kind of service or product we would be getting.  That question was answered as soon as we sat down.  We were greeted with a welcome drink, and then the flight attendant unwrapped slippers for each of us, and even put them on our feet for us.  That was a first for me.

Our Plane to Beijing

Katherine and I were next to each other, with Anna seated in the window seat directly ahead of us.  We had lots of room, and the seats and service were excellent.  A very nice surprise.  Each of us took an Ambien after the first meal service, lowered our seats into beds, and we all slept about seven/eight hours, waking up for the meal right before landing in Beijing.  The 13-hour flight went by relatively quickly, and we all felt good when we arrived in China.  We left New York at 3:50 pm on Thursday the 19th, and arrived in Beijing at 6:30 pm on Friday the 20th.

Enjoying her Welcome Drink