Day 1: NZ99

It was an early start this morning.  I did not have much sleep due, I suspect, to the anticipation of a new and exciting experience. 

I wouldn’t normally talk about a taxi experience. However, a month or so ago I was directed to Zoomy (zoomy.co.nz ) which is a competitor to Uber.  They are a small start up operating in Wellington and Auckland but more like a ride share than the taxi company that Uber has become.  I didn’t expect to see one around at 5am in the morning but on checking the the app to see if there was one nearby I was surprised to see there was one down the road.  It was a quick ride to the airport and the cost was two thirds of that of a regular taxi  - even cheaper because I had a bonus for some reason.

After a lovely morning in Wellington we arrived to cold drizzle in Auckland. After clearing immigration and a very grumpy customs officer we queued for the security screening along with a lot of other rather tired looking travellers.  The airport really does seem to have grown and is no longer the small place it once was.  We even had to get on a bus to get to our plane because there was no available gate. 

We are traveling Premium Economy and it seems that the plane we had booked on has been swapped out for one of the new ones with more Premium Economy and Business Class seats.  They are comfortable enough but I much preferred the podded seats that Air New Zealand had on the B777-300s.  They were very comfortable and had a greater sense of space with no one reclining into your space.  

A little later 

Breakfast has been served and just as I was settling back to read the paper they dimmed the light and darkened the cabin changing the amount of light coming in the windows.  I did not want to sit in a darkened cabin at 11am in the morning so I went and complained to one of the Flight Attendants.  I was little a bit brusque with her.  I found out how to lighten the electronic window and all was good with the world.  However, I felt bad about the way I had spoken so an apology was offered to her and accepted. She explained that she thought concept was daft but some people complained about it being  too light.  For some reason people don't understand that being in the dark and sleeping through the day is not a good way to combat jet lag.

Eleven hours later

Some eleven hours after boarding we disembarked at Narita Airport.  

I was ready to stretch my legs so it was nice to be able walk a kilometre or so to immigration where nice people ushered us into the right place, provided us with the correct entry cards and generally made it an easy entry to Japan.  Our bags arrived just as we did and before we knew it we spilled out into the arrivals area with signposting that was in Japanese and English. 

We had bought a seven day pass on Japan Railways which provided us with a reasonable amount of travel around Tokyo and also throughout Japan (if we wanted to). The only downside was that I thought the pass would start at the time we arrived but unfortunately that was not the case and we had to buy a one way fare from Narita to Tokyo. 

It all went very easily with wonderful smiling service provided.  The next train to Shinjuku Station took us about an hour and a half. Bev fell asleep but my very tired brain was still alert so that we would not miss our stop. 

Navigating the Shinjuku Station to find our next stop which was on the underground took quite some time and was quite a challenge.  While  there were directions, the entrance to the subway was not obvious.

It was very dark by the time we got to our apartment.  Fortunately, the directions and photos supplied were excellent.  What was nice was it was only a hundred metres or so from the station. 

The apartment is very small.  It has a bed but there is no table to eat at.  The space is liveable but you would have to be very minimalist to live there long term.  Ideally you would fold the bed away to get the space of the bedroom to use for other purposes.

Bev outside our apartment