{"id":319,"date":"2009-04-29T17:18:24","date_gmt":"2009-04-30T01:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dylanschiemann.com\/?p=319"},"modified":"2009-05-30T12:36:04","modified_gmt":"2009-05-30T20:36:04","slug":"tokyo-to-queenstown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dylanschiemann.com\/?p=319","title":{"rendered":"Day 15: Tokyo to Queenstown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On April 12th, I left Tokyo for New Zealand.  My lack of understanding of the size of the Pacific surprised me when I learned that the travel time from Tokyo to New Zealand is approximately the same as Los Angeles to New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>Anyways, after my final hours in Tokyo, I rode to Narita airport and took a 10+ hour red-eye flight to Auckland on an older Air New Zealand 767 with business class service that should really be classified as premium economy.  After my awesome experience on Asiana Air, I was a bit underwhelmed with everything about this flight except for the friendliness of the staff which was great.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3439244684\/\" title=\"Random places from the hotel to the Tokyo Narita airport by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3629\/3439244684_3289237a19.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Random places from the hotel to the Tokyo Narita airport\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3438514045\/\" title=\"Tokyo Narita Airport by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3377\/3438514045_ee82279758.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Tokyo Narita Airport\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3438517743\/\" title=\"Tokyo Narita Airport by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3315\/3438517743_331e8a9b89.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Tokyo Narita Airport\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Arriving in New Zealand was interesting due to the very strong warnings about bringing anything in through customs that might harm the ecological purity of the kiwi nation.  After a layover for a few hours in the Koru Lounge, I was on my way to Queenstown.  For the non-cloudy portions of this flight, the views were breathtaking.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3438811791\/\" title=\"Auckland Airport by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3384\/3438811791_e694845eaa.jpg\" width=\"375\" height=\"500\" alt=\"Auckland Airport\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3438840605\/\" title=\"Flying from Auckland to Queenstown by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3658\/3438840605_35d10ba94c.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Flying from Auckland to Queenstown\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3439639906\/\" title=\"Flying from Auckland to Queenstown by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3595\/3439639906_2c18063c7b.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Flying from Auckland to Queenstown\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3439756490\/\" title=\"Flying from Auckland to Queenstown by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3311\/3439756490_ee34552b4f.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Flying from Auckland to Queenstown\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The landing was particularly surprising as our 737 landed right between two hills on a single runway.  At the end of the runway, the plane stops and turns around to head to the terminal.  It&#8217;s an oddly small airport for such large planes.  Air New Zealand did serve veggie chips, my new favorite short flight snack.<\/p>\n<p>Queenstown is simply astonishing in beauty.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3440396840\/\" title=\"Arriving at Queenstown by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3611\/3440396840_22fa0fd5c7.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Arriving at Queenstown\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I checked into the lovely <a href=\"www.thedairy.co.nz\/\">Dairy Private Luxury Hotel<\/a> with a nice view of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu and then headed down to the lake for a quick hand-make fish and chips dinner. I met a few people from Germany and China that were there for a few months studying English and learned more about the town.  I&#8217;ve been meeting my fair share of randomly interesting people throughout my trip.  I then walked around Queenstown, and realized that it also has the requisite Starbucks, before crashing early after the long red-eye the night before.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3439714579\/\" title=\"Arriving at Queenstown by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3315\/3439714579_b4a80173db.jpg\" width=\"375\" height=\"500\" alt=\"Arriving at Queenstown\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3439698955\/\" title=\"Arriving at Queenstown by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3577\/3439698955_c6d505ccb4.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Arriving at Queenstown\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3439640013\/\" title=\"Arriving at Queenstown by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3592\/3439640013_10f3dbfc86.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Arriving at Queenstown\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3439644119\/\" title=\"Arriving at Queenstown by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3401\/3439644119_07c691c4cc.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Arriving at Queenstown\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3440462338\/\" title=\"Arriving at Queenstown by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3365\/3440462338_9f976727d9.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Arriving at Queenstown\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/dylans\/3443708277\/\" title=\"Around Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu by dylans, on Flickr\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3644\/3443708277_f439c2b739.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" alt=\"Around Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On April 12th, I left Tokyo for New Zealand. My lack of understanding of the size of the Pacific surprised me when I learned that the travel time from Tokyo to New Zealand is approximately the same as Los Angeles to New Zealand. Anyways, after my final hours in Tokyo, I rode to Narita airport [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dylanschiemann.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dylanschiemann.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dylanschiemann.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dylanschiemann.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dylanschiemann.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dylanschiemann.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dylanschiemann.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dylanschiemann.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dylanschiemann.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}