“The Flying Kiwi’s”… Epistle #1

Kia Ora te whānau,

Mum and I have finally made it after - man.. at least 30hours of flying, airports, wheelchairs, customs, passports, boarding passes, spilling hot chocolate later… (I’ll get back to that story) and as of now, mum is warm and bathed probably dreaming of boil up in our room.  WHAT A GREAT START!

So, Monday night mum, Kiri, myself, Aunty Lynnie, Te Ariana, Mama Stinson, Amy, Jasmine and Esther all went for dinner in Wellington CBD at ‘The flying burrito brothers’ - hence taking the name ‘The Flying Kiwi’s’ from there.. Mum reckons ‘Who said Kiwi’s can’t fly?’ she’s funny!

So, after a lovely sleep at the Kohanga Reo whare in Wellington off we went to the airport - Kiri and Aunty Lynnie dropped us off, good luck!  We were on our way…  Funny coz as we’re heading into customs I said to mum ‘Did you get Tub to pay that fine?’ she answered ‘Nope’.. jeepers.. wasn’t sure if they were gonna let us out of the country.. THEY DID.. haha!

Our first leg to Sydney was packed.. but waiting on the other side was a wheelchair to get mum to the next flight.. the lady was pushing us to our next gate and was gonna just leave us there for an hour or so and I was like ‘No, we need the wheelchair to get around and see the airport’, she was sick, and I was up for a fight.. Result:  She let us keep the wheelchair.. LoL..

One of the MANY plane meals we had - this was a ‘snack’ between meals...

Settling into 1 of our 3 plane rides - 1st April 2014, we were caught the fools.. LoL.. Not sure if that’s a smile or a …??

Oh my HECK - Long haul flights are so much more romantic in theory rather then practice.. LoL! BUT, that’s the last you’ll hear me complain about the long haul coz nothing worth doing is easy and coming to NYC is AMAZING!!! So, all up from here.  Once we get to LAX and coming through customs they asked us for our boarding passes FAIL #1 gave him the wrong one and had to fish around ALL over the place for the proper pass.. crack up.. the passport guy asks why we’re here and I said HOLIDAYING AROUND the place.. (HAHA, insider joke) then this older mangumangu man helping a security calls mum ‘beautiful’ and I said yeah - that’s why I take her everywhere.. GOOD TIMES… Esther & Jasmine - no ‘hongi’ yet but it’s early days yet.

So, before we got on our NYC flight mum got a hot choc from Starbucks and I got 2 orange juices (1 for me and 1 for the guy who was pushing mum around on the wheelchair).. Mums hot chocolate = $3.40 I ask for regular “BLINK BLINK” he’s looking at me with the expression 'what size is regular’.. LoL! He asks my name and I say ‘Pania’ “BLINK BLINK” again “I’ll just write ‘P’” he replies.. You do that.. LOL!! So, we’re loading mum up to go to the plane “CRASH” the hot chocolate all over LAX floor SHAME - but they made us another one (turns out they really don’t know regular and gave me a bigger hot chocolate then the first attempt at ‘regular’ - HAHA) Oh, did I mention the blimin OJ was $11 for two little bottles - #neveragain… As we were boarding the plane the QANTAS man said we had to throw out the hot chocolate - not allowed on-board yadda yadda.. there goes $3.40….

A REAL smile - coz we’re REALLY HERE - NYC YAYUS!!!

ANYWAY - So, we finally get to JFK - New York and I ask these people if they know how to get to ‘Penn Station’ (our hotel is near there) and she gave us some good information.. this man helps us with the wheelchair etc. (accent was OFF - couldn’t understand a lot of what he was saying!! LoL) he gets us to the air train and then mumbles something to me, I’m like ‘HUH?’ he gave up after a couple of attempts and walks away - afterwards I realized he was asking for a TIP.. HAHAHAHA - FAIL #2!

Our first train ride in NYC.. this is QUEENS..

Did I mention - I have a TOOTH ACHE that started on the flight to SYDNEY - NOT COOL.. but I’m glad we have insurance - YES! #willuseit

So, we’re on our way to the air train - the guy mumbles for a tip and leaves empty handed - HAHAHA! Then off we go to our hotel - NO IDEA what we’re doing and meet this LOVELY NEW YORKER ‘JIM’ turns out he lives somewhere near us and brought us all the way in - showed us what to do and walked us almost to our door - lovely man.. however, the final station we finished at meant mum walking up 4 flights of stairs!! AUE, poor, brave Mum.. however, another lovely NEW YORKER stepped in and carried her bag up the stairs for her… we checked in without a problem - although the lady said we have a view of the Hudson River - NOT EVEN EAH!! We were too tired to fight for that one…

Mum on our floor at the New Yorker - That’s how close we are to the Empire State Building

Dinner @ TGIF’s across the road from us - Mum said she was missing ‘BOIL UP’.. what did I say?? LoL

 Our room is pretty tiny, but the bed is LOVELY - man, totally had to force myself off the bed to go for dinner because the bed was soooo tempting and yummy and warm.. but alas, we did leave and Mum was fixated on going to MACY’s.. LoL.. shopping is always on her mind / our mind.. I wanted to jump on a bus to Times Square - but we’ll do that tomorrow… We had dinner at TGIF it was yummy although expensive and mum falling asleep on her chair - when the kai came she was pleasantly surprised at how she enjoyed it.  She went for gold, coz she knew how much we were paying for it - I’ve realized if I just tell her the total INCLUDING tip - she doesn’t even know it’s being paid - HAHA!  SUCCESS!

I’ve emailed a dentist for an emergency appointment - I hope I get one.. my tooth is SORE!!  Anyway, as I’m COLD - no heating in the FOYER.. LoL.. I’m gonna call the insurance and begin the process anyway… Ok..

Mum with Empire State in the background.. We’ll get there another night..

Us both with Empire State and TGIF’s to our right..

Thanks for stopping in to read ‘The Flying Kiwi’s’… tune in next time.. for more on our trip to AMERICA… LOVING IT…

In our LOVELY - but COLD foyer… Pōmarie

Well, I wanna go to bed - but tempted for a quick stroll around our area… hmmm.. I’ll pop my head outside and see if anything calls me in that direction - otherwise, BED IT IS… MMMmmm…

Arohanui whānau, friends and bored readers...
Mumma and Dorty
Xoxoxoxoxoxo