Day Fourteen - Island Hopping

It’s the last morning of the trip, our flight leaves at 7:45 tonight, so of COURSE we have time for another tour! We got up and ready at 6 am and had repacked all of our bags for our flight by 7:15 so we went down to have a bit of breakfast in the hotel restaurant then grabbed our bags and checked out. We left our bags with the hotel because we are headed to Waiheke Island this morning!

We walked down to the quay and found the line for the Waiheke Island ferry and only had to wait a little while before we were able to board and get settled into seats. We planned out our visit on the hop-on hop-off bus and then just relaxed to enjoy our last boat of our trip.

The ferry docked and we found our bus right outside the terminal and got settled in to ride around the island for a bit.

So. Many. Vineyards. Ideal place to vacation if you want to stay wasted the entire time.

We stopped and got off at Onetangi Beach on the northern side of the island. It was a beautiful walk and it only sprinkled a little bit.

I found a rock.

We made a loop and then got back on the bus to see the rest of the island. Waiheke is basically an island of vineyards. So. Many. The soil here is perfect for growing grapes and most of the hillsides are covered with either trees or grapevine. We weren’t needing to get tipsy before our flight so we settled for just enjoying the views from the (comfortable, dry,  and warm) bus. We stopped at Oneroa, the largest village on the island and popped into a few shops on our way to get some gelato at the Island Gelato Company. It was an excellent snack before lunch.

After returning from her trip to Italy, mom loves to find gelato. I myself enjoy all versions of ice cream. Albeit vanilla.

We had finished looking through the shops so we caught the bus back to the ferry terminal and waited for the 1 pm ferry to arrive. We boarded a few minutes later and spent the time on the ferry getting our boarding passes for our second flights (from Houston to our respective homes) sorted and then relaxing a bit. The ferry docked at 1:50 or so and we booked it (up hill!) to get to Federal Delicatessen with enough time to eat a late lunch.

If their tshirts had been in stock, I would have bought one. Obsessed.

It was a great lunch at Federal Delicatessen and we were sad to leave, but we walked back to our hotel, did some slight rearranging (those raincoats are going in the suitcase even if we have to cram them!) and then I called an Uber for the airport.

We got to the airport 30 minutes later and we had our bags checked and were through security with three hours left to go until boarding. We spent some time going through the shops (mom found an ENTIRE) Whittaker’s display) and found our gate to settle in to wait.

We got to the airport so early the board actually told us to relax. So we raided the wall ‘o Whittakers.

After a few hours of waiting we were allowed to go and wait at our gate, so we relocated from the comfy window chairs to the rows of gate waiting chairs and waited some more. The plane was delayed a bit so mom and I just kept reading our books. I’ve made a good start of Throne of Glass and mom was almost done with The Hobbit.

We boarded and we discovered that the parents with a 2 year old and a 2 month old were sitting right in front of us. We got seated (extremely tight fit) and the plane left about 45 minutes late. The pilot said we’d only be 15 minutes later arriving. The flight was alright, the kids were screaming throughout so no one got much sleep. We arrived about 30 minutes late and that meant that I had a much shorter margin for error to board my plane.

We did our Global Entry app only to discover that Houston doesn’t…have anywhere for that. We had to go through the full line and they only had three agents for all of the US citizens returning to the country, so it took forever. Next we went to the baggage carrosel to get our bags, which didn’t show up for 45 minutes. We finally got them and dropped them back off with United only to discover that Houston makes international transfers go back through TSA so we tried to go through the TSA PreCheck line (because Global Entry) only to find that because we started on Air New Zealand it didn’t have whatever mark they require on our boarding passes, so we had to go back through the entire standard screening line.

At this point, I had a panic attack.

Because I had 30 minutes to get through TSA and on to another concorse to my flight, which seemed pretty impossible. The trip had gone perfectly up until now, so of course something had to go catastrophically wrong. We finally got through the screening and I said goodbye to mom so that I could sprint to the train, and then sprint off the train down the entire length of concourse C.

I made it right at the end of boarding. What a nightmare. I texted mom that I had made it and she let me know that she had found a Panda Express and since there were no seats available, she made a new friend that had just returned from Cambodia, and they started chatting about Cambodia and Australia/New Zealand. Quintessential Beverly moment. Making friends wherever she is!

There was no one in my entire row, so for all that stress and panicking, I got to enjoy more space than I've ever had on any airplane in my life. I was starving so I ordered a snack box and a coke on the plane and read the entire way to DC. We landed right on time and I was able to quickly get my bag, catch an uber, and get back to my apartment by 9 pm. Mom texted that she had landed right about the same time I had, so we both made it home safe and sound.

Till the next adventure!