Down Under Day Five

Today was a travel day - from Auckland NZ to Brisbane Australia (AUS) via airplane. However, our Air New Zealand flight to NZ did not leave until 4 PM, which meant our limo ride to the airport did not pick us up until noon, which meant we had some time to mill about Auckland in the morning.

We ended up milling to a bagel shop called Ugly Bagels that had intrigued me. I had high hopes that they might have vegan bagels, but those hopes were dashed when the bagel shop manager said all their bagels were made with (albeit free range) eggs.

So then, we milled to a pharmacy (these are called "chemists" in this part of the world) for some OTC cold remedies for the cold I had been fighting for the better part of the week. One of these remedies was a bottle of oxymetazoline nasal spray, to clear my clogged sinuses. It worked, but almost too well. For the rest of the day, I had a nonstop runny nose and frequent sneezing fits.

Not much else to say about today except that Air New Zealand is an exceptional airline. They don't nickel and dime you on everything. They even served us a vegan meal on the three and a half hour flight, which is unheard of on American-based airlines. When we landed in Brisbane, the passage through customs and immigration was a bit of a cumbersome ordeal, but we made it, and met our limo driver near the airport exit for transit to our Brisbane hotel, Ovolo - The Valley. The Valley, in this case, is a Brisbane suburb called Fortitude Valley, a rather ritzy area full of high end car dealerships, like Mazerati and Mercedes-Benz. It was actually not an ideal location, because it was quite a distance away from the river that runs through and in many ways defines Brisbane. I have fond memories of my 2014 trip here, when my family stayed at a hotel right on the river.

We had dinner at the hotel, which offered a vegan menu. The food was tasty, but the portion sizes were not as large as those we had come to expect thus far on our journey.

Then, we slumbered.

Fin.