[JerseyJen]

I got in from NZ last night, still very burned out from the experience.
Air Tahiti Nui (ATN) lost my clothes bag between JFK and PPT.
The baggage people at PPT wouldn't take an irreguarity report and when I checked in a few hours later (5 hours layover) I got yelled at for sticking my head in their open doorway and thrown out by some crazy French lady that resented my intrusion while she was gossiping with a flight attendent and that harsh demand I made by requesting her assistance.

At AKL, still no bag. Finally, someone to take a report at AKL: Air New Zealand, ATN's hander.

Fine, at least I have my board & wettie. Oh wait! my fins are in my bag! Oh shoot! a set of red-x bonzer fins are going to be hard to find. Oh well, i can try it as a single. I'm adaptable, and aren't I lucky that all my problems can be solved with $$ ?

I landed on Sunday, day number two in the same clothes since everything was closed.
Being optimists that we'd have to return for my luggage to AKL the next day, we drove all the way up to Whangarei after getting lost on the way to Piha and giving up after seeing a gnarly windblown Bethells.
We were shooting for Orewa, but there was so much traffic coming back down Rt 1 from holiday getaways, it was way too crowded and the idea of turning around in that traffic pushed us further north. Finally Monday, I got some new clothes (NZ is expensive!) and started making the rounds of surf shops looking for fins. The surfshop in Whangarei only had shortboard FCS fins. They referred us to a place in Ruakaka that made longboards where I might be able to get an FU fin.

Tuesday, we stopped in Ruakaka and after a bit of searching we found Surfline in an industrial park. This has to be the
coolest part of the trip, because I walked in with a bonzer fitted with red-x fins sitting at the head of the rack. The shapers there had never seen a Campbell were all to happy to run my board into the back and put the fins in for me (and probably template it!)  For future reference, a full set of bonzer fins cost $200 NZD and arre probably only available there. Ouch!

I got in front of a computer finally to notify ATN's NY baggage handler about my lost luggage, requesting an acknowledgement that they were aware of my problem and any updates on the situation. I send a second email two days later. I have yet to get a reply to my first email.

We didn't expect much surf up north and made our way down around and under the Coromandel.
(We later learned that our rental agency neglected to inform us that they do not insure on the road around the peninsula)
Flatness at Mt Manganui and Whakatane but a lot of good meals, nice scenery and nice people in between.
Given the charts before I left, it looked like a mid week swell should roll in around Weds and the folks up in Ruakaka were optimistic too. When it failed to materialize we decided to skip continuing to Gisbourne and drove across to Raglan.
Finally! some decent surf before the winds came up, but a total zoo to go along with it.

after rags, we decided to resume course to Napier because we love the deco, with a stop in Taupo to break up the drive.
Josh got in  some well shaped knee slappers at Te Awanga since he brought a big ol' noserider until he got chased out by something big and dark circling under him as the sun went down.

Flatness over the east coast had us set course for a return to Raglan for a Fri dawn patrol. The wind didn't let up most of the morning, and we didn't want to wait it out and miss out on the day we had planned in Auckland. Josh and I decided to check out the Botanical gardens and Hamilton on the way  which set in motion the events that lead up to the 5 most stressful hours of my life.

Our van got broken into (along with 6 others) and Josh's bag was stolen. We got to spend our last full day filling out police reports and trying to get hold of ATN as we were afraid someone would try to cash in his ticket. After many trasfers, disconnects and being on hold forever it was finally determined that nobody was in on Sat in the airport or offices since there are no flights from ATN that day. At least there was nobody there to cash in his ticket! At least he still had his passport!  Josh was upset about his bag, but he bounced back from that as best he could....at least we were going home soon!

With a van that wouldn't lock we tried to find a replacement part. no luck, and everything closes early in NZ.
We hit the camper rental to see if they had the part or could give us a replacement so we could check out Auckland that night...no luck again!

Then we headed over to the airport just in case someone was around at ATN...no luck yet again! We spoke to Air NZ, who are ATN's handlers, and they informed us there would be no problem...and my luggage finally turned up.

As early as we could, we returned the campervan.
I was at ATN's desk by 10AM with police report in hand to report the stolen ticket. Several different people informed me that we had two options: 1) Josh could buy another ticket that may or may not be refunded or 2) He could hang out until Weds so they could straighten things out, and additionally 3) no, they would not swap or credit me for my ticket so that I wouldn't have to leave my husband in another country.  ATN confirmed for me that they could see Josh was on the flight, Josh was able to provide docs to prove his identity, but too bad, you're screwed. (So, what's the Tahitian word for customer service?)

Eventually, with a lot of pressure from Air NZ (quote Air NZ to ATN "What is wrong with you? get guy on a plane now!!") Josh got his ticket for the reprinting fee and we finally checked in less than an hour before the flight was scheduled to leave.

We just found in the fine print for my Amex card that regarding insurance for damage caused by theft:  No coverage
is provided for vehicles rented in Australia, Ireland, Italy, Israel, Jamaica and New Zealand...so we're going to have to pay for the damaged window lock.

The time in between traumatic events was fun. We didn't go to NZ primarily to surf. We brought our boards hoping to find waves, but with a bunch of other stuff in mind. Just hanging out on their beautiful beaches playing in tide pools and eating fruit that had been picked a few hours ago was such a buoy to my sprirt this time of year. I get a little sluggish with the long nights and it was a real lift to enjoy daylight until 9PM and so much beauty to take in with all that daylight.

There were def some lessons learned for sure, but I can't help being disapointed in ATN for such lousy customer service. They treated is well in the air, but when it counted on the ground they really let us down.

Ugh, I need a vacation from my vacation.

[sir_schadenfreude]

Wow.  What a tale.  Sorry to hear about your difficulties!  The term I heard for that is "travelanche."  Believe me I've been there.  Sometimes, even if you're a very experienced traveler you can get worked.  Usually an airline is in the best position to do this to you.  We found ATN to be pretty frustrating, and everything in Tahiti to be frustrating.  A dude came into our room through the non-locking window while we were sleeping and snaked my wallet.  It was a kid who's family was staying at the same place, and even though I knew he did it, the owners didn't really seem to give a brown trout.  I got my wallet back minus about $60 in cash after they "found" it, so I figured it could have been worse.  We had better luck in NZ, but we weren't in the city at all.  The only hassle we had was from the first camper rental place we went to.  We did bail on Whangamata after some shady seeming circumstances late at night, but nothing happened. 

I imagine things must be a lot crazier during the summer down there.  It was decidedly "off season" when we were there.  Raglan is a great wave, but it's so mechanical that it doesn't really hold a crowd very well, IMO.  When I surfed it there were probably 15 people out and it was hard to get a wave.  Better luck on the next trip!  I've had that need for post-vacation-vacation so many times!  Haha!

Travelanche: N
Ex: “It started as a minor delay in Seattle and ended up a full-blown travelanche involving lost luggage, bad airport food, and dire intestinal consequences.”

[The Lone Surfer]

sorry to hear that. I probably miss read but it sounded like you were only there for a week-or less! If that's so it's a tough nut of a vacation to crack in such a short period of time.

[little_nasty]

holy crap what a bummer!  sorry for all the hassles..  i've def. had my share of travelanches, too

[brad]

next time, just buy a plane ticket, burn it in hand, stub toe on chair, and wait in line for ER at local hospital.  Same result, only a lot faster.

[sir_schadenfreude]

next time, just buy a plane ticket, burn it in hand, stub toe on chair, and wait in line for ER at local hospital.  Same result, only a lot faster.

They normally won't let you bring boards, though.

[jammy]

oh my god.
i am so sorry! that sounds like the worst travel experience imaginable. wow.
i feel pretty awful for giving NZ the hard sell; it sounds like you enjoyed some of what NZ could offer but even so...some nice fruit can be had at whole foods without theft and emotional trauma.
 

[Psycho]

Jeez Jen, I feel so bad for you & such a nice person too. I wish there was a way to work it ut but Dang, that sounds awfull. Man, Sorry that happened to you. I wuold just loose it if that happened to us.

[JerseyJen]

thanks for the sympathy all.
we took it all pretty well until the ticket bit at the end.
like i said, i usually feel pretty lucky when all my problems can be solved with money.

[Crackie Onassis]

What a bummer. I didn't think it to be possible.

If JC and I were to go again, we'll simply avoid anything Tahitian, and now probably Hamilton.

Too bad you got lost on the way to Piha. And it sucks that you didn't get to spend that last day in Auckland.

Aside from the Travelanche, what did you think of the countryside, the architecture, food, etc?

[JerseyJen]

Air Tahiti Nui has requested reciepts from me regarding the baggage difficulties...x your fingers for me.
I am finishing a seperate letter regarding the ticket incident. It was borderline manifesto when I started it the other day...I needed a day or two to cool off.

Crackie, Architecurally speaking NZ was awesome. We loved all the cute Victorian cottages, the good civic planning with all the little downtowns and the new modern homes were awesome too.  Very unlike us, we really dug some of the townhomes too. I don't think I saw a single slat of vinyl siding! Napier was cool, but we were a little bummed that the buildings weren't lit at night. My husband was pretty much drooling when we drove past the lumberyards. (we've got a 100 year old money pit and he's always frustrated by the warped and knotty lumber in the yards & stores around here) One thing that really caught my eye was the individual flair Kiwi's give to their mailboxes. At first I thought it was a way of identifying houses set back from the road, but it proved consistent thru the cities too. The national love of corrugated steel was, um, interesting...i dug some of the curved rooflines it was used on.

Hamilton is a cute town (with a riduclously cool statue of Richard O'Brien as Riff-Raff in their downtown for the Rocky Horror casulaties in the house) and Lonely Planet calls it the "Capital of Nice". Having done a little research Josh has discovered that the petty theft problems extend to almost all tourist areas. He read that the "Craters of the Moon" are even worse such that they keep 3 guards in what couldn't have been more than a 30 car lot. It sucked, because the botanical garden is run by a volunteer squad of these sweet little old ladies who felt so bad and were so apologetic that the victims are in the ironic position of having to comfort them instead. (my friend suggested that the thefts are probably being carried out by the old biddies too )

NZ's countryside was awesome...but it looks like it's def being parcelled into "lifestyle subdivisions" all over.

[waterwolfnyc]

At least he still had his passport!

JerzJen total adventure occurs when you ride out a "travelanche" --and you sure experienced one. Damn!

Sorry NZ wasn't "all that" but headaches and harsh airline treatment aside, at least you had a real and genuine travel experience.

You and your man are undoubtedly better people for it.

[JerseyJen]

At least he still had his passport!

JerzJen total adventure occurs when you ride out a "travelanche" --and you sure experienced one. Damn!

Sorry NZ wasn't "all that" but headaches and harsh airline treatment aside, at least you had a real and genuine travel experience.

You and your man are undoubtedly better people for it.

WW, thanks for the comfort but the last thing we need is more character :-)