Not in New Zealand

Happy August from Down Under

After a day of clear, blue skies, 50 degrees, and abundant sunshine, the highly anticipated winter storm finally materialized late last night. Today it's been mostly sleet interspersed with heavy, wet snow--yuck. We did get a nice lull mid-morning with a patch of sun, but it's back to high wind and a wintry mix. Hard to remember it's August.

You Can Leave Your Hat On

Over the last year, we haven't done a ton of exploring around New Zealand, and the sightseeing we have done has been by either car or train. However, we do hope to change that in the coming months, a fact that I suspect will lead us, at least once, to our newly renovated Chch airport.

There are many things in NZ that I feel are done in a markedly more civilized manner than in the U.S. I've already mentioned the twice-daily tea time and the reserved parking for expecting and new moms. There are also reserved seats at movie theaters, and you can order espresso drinks or wine (and light cafe food) to take with you into the theater. There are, of course, other examples, but the thing that has so far made the biggest impression on me is the procedure for domestic air travel in this country.

For a domestic flight, passengers typically show up 30 minutes before the flight departs. There are no security checkpoints, and you scan your own boarding pass on a machine that sort of resembles the self-checkout lanes at grocery stores. Can I tell you what bliss it is not to have to remove jackets, sweaters, belts, jewelry, wallets, laptops, Ziploc bags full of 3-oz. bottles of toiletries . . . ? In fact, the departure lounge at Chch airport is structured like a large cafe. High-top tables and bar stools offer places to sit, and handy electrical plugs mean a person can work on a laptop if desired. Elsewhere, comfortable sitting areas make it pleasant to pass pre-flight minutes sipping a beverage or a nibbling on a snack that can be conveniently purchased from a centrally located counter.

Domestic departure terminal. Terrible photo, but maybe you can get the gist of it.

Granted NZ is a much smaller country than the US by several orders of magnitude, and the likelihood of terrorist threats here feels significantly less, but I have to say that in comparison to the post-9/11 reality of terror-alert orange and increasingly invasive TSA screening procedures (the x-ray body scan!), the idea that I can bring a chainsaw on board with me and stow it in the overhead bin (we heard of someone who did) is a source of great delight.