Day 1: Travel Day
Welcome
Yesterday we travelled from Auckland, New Zealand, to Austin, Texas, for our impending tour of the United States of America.
We were presented with two very fine adages as we drove along George Bolt Memorial Drive on the way to Auckland’s international airport and it was difficult to choose between these two heavy phrases, both of which could deliver a strong flavour right into the mouth of this fledgling tour.
“Don’t let one cloud obliterate the whole sky”, the phrase visible on the north side of Mainfreight’s Māngere depot felt like a slightly redundant message for a city that is so regularly overcast and a population that has learned to respect, possibly even love the grey sheen that comes from heavily filtered sunlight.
“Be or pretend to be brave” was displayed on the south wall of the depot, and generally intended to be viewed by drivers leaving the airport but easily visible to a passenger willing to swiftly crane their neck to the left and peer through the rear windshield.
We bravely headed into the terminal and dropped off our bags before making our way through security and into the duty free shopping area. We meandered along the lazy shopping river that winds its way through the displays of tax-free alcohol and perfumes before ending up in the electronics section where we completed our regular tour ritual of checking the price of Sony noise cancelling headphones (the WH-1000XM5s were steady at $499 NZD as they have been for a while). We were joined in this ritual by my wonderful and brave partner Tess Parker; Tess is joining us for the first three weeks of this tour and for the first time will get to witness in person the fascinating event that is me eating a breakfast while traveling with The Beths.
At 8pm our Air New Zealand Boeing 777 rolled along the runway and took off into a dark sky heading northeast; slightly too late for a cinematic sunset take-off as the final rays of light had fled the sky while we boarded the aircraft. We settled in for the twelve hour journey on this blessedly empty flight, Tess and I with a row to ourselves, Jon with a row to himself, Tristan up in premium economy with a row to himself thanks to an upgrade, and Liz all the way up in business class thanks to a very aggressive upgrade. I spent a good amount of the evening clearing the breakfast and travel updates inbox (apologies if I’ve taken a couple of months to reply to your email) and by the time they dimmed the lights in the cabin I was more than ready to enjoy a night of vertical sleep.
I awoke a number of hours later to find that we were over northern Mexico flying over some arid and mountainous terrain in the centre of the state of Coahuila. The breakfast service was already underway and it wasn’t long before I received a small tray containing my three course meal. The hot course was a green pea methi dholka, and this was followed with an anonymous cupcake and then a small bowl of fresh fruit. By the time I had finished eating we had crossed the border into Texas and were beginning our descent towards George Bush Intercontinental Airport, a confusingly-named piece of infrastructure that only resides in a single continent but does service aircraft and passengers from continents the world over. At 3.30pm local time we touched down and taxied to the terminal, disembarking into a warm and humid afternoon which felt pleasant after the last months at home experiencing the dregs of winter.
Taking the airport train to our connecting flight.
We had a couple of hours to kill before our connecting flight so after completing immigration we made our way to the United Lounge, stopping on the way to admire David Adicke’s statue ‘Winds of Change’, an 8ft monument of president George W Bush senior that dominates one of the main intersections of the Terminal C concourse. In this heavily flowing sculpture President George displays his fondness for sports, knowledge, and casualness as he nonchalantly kicks an off-screen ball without losing his grip on a large hardback, brazenly omitting a tie pin in this commanding yet easygoing attire.
At 6.30pm local time we left Houston aboard a United Airlines Boeing 737 for a flight that was so short that the pilot said we probably wouldn’t even get time to complete the inflight drinks service. The stewards didn’t even bother getting the cart out and we had barely made it up to cruising altitude before we began the descent into Austin Bergstrom International Airport.
We were welcomed to Austin by giant fake guitars that towered above the baggage carousels, reminding travellers of this city’s status as the live music capital of the world. Our luggage emerged and we made our way outside for the final leg of the journey, a quick shuttle ride to our hotel which was only a few minutes away on the outskirts of the airport.
This was our very cute airport shuttle bus.
I’m not usually a fan of circular buildings, especially since visiting Charles de Gaulle in Paris, but I tried to keep an open mind as we walked up to the front desk to check in. The reception looked out into a tall, poorly lit, circular atrium, with a bar in the centre and one of those small Starbucks which is not a real Starbucks but still features a small amount of Starbucks branding. This four-story concrete pancake stack that we were staying in is actually a former US Airforce headquarters building which served the nearby Bergstrom Airforce Base for several decades. Post-Cold War budget cuts led to the base’s closure in the early 1990s and it was converted into Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, and with the addition of an extra story and a brand new entrance way the 12th Airforce Headquarters became the Hilton, Austin Airport. Feeling steeped in history and enjoying the view from our windows which weirdly faced into the central atrium we ended our travel day and took a well earned night of rest.
