4am, Christchurch Airport
from my journal:
Not really sure how many hours have passed, or even what day it is. The flight board says Monday, so I’ve been traveling for three days, but three days where and in what time zone? The large number of tranqs I’ve been downing as we keep hitting turbulence are making the memories a little soft at the edges. I’m about 10 time zones away from where I started, about an hour away, by fast boat, from the international dateline where you actually go a day into the past.
I’m beyond tired, a greasy Spanish looking guy that sat next to me on the plane from Joburg, had taken off his shoes and let the smell of his soaks permeate into the economy seating, the woman behind me kept kicking my chair (apparently its ok to do that in economy), and not even the tranqs I had taken had done anything for my sleep patterns.
I’ve been on steady diet of airline food, tranqs, so that I get on the plane and stay on it, and caffeine, so that I don’t get grumpy and annoy the immigration officials who are still beelining for me despite the fact that I’ve shaved off the goatee and covered up the tattoos. Today, biosecurity has made me unpack my bag and I’ve been selected for the random bag swab for explosives.
Its about 4am, local time, at the Christchurch airport and I’m gulping a large cappuccino that in my chronic jet lag I tried to pay for with a 10 pula note. There are people sleeping huddled on the airport floor. Some are in sleeping bags, some are wrapped in blankets and towels. Its freezing in here. They all seem to be huddled around the electrical outlets, laptops and ipods recharging. I contemplate finding a hotel for the night, but my flight leaves in four hours, I decide to join them. Only six more hours until I land in Queenstown. I’ll sleep then. The caffeine is slowly drip drip dripping into my veins. In a couple of hours I will be in a plane with propellers hitting serious turbulence, the guy next to me pulling out a book of Psalms and mumbling the words … this does nothing to alleviate my fear of flying.
