HAERENGA KI JAKARTA

Kia ora

I thought I'd use this as a virtual diary for my haerenga to Jakarta visiting my friend Yvonne whose posted in Jak for work with the NZ Foreign Affairs, with her two daughters Marie and Didi.

Well, little did I know that it would be a bit of an adventure before 'touch down' in Jak.

My mama was visiting from Ruatoria - from the bush to the big city and over the bridge to North Shore. On Monday I got her up nice and early to greet the sunrise on our walk to the gym.......a nice little 30min walk up a lovely incline. While going through the motions on the circuit two ladies were chatting about the volcanic ash interrupting all flights in and out of NZ across the Tasman.

WHAT!!!! This was news to me there was a volcano errupting in Chili. The fact I don't watch the news was irrelevant. So, quickly finished the workout, walked home (all down hill yay!) and got on the internet. What followed were three days of intense re-organising, re-shuffling, contacting all friends to put out to the universe all the positive energy towards dispersing the ash and making sure all flights on Friday were a go!!!!!

And mauri ora!!! All Qantas flights before mine @ 8am were canceled from Auk to Syd.....awesome as mine was due to fly out at 8am. Mel and I got to the airport at 5.45am (approx. I was sleepy) to wait 2hours to finally hear my flight was on.....YAY......but it was leaving at 12pm. Which meant I would miss my connecting flight from Syd-Jak that afternoon. What to do, what to do!!!! Qantas wasn't paying for accommodation and my travel insurance wouldn't payout before I started my travel........which sounded reasonable.......just didn't help.

In the end I got on the phone to my Aunty Val in Rotorua who contacted our cousin Laura in Syd asking if I could bunk in for a couple of days........YES!!!......I'm in. I thought, if I just got to Syd then at least I'd be over the Tasman and could take my chances for my flight out to Jak.

So, here I was waiting 3 hours for my flight over to Syd on Frid 17th with a new connecting flight out from Syd-Jak on Sunday 19th. Didi who lives and works in Wellingwood, got a AirNZ flight from Well-Auck, was txting me from the Auck international Koru lounge waiting for her AirNZ flight out to Syd which would mean she got her flight connection. :b

Final boarding of the first flight out for Qantas all week from Auck, across the Tasman.......we all didn't believe we would be taking off until we finally detached from the airport - we were supposed to leave at 12pm. We took off about 1ish. Forgot I had no dinner the night before or breakie except for a Tank juice so I was STARVING only to hear they were only serving breakie - cereal n yoghurt.......mmmm nice.

The good news was that I would be on the same Sunday flight from Syd-Jak with Marie who was flying across from Adelaide......YAY!!

Got into freezing Syd with summer clothes.....thank goodness I had my warm scarf - the only warm thing I had with me. To top it off Laura and her flatmate Norma are vertically challenged and tiny so no good asking to borrow their clothes, socks or jackets!!! Had to think about what I had in my suitcase..........just had to put up with the weather by having a pampering session on Sat and then shopping @ DFO.........nice way to warm up.

It was really nice to catch up with Laura, Norma and the whanau. Got to see a bit of Syd and had dinner at St George's club.............they do a nice sirloin steak.....mmmmmmmmm! Then home for some vino which I only lasted on 1 glass...........falling asleep due to time difference....well that's what I said. Really enjoyed 'Devine Design' a cool home decorating tv program and movies. Nice way to start winding down and getting into holiday mode.

Of course I was working right up to leaving and continued to do some work before packing the computer up for the flight from Syd-Jak.....

Sunday and all excited about flying out. Met up with Marie in the transit lounge before departrue and we managed to get seats together on the flight. This nice man gave up his seat so we could sit together..........sooo nice. But boy I was starving!!! I had fruit for breakie and we were flying out at 1.50pm......too excited about the trip to eat til then.

We were on our way.........2 1/2 movies, 1 Beyonce concert and a bit of 'the Modern Family' TV show and we were in TOUCH DOWN mode in Jak. Filled out our immigration paper, got our VISA only to get to the customs person who asked us for the immigration card!! Derrr we missed that one so it was the fastest writing I'd ever done to get that thing filled out, 1 because of the heat and 2 because of the heat. It was hot, hot, hot!!! Sooooo much better than Syd.

Yvonne and Didi greeted us and we had a nice hour ride out to Senayan where we're staying for most of our trip..........

Yvonne relaxing with a few vino at Senayan Appartments

Me & Didi - trying out my new camera!! :)

Relaxing at Yvonne's apartment in Senayan. Heaps of people on the road not sure if there are any road rules, doesn't seem like it. We had a nice car, fully air con, Toyota something, with auto open sliding doors on both back 


passenger sides seating 8. Heaps of headroom and comfy as!!!!

Got to the apartments at the secure gates with security checking for bombs!! Yvonne lives in a block of 4 secure apartments with around 20 floors in each block. We're on the 14th floor with an outside deck. 

All really nice fittings, marble floors (not your average boring floor tile) with two euro style bathrooms YAY!!!

It's got a gym :), checking that out in the morning. Swimming pool, sauna, kids area, restaurant and little convenience store. All the blocks are secure from each other so we feel really safe.

Ok, after a quick catch up and a few vino we thought about kaikai.....only too late for room service to Didi rustled up some choice bits from the pantry along with homemade bread.........yummmmmm!!!

Love the wharepaku, even tried the water spray by the toilet......for the experience. Yvonne's ensuite has all the bells, heat sensors, water pressures, heated seat and whistles.........haven't tried that one yet.......we're only aloud limited time in that wharepaku!! I don't have to explain why :)