Having gone to the sleep with the curtains open I woke at 0540, over an hour before my alarm. I had planned to start driving to Nelson airport at 0800 in time for my 1125 standby flight back to Auckland.
Knowing that making it to the airport for the earlier flight possibility at 1000 seemed unlikely, I didn’t rush to get ready. I showered, had a coffee and cut up some fruit to take along as part of my airport breakfast later with muesli and yoghurt.
I started driving at 0645 and to my surprise ended up at Nelson airport car rental return about 1h30 later! That was fast! I had a good run the traffic light controlling the one-way section of the route which had been washed away by a storm a few years ago, and also a good run without traffic. Usual estimates for driving time was at least 1h45.
Sarah from the rental company dropped me off at the airport at 0830 for check-in. I was there nearly 3h before my selected 1125 flight and 1h30 before the first available one at 1000. I got myself transferred to the 1000 flight and made my breakfast of muesli, yoghurt and cut fruit.
About 30 mins before departure, I was confirmed onto my flight back to Auckland. Apart from the first cool drizzly day, I had enjoyed a sun-drenched and activity-packed holiday in a stunning part of New Zealand. It was such a pity that Kim hadn’t joined me as airfares were rather pricey this year and he had run out of staff standby tickets.