I left home very early at 6:45am for the train, getting to the airport at 8:15am for a quick check-in where my large backpack weighed less than 4 kilograms on the scale. There was still nothing to do in the international terminal after passing security, that was after having to get my passport manually inspected.
I tried to access a work website from my computer but the corporate login kept getting denied with every web browser and browser extension attempted. I thought I'd forgotten to submit part of my end of year review, but it seemed I couldn't do anything about it now, so instead I just downloaded some TV shows while I waited. The rows of seats at the departure gates are still terrible, every time someone moves the whole row of seats shakes violently.
I already had a quick breakfast before leaving but the departure time of 10:30am was a bit too early to consider buying lunch before boarding. Not packing any snacks for the flight might have been a mistake though, as it would be at least 2:30pm Australia time when landing. Since the flight was only 3.5 hours I just opted for economy class and an exit row for a bit more leg room. Once onboard I wasn't planning to do much besides listen to some podcasts and countdown the time remaining anyway.
The boarding process was a bit less chaotic than usual and we departed on time. I slept for a while before a lunch service came through that seemed to take forever, but at least they had a default vegetarian option on the main menu. Once lunch was cleared I listened to a podcast for an hour and then we were close to landing, but the last half hour always seems to take forever.
Yet again my passport didn't work at the electronic gate so I had to go into a manual queue, but luckily there was only two people in front of me. The luggage came within a couple of minutes, and although the quarantine line moved slowly there wasn't too many people ahead of me.
Outside the terminal I easily found the bus stop and only had to wait 5 minutes since it runs every 10 minutes. There was a lot of traffic on the road but we had a dedicated bus lane to avoid the worst of it, then only had to wait another 5 minutes once getting off for the connecting train.
Both the bus and train accepted credit cards which was good. The train had less than 10 stops to make but they were quite far apart and the train was not going particularly fast, so it was a long journey. Overall I still made it to the city centre a bit ahead of schedule, at about 6pm New Zealand time or 4pm Australia time, about a 9 hour trip in total.
The hotel wasn't far away from the station and I spotted a Burger Fuel, New World supermarket, and Taco Bell along the way. Once I had completed check-in I got changed for a quick 6 kilometre run along the harbour. Going west was a bit crowded and not the best choice of the two directions, I got a brief look at the preferable east side before finishing. Walking back through the city there was a lot of people getting ready for their Halloween events also.
On my way back to the hotel I used my watch to buy a drink at the supermarket and some food from Taco Bell, and they added in a free taco but it had meat. Back at the hotel I had a quick dinner while watching some of The Amazing Race then checked how my shares finished the week, with no surprises at least.
It was already about 7:30pm by now and I had to be prepared for the 8:00am parkrun in the morning, with a train at about 7:30am. However since my legs were feeling alright, and it was technically only 5:30pm Australia time, I went back out again to New World for some snacks and drinks for the fridge. I also stopped in at the nearby Dunkin Donuts but they didn't have much left at the end of the day.
Steps = 13,400 with 5.7 kilometres running