Airline-d-ventures

I'm not too enthusiastic about any animal form that has more than four limbs. Even less so when it is inside a pillow case on which my sleeping head is resting. The awareness of the presence of a tarantula spider only few inches away is more than disturbing. Especially when for some reason I reach out to touch it and the hairy ball starts throwing itself around in panic. SQUEAK! it's stung me! Why don't I feel any pain then? I open my eyes. For a moment of dreamy desorientation I don't know where I am but the humming sound of a spring rain outside makes me realise it must be New Zealand.
Auckland greeted me in a wet fashion. Leaden clouds were frowning at landing planes, livid with anticipation to transform the runway into a lustrous surface of water. The moment the plane touched the tarmac the sky spilt itself onto the green landscape painting an impressionist picture. The weather, istead of melancholy, filled me with elated satisfaction. After two months backpacking in China and a sisterly visit to Malaysia I've got here at last. However, the last leg of my journey east from Singapore to Auckland via Hong Kong wasn't as unadventurous as I'd expected it to be...
Two weeks of Malaysian home comfort had put my backpacker's alertness to sleep which made me get to the airport 12 nonchalant hours before the departure hoping for an early check-in and a night of free luxuries of Changi Airport. The only thing I do remember from somewhat longish negotiations with Jet Star Asia crew is that "they are sorry to inform me that it is not their policy to do early check-ins" and that "I can find 'left luggage' desk on level 2B". Well, I went to 2B and then back to Bugis Junction. I decided to be philosophical about the fact that the hostel where I was hoping to catch a few hours of sleep was situated in the very centre of the bustling Ramadan night market (it was as if one was trying to fall asleep at a market stall full of excited customers). Six sleepless hours later I philosophically let myself be ripped off by a taxi driver who, in a very Asian manner, demanded $5 more than decency allows and which I enthusiastically gave him (keeping in mind the fact that my last post was about bargaining, i'll leave the above without any comment...). Another 12 hours later I found out at Hong Kong airoport that I cannot be checked in for the flight to Auckland until my visa has not been given an all clear from NZ immigration office. Since we live in a technologically advanced world it took them just over five hours which I spent wondering if the Polish embassy had sent it through at all. With collywobbles in my stomach I got to the check in desk for the fifth time, nervously trying to read my fate from Cathay Pacific stewardes's smile. A grin meant a success. It was not the end of it though. No sooner than I'd heard a sweet 'Gidday meete' in Auckland, than my passport disappeared for an hour. After another sleepless night (had to catch up with the movies...) my imagination started gallopping with a front runner's zeal - they forfeit my luggage in which they find heaps of illegal fresh food, a deadly leech, four rabbits, dozen of mice and a kilogram of crack. My visa turns out to have been forged and I get thrown into a claustrophobic cell full of refugees from Bangladesh and latino drug traffickers. Oh well, not this time. I got my passport back, got another all clear and am now officially a legal student.
It is still raining in Auckland. It's even better in Wellington, the rain complemented by super sea storms. AHHH, Kiwi weather....