Auckland Dramas and a nice night out

Got to Auckland with few issues.  Took the Yellow Bus to our airport hotel.  It went to several other hotels first - Novotel, Sudima.... all looking pretty swanky.  Finally the bus pulled up to 'Airport Gateway Hotel'.  Well.  Talk about shabby.  It's amazing  what you can fall for online isn't it?  We were greeted by potholes, spiderwebs, a dim interior and Christmas decorations still adorning a grim reception.  The room was actually nice enough, but the whole place was completely unloved... do not recommend.  Mum then got a call from Singapore Airlines sitting that they had overbooked the flight from Singapore to Johannesburg, and would we like to sit in Economy (from Premium), in exchange for $500 each?  We said no thanks and didn't hear back so were hoping they were able to sort something out.

Had a great dinner out at Kiss Kiss with Denise and Bec, who I went to school with.  Very excited to hear all about Denise's new house she's just bought and a cool ride back to the Bates Motel in Bec's Tesla - what a smooth ride.

Christine, Denise, Jane, Bec

Midday flight out to Sydney and we arrived early, if nothing else to get out of that dreadful hotel.  Headed upstairs to Departures, managing to completely circumnavigate Check-In.

At the escalator, I made a terrible mistake of loading up the carry on luggage and popping it front of mum to wheel on.  But she managed to balance everything on two steps and when the first one rose up, it tipped the luggage on top of her and back she went.  She actually managed to fall UP an escalator in slow motion.  I abandoned the big suitcases at the bottom of the escalator and raced up after mum, trying to move the bags off her so I could lift her up.  Out of nowhere two lovely men appeared behind her head and in unison, like they did it every day, instructed her to bend her knees and tipped her back upright before we'd even got to the top.  She was a little shaken but not hurt and nothing bruised or bumped.  Phew.  We then realised we should have checked in downstairs.  Took the lift that time, and attempted a digital robot check in.  In lieu of a producing us boarding passes, it told us to consult an assistant.  Honestly, a keen observer that morning might assume we had never before travelled or experienced an airport.

Having located the sole check in counter with an actual human, we were asked to produce our full cruise itinerary as proof of our departure from South Africa.  The lady spend a good 20 minutes staring intently at the monitor and typing we-don't-know-what.  Eventually we were allowed to proceed and said goodbye to our suitcases, hoping they would find us in Jo-burg in two days' time. 

Then it was off for an overdue coffee and some breakfast.

For an unknown and unexplained reason, they upgraded us to Premium Economy on Air NZ for hop over the Tasman, which was lovely - food was good and staff were excellent.