Hi folks,
The OM digests are not large of late, so I venture into an account of my
experiences at Newark, NJ. Cell-padding, so to speak.
In 1990, my wife took our two kids to The Netherlands for about 3 months.
The idea was that they could attend her old school in Hilversum, and it was
part of a plan to comply with Dutch law that would enable them to attain
Dutch citizenship (as well as NZ citizenship). Their mother is Dutch. (And
the plan succeeded; they now have dual citizenship and hold 2 passports;
they can live and work anywhere in the EU as they wish).
I had not long before been paid out for a redundancy, so had some $$ in the
bank. So I decided to visit them for 2 weeks during their school holidays,
then continue on to the USA for 3 weeks where I had three lots of friends,
then go to Hawaii for 4 days to take photos. Around the globe starting off
with Australia.
It was around August / September. A 5-week trip.
I had been sending money over on a regular basis via bank cheque, and
presumed that this method got a speedy payout in The Netherlands. When I
arrived, I found that the payout was very delayed, and they were very short of
cash. High Dutch costs had not helped either. While I thought I had a good
credit limit on my Mastercard before I departed, by the time they got onto it,
a fair amount had been siphoned out. Then one day I went to withdraw
another $1,000, and to my astonishment found that there was not enough
money left in there to cover it.
Enquiries by phone to the card agent in New Zealand were not helpful.
It turned out after I got home, that there had been a double withdrawal of a
large sum by the Dutch credit card agency, but this was not known until after
all the shouting was over. And by the way, I was amazed that Dutch shops
would not handle Mastercard, and neither would the banks. The only means
to withdraw money from M/C was to go to a strange office that resembled a
shipping freight container on near waste-land beside the railway line.
So, I was faced with carrying out the last 3 weeks of my journey with the
cash and travellers cheques I had on me, and an unknown quantity in the
credit-card account (nobody could tell me how much, except that it was less
than $1,000).
I flew from Schiphol to Heathrow, then on to Newark by Continental airlines,
and we arrived late. There was a long queue in the cattle yard. My booking
agent in New Zealand had arranged for the next leg of my travel ( to
Burlington in Vermont) by an airline that required me to travel across NY to
La Guardia. The longer I was further delayed, the greater became my
anxiety. The people in the cattle-yard seriously warned me to not travel to La
Guardia by public transport as I would have to change method of travel at
some very large exchange (forget the name now) and they were convinced
that since I was carrying a large suitcase and a briefcase, there was a
significant chance I would be robbed. The alternatives they recommended,
taxi, and helicopter, seemed very expensive.
I decided to try another tack. I went to the Continental counter and pointed
out to them that as they had got me to Newark too late to catch my next
flight, perhaps they could help get me to Burlington another way. And, bless
their hearts, they could. They got me a replacement flight from Newark on a
Delta flight. Travelled first class with a glass of wine, and in amazement
viewed the setting sun from an altitude of 10,000 ft, brick red through all the
pollution.
The NZ agents were blissfully unaware of the Delta connection, and even
though I brought back for them a printed flight schedule that had all the
details, they didn't care one bit - or thank me for the info.
Returning from Burlington, my host argued long and persuasively with the
Delta people to take over the flight to La Guardia (which would have got me
there around dusk), and fly me direct to Newark (in New Jersey right
alongside of and within view of New York), from whence my next leg to
Seattle via Continental, departed at about 6am.. A great deal of negotiation
later, they agreed.
So I arrived in Newark at around dusk and had some 'convenience food' of
some sort or other. I was not at all sure about how I would spend the night. I
could not find information about taxis or accommodation that made a lot of
sense to me. I wanted cheap but secure accommodation, and had no way of
telling the cost etc. of places the addresses of which I could find in the
phone book or wherever it was I looked. In the end I decided that I didn't
really need to pay precious $$ to a hotel for just 6 hours (max) sleep, and I
would see how long I could stay in the airport terminal. By 10 pm I think it
was, I found out. Not inside on the comfortable seats, in there, any longer.
However, there was then, maybe still is, a small stone-floored foyer at the
entrance, and in company with about 15 others in a similar plight, I found I
could spend the night there. Our luggage was taken from us and placed in
overnight storage for about $11, so that was one worry less. I think I kept my
brief case and camera bag with me - 3 OM bodies and many lenses.
So, there I spent the night, on the hard stone floor of the entrance foyer to
Newark Airport Terminal. No great drama. The cleaner was a bit of a
disturbance we could all have done without; I had some interesting
conversations with people I would absolutely never have met otherwise.
Having a P was a nuisance; in the end I walked out into the night and found
some bushes across the road and down a bank. Luggage came back in very
good time and state.
I boarded my flight and then proceeded to sleep all the way across the USA.
Didn't miss anything; any time I woke it was cloudy and nothing could be
seen.
So that was my experience of Newark. I'm quite happy with it; it could have
been a lot worse.
>From Seattle I found my way to Vancouver (Washington State), (more
drama) and spent about 3 days with an old Rotorua flat-mate and his USA
wife. Back to Seattle, where they had the cheek to take half the departure
tax I should have handed over at Honolulu, flew down to LA (which I did not
like much, little though I saw), Greyhound to San Diego where I spent 3 - 4
days with old skiing buddies and medicos, back to LA, then off to Waikiki.
Found an inexpensive hotel just a couple of blocks from the beach, and went
around the northern part of the island on The Bus. As well as doing a lot of
walking. Gave the OMs a lot of use (as before also; Kodachrome).
Decided I would try to spend a couple of days at Kauaii (spelling?), got a
good telephone quote from the airline which they didn't want to honour when I
fronted up - but eventually did. Found that there is NO conurbation near the
airport, and with some trepidation booked a room at a hotel along the coast
and hired a taxi to get me there. Fortune struck again. I had arrived just
after
the end of the school holidays, and cheap rates had just kicked in. So for
one night I could have a good blow-out feed at a good restaurant, the rest of
the time I fed my self in my room on canned food. Walked all over the pace
all daylight hours taking photos of beach, surf, people, trees, flowers - you
name it, I shot it.
Flew back to Honolulu, back to Auckland, on to Christchurch, where I arrived
at my house with about $2.00 in my pocket.
Good trip.
Brian
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