Day 1 Brisbane to Auckland

For those who have little time to read the long version of todays blog, I have condensed it with the help of ChatGPT

After a week in Brisbane with Kathy and Marc, we flew to Auckland to join Silver Moon. An early Blacklane transfer and smooth flight were followed by long delays, slow baggage collection, and heavy traffic, leaving us to arrive at the pier just before departure, much to the relief of the waiting Silversea staff after a transfer mix-up.

Once onboard, hunger quickly took priority after a very long day. Our butler Ian provided welcome canapés, and we ended the evening relaxed at the pool grill with pizza and wine—the perfect finish after a stressful journey.

After spending a week in Brisbane with Kathy and Marc it was time to board our plane bound for Auckland where we would meet our Silversea Ship, Silver Moon.

Our Blacklane limousine arrived right on time at 5.00am Tuesday morning for the half hour drive to the Brisbane International Airport. With the help of our E Passsport it was a quick transit through customs and immigration and into Qantas Club for a coffee and toast.  Our flight was due to depart at 8.30 with boarding at 7.45a.m.  We made our way towards Gate 77 and could see our plane waiting patiently for us on the tarmac.  We watched the two pilots board the plane and thought to ourselves that it would not be long until we were called to board.  At 8.00am the announcement was made that the crew for our flight had been delayed on their flight from Auckland and we could expect to be boarding shortly.  In fact we didn't commence boarding until 9.00am and didn't hit the airway until 9.30, an hour behind schedule!

Our flight was smooth but we didn't touch down in Auckland until 2.30 and it took us another hour to get through customs and immigration after baggage collection that took forever.  Fortunately the  Blacklane driver that was included with our Silversea fare, was there to greet us and lead us to his waiting vehicle.  

No sooner had we left the airport when we hit extremely busy traffic on the freeway.  This was painfully slow bumper to bumper traffic, that was standing still in places.  I was anxiously watching my watch as I knew the ships departure time was 7.00pm with check-in closing much earlier.  It was almost 5.00pm when we finally reached the pier and all the check-in staff were packing up in readiness for departure.  When we gave them our names they replied "We have been looking everywhere for you".  Apparently phones don't work in New Zealand.

We found out afterwards that there was a bus waiting for us at Auckland Airport, along with nine other passengers.  Somewhere along the line our name was added to the bus manifest even though we were supplied with vouchers for a Blacklane transfer. Someone at Silversea slipped up.

Food was high on our priority list once we boarded the ship.  We had only been provided with breakfast on our flight and along with the one piece of toast that we had in Qantas Club, it was not a lot to fill our bellies. However our butler, Ian, came to the rescue with canapés to help sustain us until we could unpack our suitcase and head to dinner.  It was too much of an effort to shower and change and head to one of the speciality restaurants so we wandered upstairs to the pool grill and ordered pizza and wine.  It was the perfect end to a stressful day!

PS.  Silver Moon is a beautiful ship.  She was only launched in 2021 so she is still relatively new. I believe there are only 500 guests on board so we are not crowded. Our suite is small, like we expected, but it is well laid out with a great bathroom with both shower and tub.