Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

Just spent the weekend working for 3 News in Wellington. Had an interesting couple of days. I was on news, while Kevin was on sport covering the Cricket (1st ODI vs Australia).

Kevin had a late night on the Saturday, going to the game after work then hanging around for the Press Conference after the game, before having a few concilatory drinks until the early hours of the morning.

He made it into work on Sunday fine, but when I called up to get let in down below in the TV3/Radioworks building the lift electronics decided to die, leaving Kevin trapped in the lift just below the third floor. Mighty funny for the rest of us, but probably not as funny from his point of view. Luckily he was able to get someone to come out within about 45 mins, and just settled in to read the paper while he was waiting (a few pics below)...

I had a little problem getting home again however. Got to the airport 25 minutes before departure, but there were huge lines and by the time I'd got to the front, Air New Zealand's official "20 minute check-in" had passed and they wouldn't let me on. It was the last available flight of the night back to Dunedin... made worse by the fact the flight was then delayed by another 20 minutes because of the late arrival of the aeroplane! (still wouldn't let me on).

I flew out the next morning - well as far as Christchurch anyway - and then had to wait on standby for half the day, with all the flights full as students were all heading back to University. In the past, I could have just been switched onto Origin Pacific, but they unfortunately pulled out of Dunedin a few months ago, after being forced out by pseudo-monopoly tactics from Air New Zealand, and zealous over-charging by Dunedin Airport.