Auckland International Airport (AKL) Services

    We are open for all international flights and provide high standards of for visitors to New Zealand. We offer information on a range of attractions, and we also offer a booking service for activities, accommodation and transport. Buses into the city centre are provided at a competitive price.

    The second floor of the international terminal offers a view of the airfield and all incoming and outgoing flights. There is a café situated here as well as a restaurant, which is available for all airport visitors to use.

    Passengers who require immediate medical attention should dial 9877 on any public telephone in the terminal. The chemist's is located on the ground floor near the departure lounge, and sells a complete range of products.

    Departing passengers can put their luggage or packages into recyclable plastic bags to protect them from damage. Luggage storage, charged at $10 per hour, is available on the first floor. Transit（过境）passengers have free access to storage service.

    Every international passenger, with the exception of children under 12 years of age, is required to make a payment of $25 when leaving New Zealand. This can be arranged at the National Bank on the ground floor.

    As Auckland International Airport has adopted the “quiet airport” concept, there are usually no announcements made over the public address system. Details of all arrivals and departures are displayed on the monitors located in the terminal halls and lounge areas.

    The airport meets the needs of business travelers and has several rooms available for meetings or business gatherings. These are located next to the airport medical center on the first floor. For information and bookings please contact the Airport Business Manager on extension 5294.

    How often do you let other people like a bad driver, a rude waiter, or an angry boss, change your mood?

    Sixteen years ago I learned a lesson. I got in a taxi, and we took off for Grand Central Station. We were driving in the right lane when all of a sudden, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver used his brakes, the tires made a loud noise, and at the very last moment our car stopped just 3cm from the back of the other car.

    I couldn't believe it. But then I couldn't believe what happened next. The driver of the other car, the guy who almost caused a big accident, turned his head around and he started shouting at us. I couldn't believe it!

    My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. So, I said, “Why did you just do that? This guy could have killed us!” And this is when my taxi driver told me what I now call, “The Law of the Garbage Truck”. He said, “Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage, full of anger and disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they look for a place to dump it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you.”

    So I started thinking how often I let Garbage Trucks run right over me and how often I take their garbage and spread it to other people.

    I began to see Garbage Trucks. I see the load people are carrying. I see them coming to dump it. And like my taxi driver, I don't take it personally. I just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on.

    There exist cruel wars, fighting and sadness in the world today, so it's not only necessary, but also essential to have a good sense of humor just to help us go through difficult times in out lives. Putting a smile on someone's face when you know they are feeling depressed, as the saying goes, makes me feel good and warms my heart.

    How would you feel if you could not joke around with wife, husband, child, co-worker, neighbor, close friend, or even just someone that you are standing in line with at your corner store? I am always saying things that make others smile or laugh, even if I don't know the person I'm joking around with. My Grandma always found humor in everything she did, even if it was the hardest job anyone could imagine. This not only relieves stress in any situation, but also is a common manner to speak to others that are around you.

    I know of a few people that don't have a funny bone in their bodies, as they say. Everyone around them could be rolling on the floor after hearing a great joke and they would sit there without the slightest smile on their faces. They don't get the joke that makes others laugh. I am, busting a gut while they just sit there, looking at me as if I were from outer space. How can people not get a really funny joke?

    Laughing is essential to keep your stress levels under control. Without humor, we would find ourselves with a lot of psychological problems, or on a lot of medications to keep us from going crazy. There is too much sadness and bring a little light into our lives.

    Therefore, I believe our best medicine is to get together and tell some jokes and have some fun laughing together.

    Stefano Boeri, the Italian architect, famous for his Bosco Verticale, a group of tree-covered skyscrapers in Milan, introduced his new plans to pioneer a similar project in the Chinese city of Nanjing.

    The Chinese version of Boeri's Bosco Verticale, or vertical forest, will be his first project in Asia. The project will consist of two neighboring towers that will be coated with 23 different species of trees and more than 2,500 kinds of bushes hanging down the sides of the buildings. The structures will be built with the ability to house offices and will feature a 247-room luxury hotel, as well as a museum and even a green architecture school. The towers are currently under construction and are set for completion within the next year.

    But two buildings aren't enough for the ambitious Boeri as he now has even bolder plans for China to create “forest cities” in a country that has become known as an urban center choking on poisonous gases and dust.

    In an interview about his plans to “greenify” the city and country Boeri said, “We have been asked to design an entire city where you don't only have one tall building, but you have 100 or 200 buildings of different sizes, all with trees and plants on the sides.” Boeri continued, “We are working very seriously on designing all the different buildings. I think they will start to build at the end of this year. By 2020 we could imagine having the first forest city in China.”

    Although these towers will lend a huge hand in decreasing air pollution in China's eastern city, Boeri has said, it will take more than a pair of tree-covered skyscrapers to really solve China's pollution crisis. This is why the Italian architect hopes to repeat his design in other parts of the country, as well as in other places around the world.

    “Helicopter parent” may not sound pleasant, but given the chance, most parents would probably prefer a vehicle to zoom (快速移动)little ones between school, football practice and piano lessons. Getting children where they need to go is a huge task and expense, especially in homes where both parents work. Hailing rides (专车服务)through firms like Uber and Lyft has made life more convenient for adults. But drivers are not supposed to pick up kids who travels without an adult aside (although some are known to bend the rules).

    Children represent a fresh-faced opportunity. Ride-hailing for kids could be a market worth at least $50bn in America, hopes Ritu Narayan, the founder of Zum, one of the startups in want of the prize. These services are similar to Uber's, except they allow parents to schedule rides for their children in advance. Children are given a code word to ensure they find the right driver, and parent sreceive warnings about the pick-up and ride, including the car's speed. These services promise more careful background checks finger printing and training than typical ride-hailing companies.

    Annette Yolas, who works in sales at AT&T, says that she spends around $200 a month on Hop Skip Drive, a service that operates in several markets in California, for her three kids to get to the school bus on time and to ballet practice. She says it has been a “life-saver” by allowing her to work longer hours. Meanwhile, kids avoid the embarrassment of a relative pulling up at school. But ride-hailing firms for kids may end up like the children in Neverland, and never fully grown. They face several challenges. One is finding enough drivers. All users need rides during the same limited set of hours: before and after school, which makes it hard to offer drivers enough work. It can also be challenging to persuade parents, who have drilled it into children never to get in a stranger's car.

    And while ride-sharing companies can annoy adult passengers by cancelling or being late, such behavior can be a disaster when children are involved. Shuddle, an early entrant in the taxis-for-kids business, which shut down in 2016, had only two out of five stars on Yelp (点网站)for that reason， and lots of negative reviews from parents. It had made money on rides mainly by raising prices ever higher.

    Shuddle's failure has not discouraged Uber itself, which is expected soon to launch a pilot programme for teenagers under 18. Parents may be happier to use services they are familiar with. But Uber's entrance is likely to add to the struggle of child-focused ride-hailing businesses as they compete for customers and new funds.

Ecobee3 Smarter WiFi Thermostat

    Smart thermostats have become the face of smart home technology for most, but depending on what your home is like, it's possible to say the ecobee3 is superior.

    Most of the smart thermostats carry the same benefits, including the ecobee3. They can learn your preferences and schedules, and then adjust the temperature accordingly. They're better-looking and more enjoyable to use than the basic pieces of plastic that occupy most households. Their very presence will probably make you more conscious about saving energy. And once you're able to heat up or cool down your house from your phone, without having to get out of bed, you won't want to go back.

    If you live in a larger household, the ecobee3 can be much more convenient—provided you pick up a couple more remote sensors. Yes, it gets pretty expensive at that point, but having those gives you effective control over the temperature in different rooms around your house. In comparison, other thermostats' measurements are largely limited to the area in which they' re installed (安装).

    If you live in a smaller place, that's no big deal; the ecobee3 still has distinct advantages. It is touch-enabled and more spacious, making it less annoying when you want to enter a WiFi password, see weather information, and so on. Still, all the smart thermostats are pretty great. Which one is best just depends on whether you need a whole-home solution or a more straightforward one. For now, if it's the former, go with the ecobee3.

    Ecobee3 Smarter WiFi Thermostat with Remote Sensor, available at all shopping websites.