Travelogue 3

Someone suggested I tell about our travels back to NZ! So, although it's not as entertaining as the trip to the states, here it goes.

We were leaving from Phoenix and heading to LA. It's a very short flight, about an hour. We got to the airport in plenty of time, but when we arrived, it took awhile to locate a trolley to put all of our luggage on (and trust me, we needed one: three large suitcases, two small ones, four carry ons, one car seat, plus two kids in a stroller). Then when we got to the Southwest ticket area, we saw a very long line. We had not seen one that long before, so we knew something had to be going on. Sure enough, the Southwest computer system had gone down, nation-wide. They were hand-writing all boarding passes and luggage tags. Woah! I have to say, they were doing it really quickly considering the circumstances. They were holding flights for people so that everyone could get through the line. We were going to be cutting it very close by the time we left Phoenix. I think we ended up with almost an hour, maybe less, to get our luggage, get to the Air New Zealand area, get checked in and get through security.

Travis came up with a plan: he would get all the luggage and I would get to Air New Zealand with the girls and let them know we were there. So, when we landed we got off the plane as soon as we could, but ended up standing there waiting and waiting for the stroller. I really needed that to get where I was going! Finally we got that and got moving.

I thought I was going to have to walk about half way around the LA airport to get to the international terminal, but was pleasantly surprised when I got out of the Southwest terminal and immediately saw an Air New Zealand plane. Our terminal was right next door! Yay! So, I went in and got us checked in while we waited for Travis. They said he had to check in a half hour before the flight was due to leave, so that left about 12 minutes. I kept waiting and waiting (it obviously wasn't that long, but it sure felt like it!). I asked a woman if I could borrow her cell phone and she asked if I was in some sort of trouble. Not really, but I just wanted to let Travis know what was happening, and then he told me they lost our car seat. He had to file a report and then came running down the foot path toward the terminal. He tried to stop/turn so suddenly that the luggage all came crashing off the trolley. He got checked in, and so did all our luggage! The nice thing about us being in such a rush was that they weren't too worried about the weight of our luggage, and just weighed them all together, so we didn't have to transfer anything out of our overweight bag into the underweight bag.

We took off running toward security. We got through pretty quickly, and made it to our gate, only to find they weren't even boarding our flight yet! We didn't have to rush as much as we did, but oh well. It was an adventure.

Our flight went really well for the most part. Zoe slept 10 out of the 12 hours. Amazing! Sophia slept on and off for about 8 hours. She was sick and so kept waking up because she was coughing. She also kept falling off her chair. Poor girl! Travis and I slept for maybe an hour each. That's what happens to me now that I can't take drugs because of traveling with children. Oh well.

When we arrived in Auckland, we could not get anyone at the airport to let us use or rent a car seat to get home! Not cool. It is true, that it wasn't their fault, it was the fault of Southwest, and that was a separate ticket from our Air New Zealand one. They told us to go to a store and buy one. We just drove home without Sophia in one. I know, it was bad, but we made it, and now have ours back.

So, that's the story of our trip back to Auckland! Good on you if you read all the way through. :)