Greetings from Auckland!

Hello All!

We are writing you from Auckland, New Zealand which means that we made it here.  But, let’s start from the beginning…

We went from this:

To this:

We took 2 cars to the airport and paid $170 in overweight baggage fees but, all of our stuff is here.  We flew from PDX to LAX at about 5:30pm and landed at about 7:30.  We went to go check-in for our next flight and found out it was delayed for 22 hours, and then they directed us to a line that was 4 (no joke) hours long in which we were 5th from last.  So horrible.  However, it was really entertaining to watch people get mad and then have to just stand there and wait because they were powerless.  We ended up being shuttled to a hotel in Hollywood (30 mins from the airport) and given meal vouchers that we couldn’t use because it was 12:30am.  We were so so tired by the time we got to our room.  

The next morning we got free breakfast and were told that our plane would be taking off at 6pm but that was an “estimated status”.  We didn’t want to take any chances (read: be in a 4 four line again) so we headed to the airport at 2 (big thanks to Max for the sweet town car).  Got there and stood in a line for about an hour.  When we were finally able to talk to someone, they told us they were transferring our flight to Qantas and our new flight would be: LA to Brisbane to Auckland.  We were then told to come back at 6pm for them to issue us a paper ticket transfer and that in the meantime we would need to wait for our luggage.  The airline had checked our luggage in Portland all the way through to Auckland and since we were switching airlines, we needed our bags.  We got all our (overweight) luggage and when we were at the front of the paper ticket transfer line, we were offered a direct flight with Air New Zealand.  We jumped on it and thanked them profusely.  We started stressing out about paying for our overweight luggage to the ticket attendant and she said, “Well, I put you in business class so you should be allowed more baggage.”  At this point we both peed just a little bit.  We checked in with Air NZ and were sent to the business lounge to wait for our flight.  Here’s a peek into the business lounge:

This is a fully stocked self-serve pop, wine and beer cooler. If you blow up the photo you’ll see the wine regions of NZ highlighted on a map. There are very few regions of NZ that do not produce wine. This is excellent.

This is a fully stocked self-serve bar.

This is a cheese plate, lasagna, and salad.  FREE!

And here is the setup in 11A:

Hours of sleep for Chris: 3-4 (someone is addicted to in-flight movies)

Hours of sleep for Rachel: 7-8 (with the help of a lot of white wine)

All in all, our flight ended up being better than we could have ever planned (or afforded) so we really aren’t too upset about the whole process.  And, best part, WE ARE IN AUCKLAND!!!

Chris’s business partner and long-time friend, Sean, was at the airport ready to greet us and help with our luggage.  Sean and his family have been in New Zealand for about 2 months now in a little town south of Auckland, so he knows some of the ins and outs already.  Sean took control of our whole arrival; got us to the hotel, walked us around downtown, bought us dinner, and reassured us that our next 3 years are going to be amazing.

Tonight it’s a cozy night in to try and catch up on some sleep.  The jet lag is definitely affecting us.  And, SO much to explore tomorrow.  More soon…