I'm back in the states!! Right now i'm in the San Francisco airport waiting to board my flight to Denver, where i'll meet up with the rest of the Kimmel clan, and then we will all fly into Pgh together this evening. I have another long blog post written about our time spent in NZ but that will have to wait until i get back so i can add pictures to it, as i haven't yet begun looking through or editing the mass of photos and videos from our last few weeks. But i wanted to get this post up about my latest travels.
[written before my first flight yesterday]
Here I am in the chc airport, waiting on my flight to Auckland. I am already delayed due to fog in chc but I’m told that the plane should be arriving soon and that estimated departure time is 2 pm (I was originally supposed to leave at 12:20). I am really hoping that we aren’t further delayed, as my international flight to San Fran is scheduled for 5:15. But these things are totally out of my control and it will be what it will be and I know that God will use it all for good : ) One thing I can say for sure is that I am looking forward to my return to the states, Somerset, my home, family&friends, CAMP, Spencer, warm weather, and character macaroni and cheese.
[later the same day]
SO. What an interesting afternoon it’s been! Right now it’s 8:30 pm NZ time, so 4:30 am home time, and I am on the flight from Auckland to San Francisco, but not without some really close calls, that’s for sure. We all continued to wait for updates on the flight from Christchurch and the just kept coming onto the system and telling us that it was going to be just a bit later than expected. It started with a 40 minute delay, telling us that they apologize but that the plane should arrive shortly and we could board around 1 pm. Then it was 1:30, then 2. At 2:30 they changed our boarding gate and I started to worry when we moved and the plane still wasn’t there. We boarded at about 3 pm with many apologies from the staff…the fog had held up the plane and it had to stay longer in Wellington and then just took that long to get down to chc with refueling and everything, I guess. It’s about 1 hour 20 minute flight and close to the landing time I asked one of the flight attendants what I should do about my other flight, as I realized that the likelihood of me making it at this point was slim – it was 4:30 pm when I got off of the plane and my international flight was scheduled for 5:15. The flight attendant told me that they were planning on holding the flight; I guess there were a few others on that flight who needed to get the same plane to San Fran. But the thing was that I booked this leg of my trip separately from my other flights, so I don’t think I was one of the ones that they were waiting for. I got off and thought maybe there would be someone waiting to help me out but once again, I don’t think they knew that I was one of those in this predicament. Because it was an international flight I needed to get my bag and recheck it again AND make my way to an entirely different terminal; fortunately I didn’t have to wait long for a shuttle. I was a little exasperated by this point, as you can imagine. I practically ran into the international terminal only to find several sizable lines between myself and all Air New Zealand check-in stations. I didn’t even try to wait, as by this point it was near 5 pm and I knew if I didn’t do something quick I was not going to get on that flight. I basically interrupted one of the Air New Zealand attendants talking to a lady and she immediately came to my rescue. She made a phone call to the gate (because check-in for my flight had closed long ago) and then proceeded to bump me to the front of every line and then escorted me to my gate (which I would have never found that quickly by myself) and got me there just as they were boarding the back rows. I literally had enough time to go to the bathroom and then got on the plane and we left. I can’t tell you how fortunate I feel to just be on this plane right now. Wow. More to come later.
So excited to be home later TONIGHT!!
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