The long cab ride to the airport for our flight back to the US

The ride to the airport form our hotel in Auckland was long, providing plenty of time to contemplate the marvelous adventure that was coming to a close. Not ones to dwell too long in silencs, the air was frequently filled with "knock knock" jokes. ("Knock knock" "Who's there?" "Ach." "Ach who?" "Bless you.") The adventure was not quite over, however.
We arrived at the airport several hours early to discover the Qantas flight we had planned on taking was now oversold. This after we had moved up our departure date a day to avoid an oversold flight! Fortunately, we also had passes on Air New Zealand, and they had a nonstop leaving shortly. Over we marched, only to discover it was completely full. did we want to go through Nadi, Fiji? Well, yes actually, but how are the loads out of Nadi might we ask? They were full, and the flights on the following days were operated by Air Pacific, whom we were told would not accept our Air New Zealand passes. Not wanting to place our eggs in one oversold basket out of Nadi we opted to go back to the orginal plan: take the Qantas nonstop. There was still another Air New Zealand non stop to LA that left after Qantas, although it was oversold, too.
Because we had arrived at the airport so early, we still had several hours to kill despite the frantic rushing about trying to get on earlier flights at the last minute. We decided to shop a bit, then sat down for a light dinner. We spent an hour or so up on the observation deck watching airplanes come and go, inculding the Qantas 747-400 we hoped to board. Finally, it was time to go back to the ticket counter and wait hopefully for our names to be called.
We arrived at the ticket counter to find more than a dozen non revs waiting. One couple was from San Francisco, and they told us this was their third night trying to get out of Auckland. We were not encouraged. They explained how hard rooms were to find due to the America's cup, but said they gotten a room at a very nice local hotel. They had reserved for that night as well, just in case they did not make it out for a third night, and offered the room to us should they got on and we didn't. They turned out to be the first couple called, and shortly after they left for the gate a young italian woman came up and explained that the couple from San Francisco had suggested she might have the room if we got on the flight. I agreed, then went back to waiting. A gentleman ws called for our flight. There was another pause, and then us! We got the last six seats on the plane! After we got our boarding passes I gave the italian woman the hotel information, then we headed for the gate.
It took a while to navigate through immigration, passport control and security, but we finally made it out the the plane. Despite getting the last six seats, we were togethr in two rows of three, on in front of the other. We were soon in the air, much to our relief. After dinner the children all fell asleep for at least eight of the eleven hour flight, and awoke during descent into Los Angeles refreshed. Pam and I, however, were not able to really sleep at all. Nevertheless, after clearing customs and immigration in Los Angeles we decided to go for it and caught the 1pm nonstop to Boston. It was another nail biter, but we got on it, too. Jay & Amanda sat up in the fron of coach by themselves, Scott sat with me and Pam sat with Josh at the back of the coach cabin. We arrived in Boston at 10pm, at got home to Rutland around midnight. Home!

Last revised 3/30/03
URL http://www.flyian.net/family/oworld/cabscott.htm