The Flight to New Zealand

Uneventfully, we arrived at the airport in Philadelphia and got checked in with our twelve bags that all successfully weighed in at less than 50 lbs. We were all sporting some heavily laden backpacks, but we managed to trudge through security without any problems. The flight on US Airways to Los Angeles seemed long and boring. It also flew over dinner time and they served no food. Hungry and tired, we landed in LA. We walked over to the Air New Zealand terminal, checked in and headed up to the gate where there were very limited choices for food. We ate some expensive pizza and settled down to wait for our flight which was running one hour late. We met a nice Midwestern family with a son about Xavier’s age who was just returning from a vacation (holiday) in Australia and New Zealand. We had fun visiting with them. It helped to pass the time. Once we boarded, the Air New Zealand flight was delayed again for some technical reason, but once we were airborne, the flight was a breeze. The children fell asleep immediately, thanks to Excedrin PM and their new flight pillows. Even the parents fell asleep for awhile. By the time the children started to wake up, half the trip had passed. We watched a couple movies, ate some breakfast and we arrived! The food was good and the service very friendly and accommodating. Only later did we discover that our flight had one big bump---somehow, in transit, we left our case with 98 DVDs for the kids to watch during our car trips and 2 of Beth’s favorite Christmas CDs. That made the flight considerably more expensive…and painful.