Well, we got up at the butt-crack and went with Mark's dad to downtown Auckland to the Air Pacific headquarters to beg beg beg for 3 seats on the flight that afternoon and any discounts that they could possibly graciously grant us. Shane and Mark's dad went in to talk to them. Well, after about 30 minutes they walk out with 3 tickets in hand....PRAISE THE LORD. The headquarter lady also AMAZINGLY took off all the transfer fees and she cut the price of the tickets by like half....needless to say we were exceedingly GRATEFUL. So, we headed to the airport for the 2nd day in a row........
Round 2.....
Katie and I were just hoping that we didn't do anything this time to blow it!
Hanging out with Georgie and Mark at the airport before we left.....we got to the airport like 5 hours early....I mean, seriously, you can never be too careful, right?!?!?
Telling Georgie bye....she couldn't look at the camera :).....we miss you SO much gIna!!
Shane with the newlyweds.... :)
I'm pretty sure Katie got picked to be checked by security every single flight....I mean, she does kind of look suspicious....what?!
OK, so the airline felt so sorry for us (which is beyond me since it was TOTALLY our own fault we missed our flight) and they moved up to FIRST CLASS...what!??!??!?!?
We were the only ones in the entire first class session....it was just a tiny bit nice :)
We definitely enjoyed our little treat.....
OK, so the food is first class is JUST A WEE BIT better than coach.....I mean....
Approaching Fiji....
Fiji Airport....very small. We only had a 7 hour layover...ha!
Fries for lunch and Fries for dinner....very nutritious.....
You totally can't see it very well, but while I sat down and journaled about our trip, all of the sudden this amazing rainbow appeared....it was beautiful....
We finally got on our LONG flight from Fiji to Los Angeles. We each took some sleeping medicine, put on our eye masks, put in our earplugs and passed out for the majority of the flight....YAY!!
Here we are when they woke us up for breakfast....
Gooooood morning, Katie!
When we arrived in L.A. we knew our time was going to be TIGHT for us to make it to our next flight. Like, super tight. We get off the plane and sprint to baggage claim. We wait. And Wait. And Wait. That's right...our bags were the very LAST ones to come out. That's right. We were cutting it way too close. We still had to go through customs and then run no telling how long to our terminal that was on they other side of the airport. By the time we go through customs we had like 30 minutes until our plane was supposed to leave. We look like complete idiots as we tried to run as fast as we could, with ALL of our luggage in tow, to get to our ticket counter. THANKFULLY, there were LOTS of people that were running late so they held the plane and we were able to get on our flight. GEEEEEEZ....stressful!
ONE more flight to go!!
We were "NA NA"....ALL FREAKING DONE with flying in airplanes....we were ready to get home :)
Leaving L.A...... and that is the last picture I took of our trip....This chica was just too worn out to document the remainder of our trip....so we did make it to Atlanta where HayHay GLADLY picked us up and Katie made it to Mobile to her hubby and family, although her luggage DID NOT make it....ha! She got it the next day :)
So there you have it folks!! Our trip to NZ was AMAZING and we are SO very thankful that we had the opportunity to go and celebrate the wedding of our wonderful, fabulous, fantastic Kiwi friends, Mark & Georgie. We love you and miss you so! Thank you to all the wonderful hosts and fabulous Kiwi's that made our trip so awesome. An enormous THANK YOU to everyone that helped watch the girls for the week that I left before Shane.... I can't even name everyone b/c there were so many....and to Gigi, HayHay, Lance, Julia, and Bryan....NO words can describe our gratitude :)
Biggest lesson learned on this trip: ALWAYS check your plane ticket....at least once! :)
Until next time, New Zealand..... :)
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