Monday May 20 - Wednesday May 22 (Boynton Beach to Napier via Fort Lauderdale, Houston and Auckland)

Monday

As I did not have to check in until 1 pm, I did not have to get up too early today, which was cool! Jackie drove me to Fort Lauderdale where I checked my bag through to Auckland. We had a great run through, so were nice and early. I had a spectacular check in, I dropped my nearly full bottle of ICE and a bit later, without thinking, I opened it to have a drink! Thirty seconds later, half a bottle had sprayed everywhere, lol! I washed down a bit but my TShirt was fairly damp, my wallet and passport holder were also covered. The people were so lovely, paper towels came from everywhere, lol. it was all cleared up before I left.

Once again, my thanks to Jackie for putting me up and putting up with me. We had some great trips and I was well looked after! I enjoyed Abby’s company! 

I had TSA Pre but was randomly selected to have my IPad checked, not for electronic data but for explosive powder! I was then able to wait for my flight in the a United Club at Fort Lauderdale, I did not realise there was one at Fort Lauderdale and it was right beside gate. 

Once in Houston I was able to go to the Polaris Lounge so I went to the dining room and had a couple of small dishes, prawns and chicken wings, very tasty. That stopped me from feeling hungry as dinner was not served on the plane until about 90 minutes into the flight. to Auckland 

The plane to Auckland had WiFi fitted so I was able to communicate from high up in the sky, lol. At present it is free but I am not sure how long Air NZ will be able to keep it that way! I watched a great film before I tried to sleep, it was based on a true story and I highly recommend it. I dozed on and off overnight although it was quite bumpy at times. 

Tuesday

Disappeared somewhere over the Pacific as we crossed the International Date Line!

Wednesday

We landed 49 minutes early and ended up at a remote gate, ie in the middle of nowhere, lol. We caught buses to the terminal and it did not take too long at all. Our bags were already coming out on the carousel, wow! Then we all had to put our bags through XRay as the dogs were not awake yet, lol! At least they had three then four lanes open and there were not huge queues. i then went to the regional lounge in the domestic terminal to kill some time! It had opened early which was fortunate!

It was a good flight through to Napier and then it was home again!!