Most of our Excellent Adventures over the years have been abroad, requiring long transits across multiple time zones resulting in lack of sleep, and the cobbling of two days into one Very Long Day. We knew flying to New Zealand was going to be particularly challenging, because the actual flying time was 20+ hours, not including layovers AND an additional flavor – crossing the International Date Line.
This time was particularly special, because the Never Ending Day really started at about 2:00 a.m. on December 18, 2022, when Andy and I received a text message from United Airlines cheerfully letting us know that our flight for the first leg of the journey (from Dulles (IAD) to San Francisco (SFO)) was now delayed by THREE hours, which meant we’d arrive a full hour AFTER our flight from SFO to Auckland, New Zealand was scheduled to leave.
The good news: Andy was still up to see the message at 2:00 a.m. If he hadn’t seen it, I can’t imagine how we would have been able to make the New Zealand flight.
After researching alternatives, he work me up at 2:30 a.m. (I was not the most chipper) and we started making phone calls.
A call to the Viking Air Emergency hotline referred us back to United. Andy had found an earlier flight from IAD leaving at 12:30 that would leave us with a 7 hour layover in SFO, but at that point, who cares. Took a couple of tries to convince the United agent that we needed a flight that got us to SFO *before* our New Zealand flight left. Then came the seat challenge – there were very few seats left. We grabbed the best/not great option of the exit row. We knew that really wasn’t viable (I am not physically capable of actually helping anybody off the plane in an emergency), but at least we had confirmed seats. We would figure it out at the gate.
It was now 2:45 a.m. Originally, Andy had plenty of time Sunday morning to pack before we left, but now there wasn’t. So off he went to do that.
Instead of leaving for the airport at a leisurely 12:30 p.m., we were on our way by 8:30 a.m. The clock was ticking.
Luckily, everything went pretty smoothly. Of course, there was the issue of the seats. The gate agent spent some time moving people around and found a way to move the two of us together away from the exit rows. Also of course, this also meant I lost my aisle seat. I was now relegated to the dreaded middle seat for the next 5 1/2 hours.
Fortunately, the guy in the aisle seat was very kind about letting me out when I needed to. He was traveling with his family, who were sitting behind us. With about 30 minutes to SFO, he swapped seats with his wife. She and I immediately hit it off and had a marvelous conversation about everything imaginable. Goes to show how you can find new friends everywhere!
One thing that was particularly confusing – it was not clear if we were supposed to be served lunch on this flight. While we were waiting to board, there was an electronic sign showing “lunch” as one of the amenities. Turns out that was misleading – you could *buy* food onboard, but it was NOT lunch – more of a large snack. Fortunately I had a granola bar with me, but Andy had nothing.
So once we had ourselves set up at the gate at SFO, we bought lunch – at 3:30 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. our-stomach time. We bought extra chewie bars in case we had a similar problem on the next flight.
Another part of this adventure, is that Hanukkah started on the evening of December 18. And by crossing the International Date Line, we’ll lose a day of Hanukkah. Very odd. Also, we won’t be able to light actual candles, since planes, airports, hotels, and cruise ships tend to frown on open flames. So I’ve resurrected the solution we used on our 2015 South American cruise – LED tea lights!
Yada, yada, yada and seven hours later, we boarded the plane heading to New Zealand. This time I had the aisle seat and the extra leg room was great. We had hoped for an empty middle seat, but no such luck. All 275 seats on the plane had a person in them.
Our new seat mate was this poor guy who had been traveling from his home town of Frankfurt, Germany, for three days. His luggage had been lost somewhere between his flight from Frankfurt to NY. He had been 3 days without a change of clothes and worried if his suitcase would make it to New Zealand. Miracles of miracles, his suitcase had been delivered to him at the airport just before he boarded. He was ecstatic.
The flight was now running a bit late – it was after 11:00 p.m. Pacific time, but my brain new it was really 2:00 a.m. back in Maryland.
I was hoping that the sheer exhaustion + a Benadryl would allow me to get *some* sleep. It sorta worked. I think I managed to pull together maye 4 or 5 hours of sleep? But none of it continuous. I’d read, get sleepy, doze off for 45 minutes, jerk awake, try to watch a movie, get sleepy, doze off for 30 minutes, jerk awake, listen to a podcast….rinse and repeat…
Inevitably, I became obsessed with the flight status page, refreshing and staring at it, daring it to change. It seemed forever frozen…
At least there was plenty of food. Every few hours there was another snack or meal or something. And our seat mate seemed to need to get up almost as often as I did, giving me the excuse to get up and walk around. And if both of us were gone, then Andy could get up from his window seat and move around as well.
Finally it was breakfast, hooray! That MUST mean we were almost there, right?
And then our seat mate asked for help with his computer. Apparently, he spends half the year in New Zealand, and the other half the year in Maui, visiting Frankfurt maybe once a year, and his house in the Canary Islands – all to avoid winter. Now that he had finally made it back to Auckland, he needed to book his flight from Auckland to the southernmost part of New Zealand.
Deja vu all over again – I’m playing tech support like the good ole days. While we’re doing this, he starts telling me his life story – how as a young man, he participated in man extreme sports, for example: He has completed *8* Iron Man triathlons! And he had been a race car driver! Now he spends his time shuttling between one warm place and another – not a bad way to spend retirement!
Finally, finally, we were descending, and Andy was able to grab some photos.
It felt GREAT to be on the ground at last – and FINALLY in New Zealand!
So here I am, sitting outside on the hotel patio, soaking in the beautiful Hawaii-like weather, and hoping the exposure to natural sunlight will reset my inner clock. And maybe this truly never ending day will come to an end.
Tomorrow: Whale Watching
Maryland Meshugas 