What a difference 24 hrs makes!
It wasn't the tornado or the delay that broke this camel's back- stuff like that happens; all part of the adventure!
What sort of undid me was, when arriving in Auckland, (sleep deprived and 8 and 1/2 hours late) at 5 am, we were informed that we were only on standby for tonight's flight. The Sydney crew could have done, but inexplicably did not book us into that flight even though they told us they had. This may mean we are here till Sunday.
The other thing that baffled the Auckland based crew is why the Sydney crew didn't just put us on a direct flight from Sydney to LA.
I would be baffled to, except my brain is scrambled from lack of sleep.
We have booked into a day room at the Novotel, and I enforced sleep for all. Despite it being 12:30pm, the kids are nearly 6 hours into a much needed sleep!
At 6 pm we will head to the airport to discover if being on stand by means we stand by and watch 2 more days melt off our itinerary, or if it means we get the 6 spare seats in business class. Upgrade baby!!!!! Woohoo,
On the upside?
I made sure we were in LA for the first few days for this very reason. Stuff happens; all part of the adventure. All the things we planned to do have now been rebooked for the 3 days we are in LA on the other side of the trip. Yay!
Lowlight so far-( besides the delays) seeing the pain the 7 yr old was in with his ears on descent. Ear Planes here we come
Highlight so far- when the 17 yr old turned around to beam at me as we traipsed along to customs after disembarking our plane in Aukland and said with wonder in his voice: 'we are in another country!!'
(Photo taken right after that moment of our welcome party!)