70 Hours, To and From

We just returned from our much anticipated trip. There is so much to blog about, and so little time. Now is as good of time as any to start.

Much of our trip was spent in airports. Our trip consisted of 8 separate flights. Many hours spent on airplanes. And just as many, if not more, spent waiting for airplanes. Sam has estimated that we spent around 70 hours in travel time. Here's a glimpse of it all.



Waiting in the Salt Lake airport to catch our flight to LA. Because cute Sam wanted to make sure we were there in plenty of time, and we forgot that the Salt Lake airport is much smaller and easier to get through than Denver, we had almost two hours to kill here. I played Brain Age 2 and Flash Focus on the new Nintendo DS my parents gave me for my birthday right before we left.



Waiting in LAX. I have never been to LAX before. We had plenty of time to take it all in. We didn't see any celebrities, as I had hoped we would, most likely because we flew into the Southwest Terminal, and I am assuming most celebrities don't fly Southwest. We had about 9 hours to kill in this airport. We made ourselves as comfortable as we could in a food court. Sam read a contract for work. I read "The Kite Runner." It is very tragic. I was sobbing at several points during my reading. Sam was worried about me.



An hour or so before our flight was due to take off for Nadi, Fiji, we made our way to our gate. It was very crowded, all the seats taken, people all over the floor, big fans blowing trying to keep the masses cool. It was not a very reassuring start to the 12 hour flight we were about to take.



But we did arrive in the Nadi, Fiji airport safe and sound. Our flight with Air Pacific was all right. I was forced to watch "Dan In Real Life" and "27 Dresses" over and over and over for 13 hours. I never want to see either of those movies ever again. I also read "Atonement." I thought it was interesting, but it all seemed a bit trite after having just read "The Kite Runner." Once we landed, Sam waited for the bags, as pictured above (he was certain they had been lost -- he hates checking baggage), and I sat down on the floor to play my Nintendo DS. Not 1 minute into my Sudoku, I felt a bite, and looked down to see a strange bug crawling out from under me. I quickly stood up, a bit stunned. Welcome to Fiji.



Here we are back in the Nadi airport after our two days in Fiji. We got here in plenty of time, and had another couple of hours to kill before we caught our flight to Auckland. More Nintendo DS for me.



We landed in Auckland around midnight. We had a flight to catch from Auckland, which is on the northern tip of the North Island, to Queenstown, which is in the center of the South Island, at 8:00 am the next morning. So we slept in the airport. I DID NOT fall asleep like this. Sam covered me in all our coats and put the eye cover on me while I was sleeping. Sweet, yes. But I look absolutely ridiculous. Yes, the terminal was that light and bright all night long. Needless to say, it wasn't the best nights sleep (we hadn't had a good nights sleep yet on the trip at this point). We were up by 5:00 am New Zealand time, and found ourselves with more time to kill before we had to board our plane. We got breakfast at the McDonald's in the airport, where we sat by the Auckland mission president and his wife and the three new missionaries they had just picked up that morning to start their missions. That run-in made me happy.



At the gate in the Auckland airport ready to board our flight to Queenstown.



The Queenstown airport, right after we landed, on our way to pick up our rental car.



The Nelson airport, which is at the northern tip of the South Island. Here we turned in our rental car and caught a flight to Wellington, which is on the southern tip of the North Island (are you following this?). It was a very short flight -- only 30 minutes. We spent four times that amount of time waiting to catch our flight. We love hanging out in airports.



There was no security in the Nelson airport. Apparently they aren't worried about terrorist activity in Nelson. Sam did some terrorist profiling, which he assures me is very different from racial profiling, of the other passengers on our very small airplane, and felt we were safe. The good thing about our two hours to burn in this airport is that we were there as the little cafe was closing down, and they reduced all their food to half off. I was able to buy a nice pita sandwich with bacon and avocado and sprouts and tomatoes and aoli for $3. That was by far the best deal we found in our time in New Zealand. And it was so yummy, I convinced Sam to buy one for himself as well.



In the Wellington airport, on the last day of our trip, waiting to catch a flight back to Auckland. I think we both look a bit tired of airports. And we were.



Back in the Auckland airport. I did like the Auckland airport in that it had free internet kiosks. The internet is amazing. It totally kept me connected while we were away. What did people do when they traveled before there were blogs and email?



Just about to board that very large airplane in the background to take us from Auckland back to LA. Isn't it amazing that planes that large can get off the ground? Air New Zealand's 12 hour flight to LA was much nicer than Air Pacific's. Better food, better entertainment. I was able to see the movie "The Kite Runner." Not nearly as good as the book. The book just goes in to so much more detail about the friendship, the betrayal, the redemption. Such a hard book, but such a good book. I also started reading "The Gift From the Sea," a really inspiring book for mothers that my sis-in-law Lisa gave me for my birthday. I would recommend both books.

We didn't get a picture of us waiting in LAX for our Southwest flight back to Salt Lake. We had a 3 hour layover. I ate a Chopped Barbeque Chicked Salad from CPK, which helped my attitude. And I played more Sudoku on my DS. Who knew I would love that little electronic gadget so much.

Bad thing about so many flights: So much time spent in airports and on airplanes.

Good thing about so many flights: I did so much reading! I used to love to read. Since I have had kids, I don't read very often. I of course could make time. But I choose to use most of my down time after the kids are in bed watching mindless television instead. But it was so nice to read again. During our almost-week on the South Island, I read "Eat, Pray, Love." I really liked the eat section of the book, thought the pray part was pretty fascinating, but got pretty bored during the love part. I like Elizabeth Gilbert's writing style though, her candidness. Minus the obscenities. Maybe this is why I stopped reading. All these bestsellers had quite a bit of cursing. Is that always the case?

To end this post, I must mention that it was Sam's idea to take pictures of us in all the different airports. I never would have thought to do this, but am so glad that we did. Sam had this vision of a post on my blog that would include all the airports we spent time in. I hope this doesn't disappoint. Sam may never post on the blog, but he is definitely a supporter. Every time something funny, sad, embarrassing, awkward, exciting, or silly happened on the trip, Sam would turn to me and say, "Blog it." I think I will. It will just take me several nights.