Our flight to Auckland originated in Dallas. We arrived at the Birmingham airport in plenty of time to check in and catch the flight to Dallas. Little did we know that a tense drama was about to unfold. Just after checking 2 bags, our 1:25 pm flight was delayed by 2 hours. But that’s okay since our flight from Dallas to Auckland didn’t depart until 10:30 pm. However, 5 more delays ensued and tropical cyclone Gabrielle was projected to affect northern NZ beginning Sunday so we became very nervous when a delay occurred which would have made us miss our flight and get severely delayed by the storm. Fortunately we were able to catch our flight just as is was boarding!

The flight to Auckland was over 15 hours. Gina and Katie flew with us from Dallas. It was a fun flight and managed to get some sleep. We arrived around 9:30 am the next day and got through customs just fine. It was great to finally see Joe and Anna!!!