We arrived in Lake Taupo late Thursday night after what should have been a short day of travel. Because we didn’t have a set flight out, Melbourne airport staff told us we couldn’t fly into New Zealand. They said we would be turned away at NZ customs and deported, plus that airline would get a $10,000 fine for allowing us to fly! We had to purchase two tickets (refundable since we still aren’t certain of exact dates or even where we are going after NZ).

This was in addition to us having to repack our bags, making sure there was <23kg in each larger bag and <7kg in our carry-ons. Can you tell me why it makes a difference? Weight is weight. I don’t understand why it has to be distributed a certain way — other than the fact that the airlines wants to charge for extra bags. Couldn’t they look at the total and divide by number of persons flying?

Frank took care of the tickets while I repacked and weighed, repacked and weighed. We thought we were good when we realized the agent screwed up our ticket — Christchurch to Auckland instead of Christchurch out of the country! Of course, we missed our flight but a helpful agent put us on the next one without any additional charges, thank you very much. When we got to New Zealand, did anyone inquire whether we had a return flight out of New Zealand? Um, no.

All in all, we were only delayed about 4 hours — more of an irritation than anything else. Traveling has its challenges, but the rewards make it more than worthwhile. If this is the biggest hassle of this trip, knock on wood, we will consider ourselves lucky. Because really, how can anyone complain? We’re in New Zealand!!!