Journey to New Zealand Pt. 1

Hello blog!

I am writing to you from the M12 Gate at Chicago-O’Hare International Airport. It is currently 7:43pm and our flight to Auckland leaves at 9:10 (only one hour until we board eeeepppp!!!). So far, the journey has been a wild ride and we haven’t even tackled the 16 hour flight to our destination! My flight from Cincinnati to Chicago was delayed an hour and there was MASSIVE turbulence the whole time. Believe me, I’m the kinda girl who loves a little turbulence (talk about a free rollercoaster) but this was excessive. When we arrived in Chicago, there was another plane blocking our gate (um rude), which prevented us from de-planing. Instead of pulling in, we had to drive aimlessly around the airport tarmac waiting for the other plane to vacate the space. Eventually, 30 minutes later, we were able to file off of the plane and onto our next mission.

I then found my friend Amy, the only other person I know at this point, and we head to check-in to acquire our Air New Zealand boarding passes. This turned into a 30 minute endeavor as well. For some reason, United Airlines had failed to communicate the proper information to Air New Zealand and our bag information was missing. There was a bunch of confusion between the nice folks working behind the desk. Probably four managers were called over to help solve the issue. Throughout the ordeal, me and Amy sat, clueless, with nothing to do, waiting for a solution. Finally, our boarding passes were acquired and we ventured onto terminal 5 (the international terminal). We had to take a bus to get there, which wasn’t ideal considering that I’m dressed for winter and its currently 92 degrees in Chicago, but we got through it and grabbed dinner at a nice asian restaurant.

Now we are sitting at the gate, in a cluster of DU students who we don’t really know yet, but who all seem cool and vaguely familiar. I cannot wait for this long flight to begin, so I can get to NZ quicker! Wish me luck on this 16 hour trip in the sky (praying that I fall asleep for the majority!).

Thanks for reading :)