"It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."
-Lord of the Rings
I love going to airports. And train stations, and probably bus terminals and ports/harbors too. Even if I'm not the one who's going anywhere, there's something about the idea of traveling that gets me excited.
After months of preparing, planning, and waiting, and several months after seeing my husband off at the airport for his own journey, we were back at the Will Rogers airport in OKC, getting ready to embark on the first leg of our trip.
My husband had taken a 6-month position as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand, only 4 months before. I was traveling to join him for the last few months of his stay, along with our 7-month-old son, my husband's sister, and a family friend, both of whom were staying for about 10 days. My sister-in-law has always, always, wanted to go to New Zealand, long before LOTR, and what better opportunity than to visit her brother? And I was extremely grateful to have her help with our little Munchkin. I've done plenty of trans-oceanic flights, but this was the first time with a baby, and I wasn't really sure how it would go.
I was already getting excited (and a bit anxious) when we all got to the airport. Being the most seasoned traveler of the group, I had offered to take the lead in getting the tickets, getting us checked in, etc. So we all went up to the ticket counter together, presented our e-tickets and passports, no problem...Until...
Now, I had purchased all our tickets together online, so that we could all sit together. It was the best way to go. But for some reason, I guess because we ended up flying with two different airlines, something wasn't showing up right in the system at the airport. So, to my knowledge, I had already purchased these tickets and we were all ready to go, but the folks at the check in counter were telling me that we had to pay a $200 "airport tax" for the baby...wait....what?? Um....you're telling me that I have to pay the government if I want to take my child out of the country???
Well, after several minutes of going around in circles, with me patiently and exasperatedly explaining over and over that I had already bought his ticket, eventually the check-in counter folks figured out that something just hadn't gone through correctly on their end. I guess it looked to them like we hadn't purchased his ticket, or something. In any case, we didn't have to pay the tax, but it was shaping up to be a regular fiasco there for a few minutes.
I was most apprehensive about how our 7-month-old would do on the flights. We had a layover in Denver, then in LAX where we would catch our trans-Pacific flight. Three flights altogether. The change in pressure can even get to me every once in a while, so I couldn't imagine what it was do to him. But he was a real trooper! He slept through the first flight, and didn't do too bad on the second either.
Now, I had purchased all our tickets together online, so that we could all sit together. It was the best way to go. But for some reason, I guess because we ended up flying with two different airlines, something wasn't showing up right in the system at the airport. So, to my knowledge, I had already purchased these tickets and we were all ready to go, but the folks at the check in counter were telling me that we had to pay a $200 "airport tax" for the baby...wait....what?? Um....you're telling me that I have to pay the government if I want to take my child out of the country???
Well, after several minutes of going around in circles, with me patiently and exasperatedly explaining over and over that I had already bought his ticket, eventually the check-in counter folks figured out that something just hadn't gone through correctly on their end. I guess it looked to them like we hadn't purchased his ticket, or something. In any case, we didn't have to pay the tax, but it was shaping up to be a regular fiasco there for a few minutes.
I was most apprehensive about how our 7-month-old would do on the flights. We had a layover in Denver, then in LAX where we would catch our trans-Pacific flight. Three flights altogether. The change in pressure can even get to me every once in a while, so I couldn't imagine what it was do to him. But he was a real trooper! He slept through the first flight, and didn't do too bad on the second either.
Our next adventure happened before we left the country. If you've ever been to LAX, you'll understand. If you haven't been to LAX, save yourself a headache and find a different airport. We arrived in the Domestic terminal, but of course we were going to leave from the international terminal. Now, that in and of itself is no great feat, but unfortunately there weren't very good directions at LAX for getting from our arrival gate to our departure gate. That, and we had to re-check our luggage. Oh, and carry our luggage between the two terminals. And ask several airport workers how to get to the international terminal (including one who told us to go in the complete opposite direction of where we needed to go). We ended up having to go outside, take a shuttle to the other side of the airport, re-check our bags, go through security again, and get to our gate.
Yep, that's where we have to get to - the other side of the airport. Outside. Carrying all our luggage and a baby.
At least the shuttle had air conditioning!
Well, suffice it say we made it to our gate and safely onto our Air New Zealand flight.
Now all we had ahead of us was a 13-hour flight!
One of the coolest things about this flight was that they had special bulkhead cots for infants (up to 9 months I think). Here's our bundle of joy taking advantage of his special bed - and giving Mommy a break!
It was a long, long trip.
But the end result was totally worth it -
- a happy reunion.
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