Tuesday 29 April 2025

On the next leg of the journey today, with a late checkout and return of the hire car. We have done 5771 kms on our South Island journey. It’s raining today. A good time to depart this coming winter for the warmer northern hemisphere. At Christchurch, the Air NZ check in was seamless and we jagged an earlier flight to Auckland. No business class flights internally but after we explained our leg from Auckland was indeed NZ business class, the NZ Business Lounge door chick ignored the ‘denied access’ buzzer and let us in. Pretty average and typical airline lounge. But, better than the concourse. A full A320 to Auckland took 1.5 hrs and we then entered the NZ Premium Lounge for the 2.5 hr wait for the Houston flight. Pretty average lounge. No Champagne. Sparkling NZ cuvee is OK. The place is full of people dressed for a day in the garden. So, no different to most lounges these days. Flashy suggested we fly first class next time. You can imagine the response!

The flight on NZ was OK. Not brilliant. At least the seats went flat. With much trepidation we approach customs in Houston. There has been much fake news about the border controls but there’s nothing on our phones. Flashy doesn’t do social media either. After photographs and fingerprints, we are through to the next phase – domestic screening. By this stage we are seriously late. The NZ flight was late departing and we didn’t make up any time. Convinced we would not make the flight, we were contemplating accommodation options, when the departing United flight to Orlando was now scheduled for a half hour later. We made it to the gate as they were loading the last of the passengers. An hour Uber from Orlando airport and we are at DeLand around 11 pm.

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