Home at last, but not without some last minute obstacles
Tuesday morning we left Ponca City on the way home. Our insurance company had booked us Oklahoma City to Houston and then Houston to Auckland. Before leaving Ponca City I completed the New Zealand Traveller Declaration online, which has been recently introduced to replace the old paper arrival forms.
The first leg was the 90 minute drive to Oklahoma City, which went well. On arrival in OKC we had time for some last minute shopping. Perfume and a replacement Apple watch for Karen, whose Christmas watch had been lost in the crash, and a new MacBook Pro for me, the latter two both from the Apple Store.
On the way to the airport we diverted to take a look at the late Toby Keith's "I Love This Place" bar, and get a few photos. Unfortunately the bar is set some way down a pedestrian only access and neither of us was up to walking any more than we had to, so we drove past and on to the airport.
I was looking for a gas station to fill the rental car up before dropping it off. I saw what looked like a gas station but it was liquified gas only, what we call LPG at home. I found a regular gas station only 2 miles away so we left the airport entranceway and headed there.
Once back I dropped Karen off at the terminal with our luggage while I returned the rental car and got the shuttle back to Karen.
After a final sort out of our luggage, mainly packing Karen's perfume in her checked luggage and my MacBook in my carry-on, we checked in at the United counter. We received boarding passes for both or flights and our bags were checked all the way through.
Getting through the security screening we made our way upstairs we we had a burger for lunch and then made our way to the departure gate. We had several hours go wait for our 5:25 pm flight. That's when Murphy showed up again.
Our flight was delayed, firstly until 5:45 then later and later. Eventually the flight time was pushed out to 7:45 pm, far to late to make our flight to Auckland.
I was on the phone to Air New Zealand, where I was told that Wednesday's Houston - Auckland flight had been cancelled, when United sent me another text. Our flight to Houston had been cancelled and we had been rebooked on a flight that was due to depart at 7:10 pm. We would make our Auckland connection after all.
Right!!!!!
Our new flight was delayed again to 7:25. No problem, but when boarding time came we were informed the aircraft was still en-route from Chicago. We finally departed OKC just after 8 pm. It would be luck to make Houston in time to get across to terminal D and onto our Auckland flight.
It wasn't to be. We landed on Houston half an hour before our flight was due to take off. Could we make it? Well we never got to find out. We were stuck on the tarmac waiting for a boarding gate for almost an hour and 40 minutes. During this time we were shuffled from terminal B to terminal D (good for us) then terminal E. In the end I watched our flight take off through the United aircraft window less than 100 yards away.
Once through the arrival gate we made our way to the baggage carousel, but our bags, which had been checked all the way through to Auckland, were not there.
By the time we got to the exit it was almost 11:30 pm. I had spent every spare moment I had since getting off the United flight trying to book a hotel for the night. In the end the only one I could get was a room at an America's Best Value Motor Inn about 12 minutes away. Every other hotel room nearby disappeared while I was trying to book it.
We found a taxi and made the hotel just after midnight. When the desk person saw Karen's lack of mobility he changed our room from upstairs (no elevator, stairs only) to downstairs, but it required cleaning first.
While waiting for our room I phoned both the insurance company and Karen's sister.
We finally made it to bed just before 1 am.
Wednesday morning we were up just after 8 am. After breakfast I spent almost 2 hours on the phone to Air New Zealand and an app to United trying to find our bags. Finally I was told they had been checked in the airport terminal B near carousel 1.
I Ubered back to the airport and made my way to the place I was told our bags were, only to be told I was in the wrong terminal. I finally found our bags and got back to the hotel. We received our new travel bookings for Thursday evening.
We spent the next day and a half in our hotel room.
I managed to walk to a nearby strip mall to buy Chinese on Wednesday and Popeyes on Thursday. Otherwise we slept, read or watched westerns on the INSP channel. I also updated our traveller declarations with our new flight and arrival times.
4:30 on Thursday our Uber arrived and took us to the airport. The Air New Zealand counter did not open until 6pm. Once it did we were second in line at the priority barding desk (our insurance company had upgraded us to business class). While we could have waited in one of the lounges, the wheelchair pusher would only take us to the boarding gate, where we sat and waited.
Our flight was called and we were boarded behind another person in a wheelchair. I have to a admit flying at the pointy end had its benefits. Called by name by the staff, the seats were comfortable and the service impeccable. Dinner was a five course affair. A drink and freshly roasted nuts, a salmon cracker, soup, a main (roasted lamb shank) and Lester. The food was good, but a bit rich, something that was to come back to haunt me another 4 hours or so.
With dinner over the seat was transformed into a bed and we both slept off and on for around 7 hours. During this time I got a bit of indigestion from the dinner. I then read for the rest of the flight.
We arrived in Auckland but were deplaned at a remote gate. We had to walk down a snaking ramp to a bus where we were driven to the terminal. We arrived at the terminal with less than 45 minutes to make checkin for our flight to Taranaki.
We made it through immigration and customs, but at border control we found our traveller declarations had not been updated. We were sent to the side to fill in paper ones.
Finally through corder control we made it to the shuttle to the domestic terminal and checked in with our bags. While I was changing the last of our US currency, a gate attendant approached Karen about her walker. It needed to be checked in.
We were the last passengers aboard our domestic flight, which went quickly. Landing in new Plymouth we were met by Karen's sisters. We picked up our bags, which only just fitted into the rear of the SUV! Karen's walker, which had traveled with us for five weeks from our arrival in Houston, would not fit in.
Luckily my brother was passing through new Plymouth later that morning and I was able to leave it at the Air New Zealand counter.
By 11:30 Saturday morning (Kiwi time) we were home. A coupe of hours later we were both asleep. Karen got up after a few hours but I slept for around 12 hours, expect for a short period when I got up to make "dinner". Toast for Karen and baked beans for me.
)
As a wise-old former coworker told me in the late 80s, "If you have time to spare, go by air." Trouble is, there is no other way to many places. Coming from the UK, I know about this. 
