Feb 16 - Nadine's Final Blog

So after an 8am shower and my last manciure I ate my last acai, and my last passionfruit juice hoping it would ease my hangover and lack of sleep. Threw all my stuff in my bag and dragged the thing downstairs to reception where I caught my taxi to the start of The Most Hellish Flight Trip in the Entire World in Nadine`s Entire Life, and as I sit in Christchurch Airport spending far too much time money on the internet it is not yet over. So on arrival at Rio airport, the first crappy event occurs - Thats right, Aerolineas Argentinas is officially the Shittest (I`m sorry for the crude language but there is not other word for it) Airline in the World. Yes Delay One occurs. No longer is the flight not at 2;10 it is delayed until 4;10 when it is further delayed until 5 and we dont fly until 530. Luckily I was one of the few to get a lunch pass (randomly handed out it appeared) and had one last self service with steak. Finally boarding, absolutely shattered from the night before= no sleep. I had to endure painful small children until I get to Buenos Aires. Here on arrival it appears the flight is on time. Wrong again. Scheduled for 12am Delay Number Two Occurs. Yes Every single damn flight I have and will ever fly with AA has been delayed. This one 4hrs late. Woopee there goes my domestic connection thank you AA. Eventually after frantic phone calls to Mum to sort a new flight and a few hours fitful sleep we finally board - the reason for the delay - fog in Chch. Yes in Christchurch NOT EVEN WHERE WE ARE DESTINED FOR. Surrounded by brash Aussies behind me who happened to talk the loudest out of everyone on the flight and small kids in front of me, it sucked. However I managed to score the seat beside me and an extra blanket. At this point I was freaking so much I only slept in 2hr periods, and ended up being revolted at the sight of breakfast - a roast beef sandwich - WHAT ARE YOU THINKING AA???? We touched down at Auckland at 930am a nice hour and a half after my flight to Dunedin had departed. I then wandered the bowels of the airport to find AA office, and ended up finding it with 2 guys delayed to Australia. The AA agent sent them on their way, promising to come back for me right away. An hour and a half later at repeated requests for someone to call him down he turns up and is as useless as the airline. Doesn`t know what to do or how to do it. Eventually I get a written document out of it and an email address and head out frustrated to the point of tears and hoping like anything there is an earlier flight. The only good thing is I manage to check in my 28kg bag without a flicker at the weight...Luck then promptly runs out and all flights are full and I try to go on standby for flight 1 -which again is delayed then I am told its full and a no-go. Nerves shattered more and more back I go to the counter to try another flight, with more and more complications being -one flight has only one leg of it free to Dunedin. Eventually I try for a 235flight to Chch, and For once luck seems to be on my side, Standby is sweet and I sit next to a sweet old lady who is proud as punch of her children and grandchildren. Nice interlude, it stops as we land and the plane I was supposed to catch onwards (AKL gave me a 15min gap) does not allow me on - not because its full or anything- oh no that would be logical, but because Air NZ people in Chch are mean and unhelpful. At this point I give up and the stress and fatigue hits me like a tonne of bricks as I realise that I have 4hrs to wait and I am so far away from being my comfy, warm, sleepfilled bed that I have a cry in public, receiving strange looks from passersbys as I wipe away my tears on my arm behind a trolley full of bags. Finally I decide the only thing for it is food and coffee and a book. Oh the irony, the only damn place that sells books in the airport is shut COZ ITS A SUNDAY!!!! So a coffee and pie it is as I sit and contemplate my very horrible run of luck and I feel I can barely stand for tiredness. Whats the bet it only gets worse and they make me pay extra luggage costs to Dunedin or I miss my flight or something dumb like that. Someone has really hated me today thats for sure.

So off to the bathroom to clean myself up, when I think the day possibly couldnt get any worse I was wrong, someone knocks my backpack with the bottles of cachaca on the floor and breaks one, spilling all over the backpack and making me smell like a liquor store for my next flight. I head to the check in counter and surprise surprise she asks me if I paid excess baggage. I say no, she disappears and I put my head in my hands on the counter and wait for my impending doom. She shows up, angry at the Auckland staff (who at this point are my best friends) and then realises that instead of the 28kg they had written on it only weighed 24. So she then proceeds to tell me that she has to label it saying 'Excess load' so that if the flight is too heavy it gets left behind. At this stage she looks up and sees me staring at her with bleary teary eyes with a vacant expression on my face and proceed to tell her please- I came from an International Flight they checked it in Auckland Please Please Please. So she took pity on me as she realised I had not slept properly in 40 or so hours. She rewrote my pack as 23kgs without the excess label and sent me on my merry, bleary way to my gate where I claimed a row of seats and proceeded to nap until my flight was finally called. Flying into Dunedin was typical, grey cloud and just as I exited the plane it started raining. What a nice welcome home!
Mum was furiously waving as I walked on the tarmac and at the baggage claim managed to leap some bags and trolleys (Who knows where I found the energy) and grab my bag before it disappeared for another round.
So then I head home and empty my pack and create a massive pile of washing. Looking forward to bed, but here is where Nadine's blogs stop. The Beaker stops here. That flight would have been SO much more entertaining if I could have sliced all the airport workers, and I had my other limb with me- Riki where for art thou to share the pain of airtravel!!!???
Slice out to everyone who has been reading the blog and been laughing at us like the EEeediots we are and continue reading Riki's wild antics..
Blog Out :(