Nothing like a family holiday... especially a rushed one. Hehe.
3 days away has its many benefits, and its unpleasant bits too.
We got to Auckland just fine. Found our octopus arms and managed ok without dropping our gear more than twice.
Checked in our bag, our three carseats and our five people. Ate dinner.
Missed the call to board our plane so got our names called over the loud speaker. Hehe.
Got on the plane and flew to new plymouth, no trouble. 'Sure beats driving!' The hubby remarked. Until the plane tried to land... three times.
We flew down on a steep angle, wheels down, next thing about 100m from the ground we were launching up on a steep angle. This repeated and after the third attempt we turned back to auckland. I was feeling rather ill by this point. I only feel non motion sick today- felt sick in cars or planes the whole trip. We were all tired, hungry and not knowing when we will get to new plymouth or where we would stay for the night... while trying to make it an adventure for miss 3 to avoid concern...
We jammed into Air NZ paid accomodation for the night. A nice hotel, the kind with the silky sheets that crunch when you move. Luxury for us, sheer torture with a super wriggly 1 and 3 year old in the bed next door. Hence, Mr A slept on the carpet. Which was equally luxurious I might add. Mr E slept in the bathtub on his mattress and sometime well after midnight we were settled for the night. 520am up to catch the bus to the airport so we can catch a 650am plane back to New Plymouth... the rest is history. Had a lovely time, cousins played beautifully, adults shared yummy meals, glasses of yummy drinks and chatter about various topics. On our last day we drove up Mt Taranaki- which even had a little snow on the top (hence the inability to land), visited an uber child friendly cafe, ate massive icecreams, flew to Auckland and then took in excess of four hours to drive home with grumpy and hungry boys... Still, as we lay in our bed we both acknowledged that we survived and that it was worth it :-) a
