The Move – Part 3

We arrived at George Bush International (IAH) at around 5:30 pm, our first time change of the trip. We gained an hour, which felt weird. It was my first time being in Texas, although my exposure was limited. The most memorable part of the airport was the sushi restaurant that also doubled as a bar, so they played some techno “nnce nnce” music super loud. It was the same beat over and over…and over. Also, they sold jackets in vending machines. We should’ve taken advantage but we didn’t. We left summer and were about to enter winter – in our short sleeves. We spend some time at our gate eating dinner and we both took turns shopping for neck pillows for our next flight, which was to board at 9:00 pm (which was really 10:00 pm for all our peeps in EST). Before we boarded first again, we changed the children into their jammies. Ellie rocked her footie pajamas and Landon wore a comfy outfit that could go either way as day or night clothes. He was also wearing his rain boots (gumboots, for my Kiwi friends), to complete the outfit.

We boarded our plane which, by the way, was absolutely HUGE. There were three seats on either side of the plane and four seats down the middle. It was a Boeing 777. When we walked on, the windows were lit a soft purple. It looked so modern and sleek. We had a row of four seats all to ourselves, which I was relieved about because when I went to pick our seats online, none were available. I was happy that we were finally able to sit together, especially because this was our 14 hour flight to Auckland. At exactly 9:39 pm, the wheels of our plane left the tarmac and we were no longer on US soil. Matt and I looked at each other, waved, and mouthed the word “bye” at the same time. At one point, I looked at Matt and exclaimed, “We’re really doing this?!” and he nodded and said, “Yep!”. P.s. we had to mouth everything while the plane was taking off because it was so loud. It was deafening.

The 14-hour flight was the smoothest of them all. In fact, me and the kids slept for most of it. Matt didn’t sleep as well, but he got some. We had dinner (our fourth meal) at 11:00 pm. We were not hungry at all so we just grazed and waited for the flight attendants to take the food away so we could get comfy and sleep. There was a call button – like a hospital – if you needed assistance of any kind. I did use it once to ask for a toothbrush. I didn’t think to pack one and I felt pretty gross towards the end of the flight. I pretty much used the whole tube of toothpaste they gave me (it was small) and felt much better after minutes of vigorous brushing. Breakfast was served a few hours before we landed. My breakfast was straight-up weird. I had beans in a tomato sauce and honestly, I didn’t eat that much of it. The eggs it came with were good, though. The kids got a yummy looking breakfast and they both devoured all their food. Matt had a good breakfast, too. It did not contain beans in red sauce, so he was a happy camper.

Tuesday:

At 4:00 am (NZST) on Tuesday, July 30th, we landed in Auckland, New Zealand. It was technically Monday the 29th at noon (EST) in the States, so we lost a day during our travel. Up until this point, all of our luggage had been handled by the airline. So when we were in Houston, United Airlines transferred our baggage to Air New Zealand and all we had to do was lug around our carry-ons. But now that we had entered a new country, we had to retrieve all our baggage for the sake of customs. And this time, we didn’t have Matt’s parents to help. We had to get creative and find ways to stack everything and still be able to push the kids in their double stroller. Plus don’t forget our two mountain bikes. All I have to say is you had to be there to see what the heck we even looked like. I’m laughing just thinking about it! By the grace of God, the NZ Aviation Security Service (the US has TSA, and NZ has, well, you can see what that abbreviates to) showed up to our rescue and helped us tremendously. They took our stuff through customs and helped us check everything back in for our final flight.

Click for Part 4:

The Move – Part 4