Airports Have Showers

When I found my friend Torey, he did not have his luggage. It has actually been a nightmare to find them and we still do not have them! He flew through Southwest to get into Los Angelos and then planned to check in with New Zealand Air. Unfortunately, Southwest did not put his luggage on his flight out to LA, so he had to check into New Zealand Air without luggage. Southwest Airlines promised to forward the luggage onto New Zealand Air as soon as the luggage was received into LA. We assumed it would take another day, because NZ Air only flies out of LA once a day. So after spending our first day in Auckland, we parked the motorhome close to the airport so we could pick up the luggage the next day.

After an early start the next morning we drove over to the airport. While Torey was checking about his luggage, I took a shower. I don't know if this is common in most airports, but in Auckland, New Zealand you can shower for a small fee. It was most refreshing. I had never heard of showers at the airport before, but when we headed for the bathrooms at the airport, we saw two rooms for showering! I wish I would have known this when I was flying for 24 hours! While I was showering I could actually hear through the vents, people moving back and forth to catch flights.

Unfortunately, Torey did not get his luggage at this time. In fact, it looked less promising, because Southwest said they sent the luggage and New Zealand Air said they never received it! Yikes! We were told that we would have to wait another day as New Zealand Air wrote a paper report and said that would try to contact Southwest. Of course we were upset, but there seemed nothing that we could do. We checked all the offices. We went on with our day and Torey headed to the store for a few necessities and clothing. Southwest agreed to pay $100 dollars worth for the loss, please he could file for the rest.

We waited a day only to discover this morning that they still had no records of anything. It was beginning to be absurd. Now my friend Torey, is a really nice guy. In fact, he does not know how to be mean. He was going to just wait on them and I said, "no, we will get to the bottom of this." I suggested that we call NZ air in California and make sure they received the luggage. They couldn't tell us anything. So we had to call Southwest again to find out more information. A thought occurred to me that we needed proof that it got on the flight to New Zealand, we needed a luggage tag number. I don't know why Southwest never gave that to Torey to begin with, but now we had proof that New Zealand had received the luggage! So we called the NZ air office in Auckland again to check with tag numbers. Guess what? They had his luggage there. It was probably there all along. It is a bit frustrating, but at this point, it is mostly a relief that the luggage was found. We have since moved on from Auckland, so NZair will have to forward the luggage to an airport closer to us, which means we still won't see it until tomorrow morning. I'm excited, because then I will be able to post better stories since I will have time to type on his newly charged laptop! I will also be able to attach pictures. The moral is to only trust yourself to get things done and to get travel insurance.

Until then, let me tell you what you have to look forward to. Since we have arrived in New Zealand we have seen many things, such as:
* A sunset atop a dormant volcano
* A view of Auckland from Sky Tower
* The New Zealand Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
* We have experienced to very interesting nights in our motorhome (more to come)
* We have seen lots of local animal life: sheep, cows, ostriches, and more
* We have learned to drive on the wrong side of the road and how to mess that up too
* And we are about to experience and underwater caving tour with glowworms!!

Check back for pictures and details!