Goodbye San Francisco

The last day and travel home went by in a blur.

We spent the day in our room packing and just relaxing. I went out at lunchtime to get some lunch and walk those amazing hills of San Francisco one last time.

We had our shower and packed the last of our bags before heading to the foyer to await our Uber to the airport. We had a late flight of 8.50pm so we headed out to the airport at 5.00pm.

Well we were lucky to get to the airport in one piece, our Uber driver was a manic. He was doing nearly 80mph on the freeway when it was only 55mph. He squeezed through spaces in traffic that a motorbike shouldn’t have fitted and then proceeds to tell us he has gone through 2 cars because of accidents (not his fault he says I begged to differ).

Our flight was open to check in so we printed our boarding passes to find that we didn’t have the exit row seats we had paid for. We had spent an hour on the phone with Air NZ the night before because of this and they still had it wrong.

After about 20 mins of negotiations we were secured our exit row seats, then a quick pass through security before our wait at our gate.

We both slept most of the way from San Francisco to Auckland only waking for our meals, so we were feeling very refreshed in Auckland. A slow trip through security in Auckland as they only had 2 gates open for lots of planes coming in (still don’t know why you have to go through security again after coming off an international flight and not having left the airport). Another 3.5 hour wait for our next flight which they had taken our exit row seats off us and even checking at the gate was told all exit row seats were assigned.

Well you could imagine our annoyance when we got on the flight to see that there were 2 exit row seats available on either side of the plane in our section. Dave checked with the steward and he could move to one of them once take off has been completed. One of the ladies he sat next to wasn’t impressed at all and complained but was soon put in her place by the steward and Dave.

We landed on time, filled in our customs card and changed into cooler clothes then it was time to get our luggage and head through customs. We only had one small timber ornament to declare and it was time to meet Tommy and Kenz at the arrivals gate.

And what a homecoming it was, Kenzie and Tommy had made us a sign and Tommy was super excited to see us running up to give us a big cuddle.

Smooth trip back to Highfields making a diversion through Toowoomba so I could collect my new glasses before heading home.

Tommy was excited to get all his gifts and once we had unpacked our suitcases and put the washing on it was time to head up to get some groceries.

We were to go and pick up our new puppy the day after we arrived home however when we got back from groceries we had a message to say that she needed to change the time of collection to late afternoon. We suggested that we head out there now and she agreed. What a way to beat any jet lag, just keep on the go for the whole day.

We arrived home with Dottie Grace at 7.30pm and in bed at 9.30pm so hopefully no jet lag will greet us.

Another amazing adventure had, so many memories made, so many kilometres travelled and so much breathtaking scenery seen along the way.

Until our next adventure …….Read more