The Visit

On Friday, August 4, 2006 we drove to Queenstown to pick up our daughters Libby and Molly and their husbands, Pat and Jean-Francois, who were visiting New Zealand for the first time. We left Invercargill about 7 a.m. so we could meet their scheduled 9:30 arrival. Karen chided me, saying the flight would probably be delayed, but I wanted to be there when they got off the plane. We were treated to some lovely views as the sun came up:

We arrived with five minutes to spare and rushed into the terminal hoping they hadn't arrived early. When their flight arrived, they were not on it. We wandered around the airport for awhile, until I finally approached the Quantas check-in counter to see if they could tell me where our children were. We learned that they were not on the passenger list, but would probably be on the next flight, due to arrive in a couple of hours. We took the opportunity to buzz into town to check out the location of our hotel and re-acquaint ourselves with where things were. This is the wharf in Queenstown:

When the next flight also arrived without our family, we were not sure what to do. We were milling around outside the airport about 11:30 when Molly called to say they'd just arrived in Auckland. They had been diverted to Nadi because of fog at the Auckland airport.

There were no more direct flights from Auckland to Queenstown that day, so they were faced with either spending the night in Auckland or getting a flight to Christchurch, where they would have to spend the night. They had been traveling for somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 hours and were desperate to finish their flights. She asked me if we could just drive over and pick them up in Christchurch... (It doesn't look that far on a map.)

I've driven much of that road a few times with our scout group, so I knew what it involved. I offered alternatives, but could hear the desperation in her voice... One bonus was that Karen got to see Mt Cook for the first time: (Its the big one in the middle)

On the trip, we decided there was no way we were driving back that night. Karen called the Christchurch airport and left a message for the kids to call us when they arrived. (Mobile phones are wonderful things.) We were driving through pretty remote areas, but had stopped for gas and luckily had a signal when they called. We told them to find a hotel and call us so we could meet them. We arrived in Christchurch about 7:30 that night. Even in the dark, I could see the clouds begin to roll in.