Flight times

When you are sitting on a plane waiting for take off and for some reason the hostesses are still fussing around and the doors are not shut until suddenly two late passengers come puffing their way into the plane. You know then why there was a delay and you frown at those two as they walk past you to their seats. I have done this many times in the past but I have never been that passenger that has held up and entire plane... until this week!

Tui in flight

Our flight to Auckland was at 3.00pm, our flight home was at 3.30pm and for some crazy reason we had the times back to front. So we sipped on a glass of wine while waiting for our flight, then sauntered down to the departure lounge making a stop at the toilets along the way. It was while visiting the conveniences that we heard that dreaded message over the intercom.

Male Stitchbird

 "This is the final boarding call for passengers....." It was our names they were calling! Well I don't think I have run so fast carrying all my camera gear before but yes, we were those two passengers who held up the flight for at least ten minutes. Ok so it wasn't a huge amount of time and the hostess later told us that they were still loading the luggage down below but it was extremely embarrassing walking down the aisle of the plane with everyone and I mean EVERYONE staring at us with disapproving eyes.

Bellbird singing

I don't care how early I get to the airport in future but I am not going to be that person again. The funny part of this story is yet to come. Our flight home started with a gate change, so everyone had to find their way to the new gate. Then there was the delay - two passengers had checked in and failed to show up for the flight. They were probably still back at the other departure gate waiting for the plane to arrive.

Tui

 Anyway we had to wait while the luggage was unloaded and reloaded so that their bags could be removed from the plane before we could take off. It felt like they were punishing us for being late on the way up. We had no one to frown at for the delay, they didn't manage to catch the flight at all - I felt a teeny bit sorry for them but was also a little smug because we made it to the plane on time - albeit without the glass of wine.

New Zealand Robin