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Why You Should Pack Clean Undies in Your Carry-On

21-March-2010

Our flight made it to Auckland on time at 5:15 am local time. Yup. Five in the morning. Dore and I were glad to be off the plane, and actually in pretty good shape, considering. We were pretty tired, but not completely exhausted. We made our way out of the international arrivals area and headed to customs. Before we made it there, however, we ran into yet another high-end duty-free mall. What is it with these places? And why is duty-free synonymous the world ’round with “get your cheap booze here!”? The world may never know.

The passport check line was not too long, and we made it through with no trouble. I used my New Zealand passport for the very first time, which was actually somewhat anticlimactic: Dore got a stamp in her passport, while I got none. I forgot that the stamps are visas. Card-carrying members don’t need no stinking visas.

Next, we arrived at the baggage retrieval, where we ran into a brief scare. We waited and waited, but our bags didn’t come. No worries, we thought. There are plenty of people here that don’t have their bags yet, and there are lots of bags on the carousel. We watched and waited patiently, sure that our bags would be out in a jiffy.

Our hopes started to wane a bit as the number of bags and people dwindled. Finally, there was only a solitary, shriveled little pink bag making its forlorn rounds on the carousel. It think it’s owner may have abandoned it out of shame. We watched as it made its way around the circuit. “Maybe this time someone will claim me,” it seemed to say, winding round. It disappeared behind the rubber sheets at the end of the line. A minute later it appeared again, bulging out from the mysterious back room. “Maybe this time….”

They stopped the carousel a few laps later. I don’t know if anyone ever claimed the little pink bag.

Dore and I tiredly, but resolutely, walked over to the baggage assistance line. There were about fifty people in front of us. This looked to be a long morning.

But then hope returned: a voice on the loudspeaker announced our possible salvation:

“For the passengers of Air New Zealand flight 7 we wish to inform you that the extra baggage for your flight has arrived and will be coming out of carousel one shortly. We apologize for the delay and wish you a good day.”

Hooray!

Spirits cautiously lifted, Dore and I — and the rest of the line — moved over to the carousel. As promised, it started a minute later, and lo and behold our bags came through. We were, to put it lightly, quite relieved. High fives were definitely in order.

Backpacks procured, we headed out through the final customs and bio-security checkpoint, and officially into New Zealand.

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