Four Moretons Go West EASTER 2018 - FINAL DAY and the TRAVEL HOME

[LLKJDisney]

Day 17 - Tuesday 9th April – Fly Home

I am really sorry i have no photos of today so have pinched old ones i have used

We were up at 7.30am, we listened to the birds singing and opened the curtains to blue sky. As always on the last day the mood was very low and even the boys were quiet.

previous used photo

We tried our best to finish all the eggs, cereal, waffles and bagels that were left. I finished the last-minute packing and weighed the cases which were well under weight 😊. We then received a call from Lee’s dad at home who said the plane from Auckland from LA had been delayed and that our flight might be late taking off.
We checked online and it was still showing a 5.15pm take off from LAX. We continued with our plan of loading up the car and then driving to LAX via the PCH. After taking some last photos of the house we ready to leave at around 10.30am.

We drove past the beach one more time to take in the view, as usual the water was full of surfers.

We got on to the I-5 North to LA but soon switched to the PCH. Lee checked the flight again and it was now showing a 4 ½ hour delay and our take off time was now 9.45pm!

It was a nightmare; I know being stuck in California is not the worst thing in the world but on the last day you just want to get home. We had to return the car by 2pm to avoid a charge, we also had booked our shopping to be delivered at home for when we got back. We carried on with our drive to the airport, we drove past Laguna, Newport and Huntington beach which all looked very nice.
We topped up the car with $40 fuel before we arrived at the drop off at 1.30pm.
It was all hassle free and we jumped on the shuttle bus to take us to the airport. In total we had driven 1738 in just over 2 weeks.

We got off the shuttle bus at the Tom Bradley Terminal but we were a little confused as it said arrivals but we soon sussed out we need to get in the elevator up to level 3 for departures. As soon as we got out of the elevator, we saw the Air NZ desk, we were met by a rep who informed of the delay and that we should check in as normal and then join another line so that we could each receive a $30 food voucher for the delay.
We headed straight over to security as it was manic in the terminal. Security was very strict I was pulled a side and my hands were drug wiped.
It was only 3pm so we still had 6-hours before the plane took off.
We checked out the food court to see what we could have for dinner but the choices were not great, the boys were gutted there wasn’t a McDonalds. Lucas had KFC, Jacob and Lee had pizza and I had Panda Express. The next 5 or so hours really dragged on, we set up camp by the very small kids’ area, the kids played with other kids and burned off some energy.
We were eventually called to board the plane, we spent are last remaining vouchers on some really over priced crisps and juice (which we ended up not eating). The flight took off just after 10pm LA time. This is where my notes end but I remember the flight being uneventful and thankfully Jacob was not sick.
The boys slept quite a bit.
Lee’s dad picked us up from the airport which was good as it would have been a tough drive home to Coventry from London after that delay.
The sun was shining so at least we could get our washing dry and Tesco were very kind and came back later that evening with our shopping as we had missed our slot due to the delay - great customer service Tesco - well Done!

Overall, it was an amazing trip and writing this report has reminded us of all the good things we did and made us even more excited for this year’s trip in August. We made mistakes but who doesn’t but I honestly wouldn’t change anything, the boys loved the variety of the holiday and coped with being in the car much better than we expected. Thanks for reading, if you have any questions please feel free to ask. Until the next time 😊 😊