WLG - AKL - IAH - ORD

12:00 Thursday, 8th of May

Time to head to Wellington airport for the adventure to begin. My flight isn’t until 3pm, but it’s easier for Mike to take me out during his lunch hour, and hey, I’m on holiday, so I don’t mind a bit of people-watching in the lounge! 😎

Check-in was a breeze, and I love that my luggage tags are all the way through to Chicago—just need to pick up my bag in Houston, clear customs, and check it back in for my United flight to Chicago.

Boarding went as usual. We had everyone on board and were about ready to close the door when an engineering issue with a panel at the back of the aircraft popped up. They said it would be a 30–40-minute wait while they fixed it. Luckily, I was sitting in row 1 by the front door, so I could stand and chat with the crew. The fix ended up taking about an hour. When the engineer came on board to talk to the captain about the panel, he had it under his arm—it was about 30 x 60 cm in size.

6:00pm

I had plenty of buffer time in Auckland for my flight to Houston, so I made my way to international via the bus (it was pouring with rain). Auckland Airport seems to change every time I go through! I popped into Montblanc to check out the pens (nice, and at a good duty-free price) and see what ink they had in stock… which was nothing by the way! They never seem to have any ink, which is very disappointing.

I had about 45 minutes to grab some dinner before heading to Gate 9, as boarding was starting at 7pm.

7:00pm AKL - IAH (Houston)

Boarding was delayed by about 15 minutes… which then turned into 30 minutes. But we all got seated quickly in the end. Then, another delay—this time around 40 minutes—while they got extra cargo on board and topped up the fuel. By the time the door was closed, I was lucky enough to have a spare seat next to me. I was flying in Premium Economy for this leg, so the extra legroom and seat width were a real treat. With the extra seat, it was smooth sailing.

The flight itself was great. I had a couple of really nice meals, and the crew took good care of us. The flight was originally scheduled for 13.5 hours, but the captain managed to shave some time off, and we ended up landing 15 minutes early despite the delays at the beginning.

4:00pm Houston Time, 8th of May

I’ve arrived in Houston! I’ve never flown into this airport before, so it was all pretty new to me. Getting through customs took no time at all—about 15 minutes. Then, I had to wait about 15 minutes for my luggage. After that, I handed it over to United in the arrivals hall and made my way upstairs to go through security for my domestic flight. All in all, it took about 45 minutes, and then I was relaxing in United’s Club Lounge.

I spent a few hours in the lounge, which gave me enough time to start this blog post, call home with an update, and make sure Lia was able to check into the hotel at Chicago Airport that I’d booked for us.

9:00pm Chicago here I come.

Heading to Gate E17 for boarding at 8:45pm. However, by the time I arrived, the gate had been changed to E4, so I had to quickly walk to the other end of the terminal to make sure I didn’t miss my flight. Luckily, they were running a bit late, so there was no stress in making it on time. We took off around 9:40pm, and the flight was pretty quick—only 2.5 hours tonight.

It turns out my luggage was placed on an earlier flight, so it’s already in Chicago waiting for me!

We touched down at 11:50pm, but I had just missed the last shuttle to the hotel. After picking up my luggage, I found an Uber and was checked in and in bed by 12:40am—not too bad at all!