So.
I write this from Irvine, CA. Surprised? So are we. First things first. We are safe. The trip is still on. What happened? Well...
We were scheduled to fly Qantas from Dallas to Sydney, have a small layover, then continue on to Auckland. We boarded our flight out of Dallas and OMG. What an amazing plane. Turns out there were about 400 of us on board. Two levels. Goodheart and I shared a row of 4 seats which meant we would be able to lie down. We had an amazing choice of movies, a great meal, and a great crew. We were excited!! (Course that could have been the free wine). Then, about 2 hours past LA over the Pacific Ocean...a man on our flight had a heart attack. The poor man was travelling with what looked like his whole family. The good news is...he is alive! The crew and some on board doctors restarted his heart and set him up on a drip. The captain made the decision to turn the plane around and we ended up at LAX at 230 am PST. 3 hours later we were in bed at a Marriott in Irvine as guests of Qantas with meal vouchers and a new flight on Air New Zealand straight to Auckland also courtesy of Qantas. The current schedule gets us into Auckland around 6am local time and in total we will only lose about 17 hours of our trip. At the end of the day we are just so grateful we were not the ones in need of medical attention, the man is alive, and we are continuing on. Lessons in flexiblilty and acceptance of situation have been processed. We love you all and are so happy to be alive and well. Our delay is nothing compared to that poor family. Well, I need to go as our shuttle back to the airport will be here soon. If all goes well the next entry really will be from New Zealand!
W&G
