Escape From Alcatraz-The Sequel

After Wednesdays ongoing debate regarding the finer points of PCR testing and the flight cancellation fiasco, we were overjoyed to have finally made it to Friday and departure day mark two!

Our ‘correct’ PCR tests were carried out by appointment the day before and true to their word Rako Science provided us our $250 certificates early Friday morning. A heady mix of relief and disappointment heralded the certificates arrival, we were grateful that they had arrived but not only were they not written in gold leaf on the finest quality paper known to man, they stated the same thing that our free government PCR tests AKA the ‘incorrect’ PCR test had which was that we were at that point Covid free.

With our bags packed and paperwork to exit NZ quadruple checked we suited up to do battle with Air New Zealand, Customs, Immigration, the Demogorgon, Thanos, Zombies, or anyone else who tried to get in our way of leaving this time!

After bidding our wonderful friends a fond farewell at the airport drop off point, I would love to say that we skipped off into the airport with a smile on our faces and a feeling of anticipation and excitement at the prospect of our new adventure, but honestly the overwhelming feeling was of nausea and anxiety. We felt like we were walking into Mordor!

The pit of vipers squirming in our stomachs was caused by the endless knock backs, miscommunication, hoop jumping, and general chaos caused by Covid over the past few days. Those days were a testament to the strength of our relationship, it would have been easy (not to mention satisfying) to blame each other, shout, scream, cry and throw ourselves on the ground full toddler tantrum style or even worse to give up. There was so much that we couldn’t control, or had the energy for, but we chose to take a deep breath and keep moving forward instead (wine and the company of great friends helped too).

Could we have prepared more, researched more, asked more questions? Hell yes! But there will always be things that don’t go to plan or the way you want them to go. We were leaving New Zealand just as flights to Canada were resuming and when Omicron cases were starting to increase. No one really knew what was going on, what the most up to date processes or protocols were, the government, public and airlines included! In the end we had no choice but to be patient, wait in line, and keep everything crossed.

One Step Forward!

It won’t surprise you when I say that our check-in process at Air New Zealand did not go to plan! At the time we were leaving NZ we knew that we had to be prepared to wait, there are so many more checks that the airline staff had to perform due to Covid.

But two hours? We were not prepared for that; it was a good job we were at the airport the required three hours prior to flying because we were going to be lucky if we made the flight in time! Everything was going so well, we had our correct Covid tests, our tickets, our Covid passports, our actual passports and our COPR documentation (and our sanity just about). It should have been easy right? Wrong.

It was when we handed over our COPR documentation and then watched as the airline check-in staff members face clouded with confusion that we knew we had hit another problem … FFS here we go again!

Unfortunately, the airline check-in staff queried our COPR document because it had “NOT VALID FOR TRAVEL” unhelpfully emblazoned across it. I can understand why it may have been confusing for them, but technically because we are citizens from a visa exempt country a valid passport and our COPR should have been enough to enter Canada at which point we can validate our COPR at the first port of entry, or so we thought anyway! Silly us.

They had to consult a manager and then make a call to the Canadian Embassy to ask their advice. After waiting an inordinate amount of time, the staff member returned with a smile and the ‘all clear’ and recommenced processing our documentation. Phew! But wait one caller, out of our periphery we could see another staff member dashing to our counter waving a mobile phone in the air, oh shit.

The Canadian Embassy were back on the phone requesting that we complete an eta (temporary travel visa) for us to travel. For fudge’s sake, so close yet so far! So, finally after over two hours being processed, $14 in eta’s, and one dead phone later we walked away from the Air New Zealand check-in desk sans our baggage but with boarding passes in hand.

Parting is such sweet sorrow, were words that we did not utter!

We had done it! (Thank goodness I hear you collectively say) under normal circumstances we would have had time to say goodbye to our dear friend who had arrived at the airport to wish us adieu as we began our checking in process and had patiently waited for us. Instead, we had time for a quick victory photo at the departures entrance before hugging her goodbye and giving her all our NZ coins to pay for the $100 parking ticket she no doubt had after the 2-hour check in wait!  

Don’t get me wrong even if we did have a suitable amount of time to reflect and say our goodbyes, we would not have lingered, to be honest by that point we would have given Usain Bolt a run for his money, we got away from that counter and through security/customs so quickly they wouldn’t have a chance to change their minds. We were finally getting out of Dodge.

After walking through the threshold of International Departures the shift was almost perceptible, the stress and chaos of the past week was left behind at the Customs security check like a prohibited item discarded in the amnesty bin, where we were going there was no room for excess baggage, we were leaving all that rubbish behind.

We finally made it airside and if ever there was a time to have a celebratory drink it was now, unfortunately everything was closed so the toast would have to wait until we boarded the plane. We didn’t have to wait too long especially after the two hours at check-in!

Haere rā New Zealand

Before we knew it, we were in our seats buckled up, picking our movies for the flight, and deciding how we would stretch ourselves across the spare (physical distance) seat between us, we were ready to go, and it was finally time to let it all sink in. For the next 13.5 hours there was nothing for us to do other than enjoy this time and acknowledge the hard work it had taken to get to this point.

The pit of vipers had been replaced by a gentle fluttering of excitement like butterfly wings, we had our warm and fuzzies back!  We were flying to Canada to start our adventure.