Hi all! We are in NZ at the Crowne Plaza, with a club room. Free drinks & canapes .. who needs dinner?

We are missing our cruise clothes bag. It's either en route from JFK or en route from Sydney. We will know soon enough.

Traffic was horrific to JFK; barely made the flight. All the while, no report of any traffic issues on local radio stations. Endless reports the local tunnel to New York City was 10 minutes; it wasn't newsworthy to spill the beans you COULD drive 60 miles at 20 mph if you wanted to get from central New Jersey to JFK.

Checked the bag at JFK the whole way through to Christchurch, NZ via our Emirates flight. Darn good thing. The good news was (a) with prevailing winds, got to San Fran in 5 hours flat and (b) had a really tasty dinner - barbequed chicken entree with good side dishes. Holy Cow, as Harry Carey of the Chisox used to yell.

In San Francisco, we hung out at the Red Carpet Club. There were a couple guys with the six racquet tennis bags. They were certainly headed to the Aussie Open with us. As we headed to the gate, noticed six San Francisco police on alert and walking the terminal. Hmm .. drug bust? customs bust? what could it mean?

Boarded our United onward flight to Sydney around 10:30 pm. New business seats are fantastic. Cabin was really cold. One outcome of the nut job who tried to blow up the Delta flight from Amsterdam to Detroit was an order for all flights to or from the US to kill the in flight entertainment system. This lead the cockpit crew, I think, to spend an extra 90 minutes on the ground trying to talk someone in headquarters out of that proclamation. Want to fly for 16 hours with a blank screen staring at you? We didn't either but that's how it went. And .. we didn't have 90 minutes to spare and still make our Emirates flight to New Zealand. No dull moments .. I was speed reading the travel insurance policy off the computer, writing down relevant info if I had to reroute us once we arrived in Sydney. On a more cheerful note, it did dawn on me the Emirates flight may also be delayed. Ah .. the joys of travel. We lined up at 8 minutes to midnight as the engines roared to life to take us over the pacific. It wasn't a good omen. I hit the 'flat bed' button about 15 seconds after take off, and woke up 3 hours later. Gary was bundled up in his coat, as the cabin was still cold.

Got to Sydney about 1-1/2 hours late. Ran (and I mean ran) to make the connection for our Emirates flight to Christchurch. We just made the check-in deadline. Just imagine .. Emirates wasn't going to or from the US. We had hundreds of video channels .. we were like kids in a candy store after the blank screen situation. Watched one of the 'John Adams' series plus one of Nurse Jackie.

We do have trip insurance so could collect if the missing bag remains MIA. Told 'em at the Christchurch airport to ship the bag to Ngaire's sister June, as they will never find us on the spirited 3 day tour over to the west coast of the South Island starting at 7:15 am tomorrow morning.

It's very pretty here and reminds us of England. they've got the avon river complete with punts, and lovely gardens every where. Weather is about 58 degrees and cloudy. It's pushing 8 pm here and bright outside. Ah ... sunlight. Got to love it.

Cheers,Anne