Waiting on a plane in New Zealand...

6:45AM July 16th 2009 (Auckland, New Zealand)
It’s about 2:30 in the afternoon on the 15th in Ohio… I believe.
Well, I am currently sitting in an international connections lounge in an airport in Auckland, NZ. I still have about two hours until my flight to Gold Coast begins boarding… I don’t even have a gate number yet.
The flight from Detroit to L.A. was about four hours; I sat next to a husband and wife who make a living doing underwater film and photography. They were on their way to Bangkok then out to the middle of the Indian Ocean. Behind me, I met a woman with her 10-year-old Granddaughter, Alex, who were also going to New Zealand. They had a different flight but also needed Air New Zealand so they adopted me long enough for us to find the gate together. It was a good thing too because LAX airport is ridiculously complicated. We had to actually leave the airport and take a bus to another area of the airport and go through security all over again. I made it though! On the shuttle bus, I met a guy from UK who had spent 2 months road-tripping through the US. He had spent a lot of time in the Southwest and talked about how boring, hot, dry and huge Texas is. :P
For the 14 or so hour flight across the Pacific Ocean I sat next to two… rather interesting individuals. They were coming from Salt Lake City, UT and were leaders in the Church of Jesus Christ and the latter day saints. God had called them to serve the Mormon faith in New Zealand. They were very friendly, but I had to laugh when The woman (who’s name tag read “Sister Mary of the Latter Day Saints” chose the Hannah Montana Movie as the first thing she watched. When we landed, they announced congratulations to the Captain in the last flight of his career and wish him luck on his retirement, the crew and passengers all applauded and as we taxied to the gate a line of fire trucks had their lights on and sprayed the plane as a ceremonial symbol of congratulations. It was cool, although it would have been way cooler if it weren’t dark and already raining. :P
In the airport bathroom, as I was brushing my hair, I met a girl names Lauren from Memphis. She’s 25 and going to a ministry school in Sydney. We ate breakfast together and talked about relationships and life. I’m going to look her up on facebook later.