CherryPopper

It all started off well with us leaving Australia on time with a new Boeing 777 plane. Thankfully it had the in-seat entertainment systems to help pass the time for the first leg to Auckland, New Zealand. From there I was to catch a connecting flight to Apia, Samoa. After a short stop over to stretch my legs I was back on a smaller Boeing 767 plane (no in-seat goodies) to Apia.

Again all was going well with us leaving on time but about an hour into the flight the pilot's voice came over the PA telling us that we would have to turn around as one of the windscreen's of the plane had cracked!!! He was quick to reassure us that it wasn't as bad as it sounded as the plane was fitted with 2 windscreen's for each window, an inner & outer one. It was the outer windscreen that had cracked. The other issue was that we had to burn the extra fuel, 2 hour's worth before we were allowed to land back at Auckland.

So after another 2 hours we were back at Auckland airport waiting for another plane to be prepared for us to board to Apia. An hour later we were again boarding a plane for our second attempt to get to Apia. But this time it seemed to take forever to actually get off the ground. We all sat on the plane still at the terminal waiting and waiting and waiting, going nowhere for another hour. At this point I was over the idea of a trip to Apia and just wanted to sleep as it would now take me the same time it would to get to the US when I'm only going a quarter of the distance.

Five hours and a crappy Hugh Grant movie later we were in Apia. I was dead tired and needed sleep, so I grabbed a cab to my hotel. There were a few things I quickly noticed about Samoa. It was hot & humid even at 5am in the morning, the cab's "safety" standards weren't quite kept up to any real standard as the speedo didn't work, no fair meter & the roads were full of pot holes big enough for cars to fall into.

I soon got to my hotel and passed out for the next 12 hours.

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