Three Deep Breaths
At the moment I am sitting in a hotel room in Queenstown New Zealand. I've been on hold with United Airlines for a little more than 30 minutes. The recorded message says I should expect no less than a two hour wait. I'll get back to why I'm stuck waiting on the phone... But first, I want to talk about those three deep breaths suggested by Lindsay.
Just 24 hours ago I was on a small passenger boat in Doubtful Sound (south-western part of the the main south island of New Zealand)... This whole experience was absolutely magical... I gotta repeat that... Absolutely Magical. One of the most amazing travel experiences of my life... And I've been to some pretty amazing places all over the world in my 69 years (that's about 10 in Mal-years). So anyway, we are very slowly cruising up one arm of this fiordland paradise when the captain brings the ship to a very slow and gentle halt... Then he asks us all to find a comfortable place to sit... Preferably outside... And he implores us to be absolutely quiet... He tells us he is going to turn off all the engines for at least 10 minutes so we can experience the very gentle sounds of this place, the amazing solitude and stillness of this place.
As I said, it was absolutely magical... Even the word magical cannot not fully convey the transcendental nature of this experience. I felt transported... to a time thousands of years ago... Before any human had ever cast cast eyes on this incredible place. I will never forget this experience... this truly amazing place...
I am closing my eyes now... taking 3 deep breaths... Bringing this wonderful experience to mind... I am transported... Tears fill my eyes... There are no words...
Eventually... I open my eyes... I am looking out the window of our Queenstown hotel room at the beautiful surrounding mountains.
Suddenly, the United Airlines theme song, which has been playing over and over for about an hour and a half on the hotel speaker phone is replaced with the buzz... buzz... buzz... of a buzy-signal... the line was dropped. Now what?
Well... I guess it's time for another three deep breaths...
Back to why I am... Uh... WAS... waiting on hold for United Airlines... Last night, about 6 days before we were due to leave New Zealand, returning to home sweet home, I recieved a text message from United letting us know our flight home was canceled with a cryptic note about "working to get us going again."
Deciding we'd have better odds of winning the lotto than we would getting a real human being from United on the phone, we took ourselves to the Queenstown airport and booked a flight to Auckland tomorrow morning. Then, some how some way we will get ourselves on a flight to the US mainland.
We are sad to leave this beautiful paradise, but we are glad to be on our way back to home sweet home... Especially with all this Covid business everywhere we go.
Time for Three More Deep Breaths...
