Australia-"Down Under"

Well, it was a very long series of flights but we finally arrived in Brisbane, Australia. We had some tense moments along the way. First, I decided to print our boarding passess at home before going to the airport and I was able to print mine, Tyler's, Nathan's and Emily's, but when I put in Brad's frequent flyer number it said there were no scheduled itineraries. We thought he did not have a booked flight but we finally were able to pull up his confirmation from his old e-mail and look it up that way. Then, on the way to the airport Tyler mentioned he did not bring his cell phone and we had added international calling on his and Brad's lines because I couldn't add it to my employee plan. We neglected to tell Tyler that we had added international calling to his plan, so he did not know to take it and we didn't have time to go back to get it. Then, when we got to San Francisco, we had a 6 hour layover and we had planned on checking our luggage and getting our boarding pass but the Air New Zealand ticket counter was closed for 2 more hours. Our plans to ride BART to the Pier and have dinner was thwarted, so we made the most of it and propped my laptop on top of one of our suitcases and each of us got our headphones and hooked them into the laptop and watched a movie - right there in the middle of the International terminal at the San Francisco airport. Consequently, we had to eat dinner inside the airport but it turns out that we found a nice, sit down Japanese restaurant and it was really good. When we checked our bags in, they asked if we each had a VISA and I replied that we each had passports and the girl said, "Australia requires a VISA". I thought, "Oh great!" She said, "Would you like to pay $25 each and I will get you one?" So, we paid $100 and got VISA's. Tyler already had one that was good until July. Then, 13 1/2 hours later we arrived in Auckland, New Zealand. We were tired and all a little stinky, sweaty and down-right gross! We had less than an hour there until we boarded a plane for Brisbane. We arrived in Brisbane 3 hours later. Total travel time was about 26 hours. We had to pick up our luggage and go through customs and we had another problem - Nathan's small bag was missing. It had their camcorder we gave them for Christmas and Nathan's asthma medicine and Nebulizer. I thought that someone must have picked it up and walked out with it. We spent an hour walking around, checking all of the baggage carousels and registered a lost claim with the airline. As we came out, Nicole and Michaela Samuela were there to greet us. When we went to pick up our rental car they asked if we had an International driving permit. I was not aware that we needed this and the girl said, "Just don't get pulled over". I was a little worried because we had not had great luck up to that point. I agreed to ride to the Samuela's house with them and the boys and Emily went in the rental car. We told them we would wait for them just outside the airport parking lot and so we waited and waited and never saw them come out. We circled the airport a couple of times and still couldn't see them. We decided that they must have gone on without us and we couldn't call them because we only had 1 phone with International calling capabilities. We arrived at Samuela's house and panicked because the others were not there. We tried to figure out how to call Brad's phone, when they pulled up in the rental car. Whew! What a relief. We spent an hour there and then went to check into the townhouse we rented. We were pleasantly surprised by the accomodations. We have a 3 bedroom townhouse with a downstairs that has a huge family room, dining room and kitchen with laundry facilities. It has 2 1/2 bathrooms. It is just perfect for all of us. Roomy and relaxing. We went to Samuela's ward for church and then to their house for a huge Samoan/New Zealand feed!!! She invited the Tunai family, Gordon & Lisa (Ty helped convert her) Cotterall, and Sister O'Brien's family. These were all families who were so good to Tyler while on his mission. They fed him and helped fellowship investigators. It was such a great day! And to top it all off, the airline had found Nathan's bag and dropped it off at the Samuela's house while we were at church. Yea! Now we can go to the Australia zoo tomorrow and know that if we need to, Nathan has his medicine. We met up with some of the Young Single Adult ward (where Ty last served). They meet in the chapel next to the Brisbane temple. It was fun to see them all interact with each other. I know that Tyler was called to Australia for a reason - he touched many lives for the better. It was so good to see him with them.