We started the trip by flying from RDU to Houston. Why Houston? When planning the trip, we tried to minimize flight time and keep the costs manageable. Our daughter Heather helped plan flights (more on the joys of traveling with adult children later) and we found that direct flights to Auckland, NZ were available from Houston – only 14 hours to Auckland – and we could use our Southwest Frequent Flier Miles to fly free to Houston.

The flight to Houston was uneventful, but did talk to a nice guy at RDU who was flying to Pheonix with his very large (60lb?) dog who did not have a ticket for a seat. (And would not fit under one).  The folks on that flight probably had better stories to tell than we did