The trip got off to a challenging start. After hours of meticulous preparation, hundreds of online searches and many calls confirming & re-confirming travel details, things went to shit before I could get out my front door. I booked a shuttle to get me to the airport two hours before my flight. They were supposed to pick me up at 12:30 getting me there in plenty of time before departure without having to sit around the airport for to long. I was all packed and standing in the driveway at 12:30 when my cell phone rings, it's the driver and he's called to let me know that he overslept a bit (not what I wanted to hear) but he is about to get in the van. The only problem is he lives an hour and fifteen minutes from me, add in the hour and a half it will take to get to the airport then check in and security my plane will be long gone before I get to the gate. At that point I had an aneurism and dropped dead in the driveway. OK, I'm being overly dramatic, I didn't actually have an aneurism I just thought I was going to have one. After I did a couple of deep breathing exercises screamed a few expletives and cursed the driver his family and all his ancestors, I decided this really wasn't helping me get to the airport. Time for plan B! Parking the car at the airport really wasn't an option because of family needs so I had to call my wife and yank her out of work and have her drive me to the airport and in the process spending some serious marriage capital(I now owe her big time!) my wife was not happy o say the least and it was a tense ride to the airport but traffic was light and we made it in plenty of time...or so I thought. I hopped out of the car kissed the misses and thanked her for being so sweet and understanding (along with promises of flowers and romantic dinners) then rushed off to the Air New Zealand gate. To my horror the line at the gate was out the door! Come to find out 3 times a year Air New Zealand does a drill for its check in desk employees simulating a complete computer shutdown and they have to do everything manually. It took over an hour to check in and get my bags checked. I made it to the gate just in time for last boarding call.