Day 5

Luck seemed on our side the next day. We managed to hitch a ride with a guy who was going all the way to Auckland. We told him we needed to get to the airport, and he said he would be passing near it on the way home. The journey took almost nine hours with stops Taupo, Bulls and Rotorua. I can’t believe someone would be nice enough to drive us that far. We couldn’t possibly pay him back.

Finally after an hour of driving on the highway, we stopped in a small a parking lot in a place called Otara. The driver said it was in South Auckland. He gave us just enough money to get a taxicab, and gave us directions to where we would catch it. If all went accordingly, we would get to the airport and swap our reserved flight (which we were supposed get two days ago) with a new one, and fly home. Hopefully, we wouldn’t have to wait too long at the airport.

We crossed the street and walked down it for two blocks, then turned right. He said we should cross the park that was there, and that on the other side was a place you can catch a taxi. What he didn’t tell us was that there would be a hoard of rugby players waiting to use us as a scrum machine. (I don’t know what a ‘scrum machine’ is, I just heard one of the players say it)

The park looked like any average football and baseball field. The only difference was that two posts instead of one supported the field goal. It took me a while to figure out that this wasn’t football. There was currently a rugby team practicing on the fi. I could hear their coach yelling at them. They had big blue cushions, which they were using for tackling drills. We were on the opposite side of the field to them.

I thought we were safe. I thought we would make it across. I thought wrong. I was halfway two the second goal post when I heard someone shout.

‘Oi, it’s the bloody Otago boys!’ Then I heard another voice.

‘Let’s get ‘em!’ We stared in horror as the pack stampeded towards us. I froze, thinking they would stop, but they showed no mercy.

‘Hang on,’ I thought. ‘Why is there a bunch of rugby players running after us?’ Then I remembered what the ticket lady had said.

‘… You’d better look out, some of those fans are pretty obsessed when it comes to their footie.’ I looked at T-shirt. ‘OTAGO HIGHLANDERS.’ We were in Auckland. An ugly concoction of fear and nausea rushed through my veins. I looked up at the player running towards me. He had no expression on his face. I gave in when he was ten metres away from me. I hurtled into the muddy ground while the player hung on to my waist for the ride.

‘Ruck ‘em!’

‘Why are they kicking me?’ I thought as waves of pain ripped through my body. I thought they were going to kill me. Then I started to get peeved off. I stood up and yelled at them.

‘What the hell are you doing? We’re not from Otago, we don’t know how to play rugby and we’re just wearing these stupid clothes because they’re the only things we’ve got!!!’ I think they got the message because they immediately backed off.

‘Sorry mate, we thought you were Otago fans,’ one of the players said.

‘What a queer bunch!’ I thought as he put his arm around my shoulder as if I was his best friend. We looked at Joe who was still whimpering on the ground.

‘Joe, they’re not our enemies!’

‘What?’ He lifted his head and looked at me.

‘So, anyone for a barbecue?’ One of the players picked up the barbecue Mike had been carrying and took it over to where a car was.

‘I’ve got some grubs in the boot here.’ He stuck his head in the back of the car and pulled out some sausages and bread.

‘Anyone for some sausages?’ We all groaned in disgust. I waved my hand in refusal.

‘I think we’ve had enough of those for a lifetime, thanks.’

We caught a taxi to the airport. Brendon used his psychic abilities to get us a new flight. Everyone but Joe needed to go to the toilet, so we left him in the waiting area to listen out for the flight calls. When we came back, we found him snoring loudly on the chair.

‘Wake up, Joe!’ We shook him hard.

‘Crrrrrrrr…huh? Uh, hi guys.’ He yawned.

‘Have they said anything about our flight yet?’ Sean said sternly.

‘I don’t know,’ he answered sheepishly.

‘You imbecile! What if it was delayed?’

‘Jeez, just ask someone.’ I turned around to the guy sitting next to me.

‘Excuse me, do you know anything about our flight?’

‘Yeah, it should be leaving soon.’

‘Great, thanks a lot. I thought we’d have to wait here for hours.’ Suddenly a call came out.

‘All passengers on flight 379 please board at gate 3.’

‘That’s us,’ said Brendon.

‘Are you sure you got us the right flight?’ I asked him seriously.

‘I’m positive. Still got those documents?’

‘Right here.’ I pulled them out of my short pocket.

‘Good, let’s go guys.’

Brendon handed the boarding passes to the lady.

‘We’re lucky we got a pre-booked flight. Otherwise, we would have needed our passports.’ The lady put them through the machine and gave it back us.

‘Thankyou, enjoy your flight.’

‘Now where have I heard that before?’ I thought. It was when we were boarding the ferry, just before everything went horribly wrong.

‘Well,’ I thought. ‘Nothing bad could happen on an airplane except it crashing. Even that’s not very likely.’

I felt so happy that we were finally going home. We did it! We’ve rescued Kraft Dinner, and we’ve survived! I looked at the others. It was so satisfying seeing their joyous faces. Hey, maybe we’d even become rich and famous, and get a medal of honour. I let myself get comfortable in my seat, and lay back. The plane was taking off when I noticed that there were a number of Asians on our flight as well. Were they all going to Canada? I suddenly felt so sick, I wanted to vomit. I screamed as I heard the supervisor’s announcement:

‘We’d like to welcome all passengers flying today’s Air New Zealand non-stop journey to main-land China, we hope you enjoy your flight.’