We got to the Christchurch airport on a Friday. Since our flight landed at around 1 am, technically it was on a Saturday. But who really cares what day it was. Since the very beginning of our journey overseas, we have had issues with our luggage. Immediately, when we pulled up to the airport in L.A., we were told by the lady at the front desk that we could only have one carry on and that we couldn't bring our fly rods on board the plane. I've never seen this policy and, to be honest, it scared the shit out of me. For all of you non fly fisherman, your fly rod is your most precious item you own. Without actually having any children, I could compare it to the love of a child. You protect it. You nurture it. You never let it leave your side. When someone tells you that you can't bring it with you, it feels like you've just been told that your kid can't join you on your flight and that he must be checked plane side in a crate. But don't worry, they have their own special cubby in the cargo space. That makes me feel a lot better.
Anyway, since all of us had two carry ons, we had assumed that we would have to check one and pay the outrageous baggage fees in order to do so. We ended up switching some things around and checking our bags, which turned out to be free. Jackpot. However, all of us stood there, glum, with a bit of separation anxiety as we watched our rods drift away on the conveyer belt of doom. Aside from the sentimental value that a fisherman has with his rod, essentially it is also very similar to watching a stack of hundred dollar bills equating to $4,500 disappear and hoping that throughout its journey, the baggage people handling that stack doesn't have sticky fingers.
We were told that after we plane-side checked our fly rods that we would be able to pick them up as soon as we exited the plane in Brisbane and then carry them on for our next flight to Christchurch. So, when we landed in Brisbane, we waited around the skyway for our rods to arrive. No rods. We tried to find the baggage claim, but that required us to go through customs and we heard that Australia is very strict on the smuggling of illegal guns, drugs and immigrants. So we decided to hold off on that one. Ha! We then went to the lady at the transfer desk and started bombarding her with questions about our predicament. She called to somebody with her two way and told us to wait until she heard a response. We waited for about 40 minutes and finally went up to check in again only to find out that she forgot about us and needed to check again. Long story short, we found out that the rods would be transferred onto our flight to Christchurch. I just hoped they were given a special cubby to fly in.
Once in Christchurch, we waited for our bags like normal at the baggage claim and they were getting plugged out in a consistent timeframe. Everything was going great until the bags stopped moving and the tram stopped. As you could have probably guessed. No fly rods. We worked with a gentleman, whom I approached due to his official suit and tie look, to try and figure out our rod situation. Of course, in an english speaking country I found the only guy in the airport that didn't speak a lick of english. How he got hired to handle a stressful job like dealing with lost baggage of mostly english speaking patrons is beyond me. He spent a good 45 minutes cross checking to make sure we had all of our checked baggage, when we clearly, over and over again explained to him that all of the bags that we had checked at our arrival in LAX, the bags that were clearly stacked in front of us, that we could physically see, smell and feel were all accounted for. For some reason, he continued to make sure we had all of our checked bags. He was very thorough, which probably scored him points with the boss in the interview process listed under his strengths. However, his common sense lacked a touch. Finally, we got through to him that the baggage stubs for our checked bags were different in appearance than the baggage stubs for our fly rods and he didn't have to continue to check to make sure we had all of our checked baggage because he could trust us that all of them made it. Unbelievable. Finally, even though we weren't quite on the same page, I could safely say we were at least on the same chapter and were able to start the process of filling the paper work for a safe delivery of our precious fly rods. You can imagine how well describing rod tubes and fishing gear went with this guy and we began to mentally prepare ourselves that we may not have rods for this 3 1/2 month long fishing excursion. I was tempted to purchase a how-to DVD on the art of noodling.
A couple days went by and still no emails, phone calls and most importantly, fly rods. We ended up going to the airport to check on their status because the phone number wouldn't let me through. We kept following signs for incorrect areas and at one point found ourselves up in an administrative office with a key pad security entrance and cameras everywhere. We spun around, in fear of being tackled and arrested by TSA and finally found the right area and arrived at a window for Air New Zealand, which is not the airline we flew from America. We acknowledged that we understood they were not who we needed to talk to, but we needed to know who we should talk to. They told us that the airline we flew only flies into Christchurch at 5:30am and at midnight and when they aren't flying in, are not present at the airport. Lovely. So we exited the airport, head down and talked of bleak scenarios of a fishing trip with no means of catching fish. When we pulled up to the house, we walked inside and sure enough, in the back room, Les screamed like a girl and sprinted out to us, fly rods in hand. Trip saved.
I can't explain how much of relief it is to know that I wasn't going to have to resort to noodling on the most elusive and difficult trout in the world. Let the fishing begin.
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