A Traveller's Tale! by Jeremy Ruane with thanks to the Air NZ team in Shanghai
The 2007 Women's World Cup Finals was a very special experience for me, make no mistake. Especially the final leg of it, the centrepiece of which was the Football Ferns' clash with China. The following story describes a travel experience and a half surrounding that game ... On the Wednesday I flew to Tianjin, for the girls' final game against China. Of course, the little matter of a typhoon looming large offshore didn't seem to have any bearing on things, until FIFA decided to postpone the Wednesday games 24 hours!! Cue panic stations! Because I was on a tight budget, and was anticipating paying for a not insignificant amount of excess baggage - the media were given gift-packs at all the venues, and that's before I unearthed a heap of Liverpool FC gear and souvenirs!! :-)) - I was dreading having to get my prepaid flight back to Shanghai the next afternoon and watch the girls' game on the TV ... then I thought, "Bugger the budget. I haven't come all this way to let my girls down by not being here for them". So while the other two NZ media chaps headed back to Shanghai per their schedules, I booked an extra night at the hotel, somehow managed to organise a flight back to Shanghai first thing Friday morning, and flagged the game-day flight there - cost me about $500, but to say it was worth it was something else! The biggest crowd of the tournament, Chinese Army helicopters buzzing the stadium, and my girls silencing the crowd by holding China to 0-0 at half-time. That was something special, make no mistake. We certainly weren't disgraced in China - I'm so proud of our girls, it's not funny. Cue the fun and games on Friday - what follows is not embellished in any way, it is exactly what happened!! The plane left the gate at 8.05 for an 8.15 take-off - so far, so good! At 8.35, we're still sitting on the tarmac at the pushback position - we haven't even begun taxiing yet!! Not good!! Airborne at 8.50, landed 30 mins late in Shanghai,	then had to wait for an airport bus to arrive to take us to the terminal, 'cause all the gates were full. You can probably picture me looking nervously at my watch at this stage!! Eventually got through there and into a cab about 11.10, only to find myself crawling along in this traffic jam, and mindful of the fact that my flight was leaving at 2.15 - technically, I should have been checking in at the Air NZ desk in an hour's time. Needless to say, I'm clock-watching, and telling the cabbie to drive like Michael Schumacher!! :-)) (Guess what? Ne comprende pas!!) Then I had a brainwave. I didn't have the local Air NZ number, but I remembered the NZ Herald number back home. So I called them from the back of a cab stuck in traffic in a busy Shanghai street to get the Air NZ number in Auckland!! (The receptionist was so stunned, she gave it to me out of the phonebook with more than a hint of disbelief in her voice!!) I then called Air NZ, explained my situation, and was told that the latest time I could check in was 1.30pm. That gave me a wee bit of leeway time-wise, but just in case I had any further problems, I asked them for Air NZ's number at Shanghai Airport ... I got back to the hotel at 12.10, went up to my room and the roomcard wouldn't work!! Aaargh!! Downstairs, explain the situation, resolution. Upstairs, into my room, fifteen minutes sorting out my stuff ... economy passengers are allowed two bags, as you know. Including plastic carry-bags, I had seven!!!!! Don't ask me how, but I was able to lumber the whole lot downstairs in one go, and got to the counter to check-out. No problems there, but just the little matter now of getting to the airport ... I get hold of a cab, pile all my stuff in the back-seat and dive in after it, and the driver duly steps on it as best he can. Meanwhile, I'm re-packing my bags in the back seat!! I ended up giving the cabbie a few odds and sods for which I simply had no room, and narrowed my load down to five bags in the end. Meanwhile, said cabbie was some 26km from the	airport at 1.20pm - there was no way on earth I would make a 1.30pm check-in!! Was I glad I thought to get that Air NZ airport number!! :-)) One phone call later, situation explained, and they'll see what they can do and call me back. Only problem is, my phone battery is about to give up the ghost!! I didn't have my charger with me in Tianjin - it was back in the hotel in Shanghai, because I wasn't anticipating being away for more than one night ... The phone rings, and Air NZ advise "We'll hold the check-in for you till 1.45pm" ... at which point the battery dies!! I eventually get to the airport at 1.40, and check-in with two minutes to spare. They've even filled out all the bits and pieces for me, and done my baggage labels as well - all I had to do was check and sign the card. They grabbed the bags off me and got them sorted - they were the last items to go in the hold!! However, I still had dramas to contend with, in the form of the queue for customs. At least sixty people ahead of me, all snaking round the guidelines laid out by those retractable things they use for queue control at airports. At this point comes the final boarding call for my flight ... only one thing for it - take my chances and jump the queue by ducking under the barriers to get to the front of it!!!! I got a couple of quizzical looks, but got away with it, and once through customs, it was a mad dash to the gate, which only happened to be second from the far end, eh?! I didn't even have time to stop and snap up the souvenir panda bear I wanted to bring home with me!! :-(( But I got there, and was one of the last ones to board the plane. Then came the irony - our plane couldn't push back from the bay for over thirty minutes due to a plane taxiing behind us having stopped due to some engine problems!! So as it turned out, I had time aplenty to go get my panda - guess I'll have to go back next year, when we're at the Olympic Women's Football Tournament!! :-))