A Quick Trip to New Zealand

Not many people in Harper have been many places. Most people take a vacation to visit relatives usually only a few miles away. I am one of the few that has been to Europe and if Hollis hadn't put a lot of pressure on me to go I would have been among those who haven't. We have only two people who have been south of the equator. Willie's son, Jackson, has been on several mission trips to Africa. I think he has been to ten countries over there. Haplo Walsh has been to New Zealand. But it was by mistake. About twenty years ago he was in the Los Angeles airport on his way to visit a cousin that had moved there many years ago to work in an aircraft factory in the Oakland area. He was in the process of changing planes and heard an announcement for a flight that was ready to take off for Auckland, New Zealand. It was last call and Haplo took off running and asked for the right gate as he moved along amongst all the travelers. They saw his rush and pushed him on the plane and had him seated by a nice young lady with a very strange accent, that's the way Haplo tells it. After about five hours Haplo realized something was wrong. He called a stewardess over and asked when the plane was due to land in Oakland. She told him it was scheduled to arrive in about twelve hours. He said he had not signed on for the scenic route and became a little agitated. It wasn't till then that Haplo realized he was going someplace he had never heard of. When he told us his story all those years ago, we remarked that at least he got to see New Zealand. Haplo said, "If you've seen one airport, you've seen 'em all." Seems like he spent only eight hours on that island and was shoveled off on his return trip to Los Angeles.