Paging Passenger Smith

Fiji's airport consists of eight gates surrounding a small commercial island of souvenir shops where one may purchase brightly colored shirts, tiki ornaments, and duty-free alcohol. One wall of the airport - or airroom perhaps more appropriately - is made entirely of glass that looks out over a volcano and the lush countryside of Fiji. This is the wall that Bryan and Jane navigated to after leaving the plane that had carried them across the International Date Line. That flight had gotten in at 5am local time, so Bryan and Jane were able to watch the sun rise over this tropical paradise. There's some political unrest in Fiji right now, but you wouldn't know it from the airport. Everything there is serene and a little sleepy.

Jane and Bryan are feeling a little sleepy too as they try to get comfortable in the plastic chairs and wait for their next flight. Any ideas of a leisurely layover, however, are dashed when over the intercom comes the following message:
"Paging passenger Smith, Mr. Bryan Smith, could you please report to gate 7?"

Reporting to gate 7, Bryan and Jane learn that, though they had made their connecting Air New Zealand flight in LA, their baggage had not. "I'm afraid your bags are still in LA," the efficient Fijian tells them. "I'll get in contact with LA and have them sent out on the next flight to Auckland. They should arrive a day after you do."

And so Bryan and Jane boarded their flight to Auckland with the knowledge that when they landed, they would have no luggage. Jane saw the brighter side of this situation: "At least we don't have to worry about whether or not Emilio's car will be able to fit us and our luggage." Emilio was one of Bryan's new colleagues at Industrial Research Limited, and he had volunteered to pick Bryan and Jane up at the airport when they arrived in New Zealand.

The plane ride from Fiji to New Zealand took four hours - Bryan and Jane's shortest flight yet. Upon landing, they stood in the "Other Passports" line with people from all over the world, except, it seemed, the US. Australians and Kiwis, as New Zealanders prefer to refer to themselves, got to go through an expedited line. New Zealand and Australia, Bryan and Jane learned, share a special relationship, similar but closer than that between the US and Canada. With their US passports, though, Bryan and Jane were sent to the other line. After getting their passports stamped, Bryan and Jane proceeded through the rigorous Kiwi border patrol, who protect their country from such dangers as foreign bugs and alien seeds. From there, after 27 hours of travel, Bryan and Jane entered New Zealand for the first time.