Originally Posted by
eielef
If I'm not mistaken, you spent new year onboard the IAH-SYD flight. How did it went? A friend of mine did it once, flying from Buenos Aires to Madrid, and as soon as they entered Canary Island airspace, they were all congratulated, as it was already midnight in the local time, so it was the start of a new year. But going to Australia means crossing the date line, which makes things even dizzier, at least for me...
What a pity you didn't make it to Niue. Were you given back any money of the tickets?
The captain mentioned Happy New Year but on arrival into Sydney (not local time/dateline) there wasn't any celebration on the plane at all.
Air NZ refunded the taxes on IUE-AKL flight and the hotel didn't charge me a fee in Niue, but the Niue car rental did charge a no-show.