Story: TYPHOON!

Two days ago myself and my girlfriend left Auckloand AAirport in New Zealand for a 10 hour flight to HongKong, after wich we were due for a 30minute flight to Guangzhou in Mainland China. It all seemed pretty straightforward until about an hour out of HongKong when the pilot informed us that we would be turning back to Manila, in the Philipines due to a fuel shortage. He also noted that a Typhoon was hanging around HongKong but this should not be a big problem. So after after a couple of hours wait in Manila we setoff through deteriorating weather to HongKong. In fact it was quite smooth the whole way. It was oly as we descended to land that we realised the coarseness of this weather system. We landed about the same time as our flight to Guangzhou would have left, however we soon realised that it had been cancelled as had many other lfights that day. So we settled down for a long wait at the international transfers lounge. By this time it had been about 30hours since our last sleep in a bed, and judging by the people around us thewy we in a similar way. Lining up to get our new tickets I heard tale form an American girl of her friends 3day wait for their plane. I was determined not to let that happen! eventually we got our tickets, only to realise the "boarding time" was right now. It was obvious there would still be many delays on this long day trapped inside this huge airport. The revised time for takeoff came and went and the plane had still not arrived from Guanzhou yet. Eventually it came an hour late and we all squeezed into the bus to take us out to the plane. It loomed ominously out of the dark as we approached. I sudenyl had a strange feeling that it may have been better to wait a bit longer for the weather to clear rather than rush onto the first available... Nevertheless, the Typhoon ahd been downgraded from level 8 to 3 so who can argue with that? It was a sleepfilled flight and as we descended I cast my thoughts forward to a nice warm bed. We sliced through the clouds and descended down to the runway to land... But sudenly with a huge engine roar we were rising at an alarming rate of sped and altitude, as if the earth had opened up and Satan himself was after us! after a few minutes of lightning flashes and heavy rolls of thunder we descended and again, the same thing happened. By now the whole plane was gripped with fear. What was gonig on? was the plane damaged? Why did they not let us know what has happening. Added to our confusion, the lights were all out except for the "emergency exit" and those eerie green strips of light illuminating the way to the nearest exit. Some time later the crew informed us that we were gonig to land further on at Guilin due to the bad weather at Guangzhou. We were followed in by 2 other diverted planes. 3 hours later we all embarked on another attempt at Guangzhou. The rain had eased visibly as we approached what surely would be "final descent" , but sure enough just as the whels should have touched, the engine roared and we again shot upwards, our stomaches following a few metres behind us. This was getting to be a bit frustrating now. The fourth time we plowed on in, all of us hoping for the best, almost stretching out our feet to feel earth. Past the hangars, past some other planes, this time....Touchdown! A small but enthusiastic round of applause burst out as we slowed down, through sprays of water fountaining out around us and disembarked into a darkened terminal at 4am. After having left at 8pm the night before, it ceretainly was the longest 35minute flight Ive ever experienced, with a few more feelings of "inevitable doom" than the usual!