Stuck in Sydney airport.....

So ...not the best start to my latest adventure.  I learned something and I'm paying the price, mostly in time - 24 hours lost.

Here's the lesson. Book all legs of your flight with the same carrier! 
My flight from Denver made it to San Francisco on time in spite of leaving in snow. My  next flight made it to Sydney about 15 minutes late (not bad for a 14 and a half hour flight).  All this was on United Airlines.

But I missed my connection this morning from Sydney to Auckland on LAN airline.  After much running through the airport, frustration, runaround and emotions,  I accept this: 

United Airlines is only responsible for their portion of the flight, and they got me to Sydney even though we got here late. I f I had booked my flight to Auckland thru United, they would have gotten me there on a later flight or given me a room for the night to wait for a next-day flight.  Since they fulfilled their contact to get me to Sydney, they were done with me.

LAN was very helpful, but had to charge me re-booking fees and for a higher priced seat because there were no economy seats left.  So I fly out on the same flight tomorrow,  $325 poorer.  I called my travel insurance and they pay up to $200 per day for this situation.   Yay!

Two more ideas for me to remember:
1.  Always buy travel insurance
2.  Always allow 2 hours or more for connecting flights.

3.  Thorns have roses.   I can't smell any roses in this situation yet, but....someday it may be a good story.  

Today I spent most of the day sitting outside or walking around the grounds of the airport. And trying to stay busy and be happy altho this basically sucks. The weather is very warm and sunny.

I looked into hotels but those nearby are extremely pricey, so I will sleep in the airport tonight and be at my flight early.  My body thinks it is 10:45 pm but here it is only 4:45 pm.  I hope to stay awake a few more hours but I'm so tired.  I skyped with Patricio who is a good sport about it.  He says our b&b in Auckland is wonderful (feeling sorry for myself).

Pics at the very nice outdoor area of Sydney airport and inside at a Thai place for dinner.