KEY POINTS:
It was supposed to be a holiday of a lifetime, a chance for Janice Leitch to venture to Croatia see where her grandfather came from.
Instead it has been a "testing" time for both her and her husband Peter, aka the Mad Butcher, as the Warriors enjoyed their best run in the NRL since playing in the grand final in 2002.
The Warriors' No 1 fan has spent the past three weeks in an almost permanent state of grumpiness as he missed out on even watching the Warriors on television.
Even last night, as the side were taking on Manly in the preliminary final in Sydney, Leitch had to resort to threats against Air New Zealand to receive constant updates on how the team were doing.
"I really backed Air New Zealand into a corner," Leitch said from Vancouver ahead of his flight home. "I told them if they didn't sort it out and give me regular updates, they wouldn't be getting my service in the future. It seemed to do the trick."
Leitch admitted he hasn't been the nicest person to be around over the past three weeks on holiday and was "negotiating" with his wife about making up for it.
He organised at least 10 people to give him text updates during games - "people say they will but get too excited and forget about keeping me in the loop, so it's safer that way"- and it translated into constant bombardment of messages during their bus tour of Croatia.
"Most people thought it was quite funny but a few were pissed off as well," he said. "My wife enjoyed the holiday, apart from the texts.
"It has been frustrating for me - that would be an understatement. I don't have to tell you how passionate I am about the game and to be missing it is tough. I live for the hype and excitement of the game."
Leitch was due to return to New Zealand this morning, in time for him to join long-time friend and former Warriors and Kiwis halfback Stacey Jones to lead a tour party to next Sunday's grand final.
Unless Air New Zealand came to the party, he might not have found out until then whether his team would actually be playing in that match.
