Are We Ahead or Behind?

Day 3, Niue to Tonga, August 4, 2010
Position at 1837UTC 18 46.791S, 172 49.791W
I've been thinking. I've been wasting a lot of time just thinking about time.
If we gained a day when we crossed the International Date Line on our move to the US from Australia, then technically now that we are making our return journey across the Pacific, we're not losing or even misplacing a day. We're just returning what we had borrowed 14 years ago!
When we arrive in Tonga in a couple of days the time of day will be the same, but the date will jump ahead one day to the next. It doesn't seem fair.
So what then of the journeys to and fro through the years? Each time we flew west to Australia, we lost a day, then returning east to the US we gained another. Nice! That still makes us even.
On the occasion that we purchased around the world tickets we flew west to Sydney and lost a day (or gave back the one we had originally borrowed). We returned to the USA in a westerly direction via Bangkok and Paris, neither of which are anywhere near the International Date Line, longitude 180 degrees. So that still makes us even.
Wait.... when we arrived in the USA on the around the world tickets the time in the US was about 14 hours behind Sydney time, so we still gained. So are we ahead or behind or just even? I can't waste any more time thinking about this.
I want to ask the King what he is doing with all those lost days that arrive on his doorstep, and can we borrow a couple to go on with.
Posted at sea by SSB radio.