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We're off and running. Given the whole international date line thingy, this first day will sort of feel longer than most days, both to us flying it, and to you reading it. Sorry. But at least we won't have another such entry until we leave, and we fly back and arrive back at home... about 5 minutes after we leave Australia. Or something to that effect.
| 1:58pm (PDT) | With a flourish that doesn't properly capture the moment, we began the journey of thousands of miles by piling into the drop-off point. |
| 2:25pm | We arrived at the transit train station, paid the $7.10 ticket to the airport (ducks are free). |
| 2:29pm | After a fast-paced waddle onto the train, we left the station just after being seated. |
| 3:28pm | Not bad -- we only have to make one train transfer, and it's at a sunny location. Good. |
| 4:01pm | We were dropped off right beside the airport terminal -- convenient! |
| 4:17pm | After some misdirection, we were sent over to the correct counter for American Airline to wait. |
| 4:29pm | And wait, and watch a guy shout at counter clerk Fran. He stormed out after using a naughty word, and the cops arrived a few minutes later; Fran called 'em. |
| 5:11pm | Finally, our ticket was pulled, and we were given boarding papers from Sam S. (Although he first had to look up the code for an electronic visa, it seems.) |
| 5:23pm | Surprisingly opposite of the line at the ticket counter was security. No line, no fuss, and no one even squeezed me (darn). |
| 5:37pm | We arrived at gate 64A to wait for the interim flight to Los Angeles, departing at 6:50pm (we hope). |
| 6:16pm | Our flight is moved to gate 61. Given it's right there, I didn't grumble as much as some. |
| 6:23pm | ... until they mentioned we're delayed for an hour. Phooey. |
| 6:50pm | If the flight weren't delayed, I'd be departing right now. Double-phooey. |
| 7:38pm | They finally began boarding, but given the relatively low number of folks on the flight, it didn't take long. |
| 7:49pm | We're already clear of the gate and rolling toward the runway. So far, so good... |
| 8:02pm | All that's prompt is not golden; it still took a while to get off the ground. Once we took off, though, we got to see sunset-y clouds and a miniature village that looked almost real. |
| 8:54pm | Nearing Los Angeles airport, I got a sufficiently blurry picture of the place. Even better, we arrived and landed early (earlier than the posted flight time). Of course, this means there's no gate ready for us to deplane. |
| 9:08pm | The plane parks at the gate and unloads us, and we get to exit the terminal, head over to Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT), which means yes... another run through security screening. |
| 9:16pm | We find TBIT fine, and even our gate without too much trouble, but the line to get through screening is impressive. Here we even have to take off our shoes, although we didn't in San Francisco. Curious... but I guess you can have standards despite they being inconsistent. |
| 9:40pm | We're clear security screening! Which would have been great, had the plane not been leaving at 9:40pm. |
| 9:44pm | The walk to the gate 121 ends, well, at the gate. But the doors are closed, and that's the end of the story. The marquee board showing of a different flight isn't a good sign, either. |
| 9:48pm | Helpful Qantas employee books us seats onto the 11:20pm flight, in a three-person row, leaving me in the middle seat. (By the by, the trip is comprised of myself, Tubby-wubby, and Rachel from Medical Services team.) |
| 9:53pm | We're now camped out at gate 122, a long walk from gate 121. Well, okay -- it's not really that long. |
| 10:48pm | General boarding was announced, and we made our way to aisle 69, seats H-J-K. Tubby discovers the rather cute girl of diminutive stature moved from 68C to 69E, (and the other three seats being vacant) Any other [non-cowardly] guy might have moved closer to her; maybe even spoken to her. But no; Tubby just began leering in what he thought was a subtle stare. |
| 11:44pm | Flight 156 pushed off from the gate; we were hung up by some folks transferring on from a New York flight. (Not that they waited for *our* flight earlier, but anyway.) |
| 12:00am | The plane shook in the way it tends to do as one takes off, and we're en route to Auckland! For those watching calories and clocks, Auckland is +19 hours from Pacific Time, making it 7pm in Auckland right now. Regardless, it's now Saturday, 22 May 2004. |
| 12:21am / 7:21pm | Dinner is served. Sadly, Pepsi is not amongst the menu options, so I had to bum some Diet Pepsi off of the girl, since they overlooked my order. And me, actually. And for the fun of it, I'm switching from Pacific Daylight Time to New Zealand Standard Time now. |
| 7:35pm | The in-seat televisions are powered up, but sadly, as part of the spoiled movies project, I've already seen all of these. I s'pose I could just get some shut eye, but where's the fun in that? (By the by, I'm switching to New Zealand time now.) Or I could just watch our trip's progress. |
| 8:01pm | I elected to watch Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! anyway, and semi-snooze. |
| 9:35pm | Surprise, surprise... it ended just like it did the last time I saw that film. |
| 9:43pm | Seeing little else to do, and the plane is dark, we decided to try to sleep. |
| 4:46am (Sunday,
23 May) |
Too much sleep makes one pleasant to be around, thus, the lights were brought up and breakfast carts began rolling down the aisles. (Mind you, they weren't banging into things, though... they're very adept flight stewards, I suppose. Yes, stewards; there's only one female on the flight attendant crew.) |
| 4:54am | We managed a fare of granola, milk and orange juice. Glancing around, I've never seen so much fluffy cases of bed-head in one place. Except 69E girl; she's still asleep, all curled up and spanning 2 1/2 seats. (It helps it's such an empty flight.) |
| 5:12am | As the trays were taken away, Elliott popped by with customs declarations cards; cursed paperwork. |
| 5:38am | There is allegedly 1 hour, 34 minutes to arrival, and we're holding at 499 mph (803 km/h) and quickly closing in our destination. But still a bit o' time for a quick nap. |
| 6:01am | About the same time as Customs forms were passed out, the Duty Free shoppe was opened. As hard as it was to resist, we elected not to purchase any duty-free bourbon. |
| 7:11am | We touched down at Auckland International Airport, and safely into Day 3 of the trip. |