Remember the interesting character I sat next to on our way to New Zealand from Australia? He watched South Park episodes the whole time? I spotted him in the lounge before our flight and pointed him out to Chris. The guy did a double take when he saw us. What were the odds? He wasn't even heading back to Melbourne but was flying to Sydney with us. Fortunately he was seated a couple of rows ahead of us this time so I didn't have to see the stupid South Park through my peripheral vision.
Our flight to Sydney was fairly uneventful. We were both tired from getting up so early.
Chris and I watched movies, though we had pretty much exhausted the selection of desirable movies on Air New Zealand, and likely United too. We had a three hour lay over in Sydney, arriving earlier than our scheduled time of 6 am. Since Customs did not open until 6 am, we had to wait on the airplane until exactly 6 am. We walked around the airport some and then made our way to the lounge where we had a little more breakfast.
One of the global services agents found Chris and mentioned that they were having a hard time locating one of our bags but would come to the plane to let us know the status of it before we left. Luckily they were able to find it.
We boarded our flight to LAX around 10:45 am. It was to leave at 11:15 am. We got settled in to our seats for the 12-hour flight.
And this is why flying with a Global Services guy has its perks:
Long flights and layovers made for an exhausting day. I waited through the dinner service and then got started on my blogging. Twelve days of fun equals hours of typing.
A piece of advice if you are traveling and want to remember details: take notes EVERY DAY. You will be surprised by how much your forget or confuse. Also take pictures of signs--city, restaurants, parks, plaques--it makes jogging your memory even easier. I would never remember everything otherwise. I am always composing a blog post in my head, so I take pictures of random things, but it makes the blog reading much more interesting and noteworthy.
I spent about three hours typing while Chris slept. I have found that the easiest way for me to get back on my home schedule is to not sleep much on the way home. Chris said he didn't have a very restful sleep. We had breakfast service an hour or so before landing. Not quite as tasty as some others I had had.
Our flight arrived early in to LAX, so our three-hour layover got a little longer. Ah well, we headed for the lounge and were so grateful for more....BREAKFAST! I charged up all of my devices and waited with our carry-ons while Chris went early to check us in. We had a couple of hours so Chris got down to work and I surfed. I couldn't get a book I was reading to load.
Finally we boarded our final flight of the day to Denver. We had left Wellington, New Zealand at 6:45 am Tuesday morning and would arrive in to Denver at 1 pm on Tuesday afternoon. Two Tuesdays made up for the Saturday I missed on the way to Australia.
And wouldn't you know it, they served us breakfast. I was so tired, I could NOT keep my eyes open. I skipped the fifth breakfast of the very long day and slept for an hour or so. Chris worked on his laptop next to me.
Our flight arrived in Denver early. We were meeting Julie in the main terminal. What a sweetheart she was to stay with our girls for so long, missing her husband after he went back home early to work.
Jules, you are a gem. (See that little twist on words I made there?) We chatted with her for about 45 minutes before she needed to get to her gate, and we headed HOME!