The Flight

July 25 – July 27th
My whole 33 hours of traveling actually went much smoother than I expected. My first flight left Atlanta at 2:30 US time and flew to Chicago. When I got to Chicago I made it to the gate just before they started boarding. After everyone boarded they decided to make an announcement that everyone had to get off the plane because the plane we were on was out of service. So we deplaned and waited for an hour and a half till they found a new plane. I got a little nervous at this point considering I had 3 more connections to make, and one delay would set me off for the entire trip. They finally found a plane and we flew to LA. Luckily I had made the travel agent give me a 3 hour layover in LA so, I was escorted to the international gate and made it just before they began boarding for Auckland. Then began my 12 hour flight – which actually wasn’t that bad. My feet fell asleep at least three times, but the food was great, the seat next to me was empty so I got to stretch out, and I really only watched one movie and 2 office episodes (yes they had “The Office” on an Australian plane!! Memories of home already ☺). We got into Auckland at 4:30am New Zealand time, 2:30pm US time. Then I caught my flight to Brisbane an hour later – again making it to the gate just before they started boarding. That flight was very uneventful. However, the arrival was an adventure. I got through customs easily, but as I was waiting for my bags the dog would not stop smelling my bag (I found out later that my mouth wash had leaked and that was what he was smelling) So, they went through my bag and stamped my ticket at least three times. Needless to say (because I have never once traveled internationally and not lost my bag) they sent my heavy bag to Melbourne [I guess it didn’t make my flight from LA to Auckland so they sent it LA to Brisbane] But this was good because then I didn’t have to lug it everywhere and they said they would deliver it to me at my final destination in Townsville. After I dealt with that I had to check into my next flight and find the domestic airport (which was a train away – but no worries cause I had 3 hours to spare). So I got to the 4th security gate that I had to go through on the trip and found out that in Brisbane you don’t need to have a boarding pass to go to the gates – which is rather interesting to me. But finally got through that and sat and waited for John – who never showed up- I took the flight and decided that I would figure everything out at Townsville, see if I could track him down there. So I got to Townsville – by the way it is the smallest airport I have ever seen – checked on my luggage then checked on John. I asked a really nice man from Quantas if he could tell me what flights John was on and which he wasn’t, however there is this rule for privacy reasons that you can’t disclose information on passengers until a certain time after they land, but the guy must have liked me cause he tipped me off that John would be coming in on the next flight from Brisbane. So I waited some more for John. John finally arrived, we made friends with the Budget rental car lady and went on our way to James Cook University.