Australia was a place I'd always wanted to visit. You know how some
people have a list of things they want to do before they die? I have such
a list, and on it, among others, are: attend a performance at the Sydney
Opera House, climb Ayers Rock, and see the Great Barrier Reef. All of
which we did that August.
The logistics of doing that were a bit interesting because we had scant
time, also wanting to see New Zealand, and these 3 things are all more
than 1,000 miles away from each other. But we managed.
Our airline of choice was Air New Zealand. We picked it primarily
because they advertised a slightly longer pitch than most American
airlines or even Quantas. I am not especially tall, but I do have a
bad back and being able to move my legs a bit during the trip is
important. Especially since it takes 15 hours to fly from LAX to
SYD!
As it turns out this was a rather comfortable flight - as these things go.
There was a bit of confusion as they were pulling this plane up to the gate because the gate display was saying "Honolulu". Some people, including a nice older lady who asked me, were wondering whether they were at the wrong gate. After reasoning a little while and noticing the preponderance of Australian accents around us, not to mention the Air New Zealand livery of the plane, we decided that this was probably the right place to be if we wanted to go to Sydney.
Yes, I really did take a picture out the window during the flight. And
this is the actual picture, straight off the camera. I can't believe I
had it in the camera for the whole trip, despite the fact that flash card
space was a bit at a premium.
On this flight I discovered something new about the Boeing 747. Towards the back of the plane, there are some crew quarters, above the passenger cabin - probably not with much headroom, but still, that must be nice to go in there and lie down for a bit - and that is certainly well deserved rest. In such a large airframe one would expect there to be quite a bit of room for something like that. I did not visit, just saw the stairs leading up to them, and the attendants periodically disappearing there.
Also, something that was not really news but a powerful reminder: babies have a really tough time with a 15-hour nighttime flight in an altogether rather noisy plane. Which is fairly understandable.
Next: Sydney