Jan
10
Returning to Winter
Filed Under Australia/New Zealand 2009/10
Minneapolis, MN
January 10, 2010
3:03pm
I am finally home after a month on the other side of the globe. The last leg of my journey was somewhat eventful. On the flight from Christchurch to Auckland, a woman two rows blacked out during our descent. I first knew something was up when the flight attendant ran forward and then ran back to the row with another attendant behind her. If you fly a lot, you can be sure you’ve never seen attendants run unless something’s amiss. The crew asked for any medical practitioners on board to make themselves known and then proceeded to bring an oxygen tank to the lady. Thankfully she had come to by the time we landed. Very reminiscent of my and my parents’ flight from Manila in 1997 when an old man on board died two hours out and by law the plane had to return to our point of origin.
In Auckland, I made my way through customs and security just fine. I was nearing my departure gate when I was greeted by a very long line. Up ahead, I could see that people were being manually searched. I thought that random people were being chosen for this procedure, but as the I got closer, I realized that everyone was being thoroughly patted down. When it was my turn, I even had to take the chapstick out of my pants pocket to show the lady what it was. After that, my carry-on bags and jackets were thoroughly searched by another officer; he unzipped every compartment to look at every item. I thought wow, New Zealand sure does one heck of a job, but later I heard people talking and realized that this search had been requested by the U.S. government in light of the attempted airplane bombing in Detroit last month.
The Boeing 747 that flew us 12 hours to Los Angeles was an older version than the plane that I took to Australia. The video selection on my seat console didn’t work properly, so I wasn’t able to watch my choice of movies when I preferred. Instead, I had to choose from a select number of movies that were playing continuously, so if I missed the beginning, I was stuck watching it at the point I tuned in. I wasn’t too happy about that. I was really sleepy when we took off and probably should have decided to sleep then and there, but I didn’t want to miss dinner being served.
Speaking of dinner, I have been very impressed with Qantas’ service. I haven’t been on a 10+ hour trip since 2002, so perhaps all airlines are this good now, but on my two int’l flights with Q, I felt like I was in first class. All passengers received a menu detailing the flight’s food. For dinner, I chose the chicken in tomato and olive sauce served with penne pasta instead of the beef in burgundy sauce with potato mash and vegetables. We also got a salad, cheese and crackers, chocolate, and coffee or tea plus any other beverages. I chose an Australian sauvignon blanc. After dinner, we were served ice cream bars and hot cocoa or peppermint tea. After that, the crew handed out cute snack bags that included bottled water, chocolate, chips, mints, and shortbread cookies, probably to tie us over during our famine until breakfast. For breakfast we had a choice of continental or hot. I went with the former which included orange juice, fresh fruit, cereal, a raspberry and white chocolate muffin, and coffee or tea. If I could have taken liquids on my next flight, I would have asked for a Bundaberg Ginger Beer and a Solo Lemon Squash. Mmm, I miss those Aussie quenchers already.
I don’t think I fell asleep once on that flight even though I shut my eyes. Of course when we started our descent I felt like I could doze off. We approached L.A. just before dawn so the view with the painted sky was absolutely beautiful. Just before we landed, our plane started to ascend. I started to think of all the terrorist possibilities of such a maneuver, but the captain soon announced that another plane needed to land before us. So we made another circle and finally touched down safely. I made it through U.S. customs without a hitch, but then I for probably 40 minutes for my bag. As I walked out of the customs area, my cousin Sherryl was there waiting for me. My aunt and uncle live an easy 10 minutes from LAX and had invited me to come and have breakfast and a nap before my flight home. Waiting for my bag had already killed a lot of that precious time. I decided to go ahead and check in for my last flight so that I wouldn’t have to worry about it later. I enjoyed having Sherryl with me as we walked to the domestic terminal and then stood in a long, long line to deposit my checked bag.
We finally got to their home around 9:15am which left only 1.5 hours of visiting before I needed to be whisked back, but it was still nice to see my aunt and uncle and my other cousin Ryan. Aunt Bella fed me a tasty breakfast and we chatted, plus I got to see their wonderfully remodeled first floor. It was a good thing that Sherryl took me back to LAX when she did because guess what, I had to stand in another ridiculously long line (that extended down the hall and out the door) to get through security. I made it to my plane 10 minutes before the scheduled take-off. And then I slept the whole 3.5 hours home. As we descended, the sun had already set but enough light was still available to display the blanket of snow, now a dark blue in the fading light, covering the landscape. I was greeted with a lovely -1F temperature when I stepped outside. My friend Erick picked me up and already had the passenger seat warmer on high for me.
Back home, I semi unpacked and finally went to bed at 10pm. I woke up this morning at 8am but decided I wasn’t yet done sleeping, so I woke up again at noon. It’s nice to be back in my own bed. During my odyssey Down Under, I slept in a total of 17 different beds! Also, the 33 hours between when I woke up on January 9 at 4:00am in Christchurch, NZ and when I touched down on January 9 at 6:00pm in Minneapolis, MN (you do the math) hasn’t been the greatest thing for my cold. My friend Benadryl helped with the sleep though.
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Hon,
It’s great to have you safely back home! That was indeed a fabulous trip and thank you for taking us along. I’m so pleased that you got to visit with family in L.A.
Looking forward to more photos.
Love much,
Mom