Saturday, November 17, 2007

GETTING TO AUSTRALIA


My wife Elysee and I had already experienced benefits of traveling to a different place each summer and renting our home-away-home. When we decided to go "down under," staying three months in Australia followed by a month in New Zealand (see the blog The World is Our Second Home: New Zealand) I brought along a new laptop and a digital camera. That eventually resulted in the book, Our Summer in Australia and New Zealand. Getting there was an experience by itself. Twenty-four hours after leaving

Leaving Naples. Got enough?
our home in Naples, Florida we were only a few hundred miles southwest of Hawaii, with eight more hours of remaining before landing in Sidney. We had an eight hour delay in LA that only made the trip that much longer. We were flying Quantas, and the crew of 12 or 14 that knew just how to treat us on this extended journey. Quantas knows all about long hauls. Our luggage consisted of 107 pounds of clothes and sundry articles, plus our golf clubs. The 747-400, a monster aircraft, safely deposited all 385 passengers in Sidney only three hours late about noontime on a mild, clear autumn day, 1 June. With the crossing of the international dateline we had been traveling three days instead of the customary two. I brought along a very good, large book, wondering how others plan for the lengthy flight.

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