The Trip to Brisbane
Dec 16th, 2012 by admin
Landing in Brisbane – 4/16/12
Not the least of the weird things that happens on a flight like this is the time confusion that takes place when you travel very long distances. I don’t mean the jet lag. That comes later when your circadian clock is totally flummoxed by the the local time at your destination.
I mean the inability to sense what time or even what day it is after you’ve traveled a long distance over many time zones. Normally, we don’t travel far enough on a daily basis to have to deal with time and time zones. Even domestic air travel only deals with a shift of 3 hours (or 4 hours to Alaska or even 5 hours to Hawaii). This is a 15 hour shift in 29 hours (and close to 11,000 miles ) of traveling.
And did I mention that an entire calendar day disappeared somewhere along the line? We left Charlotte at 4:15 PM on Friday and arrived in Brisbane at 10:15 AM on Sunday. Do the math. Something is fishy. No wonder the put the International Date Line in the middle of the Pacific.
The trip is so long even with breaks to change planes. We flew 5+ hours from Charlotte to Los Angeles. A two hour layover to change planes. Then we flew 12+ hours to Auckland, New Zealand. Three hour layover to change planes. We flew the last 3 hour leg into Brisbane.
An aside: we flew to New Zealand and Australia on Air New Zealand – a fabulous airline. The difference between US Airways and Air New Zealand was stunning. Not only was the plane great (a Boeing 777) but the crew was just remarkable. Friendly, courteous and fun – the polar opposite of US Agony. Very highly recommended if you’re headed this way.
The flights were quite uneventful except for the checkin in Los Angeles for the Air New Zealand flight to Auckland. I had been carrying a new set of shock absorbers for the Cherokee as checked baggage. When I checked in in Charlotte, they asked what they were, I told them, they collected $60 and checked them in as baggage.
Because we had purchased the US Airways flight separately from the Air New Zealand flight, US Agony refused to check our baggage to Brisbane. We had to collect it at US Agony’s glacially slow baggage area in LAX and schlep the bags over to the Air New Zealand checkin in the T2 terminal next door.
At the ANZ checkin they also asked what was in the box, I told them, they checked them in and off we went to wait for the boarding call.
They call boarding for the flight, they take Barbara’s boarding pass, swipe it, check her passport, green light, beep, “Welcome aboard.” They take mine, check the passport, swipe the boarding pass. Completely different beep and a red light. “Please step behind the counter, sir.” Crap. And things had been going so well.
The counter staff tells me that the TSA (that would be the Transportation Safety Administration) has removed the box from the baggage. They say that you can’t take them on board b/c they are gas-filled AND flammable. John had sent me the shocks to carry over a few weeks ago but I never opened the box and looked at the shocks. Apparently, TSA did.
After some time of wrangling, arguing, pleading, etc., I called John and told him what had happened and that the shocks would be at the Air New Zealand counter in terminal T2 waiting for him to collect. I certainly won’t be surprised if this isn’t the last I hear of this.
We wanted to replace the shocks on the Cherokee with some newer, softer shocks for the rest of the trip. The shocks that are on the car were very stiff, probably too stiff to the Kazakh and Russian roads that we had been on. (See previous posts about broken shock mounts, hastags #WhatTheHellWasThat, #DamnDontTellMeBrokeAnotherShock, #TheNoiseIsStillThere, #DidYouSeeWhatHeCanDoWithaGrinderandaHammer and #MaybeWeShouldSlowDown.)
We boarded without the shocks and proceeded to fly to Auckland – 12+ hours away. The flight was great. The food pretty was good. Lay down seats which made sleeping much easier. Personal entertainment centers with more movies, tv programs and much that you could ever want. And endless engine droning.
One of the best things about these flights was that we were on Air New Zealand and the new movie, “The Hobbit”, was filmed in New Zealand and was the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Kiwis have taken the success of the Lord of the Rings and run with it. The whole country now refers to itself as “Middle Earth”. The pale’s safety video used a plane full of hobbits, elves and wizards for the demonstrations. As I said, they’ve taken it and run with it. Quite the opposite of US Airways which has taken “Very bitchy” and run with that. (Memo to self: stop flying US Airways.)
we landed in Auckland at 7AM on a bright, clear morning. Though we were in transit and didn’t have to clear customs, we did have to pass through security again and their security was polite, efficient and friendly. (US TSA take note. You guys need to get out more.)
Then back on the plane for the 3 hour flight to Brisbane. Another great flight and soon were landing in a bright, sunny and warm Australia. Clear customs (US ICE take note: they’re very polite, efficient and courteous, too. It can be done if you want to), collect our bags and head for the Hertz counter.
Get the car keys and contract, find the car, load the car, get in car, get out of car, go to other side of car and get into driver’s side, have small dispute with GPS about where we are and where we want to go, start car, put in gear, start mantra. “They drive on the left, they drive on the left, DRIVE ON THE LEFT!!!!” Repeat continuously.
As we pull out of the Hertz lot, the GPS finally agrees that we are in Australia, at the Brisbane Airport and, “yes, I will give you directions to 289 Queen St. in Brisbane but only because you insist. And I don’t like it.”
Out of the airport and onto the freeway. Repeating mantra. Barbara asks what I’m mumbling. I tell her and explain why. Barbara now mumbling mantra.
Fortunately the speed limit is low and the traffic is light. We follow the GPS directions to Brisbane City until we start passing through some highway tunnels under the Brisbane River. Then the GPS announces with a perfunctory tone “Satellite signal lost” with all the charm of a kitchen microwave. It apparently left off the “Now you’re on your own miserable human” part of the announcement.
This may seem obvious to you but GPS’s are useless in underground tunnels. At least they shut up. Soon we realize that we aren’t quite lost yet but if we keep driving in these tunnels we are going to be quite lost.
We pop up to street level like some kind of motorized moles. The GPS announces “acquiring satellites”, recalculates our course and starts barking directions. (Memo to self: change the voice on the GPS.) We turn around and head back to downtown Brisbane, this time on an above ground freeway. The GPS gets us to the street our hotel is on, we find the hotel, park.
We go in to check in – 5 days early. Apparently, I made the reservations for the 21st and today is the 16th. I intended to make the reservations for the 16th. Where the 21st came from, I haven’t a clue. But they have room, a very nice two room apartment with kitchenette in a lovely, older Art Deco hotel amongst the glass and steel downtown skyscrapers complete with gargoyle water spouts on the roof. Very Ghost Busters-ery.
We do a little exploring – mostly trying to defer the inevitable collapse from the ridiculous jet lag that’s starting to take hold. We walk own to the Brisbane River a couple of blocks away and then come back to the hotel through the Queen Street pedestrian mall a few block from our hotel.
We rest for an hour or so, fighting off the urge to lay down and “just take a few minute nap”. At just before 6 we head out again for another walk and dinner at an Irish pub we had spotted. We walk in ad ask if they are serving dinner (the place is mostly empty.) The hostess says no, “We’re still on the lunch menu but we’ll be serving the dinner menu in a few minutes at 5.” We’ve had our watches set wrong. We thought it was six but it’s still only 5. We better stretch out dinner.
I good dinner and a couple of pints of a good beer. Then back up the street, through the mall which is atrting to fill with the evening crowd. Back to the hotel. I try to fight off the collapse but at just after 7, I give up and head for bed. Barbara’s not far behind.
It’s been a very long trip to get here but it looks like we’re going to have fun. What a day.
Obi-wan
One Response to “The Trip to Brisbane”
I warned you about those pesky missing days! The worst part for us was that we had friends waiting in Sydney. We didn’t contact them b/c we had no idea we were MIA until we came out of customs and saw we were off by 2 days of our arrival date…many sighs of relief from our friends when we called them to say we had arrived.