The Trip West
Our vacation started relatively uneventfully. We arrived at Pearson 2 1/2 hours before our flight, and by the time we were waiting for the flight, well under an hour had passed. We settled in and waited paitently for our boarding call.
The flight to Los Angeles was smooth and relatively painless. We arrived, spent an hour getting our boarding passes for the Auckland leg of the trip, and then waited paitently for our boarding call.
After a long and arduous flight over the Pacific (more later), we arrived in Auckland safely at 5:30 am. We weren't allowed to check in to the apartment we had rented until 11:00 am so we waited patiently around at the Auckland airport for a few hours.
We decided to finish our waiting closer to the apartment, so we took a shuttle van to the Auckland Harbourfront and settled in to wait patiently until 11:00.
All of our "waiting" aside, we are now safely ensconced in our lovely apartment overlooking the Auckland harbour. The flight from L.A. to Auckland was a trial for sure. Our seats were located near the back of the 747, with one seat on the aisle and the other right next. We were in a group of 4 seats, so the inside seat had a neighbour and it was our poor fortune to end up with a not very good neighbour. He settled in, took over the arm rest (and then some), and was sleeping shortly after takeoff. That was the end of the armrest for the rest of the journey. I'm not sure why I didn't say something later on after he woke, but for whatever reason, we suffered in silence.
To add to the woes for the unfortunate occupants of these seats, there was a heating vent right underneath the inside seat, and it pumped out the heat for the entire duration. Needless to say, the air around the inside seat became unbearably hot. We blocked it off as well as we could with blankets and traded seats back and forth to share the pain. Our combined sleep total for the journey has got to be less than 4 hours.
On the plus side, this 747 was equipped with a state-of-the-art entertainment system. Each seat had a small LCD TV screen built into the back of the seat in front. There was a corded remote control built into the armrest. Each seat could select independently from dozens of movies and television shows. It's pretty impressive and it was a godsend given our inability to find peaceful sleep.
And so, it's been many many hours since this correspondent has slept, so I think I'll sign off for today. I'll pass on some pics and thoughts about Auckland tomorrow.
Until then ...
Don
The flight to Los Angeles was smooth and relatively painless. We arrived, spent an hour getting our boarding passes for the Auckland leg of the trip, and then waited paitently for our boarding call.
After a long and arduous flight over the Pacific (more later), we arrived in Auckland safely at 5:30 am. We weren't allowed to check in to the apartment we had rented until 11:00 am so we waited patiently around at the Auckland airport for a few hours.
We decided to finish our waiting closer to the apartment, so we took a shuttle van to the Auckland Harbourfront and settled in to wait patiently until 11:00.
All of our "waiting" aside, we are now safely ensconced in our lovely apartment overlooking the Auckland harbour. The flight from L.A. to Auckland was a trial for sure. Our seats were located near the back of the 747, with one seat on the aisle and the other right next. We were in a group of 4 seats, so the inside seat had a neighbour and it was our poor fortune to end up with a not very good neighbour. He settled in, took over the arm rest (and then some), and was sleeping shortly after takeoff. That was the end of the armrest for the rest of the journey. I'm not sure why I didn't say something later on after he woke, but for whatever reason, we suffered in silence.
To add to the woes for the unfortunate occupants of these seats, there was a heating vent right underneath the inside seat, and it pumped out the heat for the entire duration. Needless to say, the air around the inside seat became unbearably hot. We blocked it off as well as we could with blankets and traded seats back and forth to share the pain. Our combined sleep total for the journey has got to be less than 4 hours.
On the plus side, this 747 was equipped with a state-of-the-art entertainment system. Each seat had a small LCD TV screen built into the back of the seat in front. There was a corded remote control built into the armrest. Each seat could select independently from dozens of movies and television shows. It's pretty impressive and it was a godsend given our inability to find peaceful sleep.
And so, it's been many many hours since this correspondent has slept, so I think I'll sign off for today. I'll pass on some pics and thoughts about Auckland tomorrow.
Until then ...
Don
posted by Don at
3:34 am
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