Planes, Planes, and Automobiles

I have finally arrived in Australia! It certainly wasn't an easy journey - in fact it took almost two solid days of traveling. Here is the rundown of what it took to get us here:

- We arrived at the airport at noon on August 16th. After checking in with our travel agent, we received our tickets and itineraries for the trip.

- The first plane left for Phoenix took off at 1:40pm. Several hours later we boarded a plan for LA.

_ In LA we had close to a six hour layover. Finally, around 10pm we boarded the plan for Auckland, New Zealand.

- The flight to Auckland was close to thirteen hours. Luckily for us, it was night time, so we could (try to) sleep. The place was equipped with individual televisions on the backs of the seats that we could watch TV or movies on. (Yay!) A few hours after boarding, it was midnight so naturally, we were served dinner. After this it was lights out until about 4am New Zealand time when we were served breakfast.

Unfortunately, sometime during the night, I seem to have misplaced August 17. I went to sleep at 10pm August 16 and woke up the morning of August 18th. Perhaps somebody snatched it while I was sleeping - how rude.

- After arriving in New Zealand, we had several hours of layover that was mostly spent going though customs. Near daybreak we boarded our final plane which was headed to Brisbane, Australia. After arriving in Brisbane we went through another bout of customs (where, oddly enough, I was required to have the bottoms of my shoes inspected) and then were finally allowed out of the airport. A short two and a half hour bus ride later and we arrived in our new home: Lennox Head. It had been over 30 hours of air time, and two days without a real night's sleep, but we all agreed it was totally worth it.