Brisbane, Australia To Los Angeles in -15 Minutes
By Lothar. Filed in Australia, New Zealand |
On the clock, it took us minus 15 minutes to fly from Australia to Los Angeles. The only problem with this calculation is that we lived August 8th twice, crossing the date line one more time.
We left the Ibis Hotel in Brisbane at 9 AM on August 8 and took the Airtrain from Roma Street Station to Brisbane International Terminal. It only took 20 minutes to the airport, which was much faster than taking a taxi through the morning rush hour.
We were lifting off the runway at 12:30 PM on August 8, starting our long haul home. We are on Air New Zealand #6 and have a nice view of the beaches and islands near Brisbane.
Our 777-200 ER is cruising over the Tasmanian Sea, while we are dining and wining. We land in Auckland at 5:15 PM, just as the sun is setting over the green cow pastures of the North Island. After a 2 hour lay-over, we re-board our plane and fly the 10500 km across the Pacific to Los Angeles. It takes us 11 hours and 30 minutes and we land in LAX at 12:15 PM on August 8, 25 minutes ahead of schedule. Our gate is not open, so the pilot has to taxi around the same circle 3 times, until we finally are at the gate, 40 minutes after touching down. Welcome back to busy Los Angeles! Now we wait for ages for our luggage and then run with the luggage cart from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1, in order to catch our Southwest Airlines flight. We would have to travel on another over-night flight, if we miss our connection. We make the flight and take the short hop to Las Vegas, where the temperature is 100°F. This is our first time, flying on Southwest Airlines and standing in line at the gate reminds us of queuing up at the bus stop in Australia.
At 12:45 AM on August 9, we finally land in Albany, where we are greeted by Carsten, Sonja and Kristen.
In reality, we had traveled for 27 hours, since leaving Brisbane!
Another great journey is coming to an end. We took 21 flights within 47 days, walking on 14 islands in the South Pacific, celebrating our 30th Wedding Anniversary.