I drove to the airport with Mike leaving at 6am for my 9.20 am flight to Vancouver. My luggage was way under my 32kg limit at 21 kgs. I was able to carry my helmet as cabin baggage as well as my cabin case. Going business class I got priority through security and passport control which was all automated now with machines reading your passport and taking your photo. I went to the Air New Zealand lounge for a coffee and finish reading my Financial Review. I didn't eat anything as I knew we were having 'lunch' served soon after departure. The flight, Air Canada AC34 left pretty much on time. The business class seats were the 'pod' type which could be converted into a flat bed. There was enough room to store my helmet at the very end of it on a shelf by your feet as the overhead lockers were full. Everybody seems to travel with carry on luggage as big as a suitcase???
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| Lunch |
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| The view from my window |
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| A Bloody Caesar |
The entertainment system was OK but the movies were the usual wham, bam save the world type. I watched an old movie "Dog Day Afternoon " which was Al Pacino's first major role. It was a bank robbery in slow motion and I couldn't finish it. I mainly listened to music and later on watched Brad Pitt in F1 about Formula One. Surprisingly good!!
Most of the 14.5 hr flight was spent in darkness with passengers sleeping even though it was daytime for us. The flight was fairly smooth but I didn't sleep as when we arrived in Vancouver at 7.12am on 14th June it was just after midnight in Sydney on 14th June.
I was travelling to Toronto via Calgary as the direct flight would have cost me $2,000 more??? I'm not sure why. The flight to Calgary left at 8am and I had to get to it before 7.45 am when they close the door. The flight crew on my Sydney flight assured me I would make it even though I had to clear immigration. I made it .... just ... and so did one of the pilots from my Sydney flight but I had to run all the way to the gate. Luckily my suitcase was booked all the way to Toronto. The aircraft to Calgary and Toronto were smaller Boeing 737s with a fairly small business class section. The seats were good with plenty of legroom. They served breakfast to Calgary and then lunch to Toronto. I passed on the breakfast as I had some on the Sydney flight just before landing. I had lunch on the way to Toronto. The flight was on time to Toronto but the baggage was slow to appear on screen telling us were to pick it up. I suddenly thought that there was no way it would have made the Calgary flight so I looked for a luggage carousel with a Vancouver flight and there it was!!
Ian picked me up and took me to Margaret's place. I'm glad he did as I was flagging badly with jet lag being on the go for 23 hours. Margaret greeted us at her front door and was surprised how quickly we got there from the airport.
I hit the sack around 10pm knackered.
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