Travels to New Zealand. Long flight.

March 6 2015

On flight to Dallas. Left about 40 minutes late because of a lot of flights being cancelled yesterday and this flight is extremely full. What was fun was visiting with a friend of mine who works at the charlotte airport. Had a nice visit while she was in between her double shift. 

We left charlotte on a Friday night and are arriving in Sydney Sunday morning and will be in NZ Sunday night. This time zone thing and 26 hours of travel is kind of mind boggling.

Made it just fine on our flight from Dallas to Sydney. Double decker plane. Airbus a380. For once I'm on a flight where the entertainment system works. Watching The Hundred Foot Journey.  Culinary adventure with french and Indian cuisine. Unfortunately it made me hungry for some good food. Lots of fun.  Dana is watching Lord of the Rings since our tour is going to go to where it was filmed. Plane not full so I moved to window seat and Dana in aisle seat with an empty seat between us. Clean and comfortable for now. 16 hour flight to Sydney. Then a flight to New Zealand. Looks like we will be well fed. Love the Australian accents of the crew. 

I have slept about 2 hours but woke up thinking that 16 hours in one plane is a new record for me. And that there are still 11 hours left. I looked at the flight path and realized something. I have never before in all of my travels been to the Southern Hemisphere. I've mostly traveled to Europe with Scandinavia also thrown in there. I've been north to Alaska. I've been to some Caribbean islands. But have never been to Asia. Or South America. Or Africa. With this trip I'll be in Australia. Albeit only the airport. And then New Zealand. Maybe now that I've gotten these thoughts out of my brain I can go back to sleep. 

Slept for a while. Then watched the movie The Love Punch with pierce Bronson and Emma Thompson. Cute. A bit predictable. Most of it takes place in Paris which made it seem to fit my mood. Movie over and still 6 1/2 hours of flying time left. 

 Next movie was a tear jerker. If I Stay about a prodigy cello player and her love of a rocker. And then. .. A tragic accident.  Not giving it away. And now only 4 1/2 hours left!  Hope they serve breakfast soon I'm getting hungry. 

In between movies, sleeping, eating, playing games on my iPad I'm reading a book recommended by a friend. The Bone People. Takes place on the South Island beaches of New Zealand. Bound in Maori myth. I bought it at the used book store in Weaverville and just discovered that the original price on it was from the UK.  Took a little bit to get into it but now I'm really liking the novel. He said to always read something about the country you are about to visit.