Back, Safe and Sound

[ickaimp]

The original plan was to fly from Christchurch to Nadi, Fiji, to Los Angeles.

Original plan.

Evidently, something didn't want me leaving NZ quite so soon. the flight to Nadi was cancelled. Most likely due to mechanical error, no one was certain.

Instead, we flew from Christchurch to Auckland, (after playing 'Icka! the mighty Fly Slayer' in the Christchurch terminal) a two hour layover in Auckland, then flew to Nadi.

By the way, Air Pacific does decent grub. The service is pretty good as well. Entertainment was okay, we saw 'RV' with Robin Williams on the way to Nadi.

Got to Nadi and discovered that the flight to Los Angeles, which evidently is originating in Sydney, has a delay. Instead of leaving around 10pm from Nadi, now leaving around 1am. They gave me a free $15 food voucher to spend, which was nice. Ended up hanging out with a guy we'd been sitting next to from Edinburgh who was flying from NZ to Nadi to Honolulu to Vancouver to hang out with his girl friend before flying to London, then taking the same route -back-. Pretty nice bloke.

... As I'm currently sitting here in the Nadi terminal, terribly sorry about the delay, Dad and Gigi.

I must admit, my impression of Fiji is one of Afros. On the flight over, they had an 'Introduction to Fiji', which was basically a highlighted list of things to do on the islands. Had entertained thoughts of it having been filmed in the 80s, but the costuming and film quality didn't match that idea.

Then I got here. LOTS of afros. And, when you think about it, it's 25c (77f) degrees outside and raining. Very hot and humid. Most of the people here have very dark skin and hair. And those that have curly hair, have afros. It fits the environment. And isn't that terribly bad looking on them either.

+++

Same Day on the Other Side of the Dateline:

Air Pacific ROCKS.

Got complementary toothbrush, toothpaste, socks and SLEEPMASK. The food was good, the flight attendants actually seemed to be happy doing what they were doing and they had those private movie thingies on the back of the chair. Saw 'Over the Hedge' and 'X-men 3', which I severely missed MOrgan while watching because it's just one of those movies that calls for sitting around and making snarky comments about Jean tearing Wolverine's shirt off. *snickers*

Also pulled a Black Cat/Train and drew eyeballs in silver sharpie on the dark sleepmask. Between that and the squeaky lobster on my bag, think we entertained the flight crew.

First time I've ever actually slept on a plane for more than an hour. Think the sleep mask helped, and the fact that the back part of the plane wasn't heavily booked, so everyone got to stretch out.

Time from Nadi to LAX: about 9 Hours.
Time through LAX customs and immigration: 15 minutes. Most of that was walking to the immigration station and finding my bags. Yay. Fastest. Time. EVAH.

Hanging out with my Folks now, releasing just how weird it is to talk to them about stuff that they've never seen or experienced before. Was talking about stuff about NZ and finding it really odd that they didn't know stuff that I'd consider basic about NZ... The difference a year overseas makes, really.

Have had less than 5 hours sleep in the past 36 hours, any serious questions or anything requiring thought process will have to be dealt with once after we've crashed. Apologies.

Comments

Back online...

[uaekiwi.livejournal.com]

Hey you! Glad to hear a recommendation on Air Pacific. Always good to know who's good to fly with and who isn't. I have a story about Emirates to tell, but will save it for a post (coming soon). In Perth, and recovering from the travails of the last few weeks. Take care - back in touch soon!

*Hugs*,
D.