7:45am Adelaide time. We rose early, eager to check our packing and make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. A slight repack was in order, before piling into Bill’s campervan. Bill will be looking after our house - and newly officially adopted Chairman Meow - while we are away. He kindly offered to drive us to the airport at ungodly o’clock, and we were very grateful!
The airport was quite hushed - it was not busy yet at 6am on Sunday. Checkin went reasonably smoothly, except for being told about a form that needed to be completed before we can enter USA.
“Why does America have to be so complicated?” I asked. Just because, and that’s the way it is, came the answer from Dan.
While we were waiting, a Qantas staff member came up to our desk and asked our checkin assistant what time we were leaving. She then handed us complementary Qantas lounge passes with an earnest “And Merry Christmas!”
We had hoped to talk our way into the lounge, but now we had legitimate access! It was a lovely way to start the morning. Once in the lounge, we endeavoured to print the form we hadn’t known about. Technical issues abounded, so I returned to the front desk where the lady kindly printed what we needed. And gave us Tim Tams in the process!
Our transit today will be painful, there’s no other way around it. Adelaide - Melbourne - Auckland - Houston. Oof.
7.50pm Auckland time. We talked our way into the Amex lounge and got ourselves our first bubbly wine of the day! For free! This lounge life is for me. 😅
Our flight from Melbourne to Auckland ended up being quite delayed, which of course has a knock on effect for following flights. Asking at the desk, they didn’t seem concerned so we said c’est la vie! We will deal with the next flight when it comes. Other than the delay, Melbourne to Auckland was uneventful. Dan was excited because we were on a 777, the Air NZ all black All Blacks plane. The food was surprisingly delicious! (I normally don’t include these details but fuck it, I’ll be detail heavy this time! I had roast chicken with a rose sauce and polenta and Dan had a Angus bolognaise and cheese pie, and dessert was an amazing dark chocolate brownie with berry coulis with crunchy shortbread on top).
We both started watching a movie (the new one with Tilda Swinton, the name escapes me) but halfway through there was a decent amount of nudity and I felt a bit odd watching that on the plane!
Our plane made up time in the air but we ended up being told to slow down to avoid congestion. Upon landing and speed walking to the closest screen, our plane was scheduled to leave in 30 minutes and was already boarding. We raced to the security (again!) and met some fellow passengers there - everyone was delayed, and after another screening we power walked again around to gate 16. Once through the US rigmarole, we rounded to our gate to find…. It full. No one had boarded.
We have now sat here for half an hour - apparently catering were slow - not annoyed but glad we made it! This is the final leg and then we will be in Houston. A little delay is actually quite good for us - we will be able to check in immediately once we get to our accommodation.
See y’all on the other side!
4:56pm Houston time. Still Sunday 18 December. We were excited to try out the sky couch, and the service again on the air New Zealand flight was second to none. We watched the Nicholas Cage movie The unbearable weight of massive talent which was completely bonkers. We were laughing out loud! Then it came time to convert to the sky couch. In theory, it’s a great idea. But for a pudgy short woman and a very tall man, it didn’t quite work. We weren’t sure where to put ourselves and poor Dans legs were always butting up against a chair or an arm rest or sticking out into the corridor.
We kind of took it in turns to lay downish, and generally gave up with about 6 hours to go. Sky couch would be amazing for one person (but then you’d have to calculate the price - perhaps a higher grade class would offer the same?) or two small people, or people with small humans.
We were surrounded by poor souls who were transiting through America, each one saying “this wasn’t the original route”. We learnt a valuable lesson - NEVER TRANSIT THROUGH AMERICA TO ANOTHER COUNTRY. Customs is a joke with absolutely no priority for connecting flights, and I’d hazard a guess most of the people on our flight missed their connections. We were somewhere near the end of the customs queue, and were shunted through to the American citizen queue to try to hurry things up.
In total, we were in the queue for an hour and a half of sheer bamboozlement. As we approached our customs officer, I overheard him say to another Aussie:
“Wait what? It’s summer in Australia? While we have winter here?” Followed by a look of pure unadulterated mind-blown shock.
Our next challenge was getting to the car rental place. After many confusing turns and twists we ended up at a sign for crew, parking and car rentals. Success! Once on the bus, it was about a half hour journey to the car rental centre. It was basically in its own city it was so far away. Dan and I have taken a note that when we return the car in a few days, to factor in MANY HOURS just in case!
As I write this I’m waiting for Dan to do the paperwork for picking up our chariot for the next few days. Once we get to the accom, I cannot wait for a shower and then we’ll find some food.
8.11pm Houston time. At a bar called the Brass Tap which is directly underneath our apartment. We are starving and dizzy. It’s been an eventful evening since leaving the airport! Not least getting a dramatic flat tyre on a freeway, Dan the Man changing it to the space saver on the busy freeway and then having to back to the car hire place to get a new car, only half an hour later.
Dan is doing all the driving, and for good reason. The left hand drive is confusing, and the freeways are just too much for my tiny brain. With google’s help (and a small input from me) we made it to our accommodation. At first we thought we may have made a mistake, but once inside it’s a fabulous space for us to relax and make our base for the next few days!
Beer for posterity: Odell Sippin’ Pretty sour, Firestone Walker Cali Squeeze, B52 Wheez the Juice
We worked out that Sunday 18 December has been about 34 hours long for us. Time for bed.
Let’s see what tomorrow will bring :)
We worked out that Sunday 18 December has been about 34 hours long for us. Time for bed.
Let’s see what tomorrow will bring :)
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