Ward Family Vacations

New Zealand 2005

LA to Auckland

I do not know how many of you have traveled through Los Angeles before but it is huge.  It is said to be the 5th busiest airport in the World and after spending about five hours there I believe it! I arrived on Northwest Airlines at Terminal 2 and to pick up my Qantas Flight had to go to Terminal 4. Since I had such a long layover (5 hours) I decided to walk to Terminal 4 rather than take a shuttle. I turned right and passed Terminal 3 and then the Tom Bradley International Terminal which was huge and then finally arrived at Terminal 4 where Qantas is located. It was a beautiful day in the 70's so didn't mind the 20 minute or so walk. However, after arriving there I found out that the Auckland flights on Qantas leave from the Tom Bradley International terminal I had just passed by!

Of course, I had five hours so was not to upset and walked back where I had just passed.  It took me a few minutes, but I found Qantas check-in and began my wait to get my boarding pass (luggage was already checked through to Auckland from Memphis so I didn't have to fool with that). Got my boarding pass and started off to pass through security to get to Gate 122. It ended up being the second to last gate on one end of the terminal and took a while to walk to.  I finally got to my gate and stopped at a little kiosk and ordered a soda and went to sit down for the long wait. I did bring the latest Janet Evanovich book which I had saved for this long wait and I was sure glad I did. That Stephanie Plum can keep you in stitches!

I sat by the window looking out and there were so many planes, most of them Boeing 747's. I have traveled internationally before but this was my first time on a Boeing 747. That is one BIG plane...it is so big you wonder how they even get it off the ground! The flight was scheduled to leave at 8:40pm. The began boarding around 8:00 (the plane fits approximately 400 people so it takes a little time to get everyone on board). We took off around 9:00pm about 40 minutes late.

Qantas is rated as the #2 airline and I see why after flying. Service was excellent and what was cool was that each headrest had a television screen so everyone had their own television to watch. You could watch one of seven or eight movies, play video games, listen to music, watch the news or follow the flight plan (how far and how long you had been traveling and where you were).

The flight was not full and I did not have anyone sitting in the seat to my left so it was nice for me and the other two people in my row. The crew served a real nice dinner and then handed out the goodie packs with snacks and settled the plane down so everyone could sleep. I tried to sleep but as you can imagine I was pretty excited so watched a few movies and catnapped. We passed by Honolulu and later Samoa (where the Katina brothers are from) and Fiji and so many little islands I could not name them all if I wanted to.

I had just traveled about 1,700 miles from Memphis to LA and approximately 7,000 miles to Auckland. What is funny is we traveled for basically half a day, but lost a day when we crossed the International Date line. I left Los Angeles on Friday August 12th and after flying total for about 16 hours, I did not arrive in Auckland until Sunday, August 14th.

We arrived a little early, a little after 5:00 am and since I was sitting so close to the front of the aircraft I was able to get off quickly. I made it through customs fairly quickly, but then had to wait for my luggage to go through inspection. Of course, I knew cheese was a prohibited item and I had 6 blocks of Velveeta cheese (Thanks Theresa!) but since it was pasteurized I knew it was okay. I made it through customs around 6:00 a.m. and found Jessica and David waiting for me. It was sure good to see and hold Jessica...I don't know who was more excited me or her! The first thing I did was try to get in the wrong side of the car (drivers sit on the right) .. oops .. they had a good laugh over that.  We arrived at their home in New Lynn, or Waitakere City, a suburb of Auckland around 6:30 a.m. and went right to unpacking all the goodies I had brought. One suitcase was ALL stuff for them and part of my second suitcase as well. I didn't realize just how little I brought for myself but you know there are malls in Auckland!