I wanted to rewind back to before I touched down and make a few notes about my 'voyage' back. A trip to Australia from anywhere is a long haul, and I say this with many journeys across and around the Pacific under my belt. You can't shorten the trip past a certain point - but you can try and have an enjoyable one.
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| Antipodes Map taken from here. |
1. Avoid LAX. If I offend you in the next few sentences, apologies- but unless you can make a valid argument to the following point; I don't want to hear it. LAX is a hole. It is a total pain to travel in and out of and most of the stress of negotiating the Pacific regions can be greatly reducing by giving it a wide berth.
2. Don't fly US-based airlines. The crews tend to be surlier, the food falls right into the Palahniuk-ian 'model food kit' observation and they're a complete pain about luggage. And now they don't give you pillows and blankets.
3. Don't bother catching up on semi-new release films before you get on the plane - you have 24+ hours to view them at your leisure. At this point I might even begin advocating leaving your ipod in your baggage and just using the provided music. It's a much larger range then it used to be, you don't have to worry about keeping track of your ipod when your not using it (like when watching inflight movies) and you get the cabin announcements piped in.
I do advocate a libation here and there but be wary - jet lag is directly connected to dehydration. Avoid landing at your destination insanely jet lagged & hung over as a result of over indulgence. Personally, I find a drink at a weird hour of the day at a terminal bar is best. You can stretch your legs, stay awake, be aware of whats around you, and strike up conversations with interesting folk. Plus you're having the best thing to ease you into sleep once you've re-boarded for the next leg of your trip.
And at last I feel I should admit that I do not tend to fly Qantas, rather I fly Air New Zealand. Shocker right? It's not that I haven't enjoyed my Qantas experiences but I just end up flying Air New Zealand for the extended trips because frankly it's cheaper. Now that I'm racking up my frequent flyer miles I'll see where AirNZ can get me domestically too.
I must say I really enjoyed the in-flight safety video:
-which yes, involves: Richard Simmons, the All Blacks, and body painting.
And I am finding their recent advertisements to be fairly humorous, but maybe I always find hipsters funny?
- they have a few more you can find here.
Now that I've shared that I'll get back on with the present goings on - but really, would you have ever thought to pull up air line safety videos on YouTube? thought not.
- Oh, and yes- Air New Zealand did provide me with a pillow and blanket, thank you very much.
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