Day 0 – Brisbane to Toronto

Hi all,

After what felt like a lifetime… we finally made it from Brisbane to Toronto.  All up it took about 30 hours to get from home to the hotel room.  Here is a quick recap of the highlights.

1. Brisbane Airport – Paul got the explosive trace test and special hands on treatment by a very nice security man at Brisbane Airport - the security guard must have been bored because we were the only ones going through security at the time.
2. NZ136 (Brisbane to Auckland) -  Air New Zealand’s in filght entertainment was pretty good, managed to catch three episodes of 30 Rock.  Paul scored a middle seat.
3. Auckland Airport – We spotted Mark Occhilupo (the old Aussie surfing world champ) getting on our flight.  Also we think we saw the kid from Billy Elliot… although now he doesn’t look like a kid, more like a guy with really skinny legs.
4. NZ6 (Auckland to Los Angeles) – 12 hours of economy class sucks.  Period.  Managed about an hour of sleep each which meant that the flight felt like it lasted forever.  Movies that we caught include The Worlds Fastest Indian, Kung Fu Panda, and Drillbit Taylor (the later being responsible for our sleep, because it sucked!).  Paul scored a middle seat
5. Los Angeles Airport – We spotted Mark Occhilupo getting off the plane.  No sign of Billy Elliot.  He may be still on the plane stuck in a crack between two seats.  Went through Customs, did the fingerprint and photo thing.  Collected our bags and noticed that somewhere along the journey someone had ripped the tags off, which meant having to re-check in at the Air Canada desk.  Not a problem until we realised because we checked our bags in twice for this flight that it put us on the “Special Treatment” list by the TSA.  Which mean that Paul got the special hands on treatment by a nice black man this time.  Kerrina got to join in as well, apparently her black woman had very soft hands.
6. AC744 (Los Angeles to Toronto) – We sat beside what has to be the only Chinese man who lives in Townsville.  Had a got chat to him which kept us awake for the 4 hour flight.  Paul scored a middle seat AGAIN!
7. Toronto Airport – We landed on the runway at Toronto airport where an Air France plane landed a few years ago and burst into flames (not that they told us that on the plane).  The Canadian border control chick looked like Avril Lavinge, and acted like her too…
8. Toronto Airport to the Hotel – roadworks on the highway leaving the airport (just like the Gateway at home!).  Spotted the CN Tower in the distance, which at night looks spectacular - they light it up with different coloured lights that cycle through).  Finally got to the hotel about 12:30am (about 2:30pm Brisbane time).  And then finally some sleep after a couple of very sleep deprived days.

Paul and Kerrina