Welcome to my five week travel journal of discovery and adventure down under, specifically South Australia and the south island of New Zealand, Te Waipounamu.
DAY 1: Getting there
I flew out of Los Angeles International Airport. That process was flawless, and I boarded the 10:25pm flight feeling as relaxed and excited as one can be when facing 14 hours of flight time.
This is my fourth trip to the area, and I splurged for "premium seating". The upcharge bought me some extra width, a nice amount of extra legroom, and some other miscellaneous perks meant to offset a 50% increase in seat price.
Which it did; kind of. The added seat width was offset by solid barriers on both sides instead of just arm rests. I'm a big guy, and found that I actually felt just as cramped in as bargain airlines.
The front bottom of the seat pushed out, and had a footrest at the base. Combined with a bit more recline that normal, adjustable headrest, and form-fitting pillow, it did create more comfort when seated. Getting out to use the restroom, however, required contortionistic skills that I just don't have any more, so my neighbor had to disassemble themselves to let me out.
And lastly, the seats had less room underneath, and for the first time ever, my carry on bag would not fit underneath the seat in front of me. I extracted my "probably need access to" accessories, dumped them into a compressible backpack, and put my trusty carry on into the overhead bin. Which leads me to...
DAY 2: The Lost Day
The departure and flight time, plus the international date line, meant that day 2 technically never happened. The compliment to that will be coming back home, when I'll land at a date and time earlier than when I left.
DAY 3: Sunrise Over Auz and Airline Hell
I have a travel companion who is disabled enough to require a wheelchair at times. We'd arranged for wheelchairs at each airport to get them to/from the plane. Never been a big deal.
It became a big deal. Our airline to Sydney handled everything beautifully, until we were exiting the international terminal. Wheelchair assistance stopped at that point, and I had the pleasure of sequentially pushing and weaving a trolley with 200 pounds of luggage, and golf travel bag a ways, then going back to push the wheelchair, until we reached the gate agent. All in plain view of airline workers. It was a short haul, but really?!
After processing the checked bags, I slogged carry on's and golf bag to the domestic terminal, parked the wheelchair and carry-ons, and took the golf bag to oversized luggage. Despite being screened and tagged to check through, the screener had me completely unpack the clubs, gears, and excess clothing because he "saw something". There was no table, so all this happened on the floor with hurried passengers walking over, around and through.
Once completely vetted, he said that everything "looked OK", then told me that he was the wrong oversized bag spot, and to take it elsewhere. Once there, that agent started in with their own issues. Some well-placed words on my part squelched that immediately, then she said our carry-on didn't meet their requirements. I argued that their company had approved it as transfer flyers; didn't matter. $65US later for another checked bag, we were on our way.
And that is how days 1-3 went.
This whole time, the airline offloaded my travel companion onto a chair because they needed the wheelchair. It took them 45 minutes to return with one so we could get to our gate.