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Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Day #1 Sydney Airport

The trip to Sydney was fairly uneventful. We left at 10am and headed South, stopping for petrol and a drink. We did stop at the twin service stations on the Central Coast for lunch and then followed the GPS to get us through Sydney and to the airport. I'm pretty sure there was a least 1 toll booth that was unnecessary, but the GPS said, and maybe in kahoots with the RMS (they toll the roads), but we made it and there was no problem.  We needed to be there by 3pm for check in.
 
Llewellyn and Maddie in the waiting area, the airline staff were not there yet.

It was only 2 o'clock.
There's our flight, JQ3
Now what to do while we wait?

 
We decided to explore
(Standing on our heads)
This little placque said:
"This Sculpture of the bird, by Vincas Jomantas, symbolises mankind's first recognition of flight in an imaginative, graceful form. May 1970"
 
Hmm, it is beyond my imagination

This helps determine if the carryon luggage is within the size limits.
We fit.

Free internet!

 
Not free telephone


"Ground Swell. Matthew Harding: This work explores the geological history of the Botany Region. The zoomorphic forms are made from 9000 year old Forest Red Gum and Angophora Wood dredged during the construction of the parallel runway. These forms move across the ancient river systems that existed during the last ice age, which has since flooded to create Botany Bay.
The presence of earth, air, fire and water speak of the essential forces that shape and sustain life."

Where else can we go? I got a map of the airport.

It was still early, and no staff, but people were starting to line up anyway, we thought we'd better join the queue.  We needed to fill in a form, and there were baggage tags.
 
3 o'clock did come round, by then the line was 4 times as long, there were 2 flights leaving at the same time with this airline, ours to Hawaii, and the other was to Bali I think. Despite the wait, we were glad we had joined the line as early as we did.
 
We made it through the line, we had seat 48G. We then needed to go through customs, and this involved being xrayed. A bit like a rabbit caught in a head light.. we left customs a little dishevelled, and bam you walked into the Duty Free Shopping centre. We headed for the nearest resemblance of natural light, and viewed the outside world of the airport runways...

 
We were allowed to start boarding at 5.25pm, and discovered that only half the seats were taken. We were allowed to spread out after take off


and sleep in comfort. We were so tired.
Maybe because we got up too early.

 
Catherine took some pictures of the flights progress, these updates also included some measurements:
at the 2 hour mark we were travelling at 643 miles per hour (1031km), 38000 feet above sea level (the ocean must have been a bit choppy - which would help explain the bumpy ride some of the time) (11582 metres) and it was -65 degrees Farenhuit (-54Celsius) brrr thats cold, I'm glad we had our blanket.


 
Some time after 6am Hawaii time we arrived!!!  This picture was taken whilst we walked out to collect our bags. Yay!!!!

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