There and back again: An RTW Trip report
 

Hello All!

Before I dive into telling you my story, a couple of notes.

1. This is my first post on FT (Long time lurker - over a decade) and I figured I start here officially by sharing My trip of a life time. While I’m not the weekly globe trotter that some of you are, as someone who grew up as a domestic airline brat (Thanks to my grandparents who were my legal guardians), I’ve come to love to fly and travel and this was my first real trip to, what are for me, exotic locations.

2. I should also mention this was originally formatted for a different site that is air travel (airplane) centric, but because that site has been dying slowly for several years and doesn’t get much attention these days, I wanted to share it here with folks who’d enjoy and appreciate it.

3. I like to tell stories in detail so my post are a bit long. To keep things neat and from overloading everyone, I’ll me posting in a several parts.

4. Lastly, If you really only want to read about my air travel experiences, please feel free to skip parts 1 (this one) and part 4 which are more ground based stories, but there is a helicopter ride in part 4 and some amazing photos and a vid or two too, so it may be worth schlogging through it.

OK, so now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get on with it!



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One of the big items on my bucket list has been to do a true, around the world trip.

The opportunity finally showed itself in early 2014 when hanging out with My friends Dave, Lauren, and Chris. Dave and Lauren are Married, Dave and Chris are best friends since grade school and I became good friends with them in college. Chris is currently in school to study ecology.

Chris mentioned that there was a study abroad program called EcoQuest in New Zealand for students at his school, that he really wanted to partake in, despite that he’s about the same age as me (Early 30’s) and the program was for traditional students (i.e., in their late teens early 20’s). He casually mentioned that if accepted, we should come join him at the end of his program there, rent a camper-van, and explore the country. Of all the countries in the world I’ve wanted to visit in my lifetime, New Zealand was truly at the top of the list. I realized that the idea/invitation was really just for Dave and Lauren, I hesitated for a second, but as I was standing right there, I jumped right in and said I’d go too…. if he was accepted.

Three weeks later Chris announced that he had in fact been accepted into the program, now the planning could begin.

2014 turned out to be a really rough comedy of errors for me. One thing after another, after another, after yet another thing happened. Knowing that I was going to finally going to do some real exploring is probably the only thing that kept my spirits up.

Chris would be leaving at the end of August, with the program ending on December 3rd. Chris made the needed arrangements for him to be able to stay an additional two weeks.

We met many times over the spring and summer hammering out the details of where we’d go and what we’d do. One of the biggest factors is that Chris is a major, die hard, Tolkien fan. Dave and Lauren and pretty up there too (Although Lauren is more of a die hard Dr. Who fan). As for me, I like Tolkien alright, but I’m more of a Harry Potter guy (Yes we are a bunch of nerds, why do you ask???). As such, they really wanted to see the sites where the LOTR/Hobbit films were shot.

Of course my big draw aside from seeing the place I’ve always wanted to go, was the actual getting there and back. As I wanted to conserve as much of my cash for the actual time in NZ, I didn’t want to spend too much for airfare, but I didn’t want to go with predicable carriers per se (Dave, Lauren, and Chris would be flying UA/NZ, too boring for me). Domestically, ever since I lost my free flying privileges when I left college, I’ve used jetBlue as my preferred domestic airline and have started to accrued some nice points with them as well. Naturally, I would use them for my domestic section on this trip too.

I booked my B6 ticket a little later then I planned (after I had booked everything else) due to some financial constraints due to the afore mentioned issues I’d been having all year, but still got a decent price of my first flight which would be from BOS to LAX.

I’ve had a bad history of nearly missing the first flight of the last few trips I’ve taken, despite taking measures to prevent that. This time, I’d go so far has getting a hotel room in Boston for the night before so I’d be staged locally. I decided to take a risk and do a blind reservation through Priceline, where you select the quality level and general area you want the hotel to be in and pray really really hard that you get lucky and don’t end up far away from a T Subway station . Well, I’m please to say that I did in fact get lucky, very lucky. Priceline picked the Hotel 140, which is just a stones throw from Back Bay Station on Clarendon St.

Now All I had to do was wait.

Chris kept posting the most amazing photos once he arrived in August. September, October, and November seemed to drag by so very very slowly.

Finally December came. Dave, Lauren, and I would be flying from BOS on the 5th and meeting up with Chris in AKL on the 7th (Thank you International Date Line).

At 8AM on there 4th, I got a notice from jetBlue that I could check in for my flight, so I opened their app and in a few clicks, confirmed I’d be onboard. I was even able to add my boarding pass into my Passbook.


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Later in the day, I picked up a family friend to watch my 89 y/o grandmother while I was away. Despite having given her over a month to get ready, the friend was barely packed when I went to pick her up. I was further annoyed as expedition was not her forte and I hoped to get down to Boston at a decent time to enjoy the night, but that got cut short, oh well. I finally got the friend to my place in Manchester, NH. We’d gone grocery shopping and after making sure they had enough food and supplies to last during my absence, I high tailed it down to the North Londonderry bus terminal.

Despite the continuing decline of service at MHT, that state continues to subsidize the buses down to Boston though local company Concord Coach, who runs the subsidiary Boston Express and Dartmouth Coach services too. I made it to the station just in time to catch the 7:30PM departure.

Despite the negative impact it might have on folks choosing to use MHT, I do like the bus service as parking is 100% free, of which there is plenty of spaces, and a round trip ticket to South Station is only $25.00.

Upon boarding the bus I groaned slightly. despite what the picture might show of seats clad in black leather and fancy contours, these are the most uncomfortable bus seats in the world. Alas, I was running on so much excitement to really care and and plonked down for the ride down Interstate 93, enjoying the mood lighting.

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The deceptively comfortable looking, very uncomfortable bus seats

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Acceptable legroom

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At least there’s mood lighting

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Lots of recline

Pulling up the ramp into South Station, I noticed a barrage of police cruisers one right after another with lights and sirens blaring. I was curious what was going on that could require such a large police response. Getting off the bus, I checked out the local news sites and found out the city was in an uproar over the grand jury decision in the Eric Garner trial. They would end up blocking roads and highways, marching through the street. Fortunately, they were all peaceful protests, but it did make for an interesting evening.

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I made my way from the bus station over to South station proper to go down into the T subway. One of my biggest gripes about the South Station setup is that to get from the buses to the subway, you have to trudge your way the whole length of the train platform outdoors. As Boston is right on the water and I usually travel in the cooler New England months, this usually means you feel like you have frost bite by the time you get to the other end, huffing from trying to quickly sprint with your luggage, in a sketchy setting. If it’s rush-hour when you’re doing this, heaven help you as I’ve literally been knocked down and trampled on a previous trip. Would it really kill there MBTA to construct an enclosed side area with moving sidewalks???


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Having to stop to catch my breath, I took this quick shot of the platforms.

I took the Red line to Downtown Crossing and changed on to the Orange line down to Back Bay Station.

I was pleased at Hotel 140 upon walking in the lobby. The gentleman behind the desk was very polite and professional towards me, despite looking rather worn out after the day I’d had. He handed me a much welcomed bottle of water while he got me checked in and provided me the wifi access details without even asking. The room was clean and comfortable. and I was pleased with Priceline’s selection. I will definitely being staying there again. Some of the reviews of Hotel140 complain that their rooms have no view, and indeed looking out my window, I only saw the brick facade of the neighboring building which I was perfectly fine with. The property had previously been a YWCA. The building itself has a lot of charm and character if you look correctly and at $129 a night in downtown Boston, was a steal! Finding a decent hotel room in downtown Boston under $500 night can be a miracle for a late booking, if you want views and high end service, pools, and still be downtown, you better be ready to pay.

After dropping my luggage of and getting cleaned up a bit, I went out to have a celebratory dinner has I hadn’t eaten really all day. I made my way down to the Fanieul Hall area and grabbed an award winning bowl of New England Clam chowder and and a Magners Cider from Anthem Kitchen+Bar.

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Winner of the 2010 and 2012 Boston Chowderfest

Wanting to get to bed at a decent time, I made my way back to the Hotel via the Walgreens on School St. to pick up some last minute items. There were police and news helicopters circling the city like flies over a carcass due to the protest all over the city. I could hear chanting getting louder as i made my way up Washington St.

Just as I got to the Intersection with School Street, a parade of at least 25 police motorcycles came flying around the corner. I was awestruck to see so many bike units at once, at almost 10PM in 23º F (not including wind chill) weather. After they passed, the chanting was very loud and I looked ahead to my left to see a line of people marching yelling “Who’s streets? Our Streets!”. It was a powerful moment. *Click on picture below for vid*

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Getting back to the Hotel around 11:30PM, I set my phone alarm for 5AM, popped a melatonin, and went to bed.

Stay turned for part 2 where I get to try the best WiFi in the sky for the first time, panic at my friends lack of flight planning, do some LAX plane spotting, and and give my thoughts on the new TBIT!



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Part two will be posted sometime in the near future. Please feel free to comment, ask questions, or anything else you'd like to say about this. Thanks for reading! :D

Subscribed!

RTW Part 2: Sacré (jet)Blue! - A domestic affair.
 

I’m not a morning person and no matter how exciting a day it is, I always have trouble getting started. Today was the exception to that as I was up within 2 minutes of my alarm going off at 5AM - setting the alarm on my phone, iPad, and the hotels alarm clock might have had something to do with it too.

I took a nice long hot shower and made sure I did an extra good job as it might be a while before I could shower again and I had a very long way to go.

I threw on the prelaid-out clothes and packed the electric gizmos I had out to charge over night.

I ran through the list to make sure I had everything: wallet, keys, phone, camera, passport, tickets, paperwork, sanity….. sanity…. oh wait, I never had one of those, well…never mind, and off I went into the the cold Boston morning.

I bid the Hotel 140 adieu and trudged through the snow over to the Back Bay station. I lucked out that there was an Oak Grove bound orange train a minute out. the it was 27ºF/-3ºC and I was wearing shorts.

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Typical cold morning in Beantown

Changing to the the blue line at State, it would take me out to Logan. If I wanted to, I could have gone back to South Station and caught the Silver line to the airport too, but the Silver Line really should not be considered part of the subway system as the MBTA does in IMHO. For starters, it’s a hybrid bus, and as soon as you exit the tunnel in Southie, you feel like you spend an hour going around in a circle and waiting 5 minutes at every light which seem to be placed every 20 feet, before finally going back into the tunnel out to the airport.

I always have this fear when ever going to Logan to catch a flight from Logan, that the train will get stuck in the tunnel under the harbor and I miss my plane. As usual, that didn’t happen, but unlike usual, I was there in plenty of time and didn’t have to rush.

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I confirmed on the board that my flight was on time, which it was.

Arriving at terminal C from the free airport shuttle bus, I took notice of the changes since my last visit. As it is that jetBlue took over the whole terminal (Excluding Cape Air), they’ve done a good job of trying to clean and modernize it, but I do kind of miss the old vibe that made you think of the way flying used to be, which I never got to experience , but wish I could.

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Very colorful!

When I first started flying jetBlue, they only used the right hand pier. I loved that I always used to get lucky and never had to wait in a long line to get through security then, and was always through in under 5 minutes. Since they’ve grown and added the central security behind the check in counters, it looks like a line to get on the newest mega ride at a theme park. I however had been given he ‘Even more speed; option which lets you go to an express security lane.

I had to wait inline to drop my back off for about 5 minutes, and even with the express lane, waited about 10 minutes to be screened, but made it through, unscathed.



BOS to LAX

Flight: B6 287
Seat: 17F
Aircraft A320-232
Reg: N794JB
Name: Pretty Fly for a Blue Guy.

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It was a B-E-A-utiful day for flying, well, at least taking off from BOS. Clear blue sky, a gorgeous sunrise, and a nice view of the city across the water.


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Sunrise over the city of Boston and some blue tails (Stupid window glare).

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My ride: N794JB. “Pretty Fly for a Blue Guy” indeed!

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N324JB Heading down to MCO this morning.

Boarding began on time. I, as always on jetBlue, found myself in a comfortable seat, with a nice decent size screen. I’d checked the listing for the free DirecTV channels on offer, but there wasn’t much good on until later in the flight. There would however be free WiFi courtesy of jetBlue Fly-Fi service. This will be my first time flying with any plane so equipped and was curious to see how it worked.

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Loading ops in full swing! Note the ladder for the fueling under the wing.

Pushing back from the gate I saw something that caught my attention? Are those a United tails??? They Are!!! What are they doing here? They have their new home over in Terminal B. I query on a.net explained that their are still some gates controlled by Massport here in Terminal C that they let UA RON in.

I also noted that the barcode tail design seems to be becoming the default design. Including my flight, there were 6 other barcoded tails around.

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First time seeing an A-320 with the new sharklets and who’s the intruder in the background?

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G-VIIG taxing out for departure to LHR

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So along with my bird, there are 3 other barcoded tail designs

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Another sharkleted A-320, N827JB: “It Takes Blue to Tango”, heading down to FLL

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Boston and the harbor in perfect morning light.


Take off was quick and smooth off of runway 4R, which was a nice change as historically I’ve always departed on 22R.

Take off Video:

Once above 10k ft, I tried to access the Fly-Fi system. jetBlue has been offering it for free at a lower bandwidth for free with a small fee for full service, during the beta test period. However, on today's flight, it was fully open at no charge for the whole flight. I believe that as this was one of the premier business routes (Along with BOS-SFO and JFK-LAX/SFO which have the Mint service). At first it wouldn’t connect so I waited 5 minutes then tried again and it worked wonderfully. The speed both in bandwidth and ping times was impressive. Naturally the first thing I did was open FlightRadar24 to compare with inflight map and track our progress while watching TV.

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Yup, I’m on the right flight!

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Ooops

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Us along with all the other B6 Flights that morning. It’s obvious that BOS and JFK are their main bases.


The cabin crew member servicing my section was awesome, I wish I’d gotten his name. He was the tall black guy with big hair. He had a relaxed, friendly, while still being professional, demeanor about him. During the drink run I asked for water and cranberry juice. When he extended his hand to me with two bottles of water, I assumed only one was for me and the other for the gal next to me. When he wouldn’t release them as I grabbed only one, he goes “naw, man, take ‘em both.” Then handed me two cans of cranberry juice. I know their small and I appreciated getting what Americans consider full size servings, especially without asking. When the snack run occurred, I gave me two bags of Doritos. I was a very happy passenger.

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No problem staying hydrated here.

I’d also like to give my thoughts on jetBlue's catering. When compared to other US carriers, I can’t help but be impressed with what they has to offer. For starters, there are the items from the snack basket which are free, and handed out generously (BTW, the Terra Blue chips are excellent! had some on the second snack run later in the flight):

DORITOS® Tortilla Chips
Keebler® Elf Grahams
PopCorners® Popcorn Chips
Skeeter™ Nut-Free Chocolate Chip Cookies
Snyder's® 100 Calorie Pretzels
Terra® Blues Potato Chips

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If you want something a little more substantial, you can get something from the ‘Eat Up boxes”. There are 5 different ones, which are $6 to $7 and change throughout the year.

Currently they are:

The Shake Up box:
Rondele Cheese Spread
KIND Bar Mini — Cranberry Almond
NY Nut Factory Roasted Cashews
Vermont Smoke & Cure BBQ Beef Jerky stick
Stacy's® Pita Chips

The Perk Up box:
Gilman White Cheddar Cheese Stick
Cheez-it Cheddar Cheese Crackers
GoGo Squeez Applesauce — AppleApple
KIND Granola Bar — Oats and Honey
Yum Earth Naturals Fruit Snacks

The Fill Up box:
Field Trip Turkey Jerky
Plain M&M's
PretzelHaus Soft Pretzel
Heritage Spicy Brown Mustard Dip

Cheer Up box:
Trio of Premium Cheeses: Swiss, Cheddar and Smoked Gouda
Almonds
Crackers

The Pump Up box:
Dip-in Hummus — Original
Oloves Olives — Basil Garlic
2 Degrees Snack bar — Chocolate Banana
Mary's Gone Crackers Mulitgrain Crackers
Enlightened Roasted Broad Beans

Now, if that still isn’t enough. On flight from BOS and JFK to LAX, LGB, and SFO, for flight departing before 8:59PM, they also have their Eat Up Cafe which is priced between $3 to $12 and currently has 6 selections

Grilled Chicken and Brie Sandwich - Grilled chicken, brie, arugula and cranberry mustard on a rustic roll, served with a side of fresh fruit.

Kale Salad - Cannellini beans, dried blueberries and cranberries, quinoa and grape tomatoes over chopped kale and spring greens, served with white balsamic vinaigrette.

Veggie Platter - A selection of fresh vegetables including carrots, snap peas, celery, tomatoes, peppers and zucchini with an avocado-Greek yogurt dip.

Sirloin Sandwich - Top sirloin steak, red-wine caramelized onions, white cheddar cheese, spinach and horseradish cream on a rustic roll, served with a side of fresh fruit.

Spicy Soba and Korean-style Chicken - Korean-style grilled chicken and buckwheat soba noodles with sesame-seasoned carrot and cucumber slaw, a hard-boiled egg and spicy chili glaze.

Chobani Outs - Bring some excitement to your breakfast with new Chobani Oats - the Chobani Greek yogurt you love, now blended with gluten-free steel-cut oats and real fruit.

Now on top of all that, if you’re flying on one of their Mint flights, in Mint class you also has access to their Tapas Menu.

IMHO, that’s above and beyond what almost any other airline in the world offers for the Y cabin in terms of variety, and healthy, unique options.

For beverages it was the usual assortment of Coke Products:

Coke® / Diet Coke® / Coke Zero® / Sprite® / Sprite Zero®
Seagram's® Ginger Ale
Seagram's® Seltzer Water
Seagram's® Tonic Water
Ocean Spray® Cranberry Juice Cocktail
Ocean Spray® Orange Juice
Ocean Spray® Apple Juice
Ocean Spray® Pineapple Juice
Campbell's® Tomato Juice
Mr. & Mrs. T® Bloody Mary Mix
Fuze Iced Tea®
Dasani™ Bottled Water

And if you wanted something a wee bit stronger they also have:

Alcoholic beverages ($6 - $9)

Beer
Angry Orchard Hard Cider
Brooklyn Brewery Lager
Bud Light®
Harpoon Brewery UFO White
Heineken®
Samuel Adams® Lager
Spirits
Finlandia® Vodka
Jack Daniel's® Whiskey
Dewar's® White Label®
Bacardi® Rum
Bombay Sapphire® Gin

Wine
Reserve Sainte Cecile Cabernet Sauvignon
Reserve Sainte Cecile Sauvignon Blanc
Segura Viudas Sparkling Wine
Wine pairings
Save 15% with our Cheer Up & wine pairing

Segura Viudas Sparkling Wine
Segura Viudas' handcrafted Brut Cava (Spain's bubbly answer to French Champagne) is nothing less than a party in a bottle. Graced with notes of apples, lemons and a soft, almost creamy effervescence, it's as much fun to drink as it is refreshing to sip.

Reserve Sainte Cecile Cabernet Sauvignon:
A berry-basket of fruit and hint of purple flowers welcomes you as you sniff the wine. In the mouth you'll taste cherries and plum, with an underlying note of cedar and dark chocolate. Fine tannins support all this for a lovely texture and long finish.

Reserve Sainte Cecile Sauvignon Blanc:
Aromas of bright citrus and guava, with a hint of juniper invite you to taste and swirl the wine in your mouth before, reluctantly, swallowing. The wine offers the impression of a bright sunny day, with perfect lemon-line notes and a crisp, green apple finish.



So now that I’ve made my case (and won), I don’t want to hear anyone else poo-pooing my beloved jetBlue offerings again!

*ah-hem*

There were some storms over the midwest that day. The clouds blocked any view of the ground and their was some occasional light chop, all the way until we crossed the Mississippi, then I was treated to some awesome views.

It was also about this time i got a notice that their was a new message on the Facebook group we’d created for planning purposes:

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Lauren being a self admitted bad traveler who quite frankly can be anxious about mundane things in her own home, I knew I’d have to reassure her so I did some quick checking and saw that they had a 1h 45m connection so I figured they should be fine and told her so.

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If you look closely at the google screen capture, at the bottom is says they’re flying from the “Serious Fraud Office”!!!!

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Shortly after, she sent this:

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Still have 45 mins, in theory, they’ll be Okay…..

I sit back, relax and enjoy the rest of my flight watch the scenery as we fly over the Rocky Mountains. I applaud the pilot for making sure to avoid Utah at all costs!

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Mormons be crazy!

I then had wonderful views of the Grand Canyon, and then David Dam on the Colorado River, and Laughlin/Bullhead International Airport ( IFP ).

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It started to get hazy again as we cruised over California, Appropriately enough I had just enough time to catch an episode of the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Aire’ before landing.

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On landing I decided to try out my new GoPro Hero 3+ to film the landing, which was on 24R. You can see if the video the infamous in-n-out burger.


Arriving in terminal 3, I took a moment to look around. I’m perplexed why people say it’s a dump. I’ve been in terminal 1 about 7 year ago and at least in the baggage claim area it certainly needed some work, and Terminal 4 isn’t too bad if not for lack of adequate seating.

It was a little too early for lunch and I needed to charge my phone, so I walked over to the Tom Bradley International Terminal (TBIT) which was right next door.

Since the previous April, I’d been following the progress of the TBIT renovation and expansion online. While the new concourse area had been open for almost a year only the west side gates had been in use as the Southside gates had been blocked by the old concourse area, however the South east gates had been opened just a few weeks prior. the other big remaining piece of the project was the finalizing of the check in and security hall.

As Check-in for my next flight (Which I’m not revealing ’til part 3) didn’t open till the evening, I searched around to find an outlet to plug my phone into and take a seat for a bit.

Finally finding one on the arrival level, north side, by the bathrooms, I decided to check on Dave and Laurens progress.

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…. 14 minutes to connect……

I then used the FB discussion to relay to Chris that if they don’t make their flight, we’d just stay another night in the Hostel that he was already at in Auckland and wait for them to catch up.

I then went out and caught the shuttle van to the Parking Spot…… wait….what??????

For those of you who have not been to LAX, or have never had the opportunity to go to the afore mentioned spotting hill and In-n-Out burger, here’s a little trick (Or “Hack” if you will). Go and catch the Parking Spot courtesy shuttle to Sepulveda (BEWARE: They have two locations so make sure you get on the Sepulveda one). Upon arriving at the garage, tip the driver a few bucks (i.e. pay them off for their silence, ha ha) and walk to the other side of the office and on the back wall you’ll see this.

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Go through and grab yourself a burger (or two) and walk across the street (Caution, there’s usually a mile long trail of cars at the drive through, don’t get hit). If you’re like me and happen to have a camp chair with you, get that sucker out and enjoy your burger with the best sites around!

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Yours truly

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Doesn’t everyone travel with a camp chair?

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Yes, I did eat two of these double patty burgers! Carpe Diem!

The weather was decent for spotting. The overcast skies kept the temperature comfortable.

This is what it’s all about:


About 4:30 it was starting to get dark out, so I packed up my stuff and took the courtesy shuttle back to TBIT (again, paying there driver off that he didn’t see anything), and waited to check in.


Coming up in Part 3: Find out what airline will take be down under, will Dave and Lauren make their flight???, and temporary security area bogglement!!! Stay tuned!!!!!!

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How the heck do you get the camp chair through security?? :D:D

Enjoying the detail in the report so far. What's the deal with Utah?

Camping chair to spot planes on a layover. That is already an epic trip by itself.

Next time at the Parking Spot, go to the roof. Planes fly right over it and you have a great view of the runway.

I mainly brought it for when we were camping later in the trip. I purposely went to Bass Pro Shop and got the lightest and shortest one that'd fit in my rolling duffel that was my checked bag.

Ha ha, I have no idea. Chris lived in Salt Lake City for several years and jokingly always told me to avoid Utah at all costs so i wanted him to see the pilot agrees with him.

D'oh, I never thought of going up there. I'll remember that for next time.

Part 3: Let's do the time warp again!
 

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So here are the flights that I have to choose from for the next phase of my journey, wonder which one I’ll choose. Although I’m sure I won’t be taking the Great Lakes to Prescott.


So last time I left you, having just returned to TBIT after a day of plane spotting and was about to tell which airline I had selected for the remainder of the trip..BUT…. before I do that, let me back up a bit, say about 8 months prior:

As I mentioned in part 1, I wanted go with carriers that were unique and not “obvious” such as my traveling companions UA/NZ combo. I wanted something a wee bit more exotic. I of course didn’t want to blow my whole budget on airfare either.

What I haven’t mentioned yet is that there were two other things I have really wanted to do for a long time that I wanted to see if I could work into this trip. The first is fly on a 777-300ER. I’ve had an obsession with the 77W ever since it launched, and why not, with those über impressive GE90-115B engines with their sexy fan blades that could literally knock my socks (and bit more) clean off. The second was to rack up some decent air miles that I might be able to use for more adventures in the future, but I wanted them to be redeemable on a good carrier too.

I never had any intentions to do a RTW trip, and figured logistics and costs would dictate flying NZ across the Pacific and back.

Also around this time, EK had just started service to BOS with the 777-200LR.

Although low priority, and assuming it’d be completely impractical for this trip, I decided to take a look to see what an EK BOS to AKL and return trip would costs. To my surprise it was actually very reasonable.

Thinking it might just be crazy enough, I studied the details and saw there’d be an 18hr layover in DXB with hotel provided by EK.

As all New Zealand EK flights stop in Australia enroute too, it would allow me to check off visiting Australia from my bucket list as well. Only problem, no 77W. I was just about to go for this option figuring the 77L was close enough, but then decided to hold off as Dave and Lauren hadn’t figured out their flight plans quite yet.

But I couldn’t get the idea of stopping in Australia and Dubai out of my mind. A few weeks later, at one of our planning meetings we decided that to maximize our time in New Zealand, we’d look into flying out of Christchurch on the way home to avoid going all the way back up to Auckland. Getting home from the meeting, I plugged that into the EK website and huzzah! CHC to SYD is operated by the 77W! Yay!

However, when I talked to the group the next day and told them that I was going to buy this routing, they said they were rethinking the CHC idea and thought it’d be better if we went back to leaving from AKL……dang it. So it was back to waiting for the others to solidify their flight plans first.

By the time they did buy their tickets a few more weeks later, the cost of flying round trip on EK was out of my league and I had to let it go. Shame too because EK had just upgraded their BOS flight to the 77W :( :td: :mad: .

But don’t cry for me fellow travelers, for I’d come up with a new crazy plan *Muhahahahahaha*, The question still remained though, how would I get to AKL?

Still not content to simply fly NZ, I looked at all the other carriers that traverse the Pacific and could get me to the “land of the long white cloud”. That’s when I came across another carrier I’d wondered about for a while.

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Having recently been known as Air Pacific, flying 747’s with bright rainbow tails. They’d gone through a full re-branding and product upgrade less then a year before. Changing (reverting actually) their name to Fiji Airways, adopting a beautiful Masi corporate logo, and replacing their 747-400s with
A330-200s

Now I hear you say “But Jeff, didn’t you want to fly a 77W and earn points that could be redeemed on B6 or to go to other international destinations?”. Yes, yes I did, but they won big time in the one area i just simply couldn’t ignore: price!

At an all fees included fare of $576.10 USD to get from LAX to AKL, I’d be mad not to take them. This of course was a super special saver sale fare.

The booking engine on fijiairways.com is simple and straight forward like any good, modern airline site should be. Also like any good and proper airline, they allowed me to choose my seats at booking for no additional fee.

I had my choice of either a 3h 45m layover or a 10h 10m layover. I decided to go with he latter for a few reasons: The first being that if the first flight was delayed, I’d have enough of a buffer to make my connecting flight. I’d read a few reviews stating how FJ takes their slogan “You’re on Fiji time to heart, meaning flights can be delayed and reshuffled frequently. Despite this, the cost of the ticket was worth the risk.

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The second being that this will be my first time flying true long haul, I wanted to give myself a break and rest so I could hit the ground running in AKL. Even better, the Raffles Gateway Hotel, which is in walking distance across the street from Nadi Airport, allows transit passengers to use their pool and showers for free and had acceptable day rates for rooms should I wish to take a nap too.

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So that was my plan: fly LAX-NAN, spend the day at the Raffles Hotel sipping a cocktail or two by the pool, and bragging to my friends back home by updating my Facebook which pictures of me lounging there with comments such as “Ugh, worst layover ever, they put way to much booze in my drink”, etc.

I held onto the dream right up until 48 hrs before I left home when I received an e-mail from FJ simply with the subject “Travel Document”. It came as just plain text with no fancy formatting as most e-mails from companies are noadays. It literally looked like this:


At first glance I didn’t think anything of it and assumed it was a low key flight reminder, But there was something about it that seemed off. So I read through it again more carefully, then I noticed what it said at the bottom:

My Flight from NAN to AKL was delayed and wouldn’t be arriving in AKL until 10:35PM!!! The original plan was for them to arrive few hours before me to pick up the campervan and get supplies then pick me up when i arrived. As it was still two days before departure and not having any inkling of the possibility of them not making their own flight yet, I couldn’t ask them to wait around ’til then for me. They’d be exhausted from their own day of traveling. Furthermore, we had big plans for the next day and would want to get a good nights sleep after flying half way around the globe.

Having purchased non refundable holiday-fare tickets, I wasn’t hopeful as I called the FJ reservation line to see if I could be put on the earlier NAN - AKL flight.

The call went right through to the FJ call center. I explained to the friendly lady who answered that I had plans and asked if I could be moved the earlier flight. At first she said there’d be a fee and the fare cost difference, but I replied that as they’d changed the flight and didn’t specify that it was due to weather, to see if they could help me out. She asked me to wait a moment and set down the phone - not put on hold, just physically set it down so I could hear the back ground on the otherside. While I waited for her to come back on the line, I could hear other ladies in the call center gabbing and laughing to each other. That didn’t bode well for me in my mind and I was sure she’d come back on to say I had to pay the fee, and I just got spare that and do the trip too. It seemed like an eternity until she did…. “Okay Sir, You’ve been rebooked on the earlier flight. Is there anything I can assist you with?”. I was in shock. I thanked her and hung up. On a holiday class fare I’d changed to a different flight without any yelling, arguing, or threats. Wow, bravo FJ!

So while I was a bit bummed I wouldn’t have the opportunity to brag to my friends back home about sipping drinks by the pool, I could still say I was in Fiji.


——
Now back to where I was before the backstory:
——

I had just returned to TBIT after plane spotting at In-N-Out.

The FJ check in counters would be in aisle ‘A’ this evening, opening at 5PM. I got out my camp chair again and set it up in the tension barrier aisle leading to the FJ Check-in desks. There were already about 8 parties ahead of me. While I waited, I got two more “Travel Document” E-Mails from FJ. I heard the *ding* alerts from phones of those around me too. “That’s not good” I thought.

Opening the E-Mails, I saw that now my flight to NAN would be delayed by 1.5 hours and my flight to AKL would be delayed by an hour. Yup, it was official, I was on “Fiji time” alright. As it was not looking good for Dave and Lauren making their connection, I didn’t worry too much and thought I might actually get there before them still if they didn't make their flight.

3 minutes before 5, the staff came out of the back room and opened the stations. They did have to call airport ops as the background screens initially remaining on the default LAX logo, but ops, got the Fiji Airways displays up in quick order.

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They had one staff member doing a precheck of passengers documents while they stood in line wait to be called forward. Having gotten into the queue early, I didn’t have to wait long. I was given boarding passes for both sectors and my bag was checked all the way through to AKL. The gal serving me pointed out the gate and said that it would be a bus gate so boarding would start early, so please be int he boarding area early. I was thrilled by this as I’ve always wanted to use LAX’s remote gates at least once. I know there’s nothing fancy about them, I assume on the inside there’s a stairs/escalator/elevator(s) from the bus level up to the boarding bridge and probably a small waiting area too, but I’d still like to see them.

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Still has some old stock baggage claim stickers

As I also mentioned before, TBIT is currently undergoing renovations. As part of this means opening up a new large central security screening pavilion where the concessions used to be up on the mezzanine level, the whole back wall of the check in hall has a massive construction tarp covering everything from floor to ceiling, side to side.

Perviously there where two separate security checkpoints, one on the north side and one on the south. With the demolition of the old south side gates, LAX new the north checkpoint would be overwhelmed when things were busy, So they opened up an temporary overflow checkpoint, underneath the mezzanine level. I’d heard horror stories of the wait times at TBIT security and was dreading the experience. However, nobody was using the overflow area when I got there, all the officers were just standing around waiting for something to do. I was delighted and went from check-in to post security in under 5 minutes!

By the time I got into the concourse, the sun had set making spotting difficult, that was OK, because there were many big, unique planes all right in front of me. I also noticed that the info board said we’d be departing from a different gate then what the agent was said. I wasn’t sure if that was old information or new and would have to be vigilant and make sure I was at the right one at the right time, hoping it’d still be the bus gates.

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TC-JJL “Karadeniz” loading up to IST

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First time I’ve had a chance to see a A-380 up close (Couldn’t see the reg)

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HB-JMG “Luzern” loading up to ZRH

I’d done my research carefully of all the restaurants in TBIT and had made a game plan weeks ago about what I was going to do while waiting to board.

As I didn’t know how the catering on FJ was going to be like, but assumed I’d be hungry, and wanted to be prepared. I decided I’d get some sandwiches to go from Marmalade Cafe and some cupcakes from Vanilla bakery to take on board with me. Unfortunately, Marmalade was sold out of all 3 of the sandwiches I wanted and only had the premade ones in the salad case. So about 30 mins before boarding, I went back and grabbed the last Caesar Chicken wrap they had. I was able to score a Cookies and Cream cupcake.


As the boarding time got closer, the PR flight to MNL was still at gate 130, and although it was boarding, I assumed that it wouldn’t depart in time for us to use the gate, and we were still a go for the bus gates, so I made my way down there. To get to the bus gates you have to go into the far end of the old north concourse before going back into the bus gate building. Getting a chance to see the old concourse, I can see why people didn’t like it as there was no room for any post security shops or concessions. I had to chuckle as it seems NZ, who just moved their ops to TBIT from Terminal 2, has taken it over all to themselves as all of there flights were boarding from there that night. Maybe I should stand in line and see if I can sneak on, ha ha.

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All the seating from he old concourse are being stored down here. No fighting for seating here.

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Hanging out above the bus gates, watching the NZ flights board while I charge my gizmos

I sat down in the upper level of the waiting area and plugged phone in again to charge. Soon after a man came over to me and asked if I was on the FJ flight, replying int he positive he informed me that we would be boarding from gate 130 after all. Getting back to Gate 130, I could see that the PR flight had left and our plane had taken its place.

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DQ-FJU “Island Of Namukalau” My ride across the Pacific

Boarding began right at 11:15PM. With the delay, most people were anxious to get onboard but the gate area is large enough that it didn’t feel like a mosh pit and it was still a civilized affair.

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FJ 811
A 330-200 (RR)
DQ-FJU
LAX-NAN
Seat 29K


I really like the interior color choice FJ has, warm and colorful.

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Plenty of leg room and the seat itself was comfortable

I lucked out having no one on the aisle.

The seat had all the modern amenities, including power and USB. decent legroom, with good size widescreen. A pillow and blanket with waiting at every seat.

I concede I’ve always been a Boeing fan boy, but I couldn’t but help but like the A-330, equipped with RR engines, the take off power reminded me of a 757 doing a full thrust take off. Yeeeeee ha!


Being almost 4AM on my native time zone I was exhausted, but was hungry having not eaten anything since In-N-Out and wanted to at least make it though the dinner service. I debated munching down on the sandwich I’d grabbed earlier, but decided to see what was on offer first.

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I had come across this video of Local Fijian news show called ‘Business Talk which had the whole segment about FJs overhaul of there catering offering. I wanted to see if it measured up to the hype.



Well, I have to say, it didn’t disappoint.

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This was a beef in gravy, kinda like pot roast, with buttered mashed potatoes and root vegetables. The veggies were a little on the under done side, but obviously fresh and very nice. The only constructive criticism is the flight galley had been a little heavy handed with the butter in the potatoes. A coleslaw style salad, cheese with cracker, roll with butter, and a Kitkat bar. I was very happy with it.

After a post dinner tea/coffee service, the dinnerware was collected and the mood lighting program began to dim the cabin to almost complete darkness. I popped off my shoes, took a melanin, and fell asleep.

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Soon after post passengers turned off the reading lights, and went to sleep.

I woke up after about 5 hours. It was still almost pitch back in the plane, except for the folks who got up to use the loo which broke to wonderful darkness with a piecing bright light.

The thrill of travel hit my as I looked out my window at the moon reflecting on the vast expanse of the Pacific below me.

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My poor attempt to capture the moonlight reflecting of a brief period of clouds

Now wide awake, I took this opportunity to see what the IFE had in store and was happy to see a large selection of TV shows and Movies. I watched a few episodes of ‘Big BangTheory’ and ‘Modern Family’. Then put on ‘The Hundred foot journey’ which I thought was rather good.

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About 3 hrs out of NAN the cabin lights slowly came up and the breakfast service started. As it was scrambled eggs, and I’m odd as I don’t care for plain eggs, I declined and had the chicken wrap I’d brought, with the cupcake for dessert.

Once the 2nd meal service was completed the cabin was then returned to darkness for those who wanted to nap a bit more.

It was somewhere around there that we crossed the equator and then shortly after the International Date Line…. Saturday December 6, 2014 was the shortest day in my life, and I slept through most of it! :D

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For the second time 48 hrs I was being treated to a beautiful sun rise.

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We approached Fiji from the northeast passing between Mololo (Plantation) Island and Momi, before making a 180 to the left to line up with NAN’s Rwy 02.

Touchdown was very smooth, tranquil almost.

The cabin crew bid us good morning, welcomed to their island home, thanked us for flying with Fiji Airways, and wished us happy holidays.

Landing in NAN:
NAN has a wonderful design that each jetway is connected to what can best be described as a wrap around porch or patio that one must walk along to get to and from inside terminal. Upon entering the building, we went down a long blank corridor where at the end transfer passengers where directed to the left for the transfer lounge and the rest to the right for customs. As this was my first port of call, I went right as I wanted to pick up a sim card so I could let the folks back home know where I was. The customs desk was a very low key setup. It almost looked like, if I wanted to, I could have walked right past it down to the baggage claim. Only a handful of people were inline and I only waited about 15 minutes to be stamped into the country. I made my way town into the arrivals hall and went straight to the Vodaphone kiosk.

As I only had a little over an hour before my flight to AKL would board, and there wasn’t anything else around to see, I decided I might as well exit the county again and wait for my flight. To do so I had to exit the building and walk about 2/3 back to the international departure section. In the short time I’d been inside since walking off the plane,it’d become oppressively hotting muggy outside (think south Florida in the everglades in mid summer). In the short distance My shirt was almost drenched in sweat.

Needless to say, the the customs officers where caught off guard why I was leaving so soon after arriving, I’d only been “in” the country for 25 minutes! They were satisfied with my explanation of buying a sim card and wished me a pleasant onward journey.

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The very first stamps in my passport documenting my time in Fiji

I had done some research before coming and from this site: http://loungeindex.com/Oceania/Fiji/NAN/index.htm

I had expectations of a large sunlit waiting area with plenty of shops around. nbeknownst to me, NAN was undergoing an almost complete remodel of the terminal. As such, what I believe was a temporary, windowless waiting room was in use. Only one of the duty free shops was open, the others closed for the renovation, but it didn’t have anything that peaked my interest. On one wall of the waiting area was a long twisting corridor that took you down to a small cafe (It’s was the Cafe International that use see a picture of at the bottom at the above site) in which I bought a bottle of water from (Yes, it was the square Fiji water). I’m glad I had gotten the sim card to surf the internet has the waiting room was only slightly better then outside and I would have gone mad without a distraction in the stuffy windowless space.

However it did let me reflect of the conversation between Rimmer and Lester, and Lester’s Farm he’ll build on Fiji, wearing a green hat.

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Here’s a panorama short of the windowless waiting area.

After what felt like an eternity, My flight to AKL was called and the security guard blocking the escalator up to gate level finally let me past.

After going through another blank wall corridor which I now recognized as temporary construction walls, I came to an intersection where passengers from he transfer lounge joined the scrum. at the end we exited out onto the afore mentioned porch, this time on the other side from where my LAX plane arrived.

FJ 411
NAN - AKL
737-800
DQ-FJM
Seat 16E

I took a moment to take a picture of the view.

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My ride to AKL

I saw a fellow passenger, a big Pacific Islander guy also take a picture of our plane too. In an attempt to be friendly, I spoke up and said, “Ah, a fellow airplane photographer”. He just glanced at me without saying a word, but he didn’t need to , the look said everything: “Damn silly foreigner”.

As I had switched to the earlier earlier flight, I had to relinquish my coveted window seat for the ..... seat in the middle. Arriving at my row, the aisle passenger was already there, another muscular local gent. I suddenly found myself in what I call the ..... passengers dilemma, which is when you’re assigned the middle seat and one seat next to you is open, but other isn’t and you wait in the ..... seat, uncomfortably close to your seat mate, while the other seat remains empty, silently praying it remains vacant so you can move over. When it seemed like boarding was done, I figured we were safe, and went and moved myself over to the window seat thanking the traveling gods for their mercy. No sooner had I done this of course that the last passenger on board, shows up and it was the window guy, yet another tall athletic Fijian. As the aisle guy got up to let him in, I asked the new arrival “Would you mind terribly if I took the window seat?” he looked at me like I had suggested he strip naked and do the hula. “Sorry, had to ask” I said, as I let him in and resigned myself to being the ..... in the middle.

There were no there planes around the ramp just like when I had arrived. The airport was so quite in terms of activity, and the craw and passengers very relaxed it didn’t feel like any other flight I’d ever been on. A very hard sensation to describe.

With no other traffic around, we took of as soon as we reached the runway.

Window seat guy feel asleep soon after take off. And some local tv show was being shown on the flip down screens. I elected listen to music from my iPhone. The meal service started soon after, this time going for the chicken option. The flight attenuated asked me to put a chicken meal on sleeping window guys tray for him.

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Chicken with rice, coleslaw style salad, and biscuit (cookie).

The flight was smooth the whole way and the excitement was building to burst point knowing I’d actually be in New Zealand soon.

15 minutes before landing, duty free sales commenced and window guy stirred awake. His lunch still sitting his tray untouched. After placing his duty free order in what I assume was Fijian. he finally opened and started eating his meal.

About five minutes ’till touchdown, the pilot came on the intercom to welcome us, but it was like no welcome message I’d overheard before. I wish I had recorded it. It was upbeat, cheerful and long. It went something along the lines of “Ladies and Gentlemen, momentarily our trip across the sea will be over, from the land of smiles to the land of the long white cloud, and although our team complete on the rugby pitch, despite some transplants from our side (This must be a local joke because most of the plane laughed at this), it is our great pleasure to welcome you to Auckland”.

Seeing so many athletic looking guys getting of the flight, and the rugby comment the pilot made, I think I may have been flying with on of the Fijian Rugby unions.

I was in awe of myself that I had actually made it to New Zealand.

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Once again, I lucked out arriving at customs as we were the only flight arriving at that time and all the agents were free and I only had to wait for one person ahead of me, and I went from plane to arrival hall in under 15 minutes. :D ^

Entering into the arrival hall, Chris, Dave and Lauren were waiting for me. Dave and Lauren having miraculously made their connection in SFO (Yayyy!).

They made me stand for a photo in front of this "native" statue before they’d let me leave and recounted the tale of the trouble they’d had getting the camper van as the first one died on them in the middle of the highway.

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Chris warned me to look the opposite way when ever crossing the street and be careful as unlike in the U.S. pedestrians don’t have the right of way and N.Z. Drivers are crazy. He ended up having to remind me of this constantly throughout the trip, and there were a few close calls.

I stowed my gear in the camper van, climbed inside, and we were off on the two week adventure of a life time!






Join me again in part 4 where I’ll go over the highlights of the trip and give a rare helicopter trip report.

This is a great debut, hoping we'll see some more! I had never head of Fijian airways, so certainly didn't predict that routing. And you definitely get bonus marks for the camping chair.

+ 1

Nice report, keep it coming...

As an expat living in Fiji for 15 yrs now, I enjoyed reading your trip report about the beginning of your trip LAX - NAN. I also will have to try the In & Out burger you talked about....never knew you could do this! I, too, enjoy the plane spotting at LAX and have so far photographed 12 different A380s as well as seeing such exotic planes as an Aeroflot taking off! Too bad you didn't have time to take advantage of seeing more of our beautiful Fiji. Fiji Airways usually offers a "stopover" for $100 good for many weeks around Fiji before you continue onto your destination, last I heard.