Phew! What a day.

Got ~ 4 hours of sleep. The cab people, even after calling them 2 days in advance and requesting a van because of the size of my box, sent a car. So we had to wrestle and manhandle it into the trunk. Daytona airport, as always, was a pleasure to fly out of. There were no lines at all. My box was three and a half pounds over the limit (70 lbs) and Delta actually made me repack it. So I made a show of moving stuff around and got it down to 71.5 and they were happy. Still doesn’t beat the time we were atleast 10-15 pounds over the limit and Lisandro propped up the scale with his foot and the scale showed that we were under the limit.

Raytheon (the company contracted to provide logistic support for the National Science Foundation) sure know how to take care of their own. I was on a first class ticket to Atalnta. Not that it mattered much, the flight was only 1 hour long. I remember last time I went down to Antarctica, they flew me first class from Atlanta to Los Angeles. I asked Dr Azeem (assistant director of SPRL, and on the same flight on his way to a conference in San Francisco) about it, and he said it was cheaper for Raytheon to buy a block of first class tickets than coach tickets. It makes no sense to me but I am not complaining! In Atl, after grabbing lunch with Dr Azeem, I got a pleasant surprise when, boarding the flight to Los Angeles, I got bumped to first class again. First class is pretty sweet. When the peeps in coach we eating peanuts and orange juice, I was throwing down a hot meal of some chicken dish. The flight attendants hovered around incessantly. The seats were almost as comfortable as a sofa. Plus, I had my own video screen with a huge selection of movies. I’d planned to sleep on the leg to LA but I figured that would be a waste of my time in first class hehehe…don’t know the next time I’ll be up here again…

Man, I thought Atlanta was a maze of an airport, but it turns out LAX is even worse. It was large, crowded and dirty. I was so glad I did not have to reclaim and check my bags again, like I did last time. Otherwise, I doubt I’d have made my flight. Either way, the Qantas flight to Auckland was delayed and did not leave until almost 10 p.m (scheduled departure was 8:30) . Met up with Dr Mcewen, a long time friend and associate of Dr Sivjee, who teaches in Saskatchewan, Canada, and who was going down to Pole with me. Stephen, the other guy from SPRL who is going down, was not able to get a flight until Dec 17^th, by which time I should be getting to Pole. We share lab space at Pole with Dr Mcewen, and collaborate on a lot of experiments.

I was able to get some decent sleep on the airplane. I was in coach, in more familiar surroundings lol. Atleast I had a window. The couple next to me got switched to an exit row and I was happy because I thought I was gonna have the whole row to myself so I could stretch out and lie down but some lady had to come and take the aisle seat! No worries though, I still managed to sleep about 8 of the 13 hours, and the other 5 I was either eating or watching a movie, so the flight wasn't that bad after all. I was right above the wing and was once again awed by the size of the 747 wing. It is huge! It is also quite scary looking at the wing flexing and the wingtips bouncing up and down in the wind.

I was kind of bleary eyed when they woke us up for breakfast, but it was worth it: the sunrise over the pacific was incredible!! The sky was a riot of reds and purples and yellows, all floating on a billowing sea of puffy white clouds. Sometimes its almost worth flying just for the views you get of the sky (and earth) from up top.

I don't know where they trained those Qantas pilots, but boy they set that 747 down as light as a feather in Auckland. I had less than two hours to claim my bags, go through customs (always a nightmare with all the equipment we carry), and check in for the next flight to CHC (Christchurch), so I was all booking from the plane and all, but it turns out I would ahve been better off taking my sweet time: they lost my bags somewhere between Atlanta and Auckland!!! Wow. Talk about a sinking feeling! I think I'll continue this tomorrow, seeing as this entry is getting kind of long. Plus I have to go downtown and get some food...

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Flight times: DAB to ATL: 1 hr, ATL to LAX: 5 hr, LAX to AUC: 13 hr, AUK to CHC: 1:30, total time including transits, 29 hours