Day 1: Travel Day

Sunday, 04 July, 2004 by Cheryl W. Colan

We’re all thinking of a “Word of the Day” to encapsulate our experience of each day of our journey. I don’t know what the group word will be for this day, but personally, my word is packed.

The day started when I unpacked and repacked my duffel bag in order to accommodate a little more stuff. Then I packed my duffel and backpack through the airport, packed my backpack everywhere we went, and was myself packed like a sardine into two different airplanes on the various legs of the trip to Brisbane.

We are two-thirds of the way finished in terms of travel time, I believe, though I could be wrong. We are waiting at gate 5 in the Auckland airport for our three hour flight to Brisbane. From there we will need to bus it three hours north to the Korrawinga community after first clearing customs.

Our travel day included crossing both the equator and the date line, so I’ve skipped the date of July 3 entirely and moved directly to July 4. Our connections have been relatively seamless though we have experienced some delays due to fog in Los Angeles. I’d have thought fog wouldn’t be much different than the rampant pollution in L.A., but it was enough to keep us sitting on the runway for an extra forty minutes.

Here in Auckland, we have avoided the necessity of going through New Zealand Customs because our connecting flight leaves from the same gate at which we arrived. But we were tested with regard to social customs when I attempted to purchase a coffee with milk, referred to here as a “flat white.” I got a double shot cappuccino instead, along with some very pretty New Zealand currency. Look for it in the rotating travel ephemera at the top of the page.

With ten minutes until boarding, it’s time to get packed again …