And We're off

We’ve arrived in Brisbane! Right now it seems rather unreal. I admit I totally underestimated jetlag. It’s 9:20 pm and Leah is sleeping. I just woke up from a six hour nap and I didn’t really think I needed one.

The flights were great. We were both a bit nervous about sitting for so long but really it was a breeze. Air New Zealand really knows how to take care of people. Our seats though a bit small were very comfortable. They reclined just a bit farther than other seats I’ve had on domestic flights and it made a huge difference in comfort. Each seat was equipped with a nice video screen with tons of on demand movies, music, TV shows and video games. Leah and I both watched a movie before sleeping and attempted to watch another until the valium kicked in and we crashed for about 8 hours. We were woken up about three in the morning and fed a nice breakfast and arrived in Auckland about 5. The turnaround was pretty quick we boarded the last flight at 6 with just enough time to buy a small box of cold medicine for Leah costing us $18.25 US. Seems airports are the same worldwide.

The flight to Brissie was about three hours again on Air New Zealand this time on a smaller plane. There were still tons of entertainment options and I watched another movie before we arrived. We landed at 6:30 am local time on November 11^th. You lose that day crossing the International Date Line. Though we’ve been promised we can have it back on the way home.

Aside from waiting in line for an hour customs was a smooth process, hauling our bikes around was kind of a pain. The boxes are huge and unwieldy. Speaking of our bikes, I should mention the pain in the ass they were in Chicago. In order to check a large item like a bike you have to go to a special check in counter, you know, the one that doesn’t have anyone manning it. So we waited for almost an hour until a porter took pity on us and went to get someone to help us out. Then to our surprise the guy tells us it’ll be $400 for each bike. Four Times as much as we expected. His story is, each bike charge is $100 we have to pay that twice, because United gets a $100 and Air New Zealand gets $100 ok fine we say, $200 each double but still somewhat reasonable. But wait, there’s more, each bike is also a third checked piece of luggage that carries a $100 charge, doubled of course because United and ANZ each need a cut. That brings it up to $400 each bike when added to the $50 each we paid to have them packed brings makes the cost of bringing our bikes a lot less attractive.

And then Leah was great, she argued with the guy (who called her Baby Girl btw) until he dropped the charges for the third checked piece and only charged us $200 each (that was still $100 more than we were told but what the hell we’re here now). The United guy was convinced that we would be stopped by ANZ in San Francisco and charged again but, of course, ANZ knew what they were doing and we got through.

Back on track, we skated through customs easily, and as soon as we made our way out we found our driver holding a UQ sign. Our driver was a real hoot, I failed to catch her name, but she was a really funny Sheila. Kind of like your grandmother if she was a standup comedian. She gave us the lowdown on Brissie as we drove to our hotel. My immediate impression was good. It’s humid and hot and the weather feels very much like Mexico.

We got to the Regis Park North Quay (pronounced key) about 9:30 and check in wasn’t till 2:00pm so we stashed our stuff in a store room and set off to explore the town. The hotel is located just to the South West of the CBD (Central Business District) and right across the river from the museum district. (BTW the view at night is really beautiful; I’ll try and post pictures soon.) We walked our butts off for a couple of hours. Today is Veterans Day in the US but I didn’t realize they also celebrate it here only they call it Remembrance Day, but everyone is wearing a poppy just like in the states. So we made our way to the CBD and checked out our new home. Brisbane feels a lot like Denver, laid back and cool. We walked right into a farmer’s market with a ton of fresh items from local growers. CBD was bustling and busy, it was really exciting to see.

We checked out the shopping (not all that different from the states) and restaurants (there are a ton of Sushi bars everywhere, it’s great) you can get a hand roll for less than $2. We grabbed some lunch and had a beer. Then we made our way back to the Hotel about 1:30. After a shower (GLORIOUS!) Leah laid down (for a couple of minutes!) and I checked out what was on the TV. I watched my first cricket on TV. I think I’ll like it.

I lay down to catch a few minutes and didn’t open my eyes for seven hours.

Tomorrow we’re going to try and get the bikes put back together and find ourselves a place to stay.

We did manage to Skype our parents. The internet connection here isn’t all that great, you have to pay by the hour and I think the proxy screws with our picture. If you want to chat with us get Skype set up and our Skype name is todd.gretencord (wow, I know)

A couple of quick things that stood out to us as we walked around.

- The $2 Australian coin is a little smaller than a US nickel and the $.20 (twenty cents) is larger than a US half dollar.

-Beer is expensive, $17AU a six pack

-about TV, the first three channels I checked had sports on.

-Not a single Aussie said G’day to us, not one!