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DAY 138

Week 20

WELLINGTON (Wellington, NZ) to TOWNSVILLE (Queensland, AUS)
via BRISBANE (Queensland, AUS)

Sunday November 5, 2006, 2006

TODAYS MILEAGE – 2261 miles or 3639 kilometres

TRIP MILEAGE – 2261 miles or 3639 kilometres

Time to head across the ditch to the Big Island!!!

The plan was to head out of the Golden Oldies Closing Ceremony & Celebrations nice and early in order to hit the fart sack for my 3AM wake up, to make my 6AM flight to Brisbane (Australia). I got out of the Closing Ceremony early enough, but the Gillette Tri–Nations rugby league Test match between Australia and Great Britain came on at around 10PM. Wanna guess who stayed up until after midnight to watch the Aussie's get done???

I was up at 3AM and out the door of the hotel by 4AM to share a 10 minute shuttle bus ride with fellow Alice Springs Dingoes – Greg and George, only to find that the Wellington International Airport doesn't even think about opening it's doors until 4:30ish. Air New Zealand open their check in around 4:50AM. I was well & truly awake at 4:51AM when the check-in chick held her hand out for $250.00 for excess baggage.

Holy snappin' duck shit was my initial reaction. It seems that Air New Zealand has a strict 20 kilogram (44 pounds) baggage allowance, which just so happens to be the weight of my lightest bag. The second bag weighed in at 25 kilograms (55 pounds) which drew the $10 per kilogram charge. It was only after I explained to the counter staff that I was flying on a United Airlines code share itinerary and that they have a 62 kilogram (137 pounds) trans–Pacific allowance, that they begrudgingly removed the excess baggage fees.

A quick question sports fans – who out there trots around to the other side of the globe, for 7 weeks, with less than 20 kilograms (44 pounds) of clothing and personal effects???

The 2513 kilometre (1562 mile) flight from Wellington (New Zealand) to Brisbane (Queensland, Australia) took just on 3½ hours of all ocean view travel. Luckily, for us the scheduled non–stop flight as as advertised and we got in at 7:30AM local time ..... without any stops.

Ah ... the excess baggage charges didn't take long to raise it's ugly head again. I was still United Airlines code sharing (via the Star Alliance) on my 1341 kilometre (833 miles) Brisbane (Queensland) to Townsville (Queensland) leg of the journey — on Virgin Blue, a local carrier.

It was the same 20 kilograms (44 pounds) limit, but because United Airlines booked this leg of the flight on Virgin Blue through Air New Zealand and Virgin Blue is not a direct partner with Air New Zealand, then I had to fork out $100.00 to make sure my budgie snugglers (underpants) and Taiwanese safety boots (thongs) made the 1114 kilometres (692 miles) flight to Townsville with me.

Anyways, after hanging around Brisbane Airport for the best part of 7 hours, I was in the air for only 2 hours before Fluxy whisked me away to the tropical oasis that he and his better half Sonia have created with a pool AND a well stocked beer fridge.

'Nuff said, I'll be takin' a dip and'll be blowin' the froth off a couple of coldies right about now!!!

Time for y'all to bugger off!!!