Not a great start to the US portion of the trip.
1. At check in, found that Gazman and I were assigned the middle two seats of the 4 in the middle of the aircraft. If you're as tall as Gazman, that means serious knee injury when the seat in front decides to recline. Forgot to remove my Leatherman pocketknife from my backpack (been taking it along for the various hiking trips) so it got confiscated at security. Then the Qantas flight was delayed by an hour and there was no place to sit at the departure gates.
2. The in-flight entertainment selection was excellent - included most of the oscar nominated films, however it broke down halfway through the flight. Thankfully, there was only one incident of comedy clambering over fast asleep occupant of aisle seat to go to toilet. However, the Qantas flight didn't make up any time in the air, due to quite a lot of turbulence over the Pacific (first time I think I've crossed that ocean) so I ended up missing my connecting flight to Denver and had to wait at least an extra 3.5 hours at Los Angeles International Aiport before I could get on the next flight. And I was only on standby as that flight was booked out, so potentially, I could have a 7 hour wait for the next aircraft.
That said, I got a $15 food voucher to spend at the airport from Qantas. Given that I would have a 2 hour drive to Leadville to get to KZ's place upon landing in Denver (which could have been as late as 11pm), I decided to splash some cash on booking a hotel near Denver airport instead. So, bought a paper, a brie baguette and large mocha and wandered round the airport trying to get the feeling back into my legs after an 11 hour flight.
3. Amazingly, I got the last standby place on the 3:05pm flight (lucky as there were 10 people waiting for a standby seat). However the flight didn't leave until 4pm. No food served (unless you were in busines class), but I ordered a tea from the beverage service. Big mistake - I got hot water poured on top of creamer and a Lipton 'tea' bag. If you come to N. America, bring your own tea bags. At least NZ had decent tea (see blog with Gaz pointing to Billy tea sign). Got to the airport and hired the car (Subaru Outback - I was persuaded that I'd be rubbish driving along icy mountain roads covered in snow so upgraded to an All-Wheel Drive model - but it's definitely a cut above the Toyota Corollas we've been driving of late). However, really having to concentrate with remembering to stay on the 'right', right side of the road. The second left turn is always the worst - you're so nervous about the first one that you're extra careful and then get over confident after that! Also the indicator lever is on the other side of the steering wheel to Australia and NZ (though correct for UK), so more comedy windscreen wiper action when I'm turning! This car even has electrically operated seat controls. The words, "no need" spring to mind. Anyway, average temperature in Denver's about 0 deg C and it's dark by 6pm. Think the body's gone into season shock, wondering why it hasn't gone through autumn.
Thoroughly enjoyed NZ and Australia, guess I'd better post my favourite 3 things to do in NZ here too. Watch the space above this post...
