Travel Time

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Blog 1



Day 1/ Day 2 - March (Our 7^th) - (Aus.8^th)



Our friends Brian & Lois picked us up and we left Waterloo with a light snow falling only to have it disappear as we got closer to Toronto. Finding the right area for the Cathay Pacific desk in Terminal 3 was a bit of a challenge. They don’t have many flights using Toronto so they don’t have a permanent desk location and therefore move around accordingly. We used one of the automated check-in kiosks and succeeded in: getting checked in, printing our boarding passes printed all the way through to Melbourne, and luggage tags. Then we set off and walked the length of the terminal once again to get our luggage weighed and sent on its way to the plane; we don’t have to worry about it until Melbourne. Moved through security easily and found a place to sit and have a coffee. Now we wait for our 2:15 pm departure on Cathay Pacific bound for Melbourne via Hong Kong. We left the terminal on time but had to go to the de-icing station and that added 30 minutes to our departure time.



Fifteen & a half hours and a day later we have arrived in Hong Kong ahead of schedule and 12563 km from home. The flight was on a Boeing 777 aircraft and we highly recommend any of the wide-body planes equipped with the upgrade to the Premium Economy seating, especially the two outer seats in the 2-4-2 cabin. There is a bit more room, more recline on the seat, upgraded service, including priority boarding, and a glass of champagne once we were seated and free wine and/or beer with our dinner meal. The hot towel was a nice touch too. The midnight snack consisted of a noodle bowl, a very tasty treat.



As part of a promotional package supplied by the BMO Air Miles MasterCard I was signed up with Priority Pass which gives us access to airport lounges throughout the world at a lower cost. This first use was free. So, we found the Plaza Premium Lounge, which accepts the Priority Pass, where we finished off a light snack, (now is that dinner or breakfast? – not really sure). At any rate this lounge is equipped with showers so when we checked into the lounge we booked a time to go scrub off a layer before the next leg of the journey that leaves at 00:05.



We departed Hong Kong March (Aussie 9^th) this time on an Airbus 350, again in the Premium Economy section. This leg of the journey is 7,420 km long and is scheduled to last 9.5 hours. Watching movies and trying to sleep help pass the night away. I woke just as we were passing over northern Australia to a spectacular sunrise. We landed in Melbourne (Aussie 9^th) again ahead of schedule, went through customs and immigration without any problems, collected our bags – miracle of miracles they both made it from Toronto - called for the shuttle from the Airport Holiday Inn, where we were booked for a chance to get our minds and bodies onto the same time sequence. After a light afternoon snack, we took the advantage of getting a nap in before dinner.



After dinner I did a little exploring of the area and found that we were in fact separated from the airport entrance by the airport parking building which covered one city block. If we had known that earlier in the afternoon we could have hauled our bags over to the hotel and not waited in the 30°C sun. Oh well live and learn!



So, we called it an early night went to bed and fell off to sleep fairly quickly.

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Photos

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Our ride waiting for the journey

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Mountains in Siberia

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Hong Kong airport

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Our gate to Melbourne

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Waiting for the hotel shuttle in the heat!

Comments

[Margaret Skells]

from Florida
Wish i were there with you. Sounds like a great trip. Looking forward to reading your blog.