Australia

Considering we were on the plane for 15 hours, I don't really remember much of this leg of the trip.

After being awake for some 19 hours, I was dragging ass pretty hard at this stage of the game.  We'd eaten supper at a restaraunt near our gate where I was fortunate enough to have been able to drink two pilsner glasses of Bud Light.  I just didn't realize at the time how fortunate I was.

We boarded the plane at 10:30 local time.  Once we took off the cabin crew announced that if we would like to take a nap, just put our tray down and they would wake you to ask you what you wanted for supper.  They didn't have to tell me twice.  I remember blinking and then I remember Annita shaking me awake to tell me they were going to start serving supper.  Those two Bud Lights went through me quicker than I had anticipated, and I knew I wanted to have a beer to wash down those two Nyquil gel-caps, so I excused myself to make room.

Annita had the beef and vegetables while I elected to have the chicken and rice.  It was only about 3 or 4 hours after our last meal so I didn't eat very much of it.  The flight attendant had asked me what I wanted to drink and I asked her what kind of beers they had.  She said they had VB and something else.  If I would have had a coin in my pocket, I would have flipped it, but I didn't so I just took a VB.  I knew I was in trouble when I could smell it the second I opened the can.  I took a sip.

I'm going to take a guess that VB stands for Very Bad.  I had a sudden urge to try to lick my "21 hours since last shower" armpit to get the taste out of my mouth.  Fortunately for me, I'm not that flexible.  I finished my supper, then popped the two Nyquil and took a big pull of of the ole VB.  I still shudder when I think of it.  After several more drinks, I finally finished the beer and I had a big sigh of relief.  Shortly thereafter, I had a huge burp that didn't taste much better.  It was somewhere around this point that I realized how lucky I was for those last two Bud Lights....

Shortly thereafter, I closed my eyes for a long sleep.  Roughly four hours later, the plane hit some turbulence.  The pilot quickly got on the PA and announced what was happening.  Directly after that, the cabin crew got on and made another announcement.  That was QUICKLY followed by a newborn baby, three rows up from us, SCREAMING HIS LUNGS OUT!!!  It only took 5 or 10 minutes of that for me to get tired of it.  Luckily, Annita had gone through the pouch of crap they gave us and we had a set of earplugs mixed in with the sleeping eye patches.

The night was fairly uneventful after that and we're pretty sure we got about 10 or so hours of sleep, minus the supper, breakfast and screaming baby.

Once on the ground in Melbourne, we went through security and gathered up our luggage.  We walked out of the secure area and were met by Kerrie and Emelia, Annita's sister-in-law and mother.  Kerrie gave us a ride downtown for us to meet Roberto for lunch.

(Click to Biggenate)

(I realize the pictures say Auckland, but they actually were taken in Melbourne.  I'm a blonde.)

Kerrie then gave us a tour around the harbor.  Surprisingly enough, I took more pictures....

(Click to Biggenate)

I was a bit disappointed that the compass didn't list the distance to "Dighton, Kansas," but I guess they can't put all of the important sites on it.

We made a brief stop at a local liquor store to grab some bottles of wine for everyone else, and a couple of beers for myself.

Yes, just a couple.....

That last picture was taken on the counter at Roberto and Kerrie's house.  Speaking of their house, this is the absolutely disgusting view they have from the back porch of their house.

(Click to Biggenate)

At this point, it was pretty much a struggle to stay awake until we finally went to bed at 9:30.  I started this blog Thursday night, but due to circumstances, it's not posted until Saturday morning....LOL

As we're not at the end of the blog entry, I thought I'd post one more appropriate photo.....