Caught the shuttle to the airport at 4am and finally took off on 3 hour flight to Sydney at 6.45am

Arrived in Sydney and had 5 hour wait until caught flight to Dallas fort Worth. This flight was 15 ½ hours long and was awful. We shared a three row in economy with a nice guy from Maryland, but both he and Ken were tall and the seats were so jammed in they couldn't fit their legs in. They were basically unable to move. I on the other hand was jammed in the middle between them. The first few hours were not so bad, but as we eased on into the 6th hour it was starting to get worse. The food was not the best and the trying to eat it with our elbows jammed into our sides became frustrating along with the bumpiness of the ride.

In preparation and expectation of all the horrors of a long haul, I had come fully equipped. I had earplugs and eye covers and a nifty little gadget called a humidiflyer. This consists of a clear plastic breathing mask that fits over your nose and mouth with a little humidifying filter that traps and recycles your breath which keeps you hydrated and safe from in-flight infections. This helps hugely with jet lag and keeps you healthy. So here Ken and I are with face masks, eye masks, earplugs and ready for sleep. Famous last words!

The number of things which conspired to make this trip horrid grew in the long extended night time. Rather than a long winded sobbing account here are the main points:

• 100 people using each loo. (well it felt like it.)
• Everyone in our section either snored or farted or both.
• Every time I wanted to use the loo or move my legs, I had to wake up the poor guy next to me to let me into the aisle.
• Then every time I had to untangle masses of wire attached to my and his headphones that enabled us to hear the movie playing on the little TV on the back of the seat in front of us.
• Twice I tripped on it.
• The guy in the seat in front of me, reclined his seat. It went back so far the TV was centimetres in front of my face and I couldn't even focus on it. Add to that I couldn't open my tray table or it would have performed a stomach staple on me.
• All the lights were put out, and it was pitch dark. I couldn't actually see my hand in front of my face. (next time I take a torch).
• I couldn't move. So was sitting upright, with arms virtually strapped to my sides and my head overburdened with paraphernalia I had thought would be helpful. (Note to self, earplugs = useless/eye patch ok, but only when its light, useless over majority of trip/humidiflyer actually was amazing, but unwieldy; annoying extra thing on head. I did however persevere with it.)

On we flew, for hours and hours and hours. At 10 hours I thought to myself in the smelly snorey dark, "only five more hours", at 11 hours, I thought "only 4 more hours", at 11 ½ hours I thought " you are kidding me? It's only been 30 minutes since I last checked the flying time?"

About 45 minutes out from the end of the trip, we were all woken up with breakfast, and trust me when I say I could have been ill. Plastic scrambled eggs afloat in a sea of watery baked beans and strong smelling sausage. (another note to self... I will NEVER drink airline coffee again!) Not one of the three of us in our row was able to eat any of it.

Finally some blessed time imprinted on my memory we were touching down at Dallas Fort Worth, and I have couldn't get out of plane fast enough. Exhausted and weak, and stumbling, 100s of passengers rushed out to the airport all with this funny stance, bended at the knees and arms jammed at their sides as they almost ran to the customs gauntlet.

Dallas Fort Worth was an enormous airport and following the trip, I have to say that it was quite pleasant there. We took their mini bullet trains that whipped people around the airport area and dropped you off at the right gate for your connecting flight. The view from the bullet train was over vast flat runway areas stretching into a distant brown haze that ended in a far off skyline of massive city buildings. Very other worldly. I had my first American food when Ken and I sat down in a chain outlet called TGI FRIDAY. And oh my... that food was gooood. I have had nothing but excellent food since then. Not too big, like I was warned, and not too fatty, but very very tasty.

We caught our last flight which was a 2-hour hop to Jacksonville Florida. It was roomy, smooth and comfortable and Ken and I looked at each other and sighed with relief. We landed in 33'C at 10pm at the very nice Jacksonville airport, picked up our luggage and our rather classy rental car and headed off to the random hotel I had picked for us to stay. It was cheap and near where Ken's mom's home was. We were thrilled to arrive to a really nice room, with a little lounge, separate bedroom, along with kitchen and nice bathroom. No time to admire, we fell into the king sized, very comfy bed and slept like babies for many hours. The time? Two hours before we left on the same day that we caught the shuttle to Wellington airport!