Canada 2009 - Travelling

We checked in at Chc just after 4:00pm on Saturday and headed north to Akl, where Shamina's two sisters met us and drove over to International. It was raining! Said goodbye and headed in through security and into duty free to see Samantha (niece). Ordered our stuff to collect on return and went to the gate. The 747-400 was full. A lot of people travelling to Calgary for the Calgary Stampede. Departed Akl just after 8:30pm, and it was fairly bumpy for the first few hours, especially when the plane went over the dateline and equator!! After dinner the lights were turned don but it was difficult to sleep. Managed a few naps. We hit daylight again just east of Hawaii, but they kept all the shades down and served breakfast at 7:30am NZ time, although it was just after noon in Vancouver (19 hours behind NZ or 5 hours in front,BUT the previous day. Arrived in Vancouver after nearly 13 hours in the air, and went through immigration and baggage check. We thought we were going to get checked for the 2kg kava we declared, but we were whisked to the Air Canada transfer. I think they thought we were on the next flight to calgary, not the one after. It is nice and sunny, lots of planes from all over the place, and we are just having a cup of coffee. Another hour before our flight to Calgary.