Sayonara, Arrivederci, Au Revoir, Aloha, Shalom, Adios

Saturday 9th July (Day 1) has finally arrived!

No more sleeps - we've finally departed!

Departing Sydney at 10:25am on Air Canada Flight AC34 to Vancouver

aboard a Boeing 777-200LR ("LR" for Longer Range).

Boeing named this aircraft the Worldliner, highlighting its ability to connect almost any two airports in the world. It holds the world record for the longest nonstop flight (21,601 km) by a commercial airliner. The record flight came 100 years after the Wright Brothers, in 1905, set a distance record of 24 miles in 38 minutes, 20 seconds. It is considered aviation's first distance record and was recognized as such by the National Aeronautics Association, which was formed that same year. We plan to visit the Boeing Factory in Everett (Seattle) in a couple of days and see them being assembled.

Today we covered approx.12,482 km passing close to Fiji and Hawaii. It takes approx. 14 hours to get to Vancouver and then subtracting a day and adjusting for time zones we arrived in British Columbia at 7:30am on Saturday 9th!

Go to my TravelPod Blog to see a detailed Map of the entire trip

A perfectly beautiful mild winter day as we depart the emerald city. It's almost as though we're being reminded what a special place we're leaving and to come back soon. No problems with strong westerly winds or ash or misbehaving Tigers - actually no problems of any kind. Flight AC34 aboard our Boeing 777 took approx. 15 hours with 3 meals. We crossed the International Date Line and the Equator just on sunset. Strangely Helen wasn't prepared to voluntarily participate in a line crossing ceremony involving King Neptune and smelly fish. Actually this our third equator (but our first international date line) crossing so the ceremony was dispensed with.

By the way your comments are welcomed and encouraged. You need to click on the word comments below and you can just select  "Comment as: Anonymous" but sign off with your name so we know who sent us the comment.

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That's all for now but before you leave - 

Have you seen the previous page titled " The Final Countdown " yet? 

(click on the link to take you there)

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