Arrived

We had eight large suitcases and three backpacks between us. The thing that worried me most was how we were going to get all eight suitcases from the airport to the house we would be renting in the suburbs. A taxi wouldn't fit all eight of them along with three bodies and a driver. It would be easy to pull them onto the airport bus, then directly onto a train. But there was still a 15 minute walk from the train station to the house. We would have to drag them all?

In any case, our initial flight to LAX was delayed. And then delayed again. When it was clear we wouldn't catch our flight to Melbourne that night, we talked about rebooking the trip for the next day and started looking at hotels. But the only plane that would take the three of us to LAX the following day left at 7am in the morning, and the Melbourne flight wasn't until 11pm. We decided to take our chances with the delayed flight, and see what happened in LAX.

In LAX, our arrival was indeed too late to catch the Melbourne flight. But Qantas Airlines put us on a shuttle around the back of the airport, so we wouldn't have to go through security again, and we were rebooked onto a flight departing for Brisbane only a little later that night. By the time we reached the gate, it was almost time to board. We found our seats -- three adjacent seats at the very very back of the huge plane. There was no one behind us to kick us. And extra space under my seat for my backpack. They were actually nice seats, for a twelve hour flight.

Jonathan probably slept the most, with his head on his pillow on his tray table. Tim and I watched five movies between us, one the same, four of exactly opposite genres.
 We arrived in Brisbane around 6:30 in the morning, cleared passport control, and went to collect our luggage for customs. But our luggage didn't arrive. After standing in a long line, we found that our luggage was still in LAX, waiting to fly directly to Melbourne the following day. We hurried through the airport to catch a connecting flight.

Everything was easy in Melbourne. At the luggage desk, we filed a report for the bags. Then we caught the bus to the train, and easily carried our backpacks and one carry on bag the short walk from the train to our rental house in the suburbs.

And best of all? The airline delivered six massive suitcases directly to our door the following day.

Now the only thing to worry about is how we'll get them back to the airport in a month. Can't wait.