Laneway Australia 2023: Day 1, travel day
Welcome
Yesterday we left our homes in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa, and traveled by Aeroplane to Australia for the Laneway festival.
I spent the morning packing my bags and then visited my favourite local cafe Young George for a late breakfast. I ordered an Eggplant Sando which comes on soft white bread, the crumbed eggplant augmented by coleslaw and Thousand Island dressing.
As usual Mainfreight’s Mangere depot was displaying a set of words that would hang in the back of our minds for at the remainder of the day, perhaps even slightly longer.
At first this new mantra was tough to live up to. I arrived at the airport and found myself confronted by parking staff who helpfully waved us into an unloading space. Then someone stopped traffic to let me cross the road with my luggage. As I moved through the terminal I tried to do my bit by staying well clear of other travelers, trying to unclutter the concourse.
Check-in was straight forward but Jonathan had a tough time passing through security and received a full inspection of his pedal board. While this was going on I took the opportunity to be helpful and filled up all the drink bottles. Kind of like in sports where you have someone that brings all the team drink bottles on. It felt good and I awarded myself two thousand beths points or boints which moved me right up to the top of the leaderboard.
Ben -2000 boints
Liz - 0 boints
Tristan - 0 boints
Jon - 0 boints
In the above leaderboard you may have noticed that I used the new Squarespace highlight function.
Jonathan patiently enduring the long wait as his equipment is examined.
Our flight ended up being delayed by a couple of hours so I spent the time updating the breakfast and travel updates instagram so it is now finally caught up to the blog. If you just want to see food without the fuss I would recommend heading over there.
On the way to the gate we were pulled in by the enticing product display at the Sleeping Class store. It felt like we had arrived in an infomercial.Tristan went for a ride in the economy-class seat simulator and took the face cradle pillow for a spin.
We were hit with a further delay once we arrived at the gate. A voice came over the PA explaining that our aircraft needed a new tyre and that engineering staff were on the way. We were glued to the window for the next twenty minutes watching this fascinating process that eventually brought our aircraft back to a state of readiness.
Here is how you change an aircraft tyre:
1. Order a new tyre. These Airbus A321s use an R22 tyre which is 1270mm by 455mm and inflated to just over 200psi. It would take too long for someone to roll the tyre all the way from the hangar so they carry it in a trailer most of the way and then roll it by hand over to the aircraft.
2. The undercarriage is jacked up so the broken tyre can be removed. They then use a special jack to raise the new tyre up to the correct height, aligned with the axle.
3. You need to try a few times to get this right. Lots of work for the man working the foot-jack. Eventually the wheel just slides right on.
4. You need to do up the screw that holds the wheel on. They had a really big wrench for this. It looked like it was a ratcheting wrench and the guy really moved the thing. Then everything is checked before the plane can be signed off for flight.
Six hours after we had left our houses we were flying northwest over the Tasman Sea, leaving behind the grey Auckland skies and heading towards a handsome sunset at sea.
Tristan had purchased himself a face cradle and was enjoying the ability to suspend himself over his phone screen while he watched a collection of downloaded youtube videos. This was a lovely flight until we hit a bout of quite scary turbulence about thirty minutes in. The stewards braced themselves in the aisle with the drinks cart and paused their service. Luckily we had finished our tea because unattended items on tray tables went flying. After twenty minutes of the bumpiest flying we had experienced we emerged unscathed. Air New Zealand engineering had done their job and all the parts of the plane were still attached.
The Brisbane Airport luggage claim was flush with free luggage carts. They use a Wanzl Gepäckwagen Combi C 400 - marketed as a slim trolley that fits through the tightest and busiest of spaces. Unfortunately this advantage was negated when we laid the guitars horizontally across the bed of the trolley but the antibacterial handle and the all-round impact protection provided by the bumper system did make us feel safe and secure.
The Combi C 400.
Finally at 9pm local time we emerged from the airport and boarded our rental car, a Hyundai Staria, to complete the final leg of a tiring twelve hour transit. We headed to the hotel to rest and get ready for a busy two week tour.
