Stage 1: canada.

took off from melb at 7am and arrived in sunny Saskatoon only 27hours later. We're all feeling a little unsure of the time and wether we should be tired or not, but spirits are high and the breeze is freezing.

quick note: when a flight says sydney-vancouver, what it really menas is Sydney to Vancouver via Hawaii. Now, as you may know, Hawaii is officially mainland America, and to get close to america post 9.11 you have to submit to every form of security assessment available. So, as the plane refuelled, we were all questioned, photographed, fingerprinted, and had our shoes checked, all whilst doing a complete lap of Honolulu airport for absolutely no reason - do the hokey pokey and you turn around, thats what it's all about. At the end of all the rigmoral (including no fewer than 6 passport checks, all done with a background of americans yelling orders in that quasi-military tone) we sat back in the same seat on the same plane and took off. was that all really necessary? i mean, really?