We woke up early in order to leave for the airport with enough time to allow for rush hour traffic on our way to Brisbane. We were packed up and ready to go by 6:15 am leaving lots of time to return the car and get checked in. The car return was very easy as there was someone patrolling the lot waiting to check it in.  We had pre-paid for fuel as it worked out cheaper that way and we had coasted in with the low fuel light on and the remaining kms not registering as it was too low a level! In total we had driven 2734.6 km.
 

They barely glanced over it before issuing us our receipt and we were on our way. 2 luggage trolleys and a stroller were much easier to manoeuver with Nalini helping! We waited in an extremely long line to check in (you can’t check in online with a lap infant) and when we finally got to the counter, her passport scanner wasn’t working and she had to manually enter all of the information. Eventually we were finished and headed over to grab a breakfast wrap and coffee before going through security. The boys had fun running around and watching the planes take off. After saying our goodbyes, we headed through security which was very quick (you get to go in a faster lane if you have a stroller).

We didn’t have much time to wait before they started checking tickets for pre-boarding. I actually ended up waiting for Anoop who had gone to change Rhys one more time before boarding. The Air Canada agents were much friendlier than those back home and had us boarding in no time. We found our seats with lots of overhead room around us. With such a high luggage allowance, most people seemed to check everything and just keep the essentials with them. We too had our essentials with us – plenty of snacks and entertainment for Rhys!!!

We were very lucky on this leg of the trip as it wasn’t full! The flight attendant came by just before take off to ask if the person in our row would like to move to a different seat! We were so glad to have that extra space, especially since this was a day time flight which meant less sleeping for Rhys. The view leaving Brisbane was fantastic and we enjoyed having the window seat! Rhys had a nice long nap just after take off and Anoop managed to watch an entire movie! We spent the next few hours eating lunch, having snacks, reading stories, going for walks, and playing with his various activities. The busy book that Mom had made was a particular hit and he particularly loved all of the animals and the road page. He also quite enjoyed his mini duplo set we had packed with a few doors, car, people and animals. He spent a good half hour alone playing on his own and we were able to get in a few games against each other! He had another nap followed by more of the same and dinner before falling asleep for the “night”. Just before landing we realized that we were flying by Nanaimo and even managed to spot DeCourcy on the descent! We landed after about 12 hours 45 minutes of flying and were generally much more impressed by this leg of the flight as the food and service were both better. It was early morning Canada time when we arrived, but roughly midnight Australia time so we disregarded recommendations to stay up all day and went to sleep for a few hours as soon as we got home! Overall, getting over jet lag seemed harder in this direction, but after 5 days or so, we were all back to normal.