Friday 27th May 2011 – Amesbury MA – San Francisco CA – Auckland NZ

With our bodies and minds well tuned to the daily routine of the last five week, we were awake early and up at 6am for breakfast. The hotel breakfast was basic but with around 80,000ft of climbing today, we made the sacrifice and had our usual breakfast including cereal, yoghurt, waffles, bacon & egg muffins, quiche, orange juice and coffee with toast etc available.

Remembering to check out of the hotel for the first time in five weeks was not a challenge as the hotel slipped the bill under the door.

The team bus left for Boston Airport just after 7am and we arrived around 8am. As our flight was due to leave at 2:45pm, we could not check in until 10:45am so acquired an airport trolley to carry the bikes and luggage and then sat in a food court to pass the time. Patrick had another Dunkin Donuts iced coffee and I had a Mountain Dew slushy. While waiting, we drafted a report for the HB Today newspaper.

We went to check in just after 10:45am and the lady wanted to charge us US$200 per bike. After some considerable time and discussion, she said she had been told it was up to her discretion as to whether she charged us or not. She entered the two suitcases as Patrick’s and the two bikes as mine as I have a Star Alliance Gold Card. We asked nicely and she waived the charges. The bike boxes then had to be opened and inspected by the TSA (Transport Safety Authority) prior to being put through as luggage which made our box sealing efforts redundant. With the inspection done and the boxes resealed, we made our way to the gate where Patrick was scanned, swabbed and patted down while I just walked straight through. You can’t take him anywhere!

Once in the gate area, we slipped into the United Red Carpet Club for our 2^nd sag of the day and lunch prior to our now 2:55pm scheduled departure.

For some reason, Patrick and I were allocated random seats on the flight which were not together, despite us checking in many hours prior and being on the same booking. With the flight from San Francisco full, the only “help” the airline clerk would give was for us to try and trade seats once on the plane. As the mostly American passengers also struggled to count to one, being the amount allowed carry on luggage per passenger, the overhead lockers were overfull as people slowly boarded the plane. Eventually we managed to change seats as the back end of the plane filled up.

Once in the air, we soon flew over the rough weather we had managed to avoid while cycling and encountered some mild turbulence. The United Airlines Boeing 757 did not have in seat entertainment and they played the same episode of The Simpsons three times on the flight. Approaching San Francisco, the plane flew a very circuitous route before eventually landing about 30 minutes late.

The flight to Auckland left from the international terminal which we were told was a “long walk”. However, it did not take long and we were directed to the Eva Air lounge as they are contracted by AirNZ. Entering this, we handed over our boarding passes and were told, “Oh, you have been upgraded. Here are your new boarding passes.” These were for business class. The lounge was small and crowded with AirNZ passengers.

We boarded the AirNZ 747-400 flight to Auckland and turned left on boarding rather than the usual right. This part of the plane was full. We were served champagne prior to take off which we used to celebrate the completion of our cycle ride across the USA. Once airborne, we were served drinks and a three course dinner prior to being able to sleep in a fully flat bed.