No wizard or yellow brick road but I’m off to OZ

The OZ of the title refers to the land of our antipodean cousins, the world’s largest island (or its smallest continent if you prefer) – Australia. But it isn’t Australia alone that I’ll be visiting on this journey. I’ll spend 17 days or so in New Zealand or, as I’ll call it, Aotearoa and another two weeks in Hawai’i which will cap off my visits to all 50 American states. Measuring only the approximate distances from one location to another on planes, trains, and buses, I traveled 35,367 miles (56,810 km) or more than 1.4 times the earth’s circumference at the equator. I’ll start with

flying to Australia.

I’ve written before that uncomplicated air travel in the 21^st century is, at best, increasingly rare. Although the trip from my house to the airport seemed to launch my autumn (spring?) 2024 mega-trip on a sour note, the flights themselves – Washington to Los Angeles and LA to Sydney – other than the need to reboot the entertainment system before the flight to LA were probably as pleasant as such lengthy flights can be. Here’s how I mentally registered that flight length: We were served dinner about 45 minutes after leaving LA (be mindful that I’d already flown five plus hours from DC with a nearly three-hour layover) after which I slept for between three and four hours. When I woke from my nap, I turned on the flight tracker and had 10 hours remaining before my Sydney arrival.

This left too much time for my brain which, of course, couldn’t remain idle and I found myself pondering random and certainly unimportant conundrums. I alluded to the first of these in the paragraph above. I left Washington in autumn, crossed into the southern hemisphere, and arrived in Sydney, in the spring. The seasons had suddenly flipped.

In the course of the flight, I’d make another significant crossing – the international date line – which, if it ran in a straight line might be called the anti-meridian and would be a true separation of the eastern and western hemispheres. The antimeridian looks like this.

[From Wikipedia by Edgar Bonet]

The international date line looks like this.

[From Wikipedia by Another Matt]

Created in 1884, it’s a line of demarcation separating two consecutive calendar dates though it has no legal international status. It zigzags a bit because of political considerations. For example, without the wiggle, the Pacific Island country of Kiribati would otherwise have part of the country on one date and part of the country on a different date. Still, even moving the line nearly 1ooo kilometers, the country has a 23 hour difference between its eastern and western islands. This creates another peculiar situation where three different dates can exist simultaneously. Here’s an example: 12 June at 10:30 UTC, is 23:30 on 11 June in American Samoa (UTC−11), 06:30 on 12 June in New York (UTC-4), and 00:30 on 13 June in Kiritimati (UTC+14). Let that rattle around your mind for a day. Or three.

In my case, I’d left Washington on 26 October and, although I’d only experience 21 hours temporally, according to the official earthly timekeeping systems, when I arrived in Sydney, nearly 40 hours had passed. What happened to the missing hours? The international date line, of course.

Yes, I’ll regain them on my return but what if I stayed in Australia? Would those hours be permanently lost?  I’ve returned so the point is moot but it’s a curious consideration nevertheless.

Then I began wondering about hemispheres.

[From Wikipedia by KMF164]

If hemi means half, how can Earth have four hemispheres? Think about it. I crossed from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere when I overflew the equator. But I’d also traveled from west of the Prime Meridian to east of that marker meaning I’d also traveled from the western hemisphere to the eastern hemisphere. Logically and illogically our globe has four hemispheres. I guess it’s all in how you slice it.

Are you wondering about that sour note I mentioned above? If so, here’s your answer: It was the cab ride to the airport. I think my cab driver must have programmed his GPS to choose the longest and slowest route possible. Then he took the wrong exit (telling me that construction had closed the exit to the airport) thereby extending the trip by several miles, minutes, and dollars. The fare was about 60% higher than the estimate provided at the time I booked it.

A few notes on the flights and breaks

If one is observant, travel can provide some interesting behavioral observations provided you’re discreet. Here are some examples from these flights. On the DC to LA leg, one woman insisted on her need for some sort of special dietary meal but added that she somehow “always forgets to order it when booking her flights.” I have no proof but it seemed to me what she truly needed was extra attention from the cabin crew.

I’ve never had a pleasant experience at LAX. I don’t know whether it’s always been my misfortune to encounter more rude and self-absorbed people there than other airports or whether having previously encountered such folks I’m simply more aware of them when I’m there. Fortunately, the facilities

[From Delta.com]

and solicitous Delta staff in the lounge where I passed the time between flights provided adequate compensation. One of those staff people grew up in Catonsville and, since I was wearing a UMBC sweatshirt, we had a fun conversation.

A woman on the flight to Sydney put on another display of self-importance. She was loudly unhappy with the configuration of Delta’s LA to Sydney Airbus. Because I can, I fly Delta One on flights longer than five hours. The seating pods had 1-2-1 configuration but no center overhead compartment. She let everyone know that she felt cheated because she expected her own private overhead storage and was particularly unhappy that she had to share her space with someone else. And, no, she wasn’t going to eat because she wanted to sleep as much as possible. I quietly hoped she wasn’t a Road Scholar.

The flight path to Sydney from LA is almost a straight southwesterly line.

[From Research Gate uploaded by Lily Koops]

Whenever I looked at the flight tracker, our heading was between 218 and 225 degrees and our altitude, cresting at 40,000 feet (12192 meters) was, I think, as high as I’ve ever flown. At some point during the night, we crossed the International Date Line and Sunday vanished.

A little housekeeping

Those familiar with this blog know that they can expect posts dealing with history, some science, and perhaps a plethora of puns and pop culture references. I’ll write very little about my meals because nearly all of them were included in the Road Scholar packages and I forgot most of them nearly as quickly as I consumed them.

I will, however, take many diversions off the intended path of a given post. The culture of the Indigenous People of Australia is unfathomably ancient and, for me, complex and difficult to unravel. Although their interaction with Europeans can be broadly characterized as having an outcome as destructive to them as that faced by other Indigenous People elsewhere in the world, the approach the British took in usurping the continent is unique – as is the aboriginal people’s reaction to it. I’ll ask for your patience and indulgence as I try weaving together seemingly disparate threads into a cohesive whole I hope you’ll find worth reading.

Finally, I have one other curious (to me) observation. When I told people I planned to travel to Australia and New Zealand, they frequently reacted with aspiration and perhaps compersion. I was surprised because I doubt that most Americans know very much about either place because we seem to pay them so little attention.

For example, I don’t think many Americans could name Australia’s current prime minister let alone all of its states – of which there are only six! (The Northern Territory isn’t a state.)

[From Digital Classroom National Museum of Australia]

They might know of its reputation for having the most venomous snakes (taipan), spiders (redback), and sea creatures (box jellyfish and stonefish) or its deadly estuarine crocodiles but if they do, they should then wonder why anyone would want to visit a place where death could be waiting around every corner. Curious.

Finally

The travels reported in this journal will take me through places cared for by many family and language groups who are traditional caretakers and custodians of Country through their continuing connection to land, sea, air, culture and community. I acknowledge the custodianship and care of Country by all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People and offer my respect to all Elders past, present, and emerging.

Please be aware that this site may contain images, footage, audio, or the writings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have died. I acknowledge them for the indelible mark they have left on cultural and creative practice.

The importance (or inadequacy) of these statements will become clear as you read through this blog.