I was a little apprehensive about flying since I had not flown since 1967 but with Bob I soon found out I had nothing to fear. Him being an experienced traveler, numerous trips within the States as well as overseas, he quickly soothed my fears, constantly reassuring me that he would take care of me. I actually enjoyed the flight from Nashville to Los Angeles which took four hours. We had an eight hour lay-over at LAX so we checked into the possibility of taking a tour of Santa Monica or Beverly Hills in order to kill some time. Not wanting to put our trust in a tour bus to get us back to LAX in time for our flight, we canceled that idea. The weather was unusually cold in Los Angeles, only in the 50's (whatever happened to warm, sunny California) so the idea of taking a taxi to Santa Monica and walking around the shopping district wasn't that appealing either. By the time we found lockers to stow our luggage, locate Air-New Zealands terminal to check on flight information, gotten something to eat, we had already blown a couple of hours so we just decided to lounge around the airport for the rest of the lay-over. That turned out to be a big mistake. As huge as LAX is, you can only kill so much time walking around, people watching, window shopping, etc. Since we had not gotten much sleep at all the night before, we were getting extremely tired, steadily watching the clock. Finally our call came for departure on Air-New Zealand at 8:30 pm. We were both very tired and sleepy but no less excited that we were once again on our way and knowing that in approximately nine hours we would reach our destination. Hoping to sleep through most of the flight, Bob got me a glass of water from the flight attendant so that I could take a couple of dramamines to help me sleep and just in case I happen to get a little air-sick. The flight attendant jokingly gave Bob a hard time over trying to get a glass of water on an airplane so Bob informed him that he was on his honeymoon and that if he were to come back without any water for me, he would be in big trouble. Not only did I get a glass of water immediately, but the flight attendant soon brought over two glasses of Champagne and congradulated us. Big mistake !! drinking the Champagne on top of two dramamines plus all the food I had eaten at the airport and being extremely tired as well. Within two hours of the flight, I became extremely ill and stayed that way throughout most of the remaining flight. The same flight attendant that gave us the champagne gave Bob some pills to give me hopefully to ease the air sickness. I finally managed to go to sleep. Poor Bob didn't get any rest at all, he stayed awake and held my head the rest of the flight hoping the movement of the plane would not awaken me. It was 2:30 in the morning, the fasten your seat belt sign flashed on, landing was only minutes away. My first thought was, how great it would be to be on solid ground again. I still was not feeling too well. When we touched down and was taxing in to the airport, I quite suddenly forgot about being ill. Not really sure what to expect, (never being out of the United States before in my life), I didn't expect to see what I did see. Rather than walk through an odorless, enviromently correct carpeted terminal filled with seemingly millions of people rushing around trying to connect with flights, checking or picking up luggage, going through customs, sleeping through a layover on airport chairs, this airport looked more like a tiny but lush resort. Although the flight was long and tiring for both of us, stepping off Air-New Zealand directly onto Tahiti soil, warm tropical breeze mingled with odors of fresh flowers surrounding your every senses and sounds of Tahitian music, made it all worthwhile. It was like entering a whole new and totally different world, exciting beyond belief.