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Written later
The flight was full, but we had good seats again right near the front of the lower deck. The flight was long but uneventful.
We landed in Sydney close to 06:30, got off the plane quickly, and cruised through the electronic passport control gates, only to be held up at baggage claim, as our bags were among the very last to emerge from the plane. As we were waiting two flights arrived from Los Angeles, so the baggage claim hall was packed with close to a thousand people. By the time we had our bags and were ready to go through customs, there were enormous multi-stranded queues of hundreds of people all waiting to funnel through two tiny doors to the section where baggage was searched. The queues didn't move for several minutes at a time, punctuated by small periods where a few people flowed through the doors.
By the time we eventually made it through it was almost 07:30, close to an hour and a half after we'd landed. A customs official inspected our customs declaration - yes for bringing in plant matter (saffron) and for having been in farmland or wilderness areas. He asked us a couple of questions about it, and then let us exit immediately without a bag check.
The taxi queue was also substantial, and took maybe fifteen minutes to get through. Once in the taxi it was a quick trip home, completing a great trip!
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