By REBECCA WALSH
It wasn't until she touched down safely on New Zealand soil that solo flyer Carol Ann Garratt was interested in any publicity about her flying efforts.
With everyone calling her Amelia - after Amelia Earhart - the American admits she was a "little nervous" about flying over the
Pacific.
Understandably so, given that Earhart, the first person to fly solo across the ocean in 1935, died two years later when her plane disappeared en route to Howland Island, 1650 miles southwest of Honolulu.
But on Saturday night Ms Garratt's nervousness was replaced with "ecstasy" as she touched down at Auckland Airport on the fourth leg of a round-the-world trip in her single-engine Mooney aeroplane.
The 48-year-old will spend the next 7 1/2 months circumnavigating the globe, stopping to visit friends and family along the way.
But a big part of the journey is to raise awareness and money for research into Lou Gehrig's disease, a motor neurone disease, which killed her mother last April.
Two weeks into the trip, Ms Garratt, who has flown since she was 17, admits she sometimes wonders why she's doing it. "But then it also crosses my mind that I have to keep going. When you get to each destination it's a feeling of accomplishment and success, so it keeps you going."
The 10-year-old plane carries about 640 litres of fuel, which will last 20 hours' flying. The longest flight so far has been 16 hours, and after the 12-hour trip from American Samoa, Ms Garratt arrived in New Zealand feeling relatively refreshed.
"When you get out of the plane it's such a relief. The adrenalin stops. You know you are done and your whole body is exhausted."
Despite the hours of solitude she doesn't get bored or lonely. There's always plenty to keep her busy, whether it's checking instruments, reporting her position or updating her website.
Ms Garratt will spend the next two weeks in NZ, visiting an aunt in Whangarei and flying her father around the country. She plans to land back in Florida in November.
"It's kind of a one-off. Then I will get sensible about life."
