>And the adventures have definitely begun. So yesterday we headed to the Christchurch airport around 115 by shuttle… We looked absolutely ridiculous carrying our huge backpacks and two things of luggage into the square, not to mention it was super tiring. So for $7 each we were on our way. We checked in at emirates and of course our luggage was too heavy. So they told us to take some out and put it in our carry on. Perfect, not a big deal. So then we find out that you have to pay a $25 leaving the country tax…i’m sorry but what the hell is that for??? Bye New Zealand let me pay you for coming to your country? I really don’t get it. So we waited in line for that then proceeded to get some food and head to our gate in pleanty of time. Well, turns out that the plane was late arriving so we are now 30 minutes behind schedule… Wouldn’t have been a big deal if we didn’t have another plane to catch in Sydney. We met these two people at our gate who helped us out. One was 24 and did some work in Sydney and just got done traveling New Zealand and was headed back to Sydney. The other was this guy a little older who knew everything about Australia! So he told us where we are staying in sydney is a little “dodgey” but should be fine… Wonderful haha. Finally we board our plane and off we go to Sydney. Food sucked, typical, but I did watch valentines day which was cute. We had a slightly rough landing due to rain in Sydney. We actually diverted our path to go around storms and then circled the airport a few times before landing. We thought 2 hours was pleanty of time. We cruised through customs ad baggage claim in like 15 minutes… They took my flax that I made and the bag we got from the place sadly and they cleaned our shoes to smell yucky but then we were good to go.
Here’s where it gets interesting. We go to virgin blue to check in who is conviently located right outside the international terminal. Anthony, guy at check in who we hate, tells us that we can check in there for $15 and then take the shuttle to the domestic terminal…. BECAUSE THE TWO TERMINALS ARENT CONNECTED AND U HAVE TO BUS ON A HIGHWAY TO GET TO THE OTHER SIDE!!!! Ridiculous!!! Oh and it gets better. Our bags weigh too much and they have strict policies. It’s now 23 kilos total… Hmm after being out of the country for 3 weeks I think I’ll have more than that. So he tells us it’s $10 per kilo over but if we go to check in at the domestic terminal they might be able to wave our fee. So then he tells us that since we aren’t checking in with him we have to pay $5.50 each to ride the shuttle to the other side. So not only is it inconvenint that u have to go to the other side of the airport but u have to pay to do so!???? Whattt!? It’s their fault the terminals are split so they should transport you for free right??? Well since we didn’t have Australian cash we had to back track though the airport to an ATM. Right as we come back the bus just pulled away. Oh and Anthony tells us it will only be 1-2 minutes for another one… LIAR. THEY COME EVERY 20 MINUTES, just as tr sign outside said. We asked 3 times for him to call over to domestic and let them know we were coming so we could still check in, it was 640 by the time the bus came and our flight was at 720. So we take a nice 10 min ride over, everyone on the bus was so nice and cheering us on, letting us go first haha it was great. So we sprint up to the desk and this lady is so unhelpful. We then find out they have strict carry on luggage policies and over carryons were over weight ad we had to take stuff out and put it in our already full and overweight luggage. So we end up paying $70 each for our overweight luggage because she wouldn’t bypass the charge. So we are pissed and also about to miss our flight. So we put our luggage down the speedy line and ran through the Sydney airport… Since we enjoy that so much (we ran through it to make our flight last time to nz). Turns out they moved our gate so thank god we asked someone at 38 and had to run back to 34 to realize noone had loaded the plane yet!!! So we grab some fruit and water as our dinner as we are dripping in sweat. Finally board the plane and get the very back, tiny seats, no tv haha. Virgin blue sucks! Never fly them!! So it’s raining right? Well take off sucks and the first ten minutes is bad turbulance and we are about to have panic attacks. Not cool. I took a dramamine and passed out.
Atleast it gets a little better. We get off the plane not through a terminal, we walk off. 🙂 so cool! And then our bags came right away and there was a sun palm shuttle that went to our hostel right there! For $15 roundtrip they took us to the hostel and are picking us up on Monday! The driver told us our hostel was very popular and the place to stay. The codes to the gate and lockbox worked and we got our room– the sun room. We have regular beds, a queen and a twin. Good start. We explored where bathrooms were and looked at reef tour brochures. We also found a nice pool we may hit up today. It’s like 80 degree weather and super humid out. But defintely wonderful coming from cold weather. Hey I might have some sort of tan when I get back.
Today we are going to book our great barrier reef snokel and look at what else there is to do then call the post office to see how much it would cost to mail 10kilos (23lbs) and then explore town! 🙂
Keep ya updated from Aussie land!!
Organized Mess 