Day 9 - Travel to Aus, or so we thought

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So day 9 was not filled with any plans except to fly from Queenstown to Auckland to Melbourne, Australia. Not a big deal, or so we thought. We slept in and had a nice full breakfast buffet at the hotel. After our late check-out we returned our rental car at the airport and headed to check-in. We were flying Jetstar which is a low cost carrier in New Zealand and Australia, but low cost is relative. Our first clue should have been the 40-50 people waiting to check-in and the whopping 2 employees checking them in. Good thing we were there early as it took us 45 minutes to check in. In the states you get 50 pounds for luggage, not so here, plus you have to pay/kilo. So for 70 pounds we paid an extra $130 to for our bags. Kirsten first learned the hard way on her initial trip to NZ that if you don’t pre-pay for your bags, they charge you triple at the airport. We called before-hand and were only charged double. On the website when you make your reservation, before you even make the reservation, you have to estimate the weight of your luggage and you can pay online, they don’t let you go back after you’ve made the reservation to pay. Thanks Jetstar, you guys are the worst airline ever. So we head to the gate thinking we will head through security, but no everyone sits on this side of security and waits till they call your flights. We pulled up a seat at the bar and ordered a beer and a Bloody Mary. Well a mere $25 later we finished our drinks and headed to security as they finally called our flight. We head through security into an area that has 2 departing flights with room enough for people in maybe half of one of them. It is wall to wall people with the workers getting upset because people are in the way. I’m not sure where they wanted us to go. Finally we board and leave a little bit late but no big deal.
Once we arrived in Auckland which, remember is in the same country as Queenstown we have to go get our luggage, go back out to security, stand in line AGAIN with the same airline and check-in for the next leg. Again, there were 50-60 people waiting in line to check in with 2 people working. An hour later we are checked in and heading to security. We had about 2 more hours before our flight left so we got another real deal on food and headed to the gate past security (please read previous sentence with sarcastic tone). At this point they are still not telling us what gate we are at, which should have been our first clue. We sit in a general area and check the boar every so often. We are schedule to leave at 9PM. The board says 0100. We figure there must be a computer glitch. But Kirsten checks on-line and yes our flight is delayed till 1AM. We just checked in and the workers said nothing, and there were no updates as to why the flight is delayed. There was nothing but 0100 staring at us from the board. Our plan was we were scheduled to arrive in Melbourne at 11PM, go to the hotel, sleep or a few hours, shower, and then drive over to the pick-up spot to catch a bus at 6AM for a 3 day trip to Adelaide. This was the plan. Back to reality, we are sitting in the Auckland airport, there was still no gate and no representative anywhere to give anyone information. About 2 hours later they finally announce the flight is delayed and you can pick up a $10 voucher for food. Of course we had already eaten, but bought some snacks. We find some good couches to stretch out on and take some naps. Kirsten is doing the math and figuring out if we can get to hotel, take a shower and maybe get an hour of sleep. Chester is unable to do the math; she’s an English teacher who hasn’t balanced her checkbook since college. Around 1AM we head to the gate and everyone is a bit irritated. Here we learn that the flight the day before had been hit by lightening and those people were still waiting to get to Melbourne. They continue to make announcements that we will leave any minute now. They changed gates and a plane was at the new gate, which was finally a good sign. Good news is the plane was here and was ready, but they had not had time to cater it in the 24+ hours it had been there and we had to have water, so we wait. At 3AM we finally leave. We are schedule to arrive at 4:30 AM. It was a pretty miserable sight to see everyone just getting angrier and angrier with each announcement about catering the plane and having water. Hey Jetstar, it’s 3 in the morning and no one is going to purchase anything from you and your bloody cart. We are all going to be sleeping on the plane, so don’t bother us with you sodas and chips, “for purchase.”
At this point we figure we are going to miss our bus by 10 minutes. We get through immigrations and wait for our luggage. Great, first 2 big pieces come out quick. We smell victory and a shower in our future! Then 25 minutes later the last 2 bags finally emerge from baggage. We run to a taxi and get a driver who talks non-stop. We can only take 30 pounds of luggage each onto the bus so we have to stop by the hotel to drop off our luggage and image how comfortable it would have been to sleep that night. We did a quick change in the lobby bathroom and then back to taxi to meet the bus. We were there at 6:05 AM. And thank goodness, like this entire trip they tell you to be on time but they never are. So 10 minutes later the bus arrives and we are complete zombies and let’s just say we had the “not so fresh feeling”. We are now off for 3 days in a bus driving up the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide.

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