Monday 16 January 2017 - Straya bound

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Early start, got to the airport and saw refreshingly that there was no queue at the Air NZ check-in... I strolled cockily by the large Virgin Australia queue to check-in "Oh that booking was made via Air NZ but it's actually a Virgin Australia flight. Dang!
Bought a top up for my phone and (after some faffing about) managed to purchase an international/roaming package for my trip (supposedly saves you exorbitant roaming fees) just in time to board my flight. There was no in-flight entertainment... luckily I'd brought my own, in the form of a book by David Mitchell (the brilliant author, not the comedian) "the thousand autumns of Jacob de Zoet". Also entertained myself by making faces at a baby a couple of seats in front of me, which she seemed to love and her mum was quite grateful for.

Arrived in Brisbane... and it is HOT! Hopped on the bus to the international terminal... random thought: it seems kind of funny to see planes with "VIRGIN" written on them in huge letters... I wonder if they had to pay 59 pence compensation for disagreeing with Vyvyan too.
Ate some overpriced but not bad Mexican food at the airport and hopped on the flight to Melbourne. Tried to read but kept dozing off so I just let myself sleep... woke up a few times, once with a giant snort and once elbowing the old lady next to me as I jerked awake!

Arrived in Melbourne and again it was stinking hot (a nice change from the weather back home) no network reception on the phone, but luckily my little green notebook came to the fore and I read my friend Hayden's instructions on the best (cheapest) way to get into the city.
I arrived at a train station and encountered some shirtless white guys wandering around yelling racial insults at any coloured person they could lay eyes on... welcome to Australia?
At the Flinders Street station in Melbourne and still no WiFi... at which point you realise just how dependent you are on your damned phone, I had no way of phoning or texting, I had no internet connection to use messenger and even my contact numbers were inaccessible and to top it all off, Hayden didn't know where/when I was coming so would have no reason to be hanging around! Luckily I managed to hook onto the free WiFi and bid Hayden rescue me.
After a bit of grocery etc shopping we headed back to his huge apartment (the whole place was probably the size of my bedroom back home), there was one bed so I started making plans around sleeping on the floor with my bag as a pillow and my towel as a blanket, but then Hayden magically produced an airbed, a pillow and a blanket (scholar and a gent).
We headed off to a Chinese restaurant where I had some bloody delicious pork and chive dumplings, which Hayden assures me are pretty close to what you'd get in China (and he should know, having been there and all). A bit of a tumultuous start to proceedings but a successful day all in all.

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