Melbourne to Christchurch

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We went on our last overseas holiday after one of our longest ever breaks from overseas travel. We have departed on our second overseas trip this year after one of the shortest gaps ever between our overseas holidays.

After being at home for just 24 days, late this evening we boarded flight JQ 173 bound for New Zealand. Well, actually, we were due to board our plane late this evening, but … Kerry dropped us off at Tullamarine about 9.00pm and we breezed through Jetstar’s self check-in. It is very quiet at Tullamarine late in the day!

Screening and immigration was deserted so we made our way through in record time … even though I was selected for the full body scan and Bernie’s bag was taken aside for extra scrutiny after it passed through the X-ray machine. It is SO MUCH EASIER to go through screening now that you don’t have to unpack your laptop, tablet, etc and put everything electrical in a separate tub.

I just wish that they could deal with you leaving your belt on to hold up your pants! I really should look into purchasing a belt with no metal parts so that I don’t have the hassle of taking my belt off and putting it back on again ha, ha. With our carry on luggage cleared and our belts back around our middles we proceeded to the smart immigration gate. We must be getting better at looking at exactly the right spot to be processed because we through in no time.

Off to Qantas Club. Hmmn, that was all very nice until they closed Qantas Club at 11.00pm. Not to worry, our flight is due to board about now so we’ll wander down to the gate lounge and, hopefully, straight onto the plane. That would have been fabulous but, of course, it didn’t happen quite that way.

We arrived at the gate and it was PACKED with people. There were bodies, sitting, standing and even laying, EVERYWHERE. Heaps of people were queuing at the desk, but they turned out to be transit passengers getting themselves checked in for their onwards flight to NZ. Ahem, those were the transit passengers that were pretty much on time for the JQ 173 flight to Christchurch. Then we had to wait for transit passengers whose flights had not arrived in Melbourne in time for them to make their connection to NZ as scheduled. GROAN! Fortunately at about this time we did manage to get a seat in the gate lounge after standing around for about half an hour.

Finally, at the time that we should have been departing, we started boarding the plane … just after midnight.



Steps for the day: 17,069 (12.21km)

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