Day 1 - Melbourne to Christchurch

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Left home nice and early for the 1.5 hr drive to Melbourne Airport to allow for any holder ups with traffic, unforseen accidents or any other hold ups to cause us to miss our 5.50pm flight on Jetstar Flight No. JQ171 to Christchurch. The trip was so hassle free, we arrived at the airport at 2pm. Dropped Judy, Brett and our luggage off at the Departure lounge and then jumped in the car and drove to and parked in the Long Term Car Park. Caught the shuttle bus back to the terminal, found the family, only to find we had another hour before "check in" opened.... well, it's better to be early than running late. Time to sit down and relax....funny how there is always something or somebody to look at to pass the time at an airport. " Check In" for our flight opened at 3.30pm. We stood in line for around an hour waiting to be checked in due to the fact the airline had only two operators open to book in the entire passenger list on this flight. Filled out our depature cards, and proceeded through passport control and customs. After a quick browse around the duty free shops we found our Gate lounge and waited for our call to board our flight. Boarded flight at 5.15pm, taxied out to runway and the wheels of flight no. JQ177 lifted off the tarmac at 5.50pm exactly. After a smooth 3.5 hours flight across the ditch we touched down at Christchurch airport at 11.10pm, New Zealand time. After disembarking and custom clearance, we were picked up outside by a shuttle bus and driven to the Sudima Airport hotel only 500 metres from the airport, our bed for the night before we pick up our motorhome tommorow and set off on our long awaited adventure.

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Photos

Ready to Go
Judy waits to board the plane