Mandy's Adventure: Going Home

Monday 8 November 2010

The air conditioning is so cold! For two nights we haven't slept well because of it. We turned the temperature up, but it still continued to blast. You would think from 16 degrees to 25 degrees would make a difference! I am talking Celsius by the way.

Also, there was a major fight going on in the night. A lady was screaming "HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT TO ME!" over and over. A guy said, "Hey, we are trying to sleep here!" Someone later said, "You have to leave." We don't know what came of it. It went on for a really long time.

We got ready and packed. We went to breakfast, and I had my fourth cup of tea in a row...and my last...hopefully. I finished my juice and poured water in my drink bottle. We weren't sure about the water here, so we bought a lot of water. The problem was, we bought too much. It wouldn't have been a problem if we could board the plane with it. Because it was expensive, we didn't want to waste it. So, we would have to drink it before we went through security. We went in the taxi cab and went to the airport. The taxi driver tried to make us pay more, but we said we were told it only cost $10. He was highly upset, but said he had to accept it. He better. We were told it would only cost $10 and he was making us pay $12. I know it is only $2, but it makes me mad.

We had to wait to check in. While we waited, the Fijian Police Academy came in and played. It was cool to see the Police Academy in two different countries. We finally were able to check in. I had to down 500 mL of water before security. They saw me and laughed. I have had so much liquid today. Probably 1.5 Litres in an hour or two. It actually made me feel sick. We went through and I immediately proceeded to the bathroom. I had to go at least 9 times before boarding the plane. The weather was bad. It was raining a lot, and they kept delaying the flight, because they couldn't refuel. It was really irritating. Our flight was delayed over an hour.

Our flight was very full. Most of the passengers were children. So it was very noisy. My chair was in constant motion as it was being kicked (kind of like many other flights I have endured thus far in the trip). Babies were constantly crying or hacking up a lung or two. It was gross. So...we got a hack, three kicks, crying, two people hacking, chatter, chatter, chatter, hock, kick kick, chatter, chatter, hock, hock, sneeze, chatter, crying, wailing...All 4.5 hours. But wait! We couldn't land!

The weather was so bad in Sydney that we couldn't land right away. So we did circles around the ocean for over an hour. With all the noise, lack of food or water, and the constant circling, we both starting feeling ill. I felt motion sickness and light headed. As soon as we landed, Alison and I bolted out of the plane. We got through customs first, and it was so easy and fast. Then we went to the desk for the shuttle. The girl was talking to someone else and took her time (she was talking to a staff member). When we told her we wanted the shuttle, she kind of brushed us aside and said, "Sit there. It will be a while." The guy said the flights were delayed, so the shuttle would be a while coming. We were getting nervous the hostel would close. We talked to the man, and he said "Let's hope I can call the shuttle in 20 minutes." He wouldn't call the shuttle until there was "enough" people. Planes were being diverted somewhere else, so there were no people coming. We were literally the only plane to land. Most other flights had to land in another city. We waited for a really long time, but two guys had been waiting there over an hour. They eventually left, because it was too long.

Everyone was frustrated. Alison called the hostel to tell them what was going on. We waited about 45 minutes when the guy finally called for the shuttle. He told us where to go. We left and it started pouring. Thunder, lightening...the whole works. The lightning was so frequent, it was more like a strobe light. It was very strange.

We thought we had to cross the street. Just as we did, we realised we needed to go back. Someone was trying to talk to us, asking what we needed. We said we needed to cross the street to gate 32. He kept saying something, but he was wasting our time and getting us wet. We got the shuttle, but we had to switch shuttles in the Domestic Airport. We waited a really long time before the driver left. As we approached our hostel, there were two guys standing in front, in their underwear. The literally lied down in the street on their stomach, and splashed around in the water with their hands as if they were swimming. LOVELY!

We quickly went passed and rang the bell for the reception. The girl couldn't find us on her list. Figures. They were doing construction on the building, so they only had 2 bathrooms in the entire building. How efficient. We said we were supposed to get towels and a free Internet code. She seemed surprised we would want them. We just went straight to bed. We were ready for this day to be over.

Tuesday 9 November 2010

It wasn't raining, amazingly enough, so we got out and went into the city. We went straight to the Opera House. We ate lunch, looked around, and went to the airport. The flight was delayed an hour due to all the problems yesterday's weather caused. We emailed Anne and Alister not to wait up for us. They were planning on picking us up at the airport when we arrived. We were going to come in late, but the delay would make us later.

We started checking in. The gate must have just opened. We were the only ones in line. The guy was in training, I think. He had a lady come over to help him. The lady told us we needed proof of a ticket to leave New Zealand. Neither one of us had our ticket to leave New Zealand. They said we could get it printed off at the Air New Zealand counter. So we went over there, and the lady said it would cost $5 each. She could tell we were upset and said it was because everyone did it. The most we have ever paid to get a printout was 50 cents, and that was outrageous. I'm sure $5 will help the multiple printouts for people to cover the cost.

I was saying something about showing our email, and she said we had to have a hard copy. We got it and went all the way back to the other line, and there was a HUGE line. We were VERY upset by this point. After waiting a while, the lady came over and said we didn't have to wait in line. She said he would finish with the guy and work with us. The guy took FOREVER!!! It actually wouldn't have mattered if we went through the line or not, because the ladies in front of us were at the front by the time he finally got to us. We might as well have waited in line. They did apologise a lot. When we finished, he said, "Do you have different visas? Because you (pointing to Alison) needed to have a ticket home, but you (pointing to me) didn't."

Shocked and appalled silence...

I said, "You mean I didn't need to have proof of a ticket?" He realised his mistake then, because he tried to cover by saying, "You MIGHT need it in New Zealand, so to be safe..." He could sense danger as we said it cost $5 and we didn't even need it. We did not have money to spend, and we would be in the airport a while. I already exchanged all the foreign currency money I had to cover this cost. I had NOTHING. So I spent $5 I didn't need to spend. I was so mad, I could barely see. We walked to cool off. We went through security, and Alison got the explosive test and pat down. We went through and slumped in a couple of seats. We just wanted to go home.

Alison and I were separated by an aisle, so we couldn't really talk. We sat up at the first hint of a decline and waited, hoping it was the descent. Several minutes later, they announced our descent into Christchurch. I cannot even tell you our excitement. We landed and ran to go through customs, which took forever! Alister texted us and told us they would pick us up anyway, so to text him when we landed. Neither one of us had to show our $5 printout. We were a little bitter.

We finally were able to get through customs and walked quite quickly. I saw Alister first, and we started running toward him. As soon as he saw us, he rushed over and gave us big hugs. He said, "Of course we were going to pick you up." Anne was not feeling well and was in the car waiting for us. We gave her a hug and drove home. We gave them snippets of our trip, got home, unpacked, put our clothes in piles, took showers, and went to bed after 1:30 am.