Breakfast today was made up using all the remaining eggs and bacon, along with the last remaining slices of bread. As the flight was to Sydney, I was very aware that I could not take any food with me to where I was going. I carefully labelled my left over food in the bag, using Japanese and English to indicate that the food was free for anyone to take and/or use.
Today's plan was to go to the museum, and then the airport to get the flight to Sydney. This plan was soon derailed as I got chatting about my travel plans with the people at reception, who were asking me lots of questions about it, having learned that I could speak a bit of Japanese, and that I had been planning to go there for a few months.
Yoan had left behind a sleeping bag that he wanted to give away, and there was a hoody that had been left behind either by him or someone else, so I was advised to bring the sleeping bag to reception, and o leave the rest in the room where it would be picked up by the cleaners, and put to the lost property area.
By the time I left, it was already after 11am. I decided that I would walk in to the city, rather than get a bus, so I walked along Worcester Road as far as I could, before I reached a point where it was closed off by the road works, then made my way to the Re:start mall to do some organising for getting to Tasmania to meet with Jessica when I got to Australia.
Google Maps had advised that there was an STA travel at Re:start Mall, but it was out of date, so I sent an update to them, and then went on to the bus exchange to figure out the best route to go so that I only needed one ticket to make it to the airport.
The person at the counter advised that the best option was to get a bus as far as the McDonalds just before the airport, as then it was just a 10 minute walk, and only needed a normal tranfer ticket, rather than the extra $8 to get to the airport proper.
I sat in the terminal for a bit trying to decide on a course of action, then went to the bank to draw enough money to get either bus. I then wandered towards the museum, but realised that there wasn't really time to do that and be at the airport at a comfortable time, so I made my way to get the bus to Riccarton.
I hopped on the bus, and was soon at the mall where I'd got the phone, and the guy in STA recognised me. He advised that for the stuff in Australia, I was better waiting till I got to the mainland, then helped me get the cheapest tickets to Tasmania. They were a bit more than I'd expected, but when we first checked we hadn't taken account of the fact that I was going to be carrying 20kg of check in baggage with me! With that arranged, I went on the hunt for some Hokey Cokey ice cream, which a spod friend had recommended to me, but I was unable to find any, and as I was now getting nervous about my check in, I hopped on the next airport bus and walked the last 5 minutes to the terminal
This airport offered free wifi, which was much better than the wifi had been at Kiwi House, so I managed to upload a lot of the photos that had been sitting there waiting to go, and after checking my luggage in, I headed to the nearest place I could to grab a meal, as I had no packed lunch with me, and wouldn't get in to Sydney until late evening. I found a nice pub which had local beers, and sold a good burger meal at a decent price. In addition, I was able to split the bill such that I could get rid of all the rest of my New Zealand currency and pay the remainder balance with my card - meaning I didn't have to cart useless loose change with me for the next year - win win as far as I was concerned!
I made it through security after filling in a departure form, ad was approached by a tourism person with a request to fill in a questionairre about my visit. I was happy to oblige, and was rewarded with a free pen.
The flight was very spacious and comfortable again, being one of the main flights back to Dubai, though this one was via Sydney. The on board wifi was not functioning, but my plan was to use the time to catch up more with the journals, so I did that. The wrong menus were handed out, so when the unch snack was offered I had to make an on the fly (no pun intended!) decision, and opted for salmon, which was delicious!
By 5 to 7pm (Australian time), we were advised that it was 45 minutes to landing and that we would start our descent soon, making it the last chance to stretch our legs before the seatbelt lights came on. I grabbed the opportunity to go to the loo, and then buckled in.
We finished landing for 7.47pm, but were advised that we would have to park near the terminal for a bit to allow a plane there to pull away. This was meant to be a 10-15 minute delay, ut 8pm came and the announcement was updated to advise a further 20 minutes. 8.30pm came and there was no movement, followed by an update at 8.35 advising that we would be reaching the gate soon, the delays being caused due to a backlog after a number of flights were unable to take off due to poor weather earlier in the evening.
After another 5-10 minutes we finally made it to the gate, and we all filed though the terminal building to be processed by customs and immigration.
I followed the signs and found myself presented with an option to use my biometric data passport for the first time, so I went for that route - I just had to get my passport scanned by a machine, then stand in front of an automatic camera and be photographed, and then I was automatically allowed through, no stamp and noting else.
I then made my way through to the 'things to declare' line so that I could declare my malaria tablets as well as the fact that I had been on a sheep farm and wading through fresh water and camping in wet and muddy conditions.
After being asked about the exact nature of those declarations, I was allowed to proceed without my bags being checked, and made it to the arrivals and departures main concourse.
My first port of call was the mobile phone operator stands, where I looked for a good deal to see me through my stay in Australia. The winner was again Vodafone, as I could purchase 8GB of mobile data for $30, which was 8x more data than I got for the same price in New Zealand!
Once I was registered and had the data activated, I looked up hostels and called the Elephant Backpackers, who confirmed that there were plenty of beds available. With that re-assurance, I booked a shuttle bus, and went to wait at the pick up point.
WHile I was waiting, I caught up with some posts of Facebook, and found one of the Japanese ones a little confusing. Fortunately, I had noticed that there were some Japanese people waiting at the bus stop, so I nervously approached and asked (in Japanese) if they could speak English (they responded they could a little), and that I didn't quite understand a meme (which I showed them). They helped me to understand that it was an expression that is used to express that something feels good or is cute.
The bus finally arrived and picked us up, but it took just as long to get in to town, as there seemed to be some road closures and traffic jams on the way - this was somewhat different to New Zealand, where the traffic was never busy enough to create traffic jams!
I got talking with a Swedish person on the bus, who was only in Australia for 4 days, and looking for things to do in Sydney, as she wanted to go to the zoo. I helped her find a few animal parks and zoos before her hostel came up, then my own hostel was reached and I piled out of the bus and in to the hostel.
After checking in, I went to the room, where I met my room mate Thomas, who was from Marseilles in France. He advised that he was having problems with the bed due to something biting him in the night (he called them bed sheep), and I had already read some bad reviews about bed bugs, so I was a little nervous. I had only booked for one night due to the bad reviews, but Thomas's comments made me determined to book somewhere else for the rest of my stay.
I booked in to Lord Wolseley hostel in Ultimo area of Sydney, close to Darling Harbour, for the remaining nights, then went to get ready for bed.
On my way back from the bathroom I noticed a guy with reddish hair wearing a Scotland top, so I asked if he was from Scotland, and he confirmed that this was the case. His name was Ross, and he'd been staying in this hostel for a while, with no problems with the beds. He was in Australia on a working visa, but had not started looking for work yet, having been in Oz for only 10 weeks and had been treating it as a holiday so far.
I made it back to the room, where Thomas was already asleep, and nervously went to sleep in the hot and humid conditions, hoping I wouldn't be eaten alive!