Great start to the day, all packed up, passport still in my posession and chicken check completed. There was one minor hitch in the plan, our extra legroom seats at the front of a 787 turned into normal seats at the back of a A320. Good old Air NZ, all the cost of Emirates with the service of RyanAir.
The first meal of the trip didn't quite get the photographic record such an important event warrants. I remembered to take a photo just before the last bite. A bagel that was in desperate need of some salt, served by some spotty oik who does that annoying thing Best Ugly Bagels do by shouting out each item as you order it.
Always a great sign when the flight changes boarding gate 7 times and isn't there at the alleged departure time. Got some steps in though, since this was about the most distance you can get in the airport between security and the gate.
About an hour later this is what the nosebleeds looks like. Louie had a personalised welcome message on his screen which was a nice touch. I didn't which was more of a bad touch.
Lunch was okay, not terrible but the ice cream was amazing. Will be looking for this when we get back!
Australia! Looking fairly green and healthy which is a bit different. The flight was kind of rough, quite bumpy in parts but miraculously I didn't put any of my food or drinks down my front.
Bit murky coming into Melbourne.
And not much better once we landed. The delights of the day continued soon after this. We got through immigration without a hitch, it really is such an easy thing these days.
The problem was getting our luggage. At least half an hour wait for them to appear to add to our bugger of a trip.
So weird seeing these trams all along the roads. I also saw a couple of hook turns in action. Still can't get my head around the concept. Melbourne airport does a great thing with pick ups. You get a pin number join the queue and when you're at the front, you get the next one. Kind of exactly like taxis without the racist driver and extortionate price.
Less helpful in this process is the lack of decent directions on where to find the Uber pick up area, and the guy managing the queue who told us to "go down there and get into the white car". Mate, they're all white.
The Great Northern Super Crisp wasn't very crisp, more like "Reasonably Wet and Beer-like." This was my complimentary drink for having to wait for our room.
An hour later and one teacher-voice conversation with the check in lad we still had no room but were getting a free breakfast. The actual room took another 30 minutes. This time was spent navigating the insane steps needed to activate our SIM cards, which added to the drama.
A room, at last. Pretty much sums it up, not a shit-hole which is a great start.
Melbourne, a bit of it at least.
Across the road from the hotel is "Chinatown" which is probably the best smelling street I've ever been down. So many amazing looking restaurants with massive windows so you can see what everyone is eating and see them cooking.
An emergency stop in to Meyers because someone didn't bring a jacket because it was so hot this time of year in Sydney and now they were freezing cold. What was on offer is
ugly, whatever the trend is this year, I'm glad I'm not part of it! The trip was unsuccessful, ee left without a jacket. Didn't bother me in my shorts and tshirt, amongst the locals wrapped in coats and scarfs in the artic 15° temperatures.
As a side note, Meyers are definitely embraced the Lego theme. Not sure if I love or hate their trees.
More Lego theme and a dirty great queue to see... something. I couldn't tell and I wasn't about to wait in line again to find out. Bound to be a Christmas thing.
Yesterday while we were waiting for our Uber from home our neighbour told us about a place called Brunetti's. It's a cake, desert, bar and Italian restaurant, in that order as you walk in. The pizza at Brunetti's just amazing, and a pretty average price. They were quite large but by this time it was 11pm NZ time and the last thing I had eaten was the flight meal so there was definitely room for desert!
The selection process was extremely difficult, but they have little squares of the same things so I got French custard, pear and cookies and cream.
One on the right was the best by far. French custard with cranberries maybe. Cookies and cream was a mistake.
And then a 20 minute walk home past some very unusual and lively lanes and buildings. Opposed to New Zealand, Melbourne at night is alive, loads of people out, bars and theatres busy, everything was relatively clean, didn't see anyone causing trouble. Compare to Queen St or Courtney Place during the day, this was so much safer and livelier feeling by a long shot.
Time for some well deserved sleep...
That is until half an hour later when we were woken by a crazy fire alarm telling us to prepare to evacuate. Which we tried to ignore and stayed in bed.
And then it decided it was time to evacuate. Half way into getting dressed it stopped. My H&S brain said the raging fire could have destroyed the alarm system, my human brain said "tired" and back to be we went.
Still alive this morning so human brain won.
