Departure Day - Friday 17th December 2010
We departed Auckland on Flight NZ101 Air New Zealand Friday 17th December 2010, 7am. We choose this flight for two reasons, it’s not an Airbus which I hate, and it means you arrive in Sydney at a reasonable time, so you actually get a full day. Downside is you loose half a nights sleep before you leave! Having to get up at 3.15am is not fun.
With the new Air NZ check-in system we were sorted really quickly. Having the wheelchair and walker was no issue, but did mean we couldn’t go to the self check-in booths – no biggie really. It is so nice to know you can take all the extra ‘baggage’ without penalty. Our checked bags weighed in at 39.4kgs, just under the limit. We usually travel quite lightly, but the bags were carefully packed with wine for my Uncle and Aunt.
We were upstairs in the food hall having a nice coffee and muffin by 5am – plenty of time to amble our way through Customs etc – we just don’t like rushing, after all this is holiday time.
Our early morning flight was not full thankfully, 174 passengers, capacity 234. Our embarkation started a little late, but the airport staff are always so calm and polite in such events. One man – who we ended up referring to as Mr Pink Shirt, made himself very unpopular by getting hot under the collar as we had not started boarding by 6.30am, and he had a connecting flight. Why people have to make such a scene is beyond me. We chatted to the staff member, as we were in the priority area, and she was quite ‘non plus’ about it all, and commented should Mr Pink Shirt become obnoxious she would ensure he missed his connection!
There were a lot of young children, however only one in our forward cabin, which was interestingly only about 20% full, which suited us fine. The flight got off to a bad start when the plane pushed out from the air bridge by the tug as we lost virtually all power right in the middle of the flight safety demonstration, necessitating the whole system to be rebooted and the crew having to resort to doing the demonstrations the old way – in the aisle It took a while before the entertainment system to come back up. (Mr Pink Shirt would have been even more agitated, but as he was in a rear cabin we didn’t have to put up with him!)
Breakfast was scrambled eggs, which was nice however the coffee was cool, probably due to the electrical failure. Such is life.
I settled into watching “Eat, Pray, Love” with Julia Roberts and being over 2hrs long meant I was sorted for entertainment for most of the trip. Pete spent most of his entertainment flicking through an assortment of programmes, but about an hour out of Sydney his screen froze on “Nanny McPhee” with the ‘return’ arrow in the middle of the screen. No point stressing about that!
On arrival at Sydney, we waited as usual for the rest of the passengers to disembark. Mr Pink Shirt made a rush to be one of the first off, of course! This that does not worry us, as the rush and crowd are all but gone by the time we get to Immigration. Besides we were entertained by the passengers behind us and the helpful crew fruitlessly looking for a lost earring!
Once all the passengers were clear, it crew discovered the two wheelchairs that were at the gate had been ‘stolen’ by another airline! So after some communications and negotiations, we had to walk to the end of the air bridge (not too far thankfully) to a waiting people mover. Of we went to Immigration to find the place deserted, and no wheelchairs, and you cannot go through Immigration in the people mover. More negotiations, and another staff member kindly albeit reluctantly gave us a chair.
By the time we got to the baggage carousels our flight number was no longer showing any where so we had a wander and found our bags going around a carousel all on there own. Once the bags were retrieved we set off to the Fragile Luggage area to collect the powerchair and walker. The walker was fine, but the chair had been badly handled with the joystick rubber cover missing and the lock for the battery all out of shape! What a pain. No point stressing, and of course trying to ‘find’ the joystick cover would have been a total waste of time, so we didn’t even bother trying to find a staff member.
All organised we headed for Biosecurity – again this area was deserted with only staff in attendance, and I am sure we were a nuisance, stopping them for their morning gossip session. Our bags were passed through the scanner and they promptly returned to gossiping without so much as a thank you or any assistance.
Outside in Arrivals Hall was jammed pack – that’s were all the passengers were!!! Then to get to the Car Rentals, we ending up having to fight our way though a large Asian Tour Group was not easy with the amount luggage of luggage we had. A bit of pushing and with the odd loud “Excuse Me” we got there. Again, no queue as such at Budget Rentals, just one person in front of us. Signing up and getting sorted for the car was a breeze and we were most relieved to be told that the day before all Budget Cars had gone live with the auto charging of Toll Road Charges directly onto your credit card by the Road Toll Agency. One less hassle, as we wanted to use the Toll Roads to get in and out of Sydney.
So we were off to Canberra, by 10.30am. A little later than we hoped but still reasonable.
The trip to Canberra is so easy with the M5 motorway. A couple of turns out of the airport and no lights etc until you get to Canberra 3 hrs or so later. We stopped at Pleasants Nest for an early lunch break as it was some time since we had been fed and watered. Driving in we spotted this amazing 1926 Rolls Royce Hearse at the fuel pump. First photo shot of the holiday! Not something one would expect to see, and there seemed to be a stream of people doing likewise.
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| 1926 Rolls Royce Hearse |
The trip down was pretty uneventful, but not so for those heading to Sydney. We saw a car on fire on the Northbound lanes, and the traffic that was building up behind was staggering. Glad it wasn’t us. The car was still alight when we passed by the Fire Department had it under control. Bit scary that a car can go up just like that as there was no evidence of an accident etc.
Three days in Canberra with family
Our arrival in Canberra was spot on, according to Uncle Bill when we arrived. He had calculated we would arrive at 2pm. Making the most of opportunities to spend time my late mother’s siblings is most important.
Disappointingly the weather in Canberra was more like an Auckland winter than a summer, in fact the mountains south had a dusting of snow which meant the temperatures were a tad cold. Hence we didn’t venture too far, which was fine.
The only ‘must do’ task was to locate a dealership selling mobility scooters as the ‘joystick’ from my trusty Puzzle chair had been lost during transit. Here my cousin stepped up to the mark as a chap who lives in his cul-de-sac (and sponsors Rob in the Transplant Games) was just the dealer we needed. After some jovial exchanges about allowing Kiwi’s into the area and about not being able to pick your family he handed over the required part at no charge – what a nice chap.
On our last day, we enjoyed a rather long family Christmas BBQ lunch that started early and finished late, with all the Canberra Bensons in attendance.
Return to Sydney
Our return drive to Sydney was unremarkable, and we managed to somehow navigate the Eastern Corridor Toll Road and arrive at The Menzies Hotel (opposite Wynyard Station) without much to do.
I wish we could say the same about returning the car from the hotel to Budget Rentals! For starters the maps provided by Budget and the hotel did not bother to mention the masses of One-way, No Right Turn, and No Left Turns in the CDB. So my big tip is – DON’T DO IT! We were about ½ hr into our short journey when we realised we needed petrol, so we pulled over to the side to ‘take 5’ and assess where we were and where should be! Low and behold at the next intersection was a petrol station. That solved we spent another ½ hr getting to Budget. Then we encountered a very obnoxious Asian Garage Attendant who said the damage on the car would have to be paid for, despite our insistence it was there when we picked it up. He insisted it was not marked so it was out fault. I told him that ‘we would see about that’ So off to the Office and another ½ hr with a very patient staff member who managed to confirm our story and that indeed the damage was ‘old’. Second Tip – Take photos of rental cars, regardless of what anyone says or writes!!
The walk back to The Menzies took us half the time of the drive! Glad Pete didn’t go on his own, he would have still being trying to find his way out – a navigator was necessary.
