Wineglass Bay from the lookoutAfter a long travel day (see below), my first impression of Tasmania was that it was too cold. I had of course packed like an optimist for warm weather and ended up wearing pretty much the same thing all week long. The days did get warmer and were sunny as the week went on and the landscape only got more diverse and more beautiful. I also developed a little bit of a problem while I was there, stay tuned to learn about that in a few more posts.
I think Tasmania might be my favorite place on earth? That might be too strong a statement since my time down under is still quite young, but dang, did it ever make an impression. Maybe after I get all my pictures up you'll be able to understand why!
Day 1: Saturday 17 January
Diva and I took an airport shuttle from our front door to Gold Coast/Coolangatta Airport at 6am. We arrived at the airport at 5:59am (time change upon entry to Queensland) and proceeded to check in at the kiosks. The kiosks only gave us 1 boarding pass for our 2 legged trip. We thought this odd and asked a woman behind a counter, she said we could just get our next boarding pass in Melbourne. It was early in the morning, we were yet to have our coffee/espresso, and we knew we had nearly 2 hours layover in MEL. Welp. First our flight was delayed 30mins due to ‘technical operations.’ Fine, we could spare 30mins. Then once we were on the plane we sat on the tarmac for over an hour as the flight attendants took headcount after headcount after headcount. When an older female flight attendant was counting a man put his hand up and asked what the hold up was, the flight attendant replied “We’re doing a headcount. I want to be home now too, I have plans this afternoon. Thank you for supporting the crew” in a snotty tone, then turned and went back to the front of the plane to start again! The mid-section of the plane, where this exchange had taken place, erupted in chatter as she walked away. Once at the front she whispered something to another flight attendant and he made this announcement: “Please allow the crew to carry out the headcount uninterrupted. Thank you for your support.” The chatter went silent and the woman continued to count. And three other flight attendants counted too, one with a clicker counter thing. Finally one of them stopped and told us what was going on. Apparently, the headcount on the plane wasn’t matching the numbers the ground crew had, something to do with international passengers making their connections onto our flight. WTF, mate? Isn’t that what computers are for?! I felt like I was in the middle of a SES project assigned to 6th graders! Today’s assignment- Run an airline! FAIL!
So we finally took off and made it to Melbourne and as we were deplaning they announced my name over the PA telling me to meet the agent on the terminal, but Diva’s name was said. I had a bad feeling about that. Off the plane they are waiting with my next boarding pass for the Hobart flight that leaves in 20mins. We ask where Diva’s boarding pass is, but she ends up not being listed on the flight manifest and she’ll have to go to customer services, outside security (which is so lax compared to North America), to get this sorted out. Diva asked me to stay with her, so I got put on the next flight to Hobart at 4:30 (it was currently 1pm!).
So we went to customer services and they tell Diva that they can’t move her the 4:30pm flight because she had actually booked the late one, at 9:30pm! WHAT? ‘No I didn’t!’ says Diva, ‘I’m sure I didn’t.’ The guy was a jerk and says he can’t change her to the earlier one unless she can prove that she was on the one we just missed. So we went and found an internet kiosk to check Diva’s email and sure enough she’d booked the wrong one from the get go. Really weird since we had all sat side-by-side booking these flights. So we hang around for a little and then go back to customer services and a different lady is working and says Diva can try stand-by. So we go to the Virgin terminal (we flew Jetstar) and try to get a message to Chelsie, who is waiting in Hobart airport for us, thinking we’ll be there in an hour! Then we wandered around some more and got coffee (Diva’s 3rd of the day, she felt sick after). I got on the 4:30 flight but Diva was next in line and didn’t get on. What else could go wrong? I probably shouldn’t have been even thinking that I suppose! The 3 hour wait in the airport wasn’t that bad, we kept ourselves entertained.
Once in Hobart I turned on my phone while still on the plane, like normal, and Chelsie called. As I was deplaning, still on the phone, the flight attendant stopped me and told me I had to turn my phone off because there could be a $10,000 fine! So I hung up on Chelsie, luckily I had gotten the name of the hostel from her, went through Tasmanian Quarantine and then took the airport shuttle to the hostel. Chelsie and I went down to the harbor front for dinner and a little walk and called it a night. I waited up for Diva and then we hit the hay. What a long day.
Day 1: Saturday 17 January
Diva and I took an airport shuttle from our front door to Gold Coast/Coolangatta Airport at 6am. We arrived at the airport at 5:59am (time change upon entry to Queensland) and proceeded to check in at the kiosks. The kiosks only gave us 1 boarding pass for our 2 legged trip. We thought this odd and asked a woman behind a counter, she said we could just get our next boarding pass in Melbourne. It was early in the morning, we were yet to have our coffee/espresso, and we knew we had nearly 2 hours layover in MEL. Welp. First our flight was delayed 30mins due to ‘technical operations.’ Fine, we could spare 30mins. Then once we were on the plane we sat on the tarmac for over an hour as the flight attendants took headcount after headcount after headcount. When an older female flight attendant was counting a man put his hand up and asked what the hold up was, the flight attendant replied “We’re doing a headcount. I want to be home now too, I have plans this afternoon. Thank you for supporting the crew” in a snotty tone, then turned and went back to the front of the plane to start again! The mid-section of the plane, where this exchange had taken place, erupted in chatter as she walked away. Once at the front she whispered something to another flight attendant and he made this announcement: “Please allow the crew to carry out the headcount uninterrupted. Thank you for your support.” The chatter went silent and the woman continued to count. And three other flight attendants counted too, one with a clicker counter thing. Finally one of them stopped and told us what was going on. Apparently, the headcount on the plane wasn’t matching the numbers the ground crew had, something to do with international passengers making their connections onto our flight. WTF, mate? Isn’t that what computers are for?! I felt like I was in the middle of a SES project assigned to 6th graders! Today’s assignment- Run an airline! FAIL!
So we finally took off and made it to Melbourne and as we were deplaning they announced my name over the PA telling me to meet the agent on the terminal, but Diva’s name was said. I had a bad feeling about that. Off the plane they are waiting with my next boarding pass for the Hobart flight that leaves in 20mins. We ask where Diva’s boarding pass is, but she ends up not being listed on the flight manifest and she’ll have to go to customer services, outside security (which is so lax compared to North America), to get this sorted out. Diva asked me to stay with her, so I got put on the next flight to Hobart at 4:30 (it was currently 1pm!).
So we went to customer services and they tell Diva that they can’t move her the 4:30pm flight because she had actually booked the late one, at 9:30pm! WHAT? ‘No I didn’t!’ says Diva, ‘I’m sure I didn’t.’ The guy was a jerk and says he can’t change her to the earlier one unless she can prove that she was on the one we just missed. So we went and found an internet kiosk to check Diva’s email and sure enough she’d booked the wrong one from the get go. Really weird since we had all sat side-by-side booking these flights. So we hang around for a little and then go back to customer services and a different lady is working and says Diva can try stand-by. So we go to the Virgin terminal (we flew Jetstar) and try to get a message to Chelsie, who is waiting in Hobart airport for us, thinking we’ll be there in an hour! Then we wandered around some more and got coffee (Diva’s 3rd of the day, she felt sick after). I got on the 4:30 flight but Diva was next in line and didn’t get on. What else could go wrong? I probably shouldn’t have been even thinking that I suppose! The 3 hour wait in the airport wasn’t that bad, we kept ourselves entertained.
Once in Hobart I turned on my phone while still on the plane, like normal, and Chelsie called. As I was deplaning, still on the phone, the flight attendant stopped me and told me I had to turn my phone off because there could be a $10,000 fine! So I hung up on Chelsie, luckily I had gotten the name of the hostel from her, went through Tasmanian Quarantine and then took the airport shuttle to the hostel. Chelsie and I went down to the harbor front for dinner and a little walk and called it a night. I waited up for Diva and then we hit the hay. What a long day.
No comments:
Post a Comment