I leave Melbourne after experiencing the craziness of their weather. It was 9 degC when I arrived and went to a max of around 18 degC before having a day of 30 degC! Then it turned cold again. Talk about extremes!
I had had too much sleep the night before last and suffered last night with sleeplessness. It’s just so not me.
My normal means of going to Tullamarine airport is using the Skybus. However the connecting shuttle service has reduced their pickup points which requires a longish walk now. I opted to try the Star Shuttle which was only AUD2 more, and provided me with a door-to-door service.
With an 0815 pickup, I was at the airport at 0900. I had a short wait before the Air New Zealand kiosks would issue a boarding pass for my 1210 flight to Auckland. Once I had that in hand, I went to the Plaza Premium for breakfast but they didn’t have a shower available here.
I learned that the flight was late by 40 minutes. When the aircraft arrived, the delay dragged on till an hour. The pilot advised us that due to lightning risk, the Auckland airport tarmac had to be closed this morning for the safety of ground staff.
Then their flight over to Melbourne encountered headwinds which made for a long crossing. Fortunately, that meant that we had a fast crossing back to Auckland arriving only 30 mins late at 1815.
The short crossing meant that I didn’t have time to watch all the programmes that interested me on board (which is really rare). In conjunction with Air New Zealand’s upcoming resumption of flights to Korea, there were six episodes of programmes on Korean food. All of it looked so delicious I’m so looking forward to being back in Korea to eat more!
With queues at quarantine/customs, it took over 30 minutes before I was landside for my journey back home after two-and-a-half 2 months.