Above: After Tasmania, it seemed quite strange to be flying into a large city in mainland Australia. This continued for a couple of hours (eg. on public transport) where I felt a sense of re-adjustment!
Lucky flight
Today I fly from Launceston to Melbourne to stay with my cousin for three nights. I had booked an airport shuttle for 1000, for the 1205 Jetstar flight. The shuttle company rang (fortunately I had cheap roaming on my Singapore SIM card) around 0900 to bring forward the pickup to 0930.
With no queue at the Jetstar counter, bagdrop was easy and I was airside in minutes. Launceston airport is a very nice small airport with good internet for me to catch up with lots of online work.
Two hours went quickly and it was soon time to board. We ended up departing about 20 mins late which was nothing in these days of travel chaos especially in Europe.
The Qantas B717 to Melbourne which was meant to leave before us had landed but its departure was then delayed indefinitely. I later found out that it finally left 5h late! I consider my tiny delay to be very lucky.
On mainland Australia
After Tasmania, it seemed quite strange to be flying into a large city in mainland Australia. This continued for a couple of hours (eg. on public transport) where I felt a sense of re-adjustment!
Jetstar uses quite a large terminal in Melbourne and it was quite a walk to get to baggage claim. The Skybus closed up as soon as I got there but it wasn’t a big deal with departures every 10 mins. Basically, I waited briefly to board, then settled in, and then we were off!
My transport card here, Myki, had very little balance left and I thought I would switch to the NFC version on my phone. At the Southern Cross station, I simply couldn’t use the NFC version to open the turnstiles and had to resort to topping up my old card. Damn! I’ve now got AUD20 stuck somewhere I can’t use for a few years!
The train to Glen Waverley took about 40 mins and cousin Julia picked me up around 1545 for the short ride to their home. I was put up in a granny flat in their front yard, containing a large bedroom with ensuite. Equipped with microwave, toaster and jug, plus a potbelly for warmth, I was very comfortable.
We had a nice steamboat family with all their children, one of whom has already moved out.