I was a little sad to be leaving Bali, but excited to get back to Auckland. My flight was at 1am, so I got to the airport about 1030pm. To even check in, you have to get your bags scanned, then searched. It is intense. While waiting to check in, I started talking to an Aussie guy named Daniel. He was on the same flight. We soon learned that our flight was delayed 4 1/2 hours! I started freaking out, cause I had a connecting flight to Auckland that left at 330pm from Sydney, and now we weren't supposed to arrive in Sydney till 240pm! Daniel was great, he calmed me down, assured me that when we got to Sydney, he would help me find someone to get me through security fast to make sure I caught my next flight. It was great to have someone help, since I was alone. We checked our bags in, then he decided we should go back into the city and get some drinks instead of waiting at the airport. At this time, another Aussie guy named Tristan had joined us. I had no Indo money left, so they paid for the cab and bought me drinks and it was a nice evening. They helped me relax and assured me I would catch my flight.
So, we rock back up to the airport at 330am. Flight is cancelled. The airport was empty, everyone else on the flight had learned it was cancelled much earlier, and were gone already. I instantly started crying, and sobing about how I was now going to miss my connector flight back to Auckland. I am SO GLAD I had met up with Daniel and Tristan, they helped so much. After what seemed like ages at the airport, they shuttled us off to a 5 star hotel for the night and next day. Hmm.. free stay at a 5 star hotel, an extra day in Bali.. maybe it wasn't so bad. So we stayed here:
Sanur Beach Hotel. I don't really have to say how nice it was, you can tell from the photos. The 3 of us had a room, and we didn't sleep at all. I was too stressed, they were too wired. We enjoyed an amazing free breakfast, then I got my flights sorted out. Once I had changed my flight to Auckland and it was all settled, we enjoyed a full day at this awesome hotel. Basically just in the pool all day.7pm it was back to the airport. More security. We now had to fly to Melbourne, then connect to Sydney. Then I had a 5 hour wait to catch my flight to Auckland. It was an extremly long night/day of travel.
Melbourne was another flight disaster. Our gate had changed for the flight to Sydney, but when I checked in, they neglected to issue me a new boarding pass. I went through security, arrived at the gate.. it was empty. So back I went to the check in, and the woman freaked. My flight was leaving in 5 minutes, which I would have known if they had given me the right boarding pass! So I ran to the new gate, just as I was about to go through security, I realized I had left my laptop at the previous gate. I was in panic and running as fast as I could to the other gate (which was on the other side of the airport, and you had to go through security again) I cut in line, threw my stuff on the scanner, grabbed my laptop, then booked it back to my gate. All the while I could hear them urgently paging me, that my flight was waiting to depart. I got the gate basically in tears saying "I'm sorry" over and over again. I actually almost missed it. When I got on the plane, sat down and relaxed, I passed out. It had been 48 hours of no sleep, extreme stress and my body said "NO MORE!"
Sydney airport was good. No problems. Tristan waited with me for 2 hours to keep me company, which was so lovely of him. I got back to Auckland, and it was pouring rain. But I was soooo happy to be home.
Man, 7 flights in 2 weeks. I'm becoming a pro at this whole airport/flying thing :)
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