Well like the title of this post says, our holiday has got off to a not-so-fabulous start! Well not true really; the first two days were really good... we had a great flight from Perth to Melbourne (not setting off any alarms with my as-yet untried hip replacement was a good omen - I thought! A nice evening and Sunday in Melbourne, one of my fave cities - and it has a Kaisercraft outlet so I did some shopping... so far so good. Found, eventually, an internet cafe, printed out our boarding passes so we could get a quick get away this morning flying straight from Melbourne to Queenstown, 3Hrs and 15 minutes, pick up car at airport, snug in our room by evening - NUP!
We both misread the flight time (on the one and only piece of paper it was written on) as the check in time, so long story short..... we missed the flight.
No more flights to Queenstown (at any price) until tomorrow - if there's any seats available (it's still ski season so not over likely), and if we don't make the decision to go with that the ADDITIONAL cost with Air New Zealand goes up from $900 to $1200 - $1400 (the fares only cost $550 when I booked them!) We MAY get the taxes back on our original flights, about $180
We checked with another airline, no flights to Queenstown (basically same story as Air NZ), we CAN get you to Christchurch tonight. But from Sydney. So-oooo, here I am sitting in Sydney airport, with an annoyed hubby (Donna did have something of a meltdown, nervous flyer & new tickets for both legs of flight originally showing us not sitting together) after flying up from Melbourne - sitting together, nice chap took pity and booked us adjacent seats on both legs - hanging around for 3 hours, due to board plane for ChCh in twenty minutes.
It gets us in at 10.40pm local time, luckily my hubby has a cousin (one of the reasons we're going, but we were supposed to be staying with them for a few days just before returning home in two weeks) who we can stay with tonight. Then in the morning we will pick up our car (booked to be picked up from Queenstown airport this afternoon) and drive the 5+ hours down to Queenstown - did I mention it's ski season... so 5+ hours in less than ideal conditions.
..and my Mum rang as we were getting on the plane to Sydney... she's looking after Rocky the wonder dog, he's hurt his leg - he's had an Xray this morning, with anesthetic of course, and they're quoting between $550 and $600 for the probably required operation. If I were home I'd probably "suck it and see", but it's too much responsibility for Mum and Dad at their age so I'm thinking we'll just have to go with the Vet's recommendation. I have talked to her (very briefly) and she remembers Rocky's last medical emergency well, the one where he swallowed a cocktail fork and it cost us $4000, yup THOUSAND dollars to have it surgically removed then deal with the pancreatitis that followed.
Sigh
Tell me it's going to get better...
We've come on this holiday because we REALLY need it. There's been so much going on at home with my son Matt's "issues", hubby's nephew dying, the ongoing issues with the drug dealer anti-social pig that lives behind us and changes with our work, so ENOUGH already Universe.... pleeeese.
Well that's me done, needed to vent. Hopefully we'll be boarding in a few minutes and we can put today behind us
I'll be back with a scheduled post on Saturday (not sure what the WiFi situation is/will be in NZ), until then, Happy Crafting, Donna
2 comments:
Oh my gosh hun.. Let's hope that the only way is up from here.
Wishing you both a lovely time away and praying that it works out that way for you.
I hope your dog is ok and heals quickly too,
Hugs,
Karen.xx
First I wanted to thank you for the nice comment you left on my blog. After I went to your blog and read your horrors flying, and just life bogging you down I just had to (sorry) laugh a bit and then say a quick prayer for you. I just returned home from a quick flight to attend my aunts funeral and while my trip was not as bad as yours it did have it's moments. I sat between two large, smelly, young men who did not want my arm rests down so they could spill over in my seat. They were playing some kind of game on their phones and would reach across me to high five each other. There were 10 empty seats closer to the front of the plane and when I sweetly asked the steward if I could change seats he said I would have to pay for the upgrade. I am sure I smelt like B.O. from the 'boys' when I got off. So, while it was nothing like your trip I can empathize with you. Hope your trip home improves and your visit brings some much needed rest!
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