01-09/10-2020: Honolulu to Sydney

We were advised to be at the airport 3 hours prior to our Sydney flight departure so we got a taxi from the resort at 6:30 a.m.  Our bodies/minds are all scrambled with the time zone changes over the last 3 days; we’re still on east coast time.  We arrived at the Qantas check in counter, handed over our passports, and the agent said, “you don’t have an e-visa for Australia.”  We looked at her, at each other, at her again, and said, “no, we’ve never needed a visa before for our 3 prior trips.”  The agent walked us over to the Qantas Service desk and told another representative we didn’t have a visa.  The rep said the visa is obtained electronically and she could complete it for us for $75 each or we could do it ourselves for a lot less ($20 each).  We chose the cheaper route so she gave us a web address.  We stood at an empty counter, pulled out my laptop, and we spent the next 30 minutes or so filling out the forms to request an e-visa.  I don’t know how I missed the need for obtaining a visa; I thought I had researched that.  One would think that Qantas would have something on their website when one books a flight from the U.S. to Australia.  Thank goodness that we arrived 3 hours ahead of time and that we could apply for a visa electronically and have it processed within 10 minutes.  That whole thing was totally nerve-wracking.  The other thing that was a little upsetting is that I didn’t enter our TSA precheck numbers when booking the tickets so we had to go through the normal screening process (ughh!).  I went through the scanner and triggered something, so I was treated to a very, very thorough pat down and hand swiping looking for gun residue and a computer swiping looking for bomb residue.  I guess I looked like a suspicious character.

After all that, everything else went smoothly.  It’s a 10-1/2 -hour flight from Honolulu to Sydney.  We unfortunately did not pay extra for comfort seats so the seats were pretty tight.  Once airborne, the couple in front of us both pushed their seats all the way back, making things even more tight.  However, I found an HBO series on the entertainment system having 8 episodes (Gentleman Jack) and watched the whole series.  That took up over 8 hours and being engaged in the story made the flight go by quickly for me.  Christine had a little harder time, but we survived quite well.

We arrived in Sydney at about 5:30 p.m. Friday afternoon, so much of Thursday was skipped as we crossed over the International Dateline.  That’s always weird.  We flew into Sydney over the Sydney Harbor but we weren’t on the side which would enable us to see the Opera House.  What we did see was smoke.  It looked very smoggy and once out of the airport, I could smell smoke, but it didn’t seem to be too bad. 

We got through immigration and customs without any trouble.  To meet us was Louis’s brother Ray and a sister-in-law Marilyn.  It was so nice to see them, although we had expected Louis.  We were told Lou was home cooking a big baked dinner for our arrival.  It was about a 90-minute drive from the airport to Lou’s house, our home base for the duration of our stay.  We did not see any burned areas as we travelled north to Bensville, although everyplace is smoggy from the smoke.  The fires have not adversely impacted the central coast area around Lou’s area.  And with our arrival, we brought much cooler temperatures and a bit of rain, a great relief from the 100 degree plus days they’ve been having.

We arrived at Lou’s house and had a joyous reunion.  Lou is the eldest of 10 siblings and Christine has always been very fond of Lou.  Lou’s family lived in Malta, too, when Christine was a child and she has very fond memories of him.  Lou has been our host for our 3 previous trips to Australia.  Lou’s father Joe and Christine’s mother Rose were siblings.

We had a lovely dinner with all kinds of reminiscing going on with us, Ray, Marilyn and Lou.  Over the next 6 weeks we’ll be traveling around to meet up with Lou’s other siblings (now only 8) and their families.  There are lots and lots of family members as everyone has children and grandchildren.  We’re looking forward to seeing everyone.

And after dinner, Christine and I unpacked and collapsed into bed totally exhausted, but happy to be here in Australia.