A Day Wasted

The morning we left Dunedin on our long ass trip to Perth we had a shuttle booked and usually we are told an exact time but this shuttle service told us to be in the lobby between 8-830 am . At 7:50 am our hotel room phone rings ... our shuttle is waiting for us ? Ok bags are packed just have to leave , we head downstairs without a moment to spare and our driver is gone ??? But there is another driver from the same company with his vehicle waiting for another passenger . And why were we rushed down for the driver to only leave ? The other driver says he has no clue and calls in to see if the other driver is returning which apparently she is . Ok so we wait but this is one of those hurry up and wait moments which is the norm at home when I’m getting paid to work but not exactly cool on my holidays . Our driver finally arrives and she’s all over the place and has one of her pickups even no show because they were told they would be picked up between 730-8 and we arrived at 815 and they apparently took a taxi instead .

We got to the airport with time to spare but haven’t had a coffee and Kathleen is not in a good mood without her morning java and I could use one also . Time to check in and drop my bags which last week I dealt with by having to make a long distance call to Aeroplan to fix my baggage situation . Pretty sure I mentioned in a previous blog post that I had Air New Zealand charge me $160 for my bags to Auckland from Sydney and they told me to call in for the next flight to make it cheaper which is horrible but I did call regardless and paid $35 for my sticks to travel to Dunedin and then tried to book my sticks for this flight to Perth but Aeroplan booked my trip with 1 bag for the first flight to Wellington and 2 bags for the other two connecting flights which made it messy for them to deal with so that is why I had to call Aeroplan long distance and talk to them for a half hour to get that other bag booked for the initial flight which they said they did and reissued my ticket to me so you would think when I was trying to check in that my additional bag would be on file ! No it wasn’t !!! And when I went to add it at the kiosk the machine wanted me to pay $250 ... my heart stopped . I asked the woman overlooking the kiosks and she was a bit confused so she called her manager and after some explanation she waived the fees and told me that I shouldn’t have paid $160 from Sydney to Auckland and in fact should have been charged much less as it’s considered a light item . She was super friendly but I really hate knowing I’ve been scammed .... it’s in the past now and too late . We haven’t even jumped on our first flight and I’ve already had two shitty things occur and Kathleen still hasn’t had a coffee .

Sorry for the lack of photos as I wasn’t really in the mood to take pictures dealing with all this nonsense and having the burden of not enjoying a cup of java yet . We cleared security probably too early thinking there would be a coffee shop inside the terminal which was also a no go and then waited for our first flight to Wellington . It’s only an hour flight and I started watching this new show on Netflix called The Titans which I might add is pretty good . Best thing I did for this trip was buying an iPad to load up with tv shows and movies to fill in the time on these short flights with no inflight entertainment . When we arrived in Wellington we darted right to a coffee shop and got our fix then grabbed some feed as our kiwi friends would say . Unfortunately the feed we partook in was supposed to be a hot dog 🌭 but was more like a sausage with what I would call questionable meat that even the people serving didn’t know what it was ...is this beef ? Or lamb ? Or pork ? Or what ! I can’t remember the name of the place but regardless I wouldn’t eat there again ... maybe these long days take effect on me as I’m writing this I notice it feels as though I’m writing some hate mail that I’m sharing for approval but hopefully it’s not coming across like that and is more of a tutorial of what not to do . 

I almost forgot to mention that before our first flight we received an email from our neighbour in Toronto letting us know that our Co2 alarm has been going off for days back home . Wtf ! We kept corresponding over the whole day and this issue hung over our heads like a storm cloud ☁️ oh the stress knowing this and the head scratching involved as our amazing neighbour John did his best to figure out the problem as I’m sure the alarm is being heard throughout the neighbourhood . Nothing we can do aside from hoping for the best and assisting by corresponding promptly . I think we owe him a nice bottle when we get back . Or a solid dinner or whatever to make up for his efforts . Next flight is to Auckland ... that flight again has no inflight entertainment and I continue watching Netflix and worrying about our issues back home . When we arrived in Auckland we had to leave the domestic terminal and find our way to the international terminal to catch our next flight after clearing security and all that non sense and when we finally boarded our plane we found out the seating arrangement was wrong because Air New Zealand is renting this plane from Singapore Airways and it’s got a different seating plan ... so instead of sitting in a row of two we had a young fella that sat beside us and he was no problem at all . We found out a strange thing though ... even though this was a 7 hour flight and you would expect to be fed based on the amount of money one spends to fly these long international flights this airline charges $40 for meals !!! Ours were included without us even knowing as they were booked through Aeroplan points we have saved but this poor fella opted to say no to paying that ridiculous fee and he also told us inflight entertainment was another charge but he was lucky because his screen actually worked . Imagine having to pay money for a flight and not on the cheap then being asked to pay for extra luggage and your meal and to even watch a movie ? Shame on you Air New Zealand ! SHAME !!! Our food was crap and we offered it to the fella sitting beside us and he gladly accepted it , the movie I watched was Deadpool 2 which I’ve seen before but this was like watching one of those old burned DVD copies that someone sat in a theatre to record illegally . The sound was horrible and the picture was distorted . If I had to pay extra for this I would be very disappointed and if I was Air New Zealand I would be embarrassed for charging anyone for this subpar shit . It’s a good thing some of your employees are good people , not all but some ... I’m looking at you Mrs. I’m gonna charge you $160 for your sticks woman . Grrrr ! 

When we landed it was after 10 pm Perth time but after 3 am Dunedin time , we have travelled for more then 17 hours from when we started off at our hotel and now we have to take a taxi to our hotel in Perth CBD . Can you believe that all the taxis we approached didn’t want to take us with my bags ? No joke ! We found a taxi that was confused why no one took us and he gladly took us and said that they have all been sitting there for a long time waiting for people to jump in and he felt lucky to get a fare . He was probably the 15th taxi in the row and would have been there forever . He got us to our hotel which is the Holiday Inn on Hay St . it cost me around $45 and we got into our hotel and finally went to bed . What a long friggin day that was .... I don’t think I would organize this trip like this if I could go back in time . Not the greatest idea wasting a full day travelling like this so if you’re reading this planning a trip like this just don’t do it ! As I said I’m not bitching but rather trying to educate you all with my mistakes .