The Road to Oz

....was a bit bumpy to say the least. My last night in Queenstown, last night in New Zealand (or so I thought) was amazing. Emma arrived into town and we met up for dinner and drinks. The Mardi Gras Party started and the streets were filled with people in masks, costumes and just having a great time. The New Zealand band, The Black Seeds, came on stage and the whole place went crazy dancing around. All evening and at all hours of the night memories of the different places I visited in NZ came to mind as I bumped into people I had stayed with in hostels, spoken with on busses, or just seen while travelling. We add all somehow ended up in Queenstown.

The next morning i woke up, got to the airport and learned that all flights out of QT were cancelled due to smog/mist/fog etc. So in order to get its passengers to Christchurch (from where i was to catch my flight to Australia) they boarded us on a bus. Instead of a 1 hour flight with minor turbulance, i got a 7 hour trip filled with sheep (we had to stop a few times for the masses to cross the road).

Qantas was nice enough to reschedule me on the first flight out of Christchurch to Melbourne since i was going to miss my 2:30 flight. Great - first class in a direct flight, things were looking up. Of course there was the small issue of where to sleep. Flashbacks of Bangkok airport came into my head. Didn't think I would have to sleep in airports atleast until i'd entered asia. Wish I had checked out
The Sleeping In Airports Website
to see how Christchurch rated. Well now I can add my review to the site.

CC airport has those chairs where they are connected 5 in a row, but luckily not the kind where there's like 4 inches of space in between each one. This meant that all I had to do was have two rows slightly staggered facing each other and I had myself a comfortable twin sized bed. With one row against the wall and right around the corner from an electrical outlet I was able to charge my ipod as it lulled me to sleep, taking comfort in the fact that nobody would be able to jack my stuff as I had my pack under the two rows protected from any grabby hands.

I woke up to the sound of agents clicking on computer hopped into line and headed over to the Qantas lounge for a little breakfast. After a lovely flight I was finally in Australia!