The Wild and Absolutely True Adventures of Meg: The Land Down Under, Part 1: Getting There is Half the Battle

About six months ago, I got my weekly Travelzoo email, and inside was an enticing offer--Fiji Airways was having a sale on flights to Sydney, Australia. I took a look and the cost of a flight from San Francisco to Sydney (with a stop in Nadi, Fiji), was $800. Round-trip.

This is a shockingly low fare.

I checked in on Expedia and found that I could still get that deal while combining with hotel, trip insurance, and a ride from the airport to my hotel. All for the golden price of $2,000. Sign me up! I booked it, and spent the next few months telling anyone who would listen, "I'm going to Australia in June!!"

In the meantime, I made plans. In April, I booked a trip-within-a-trip to spend a night in Alice Springs, which would require flying and a night in a hotel, but it would be worth it because Alice Springs (Northern Territory) is home to the Kangaroo Sanctuary of Alice Springs. I've followed them on Instagram for a good few years now, and going on one of their sunset tours was exactly something I was interested in. So I booked the trip and a spot on one of their sunset tours (kangaroos are nocturnal).

Now anyone who would listen also got, "And I'm going to cuddle a kangaroo!!"

Finally, it was the end of the school year, and a week out from my trip. I packed, I planned, I booked a spot in the long-term airport parking garage. I factored in the Sydney winter weather, stuck my umbrella in my carry-on. I was ready.

Then, after the obligatory selfie-in-the-car, I set off for San Francisco on a sunny Thursday afternoon to begin my adventure.

I was so ready. I arrived at the airport a little before 7:30 for my 11:30 flight, figuring better to sit around waiting than worry about Bay Area traffic. I was so calm and relaxed.

So innocent.

I found the check-in counter for Fiji Airways. I was an hour before check in was supposed to start...and there was already a line that was way outside the roped-off area and around the corner. So I got in line, and waited.

And waited.

This is where I started in line--the 7 up there is
for this side of the ticket desks. Fiji Airways was
at 8. I stood in this spot for a good 45 minutes.

This line was slow, y'all. And many--many--people ahead of me had massive piles of stuff they were taking. I think it was a lot of families going for long visits, taking things to their relatives in the islands. Fair enough. But it takes a long time to check all of those people in, and the clock was ticking. Still, I was on my way to Australia--a Big Ticket Bucket List Item! I could be patient for days.

I got to the check-in desk at about 9:30. Ahh, finally! Still two hours to go.

"Can I see your visa?"

Silly me, I pulled out my credit card.

"No, your visa to travel to Australia."

"I...need a visa?"

(Nothing in all of my preparing for this trip mentioned that, though to be fair, I should have dug a bit deeper.)

"Yeah, we can't let you on the plane until you have one."

I had already mentioned to the lady at the desk that I am hard-of-hearing, but she kept talking fast and not very loud, about an app I could download to apply for the visa. Sometimes it approves people right away. Get back in line, do the application, etc. etc. A bit panicked, I did just that.

I got back to the front. I was waiting approval, but that should be fine, right?

The first available desk opened and I explained what was going on. This agent got a deer-in-the-headlights look and told me, "I can't help you. The agent who told you that has to help you. Which one was it?"

"It was...um. She's not there anymore."

"Well she has to help you."

"But she's gone."

Finally another agent came over, and told me to ask another agent. So I waited for that one, and when she was free, she promptly told me I had downloaded the wrong app.

Wait, what?

So she impatiently helped me find the right one, and hands shaking, I started the application process again. I was near tears, embarrassed, and watching the time tick.

"Oh, and you have to be approved by 10:30. That's when we close check-in."

Great.

Long story short, I got approved.

At 10:35.

No exceptions. I could not be checked in.

So I sat down--for the first time in three hours--and cried in the middle of San Francisco International Airport.

Sarah had been texting me, so I called her, in tears. "Sarah, they're not letting me go!" She helped me calm down and I decided the best thing I could do was drive home and get some sleep, then sort it all out in the morning.

I arrived home after midnight, and went to bed. I didn't get much sleep, and woke up Friday to call Dad and explain what was going on.

"I'm so embarrassed!!"

"Why?"

"I should have known better! It's such a rookie mistake."

"Well, I'm proud of you, because you are fixing it! You're going to make this work!"

That made me cry harder. What can I say? I was exhausted.

I made some phone calls and fixes. I won't go into how much more I spent to fix the airline thing (Fiji Airways, after I didn't get on my outgoing flight, also cancelled my return flight without first asking so I had to rebook flights for both directions, and they are being salty about crediting or refunding me--even though I had travel insurance).

While I was sitting here at my computer figuring everything out, I realized something. My original dates for the trip were to leave June 6th, arrive June 8th, and then come home June 15th, giving me half of Sunday, then three full weekdays to explore Sydney, and two days to fly to Alice Springs and return.

Why not extend my trip?

My original hotel could not accommodate that, so I spent more money to just...book a new hotel. I extended my stay by three days, and in the end, I'm so happy I did.

By now, this was Friday, June 7th. I was exhausted, still kicking myself a little, but now I had a plan. My flight to Sydney would leave bright and early on Saturday morning. Hawaiian Airlines would take me to Honolulu, then to Sydney.

I decided to get a hotel near SFO for Friday night, so I wouldn't have to leave before dawn. I threw extra underwear in my suitcase for my new, longer stay (and later realized I didn't plan accordingly with t-shirts, but then thought, "BUT I CAN GO SHOPPING!") and got back on the road to San Francisco.

**Side note** If you don't know where I live, it's about a two-hour drive to San Francisco, then add another 30-45 minutes, depending on traffic in the city, to the airport.

I had some time, so in Dixon, I stopped at the cemetery to visit Mom's spot. A mix of my usual need to cry when I'm there, mixed with the utter exhaustion of the last 18 hours, had me bawling uncontrollably. But amazingly, when I got back in my car, I felt...refreshed. I think letting it all out helped.

I spent my evening at an airport hotel, briefly leaving to get Chipotle and sit in a public parking lot watching planes take off and land.

I'd like to say that everything was peachy-keen and without blips after that, but I had a couple of teeny-tiny weird things along the way. First, was Hawaiian cancelled the morning flight to Honolulu but automatically put all of us on a United flight two hours later. No problem. No worries.

Except that I'm me, and I worry, and pardon me, but will my bag go from the United plane to the Hawaiian plane in the one-hour layover I have in Honolulu? And...will I? I'd already missed one flight at this point.

The check-in for United at SFO is mostly automated kiosks, but I wanted a human being. My only option was the human beings at the animal check-in, but the very kind man there listened to my worried query and assured me that my bag was marked as going TO SYDNEY. "It will be taken to the right plane when you land."

"As for you having such a short layover, don't worry. We have notes in the system and they will know at Honolulu that you are on your way to board. But also...due to wind and weather, they're predicting you're going to land half an hour ahead of the scheduled time, so that puts you in even better shape."

This man did so much to calm my nerves, and was so nice and smiley the whole time. He really reassured me.

I got on my United flight and walked to my seat, to find a guy sitting in it.

Turns out, both of us had that seat on our boarding passes. We kinda laughed, but also...one seat, two bottoms. A kind steward got on his phone and did some looking and found that somehow, United had moved this guy from that seat and put me there. So I totally kicked this poor man out of his seat with his family!!

I apologized a bunch, but he was very gracious, and his son (next to me) and daughter-in-law (right across the aisle) were so nice about it, too. We all agreed it was just one of those flying things. His son said, "Plus, he moved up a bunch of rows, so he'll get off sooner!"

That was the last blip. I arrived in Hawaii ahead of schedule and walked across the airport with enough time to stop at Starbucks, even. When I arrived at my gate, boarding for families/special assistance was just starting.

The long hike to the International terminal begins...

Exhausted, humid, but otherwise unscathed.

And when I got to Sydney, my suitcase was one of the first ones off.

Traveling is never without its headaches, but this is by far one of the wildest times I've ever had getting somewhere. The flight from Honolulu to Sydney clocked in at a bit over nine hours (by far not the longest flight I've been on), and was not full, so it was anticlimactic, really.

I arrived in Sydney a little after 6:30 PM local time on Sunday, June 9. This would be about 1:30 AM Sunday in California. I figured that my body had just pulled one of those old college-days all-nighters, so by the time I got to my hotel, I'd be ready for a shower and a long, long night of sleep.

Getting into Australia was a breeze--very quick lines, very quick passport check. I walked out, oriented myself, and found the taxi queue. By 8:00, I was checking into my hotel. It was just starting to hit me that I was actually, truly, in Sydney. But before I could do anything with that, I needed to rest.

My hotel room was absolutely perfect, very clean and comfy, and after a good long scrub in the shower, I unpacked, then crashed in bed. It didn't take me long to absolutely pass out.