So, I am Finally here. After many months of saying I would go to Australia, I finally have. Let me start by saying It is amazing here, the sun actually exists, there are more animals to see other than pigeons and sea gulls, and the place i'm staying is awesome, more about that in another blog. Lets start with the flight.
My alarm goes off at 6 am after only 3 hours sleep, due to the fact I had so much going around my mind combined with a soar throat. So I got up, got dressed and got in the car. By this point I was nervous to say the least, but it was something I couldn't turn back from now, I knew I just had to get on with it. Me and my family arrived at the airport at around 8:40, got parked and walked to terminal 4. We then spent about 5-10 minutes looking for luggage labels because we forgot to get some before hand, but we found them no problem.
I was anxious to get checked in seeing as I still had no real idea of how an airport worked, so me, mum, dad, and Gemma made our way over to the check-in counter. I stood there unsure of what complicated things I would have to do in order to check in, so I had ready everything from my ticket to my visa information. Then the woman asked me for my passport, swiped it, and then I asked for me to put my baggage onto the conveyor belt. That was it. What an anti-climax, there I was expecting 20 questions, and it was over in under a minute, however I then proceeded to ask a million questions, which I am sure was probably very irritating for the woman at the counter. Me and the family then decided to go sit at the coffee shop while we waited for the time to board. At this point I was getting extremely on edge, I started thinking about if my luggage would turn up at the other end, what if I sat next to someone annoying? Then before I knew it, it was time to board. So off we walked to security where I had to leave my family. Needless to say I was very brave and emotionless.... Ah who am I kidding, I was scared and upset at the thought of leaving my family behind, so tears were shed, and I was on my way! Walking into security I took one look back at my family and waved and took a mental picture to remember that moment by. I was sad :(
Next obstacle was security! Now I didn't have a bomb, and I knew I didn't, but you can't help being nervous when faced with scary people and there scanners, so I unloaded everything into the tray and proceeded to the body scanner, at which it made a loud beeping noise.... Great I thought, I somehow have managed to unknowingly take a bomb with me to the the airport. But luckily It was just my watch. So once through I proceeded to the gate, where I promptly boarded the plane.
I ended up sitting next to a couple who made the flight every year, so they were asked many questions by me, which I'm sure they enjoyed.... The first flight was 12 hours long most of which was at night. I watched a couple of movies, The social network was good, so was the matrix, however the expendables was not so good. It just had Jason Statham playing Jason Statham, and well the rest of the cast were just trying to be as cool as their older roles, but failing spectacularly. So I only watched 10 minutes of that. I couldn't sleep for the entire journey and I had only had three hours the night before so it felt like the trip was lasting forever. Luckily it eventually came to an end, but on the decent my ears didn't pop, which meant I couldn't hear anything for a good hour. Eventually got on to my next flight, by this point I was past so far past tired that I was awake which meant I actually enjoyed the flight. Food and service was good, aswell as the entertainment. Then I was given a boarding form to fill in, this is basically an opportunity to declare anything that might be illegal to bring into Australia, most of the boxes I could tick No for, however one of the categories asked If I was bringing food or nuts into Australia, now I wasn't sure if peanut M&M's and jelly tots were not allowed so I went ahead and ticked Yes. Then another box asked If I had any shoes with soil on, so looking at my slightly dusty shoes I ticked yes.
Now When you arrive you are split into two lines after collecting your bags, one line for people with nothing to declare, then another for those who do. So because I had ticked these boxes I was put into the considerably long line filled with Aisans who were bringing half of the rain forest into Australia. When I got to the front and had to declare my peanut M&M's, Jellytots and slightly dusty shoes I suddenly realised my mistake. Apparently Dust and M&M's were not as much of a threat to the Australian ecosystem as I had initially thought.
After all that and an 18 hours trip I was finally there with my uncle Mike and cousins Jamie and Daniel picking me up at the airport. Stepping out of the airport it hit me like, well I was going to make a joke about Chris Brown here but I wont, but anyway yeah the heat hit me like a brick wall, it was amazing, however wearing full length trousers was not the best idea in the world.
Well that Is the end of my first, and rather long blog. I will write more about the days that followed shortly :) Sorry its taken such a long time to get round to writing. You can Find pictures I took while on the plane here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=176577&id=1074954874&l=381149e6f9
Much love,
Jonathan Morrell
P.S. I am missing everyone back home very much, and if you read/see pictures where I sound/look happy it doesn't mean I'm not missing you :P
