✈️ Melbourne to Queenstown

Flights:
11:55pm: Melbourne to Auckland
08:15am: Auckland to Queenstown

At approximately 9pm, we arrived at the Melbourne Airport. Many people like travelling. I am not one of those people. 99% of my travel can be attributed to my dear wife. Thankfully, we managed to check in and move through passport control relatively swiftly. Although, there were moments where I was a bit edgy.

From that point onwards, I temporarily separated from my wife and kids. They went to the Qantas lounge while I proceeded to the TRS scheme. TRS allows travellers leaving Australia to claim a refund for the GST (sales tax) spent on physical items purchased in Australia. Isn’t that cool. So, I lined up. There were approximately 8 people in front of me and after five minutes, I was ready to give up and join my wife at the lounge for a drink. Prior to leaving, I noticed the boarding pass of the lady standing behind me. She was a business class traveller (which I am not). My inside voice said, If this lady in her late fifties can wait, as should I. After  25 minutes, I reunited with my wife and kids. To be honest, I should have  left the line. The time wasted is not worth it. Hopefully, 🤞 I do not make this mistake again.

The lounge did not disappoint. I had a glass of red and a (ok 2) serving  of moroccan lamb and chickpeas.

Flight departed early and we arrived early. I will use Melbourne time going forward to simplify the math. We reached Auckland at 3am. Like most flights, everyone managed to get some sleep except for me. Regardless of what I try, I have yet to find sleep on a plane.

At 3am, I am at a point where I’ll give anything to spend an hour in my own bed. We quickly completed the necessary formalities to ensure we are good tourists in New Zealand. We got our bags and walked for 10 minutes from the international terminal to the domestic terminal to catch our flight at 6am (Melbourne time) to Queenstown.

At 8am (Melbourne time), I arrived in Queenstown. Despite, having an entire row to myself on the plane, I couldn’t get any sleep. Meanwhile, my son slept like a baby and so did my wife.

As we are departing from the plane, I was ready with my Insta360 camera to capture the beauty of Queenstown. This is my second visit and I can tell you, Queenstown is one of the most beautiful places on this planet. While taking my video, an angry faced man, walked up to me and said “put that away or I will fine you on the spot”. I did as I was instructed.

By the time, I got a rental, it was 10am. We had lunch and went to our AirBNB which allowed us to check in a few hours early. We spent some time chilling and just relaxing. As much as I wanted to sleep, I did not. Sleeping now, would just ruin my body clock. I need to power through. I had a shower around 4pm. Yes, I needed it because I shower twice daily. This shower is probably the single reason why I manage to stay away.

At 4:30pm, grabbed some takeaway and had another glass of red..ok two three glasses of red. It’s cold in Queenstown.

It’s 7:23pm and I am finishing up this blogpost and probably will sleep in an hour.