For winter holiday we decided to head back to Australia for the first time in a long time. We wanted to spend a little time with the Coursey family there, and also enjoy a warmer climate for a while. To get to Australia we would first fly from Osaka to Bangkok, a six hour flight, and then after two hours in the airport we’d fly on an overnight (ten hour) flight to Sydney.
But we almost shot ourselves in the foot right from the start.
At Kansai International Airport we arrived in plenty of time, and there weren’t any people waiting for check-in so we walked right to the front. Things went smoothly until the check-in staff asked if we already got our “ETA”. What the heck is that? Turns out, it is like an entry visa, and the Australian government charges $60 to all visitors. Ostensibly it is a security fee, but in actuality it is more like a visa. Anyway, we didn’t know about it (although we should have researched it) and so we had no choice but to apply for the ETA right there in the airport from our phones. The check-in staff said that we could get back in line once we had gotten the ETA. We stepped aside, and finished the online application in about five minutes – piece of cake. After applying, I received an email stating that my application is one of the rare cases that will require human approval, and I should check back within 12 hours to confirm the status. Uh oh.
With our flight to Bangkok scheduled to leave in two hours, it wasn’t looking good. Kuniko was in the same boat – so we went to grab some coffee and wondered if we might have to cancel the Australian leg of our trip if we couldn’t get the ETA. We sat waiting for an approval email – nothing to do but wait. Finally, I poked around on their online website and found a form that you could use to check on the status of an ETA. I checked my status, and I was approved. Strangely, I never received an approval email. Kuniko couldn’t check her status for some reason, so we took the information back up to the check-in line. Our backup plan was I would go on to Australia and Kuniko would wait for me in Bangkok sipping cocktails by the pool. Once we arrived back at the check-in there was a huge line, and time was ticking to get to the gate. We flagged down a manager who was nice enough to confirm that the ETA was approved, and then she let us cut all the way to the front of the long line to check in.
That was a big help, but it was still dicey getting through security – it was a big travel day, apparently. We made our flight, but it was a closer call than I would have liked. Once we sat down in our seats on the plane we could finally relax and feel like the holiday was beginning.
It was an easy cruise to Bangkok. We made use of the time in Bangkok to raid the airport restaurants and managed to get some decent food out of it. The flight to Sydney went smoothly, and I managed to sleep through about six of the ten hours in the air. It helped that we were sitting in the back of the plane so we could recline our seats guilt-free.
Steve met us at the airport, and it was good to see him again. As he drove us back towards his home in Mt. Kembla, we showed us some of the sights and it was fun to look around. It had been 13 years since I had been there, and I hardly remembered any of it. On the way back we stopped at the Overlook Hotel – a new hotel built on a hill overlooking the ocean and beaches near Wollongong. The style was a bit modern, and Kuniko and I decided to order some drinks once the clock struck 10 am (apparently they can’t serve alcohol until 10 am there). My philosophy on drinking alcohol while traveling is go ahead and drink whenever you feel like it. The internal clock is all screwy anyway, so don’t worry about what time of day it is. Steve joined us for a beer, and then we headed on back to his place to see the rest of the family.
Back at home we met Brenda, Alyssa and her boyfriend Tim, and Julia. It had been several months since we had seen Brenda but a lot longer since we had met their daughters. It was fun to see how they had grown up. Tim was a great guy, too, and Kuniko and I both struggled to figure out his accent sometimes.
We had a welcome lunch at their place, with lots of seafood, ham, and salad, and then settled in for the visit. For Christmas Eve dinner we all went down to the local pub to share in their neighborhood tradition. Lots of their friends were there, and everyone ate, drank, and talked – taking up a whole section of the large pub. Kuniko and I talked with as many people as possible and had good conversations about life in Japan, Australia, Donald Trump, and more. Luckily there was plenty of wine to drink and food to eat – I had a pork belly that was delicious and Kuniko had a rump steak that was really big. Big servings here, too! The wine we had that night wasn’t so impressive, but Steve brought out some good stuff later on that compared much more favorably.
After a nightcap of limoncello and some fresh fruit we went to bed with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads (or something like that).
