Days 47 and 48

Saturday 18^th December 2010 AND Sunday 19^th December

Woo hoo! We’re flying to Australia today. We got up with high hopes, checked out and headed back to BA’s international airport.

At check in we decided to play the honeymoon card again – it hadn’t really worked so far but it was worth a try! The lady at check in was lovely but informed us that the flight was full and there was nothing she could do for us. The couple next to us were being informed that they couldn’t even have seats together! The lady then slid the boarding passes across the desk and in a low voice confirmed that we were sat together in ‘better’ seats and told us to have a nice flight.

Thinking nothing more of this we set off in search of sustenance in the form of McDonalds. We did the usual airport shenanigans of baggage checks, customs (another stamp in the passport) and duty free before heading to the gate. Once at the gate we were cheerfully informed that the sunscreen and Clarins we’d just purchased we couldn’t take on the flight as they were greater than 100ml in size! But then as we had receipts and were demanding a full refund it suddenly seemed to be OK! Don’t mess with angry Suz in airports – this is the girl who has been known to don the entire contents of her case when they accused her of being over the baggage allowance when returning from Goa!

So when we finally boarded the mahoosive jet (with an upstairs and everything) I was barrelling down through 1^st, business class etc towards cattle class AKA economy. Suddenly Franky stopped saying, ‘ Er, Suz…. This is us’ and pointed to row number 37 in…. PREMIUM ECONOMY! Two plush armchair sized seats by the window with legroom galore,  proper cotton pillow-cased pillows and humongous blankets that were fleece on one side and cotton on the other. We checked our boarding passes and then checked them again… and gleefully leapt into the seats. We sat, feeling a bit like imposters, wondering how this good luck had befallen us! Franky wouldn’t even take his shoes off until we were taxiing to the runway in case it was all a mistake and we were asked to move. It wasn’t – these seats were ours for the next 14 and a half hours – yay!

We had the best flight ever. Great food and lots of it – beef fillet don’t you know!? Followed by chocolate icecream – mmmmmm! And some lovely Aussie pink sparkling Rose wine. Quantas rules!

I even managed about 4 hours uninterrupted sleep. Franky was in his element as I let him have the window seat since he can’t usually fit in those. The views were amazing as we flew over the Antarctic and could see the frozen sea breaking up into huge ice sheets. What was weird was although we were flying for 15 hours it never went dark and we crossed the international date line so on paper it look like it took 38 hours to get there!

We landed in Sydney…. in the pouring rain, a little later than scheduled at 6.30pm on Sunday 19^th December. We cleared customs, grabbed our bags and found Jacquie (from Peru leg of the trip) and her fiancé, Chris, waiting for us in arrivals with a ‘Welcome to Australia’ balloon and big smiles. It was awesome. Before we knew it we had been packed into the back of Chris’ car and whisked off to our hotel. The Altamont is a lovely little boutique hotel in Darlinghurst. There was champagne in the fridge for the honeymooners and a Christmas card from my folks on the bed – awww!

We had a rapid shower and change and then jumped back into Chris’ car to be taken across the harbour bridge to a fantastic restaurant on the North shore called Aqua. The views were stupendous – despite the pelting rain. We could see the harbour bridge and Opera house illuminated against the night sky. The food was befitting of the location. I had huge succulent prawns, followed by one of the best cooked steaks I have ever tasted – it just melted in the mouth, then pannacotta with summer fruits. We had no less than 3 bottles of wine – one red, one white and one dessert wine – and they were all yummy! Thanks so much to you guys for our first night out in Sydney it was cool!

On leaving the restaurant the rain had stopped long enough for us to grab a couple of pics of the great surroundings….

We were given a lightning tour of the sights on the way home (harbour and opera house) and learned that we are positioned perfectly between King’s cross – home to the prostitutes and Darlinghust ie: the gay village – glad we’ve got all bases covered! It was midnight when we arrived back at the hotel and we were happy to crash out after a mint first night in Sydney.