Last Day in Tasmania, Tasmania Trip (Day 12)

26th March 2016, Saturday

Raining again when we woke up. My friend helped to prepare breakfast for us, then we all packed our luggage and loaded them up to the car. Then we drove out to buy some breads as it was a long long way back to Hobart Airport (about 4 hours plus ride). Quite sad, it was the last day in Tasmania. We passed by a few smaller towns and many mountains and fields along the way. We also passed by many creeks and each of them has a name to it. We also saw a wild wormbat along the roadside when we passed by burney lake. After 2 hours plus, we stopped by a power station at nive river for toilet break. My friend's husband was "chasing" her to get off the car quickly as he wanted to go to the toilet urgently...kekkekee....After 5 mins break, we continued on the road again until we reached  Bascilla Bay Oysters for lunch.

Fish & Chips

Seafood Platter

This time, we ordered a big seafood platter and a fish & chips to share (our last Tasmania lunch)..hohoho....After the nice lunch, we drove to the petrol station near the airport to fill up the oil tank and headed to the rental car park near the airport. We reached the airport at around 1 plus, which was still early for our check-in. So we just find some seats to sit around the airport, the airport was very small too. I noticed that the luggage trolley requires to pay for it too. We were thinking whether to check-in through Qantas counters or Jetstar counters for our flights as we booked through Qantas website, however, the flight stated was Jetstar plane. By 2.30 pm, there was no flight number displayed for check-in whereas Jetstar counters were opened for check-in. However, there were a couple of passengers who went to Qantas counters and were successfully checked in. So we walked towards Qantas counter and checked with the staff where we should do the check-in. She told us to go over to check-in with Jetstar counters as it was a Jetstar plane.

So we went over to Jetstar counters and we decided to check-in separately as i will be stopping for another 3 days in Melbourne whereas my friends will be flying back to Singapore. My friends went ahead to check in first and my friends were asking them if Jetstar can help them to transfer their luggage to the flight to Singapore when they land in Melbourne for stopover as they only have a 50 minutes stopover grace period. (It's a bit troublesome to do a transfer in Melbourne as it requires passengers to check out, including passing the customs from the domestic terminal and cross over to the international terminal and check in again, including passing the customs). The staff took a look at their fight route and told them the 2nd flight was Qantas flight, therefore will require to check with Qantas staff whether it is possible. He came back and told my friend that he will need to direct them to his colleague on this. So while waiting, he did my check-in. I was able to get mine done quickly as mine was just flying to Melbourne.

Later, the other Jetstar staff told my friends that they cannot help them as the 2nd flight was under Qantas. Then we went over to Qantas counter to see whether the staff can help them. The staff also told them she cannot do anything and asked them to call their customer hotline instead. (Quite frustrating when they tell you to call their hotline instead of helping passengers to resolve the problem on ground). Oh well, so we tried to call Qantas hotline (Australia) but it was on hold for long long time. Meanwhile, my friend tried to call the customer hotline (Singapore) using her own phone. Luckily, someone picked up her call in Singapore and tried to help her out. However, the call was also put on hold for more than 15 minutes while she did the check. And the check-in counters for Jetstar were closing in another 20 minutes and I had to go in to the gate soon too. We gave up waiting for the Australia side to pick up our call.

Flight to Melbourne

In the end, I went ahead to proceed to the gate and they had to wait outside still as the customer service staff (SG) told them not to check in first. I managed to meet them again at the gate when it was boarding time. Then I was told that the customer service staff (SG) had helped them to book an accommodation in Melbourne for the night as the first flight out to Singapore will be the next day. And so we boarded the plane but were seated separately. I was seated with another young lady who was alone. There was a couple with a baby seated on the next row beside us and the baby screamed from volume level 1 to 8 to show his displease. The dad had to use his ipad to keep the baby entertained. Wondered why the flight back to Melbourne was not Qantas Link, at least we will have free snacks on plane... -_-?

I moved to the back seat after the plane was on the air and i got the whole row to myself. But there was nothing to do except to sleep or watch the clouds. We landed in Melbourne airport @ 6.30 pm and we went through the customs and waited for our luggage. And I also missed the 6.30 city bus out to the city too. After everything settled, I bid bye bye to my friends and went to take the city bus to Southern Cross station. It took 20 to 25 minutest to the station and I bought dinner to eat in the hotel too. It was rainy heavily too, so i took a cab to the hotel. But the driver didn't know the hotel's location, so i gave him the address which he keyed into his GPS.

Double bed

Single Bed

When we passed the hotel on the opposite side, i told him that that's the hotel i was going to. However, he just said ya and he turned to the left side which he stopped to let me off. I told him it was not the hotel is located. He said this is where his GPS's end point is. I still told him we just passed the hotel on the other street. He still insisted it is the correct place... -_-"... Pek chey!
Anyway he still drove out to the street that we passed earlier and finally, he saw the hotel and said "ooo..it's here.." I paid him the fare ($10) and took my luggage to check-in the hotel. I was thrilled when the staff told me i got a free room upgrade. After settling all the check-in stuffs, i carried my luggage up to my room, which was on the 2nd level. So happy....my day finally ended!!! Seems like a long day today. My friends also checked in to their hotel safely and had a very nice dinner from the hotel room service. I only had Hungry Jack meal as my dinner...hohohoo....

Hotel Stayed:
Miami Hotel Melbourne

Hobart, Tasmania Trip (Day 1 & 2)

16th March 2016, Wednesday

Woohoooo!!! Finally can fly again, after one year of no flying. Going to fly to Tasmania tonight. After work during the day, I went back home and waited for my dad to come back to drive me to the airport. I reached Terminal 1 and waited for my friends to arrive. I went to the money changer to change some Australia dollars. My friends arrived later, then we all checked in our luggage and went into the gate. When we were scanning our passport and thumbs through the gate, my friend had her right thumb with plaster and so she cannot scan. Then the staff told her to scan using her left thumb...hohoho.....

Cactus Garden

And so, I went for dinner on my own while my friends went for shopping. After a not nice chicken rice, I went walk walk first. I walked to Cactus Garden, there were a lot of different cactus planted there. After walking for some time, I made my way slowly to the gate. I waited at the gate while waiting for my friends to come to the gate (Busy shopping....kekeke). Finally the gate opened and we went in to board the plane. Our flight was on 10:25pm (15th March 2016) and it was Emirates A380 plane. When we first stepped in the plane, we saw the beautiful staircase to the upper floor. Then we went to our seats and i was sitting on the right row with 2 ang mos.

The entertainment from Emirates plane was cool and there were about 500 movies and dramas for all ages. There were also games to play with. Wifi was also available once we were up on the air. It was about 7 hours to reach Melbourne Airport. We had our meals on the plane and after that, it was night time. I started watching those movies that I didn't watch before, total watched 4 movies throughout the whole flight.

We reached Melbourne Airport at 8.30 am and we had to go out to the luggage belt to pick up our luggage. We had to make our way to the other terminal, which was T4 for domestic flights. It was quite troublesome cos we had to take out our luggage and drop them back again in the other flight. And for the custom to go in Australia, we don't have to go through the counters for stamp chop. Instead, we just went to their e-service machines to get an entry tickets. Then we can use our passport on their scan machines (something like ours) and the entry ticket. Then a photo on us will be taken (instead of our thumb prints) at the custom gates. And we were cleared to enter.

After the customs, we walked to the luggage belt to collect our luggage. There was a super long queue at the exit as the security were collecting entry tickets and the entry forms. So there was a quite a wait there. After we managed to get out of the door, there were a lot of people standing around the exit door and there were also a lot of people in the Optus shop. As we had about an hour for the next flight, we tried to get the data card from Optus shop. It was very long wait as the staffs were helping the customers to change the sim cards and explaining to the customers. We got the data card which was 8gb, valid for 28 days for AUD$40 to share the data.

After the long wait for data card, we tried to figure the way to Terminal 4 for our next flight. We went to drop our luggage using their self drop off machines. It was quite easy and fast. But the counter staff in Singapore had tied my luggage to my friend's boarding pass and one of my friend's luggage tied to my boarding pass. It was weird though, but anyway we were going to the same destination. This was something we had to take note for the returning flights...lolz

Hobart Terminal 4 Airport

Connecting Flight to Tasmania

Super Nice Tart!!

We just went in to the gate as we thought the gate will be far away. But it was quite near and there was nothing much to do. So we just sat down and sleep before boarding. By 11.45pm, we started boarding the next plane. It was a Qantas Link plane and it was like Jetstar..small plane. I was sitting on a 2 seats row, where the airline staff sat with me throughout the journey. The flight was delayed due to the floor crews were still trying to arrange the luggage into the plane.After a 15 mins wait, the plane took off. We had a nice cool pie on the plane as our snack. There was no entertainment on the plane, so it was quite boring during the flight. We reached Hobart Airport @ around 1 plus in the afternoon. It was a small airport with only one luggage belt and we collected our luggage. And then, we walked out of the airport and headed to the car rental office, which was Bargain.

We signed the driving agreement for the car and then we went out to collect the car, which was a car brand called Holden. The car park was big and the car was parked a bit far away from the airport. And we checked the car conditions and loaded our luggage into the car. Off we go!!!

Our rental car..Vroom Vroom!!

We followed the driving directions from the GPS and reached our apartment office. But there was no one in the reception and so, we gave the hotel a call. After all were done, we managed to collect our apartment keys. Then we drove a short distance down the city and arrived our apartment. The parking lot was not even straight road. We took our luggage and brought down to the apartment. It was very big, with a full kitchen, a common big toilet connecting both my room and my friends's room. And we got a weird view outside, which was showing rocks and a black hole from my room. Lol...The apartment had washing machine, a dryer and there was also a big oven. There was a big cupboard with the plates and bowls and tea bags and hot chocolate powders. There were 3 big trees in front of our living room's window blocking our view too.

Super nice rest chair

Living Room Area

Raw Natural Oysters @ Tasmania Mures

Fish & Chips @ Tasmania Mures

Then we rested awhile in the big nice room, and then we walked out to the tourism information office as it was going to close soon. We booked our wildness cruise, bought the national parks pass (which can be used in almost all the national parks in Tasmania except Cradle Mountain - Need to buy separate pass) and asked the petrol station's location. Then we walked to Waterfront for some fish and chips. We bought fish and chips and raw natural oysters @ Fish Frenzy and had them on the outside tables, where the sea gulls flew down and wanting to eat our food. Hohoho......Later we walked to another eating place for raw oysters and fish and chips again @ Tasmania Mures to try out as the previous one wasn't taste so good. In this restaurant, they do sell for dine-in and for takeaways. The seafood all looked sooo fresh!!! But the oysters were quite fresh. There were some small food stalls nearby the water too, selling fish & chips and other seafood. Then we enjoyed our slow walk back to the apartment and went to the small supermarket near our stay place. Our apartment was located on top of Kelly's Stairs, which was considered one of the attractions for that area.

Hotel Stayed:
Sullivans Cove Apartments - Salamanca Battery Point

Places Visited:
Waterfront
Kelly's Stairs