Arriving in Adelaide
Our crew was up early (kids were up around 5:30 am; adults were up at 3) to prepare for our flight. We did lots of checking and rechecking for any miscellaneous items. We got our luggage trolley delivered at 6 am as planned. We crammed and organized our bags to make sure no single bag would be over the 23 kg weight limit. We tried, and mostly failed, to compel kids to eat something. At 6:25 am we breeched the doorway and walked out to check out. It was finally time to say goodbye 540/541 Novotel Sydney Darling Harbour - thanks for being such gracious hosts in these weird times!
In the lobby, we met with the NSW police for literally 5 minutes to check out, and then were dismissed to the curb. Our pre-arranged van arrived and we loaded up our insane amount of luggage. We took a series of photos to confirm that we didn't arrive *too* early at the airport. (I will be honest to say the Sydney airport was the most empty airport I've ever been in; like an "after" scene from an apocalypse movie.) We got our million bags checked in, easily got through security, and then we sat at our gate. We also enjoyed the freedom to go and buy a coffee and croissant. I also had an IRL meet-up with one of my quarantiners pals who was released today - she's headed home to Melbourne! She and I chatted at the coffee spot, and I hope that we will connect in person later if we make a journey to Melbourne! Not long after that, our crew loaded up on the plane and there were legitimately ONE DOZEN passengers on board the 737 (10% passenger capacity).
The two hour flight was easy peasy. After we deplaned, we managed to seriously beat the massive rush to the intake staff reviewing our cross-border travel applications (the line after us was clearly going to take an hour). We had so many photos to demonstrate we hadn't violated the "green zone" of quaratine.... it was no biggie at all and we got our travel permission approved, and we didn't need any of them. SUCH A RELIEF!! Jeremy and the boys gathered our checked bags and I worked on arrangments for our rental car. We managed to cram all of our crap into a Toyota Corrolla and head off to our AirBnB. I dusted off the mental cobwebs of driving on the left and we were on our way. (I've driven on the left as recently as 2019 in Grand Cayman, and extensively back in the 90s when I traveled solo in Ireland and Northern Ireland). We got into our rental in Camden Park easily and safely. Once we offloaded our luggage, we ventured out for lunch then headed out to stretch our legs. We hit the beach (of COURSE!) and visited some fun park spaces for the kids to get their crazies out. It feels GREAT to be free from quarantine and to begin this new adventure. I mean, look at those happy faces!
