After 3 months in New Zealand, saying goodbye was difficult. Our last night in Aukland, we stayed by the airport – right by an Icebreaker outlet. One thing we’ve learned during our time in New Zealand – merino wool is great while traveling. Seriously. At the airport – we ran into some more problems (insert “the more you know” music) The tickets we bought through Orbitz did not include our luggage. We’ve gotten really good at checking with each individual airline about luggage costs, but this was the first airfare we bought about 4 months ago and I forgot to check. Whoops. The visa for Australia I obtained at LAX does not exist. Bummer. We got lucky and Will’s visa was in the system, but our airline sent us to Air New Zealand to help me get the visa. After obtaining it, we went back to our airline and we were good to go. Next to us, there was an American from Atlanta who was with a tour group. They lost his flight completely and he had to re-buy a ticket. Things can always get worse. Once we were on the plane, things went smoothly. We stopped at the information desk and spoke with a smiley guy who told us about Sydney’s Opal cards – you load the card and tap on and off the busses, trains, and ferries. He also warned us that the train from the airport has an added fee of $13 on top of the normal cost. He gave us a loophole of taking the bus a few stops away from the airport before switching to the train. Energized, we accepted the challenge. *Note – Sundays all the fares are $2.50 – everywhere. We flew on a Sunday. This means cheap transport and long lines especially at the ferries. We took the bus in the wrong direction *a good reminder to talk to the bus driver. We felt like novices. However – it all worked out. We hopped on the train and took it to the Circular Quay and avoided the $13 extra fee. The apartment we rented was in Manly, Sydney – a half hour ferry ride across the bay. Sweating and hot, we...
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