We cheated when we got to Melbourne, we really did. Nia’s friend was living out there at the time. At this time she was currently purchasing a campervan and spending Christmas/New Year’s Eve in Sydney. Their apartment in Melbourne? Ours. Oh my were we in for a treat.
We had taken the flight from Bali over to Melbourne with JetStar airways, everything on this airline you have to pay for. From checked in baggage, to cabin baggage, to the food. For an international six hour flight at breakfast time. Yes, I know right? Yes we were hungry of course. Also, a little bored as well, bored of the same playlists we had been listening to for the last two months on Spotify. So we also purchased a film on the fight ‘War Dogs’ I think it was. I don’t really remember the film and don’t you criticise the film choice, it just shaved off two and a bit hours of our six hour journey.
When we arrived into Melbourne it was eleven pm their time. Shattered from our two am flight start, a little confused about what the day, time and country we were in. It was time to get our butts through the Australia security and find this apartment in the pitch black of a city, we have never been to before. Even the thought of it now makes me feel lethargic.
Have you ever seen that TV show about the Australian borders? People coming in with purchases, such as honey. Then being hit with a massive fine or sent back packing to where they came from. Well Nia and I had watched it a few times so we knew it all to well, it made us nervous and scared for what we may bring in from Asia. We thought to ourselves, we must declare everything.
We get handed the little sheet of paper, ‘incoming passenger card’, from the air hostess on the flight and it was time to fill in the blanks. The first side wasn’t hard, black bold capitals, passport name etc.. you get the idea. Then we turn it over to the dreaded ‘something to declare’. Ok, let’s start. The first set of questions are fine to answer, are you bringing in any medication? Well we have paracetamol, so let’s declare it. Can you see where this is going? The next question or two is about the amount of money you have and if you are carrying large amounts of cash. I wish at this time, but no. Then we get onto food items, things like dairy and grains. No. Parts of a plants or wooden articles? Oh Nia I think we both bought some wooden chopsticks didn’t we, oh yes good point, let’s put that down. The spork, the pen knife, the wooden book Nia got as a gift, our trainers since they had dirt on them. Come into contact with farm animals? Would monkeys go into this? Everything we could possibility add to this, we did. We didn’t want to get caught out of course, this is the Australian border we are talking about. After we rack our brains a few more times, we think we have everything. We wrote a list of everything we have got, so we can take it out easily from our rucksacks, the plane landed and off we went.
Welcome to Australia! We were a mixture of excited for the next part of our adventure, but we just had to get through this small hurdle first. We waited in line for our bag inspection and the man calls us forward. We put our bags on the counter and he takes our forms. He of course asked what are we declaring? Right off we go. We started off with the pen knife and continue to the chopsticks at the end. We smile and he just stares at us blankly when we are done. “Is that it?” he asks. Ummm… yes? He laughed, oh gosh was this sarcastic, did we forget something. He then just says “your fine girls, have a good time in Aus”. So it was all that worrying for nothing! Now we are thinking just how stupid some of these people have to be on TV to not be able to get through these men. Anyway we were in, your first steps starting our three month long journey up the East coast of Australia. Let’s go.
LEAH HANCOX 