I was the first passenger to come through this morning. Shops were barely open, the only customers at the eateries were staff from other shops. I headed down the stairs to the QF lounge, and found it wouldn’t be open until 5:15. It wasn’t even 5 yet.

I went back up and had a look around the few shops that were open. Prices weren’t that exciting and there wasn’t anything I wanted or could get at WLG at lower prices anyway. I went to gate, the good thing was there weren’t armrests between the individual seats, so I put my feet up. Even though I wasn’t trying to sleep, it was good to put my feet up straight…

Gradually, passengers for other flights began to arrive. Most flights were to Asia, and while the terminal began to get busy, most people were still not much more than walking zombies…

I headed back to the QF lounge (which CX also use), and was the first customer in. First thing was to get my boarding pass. Unfortunately, the lady there couldn’t get on the system, so she offered to take my ticket and passport so she could do it later while I head for a shower. She asked whether I was a Qantas Club member, and I said yes, and asked whether she wanted my card, but she was friendly and trusting and she gave me the towels and a plastic bag so I could return the used towels to her.

There weren’t that many shower suites here at MEL, and each was quite small. With one’s hand luggage inside, it’s difficult to move around without knocking something, and a seat was just out of the question. A stool tucked underneath the sink could be useful when required though.

After a nice hot shower, I went back to reception, but she still couldn’t print my boarding pass, so I hit breakfast instead. It was the usual QF lounge affair (they seem to have the same breakfast no matter which QF lounge you go) – oatmeal, cereal, pear or peach (from a can) and toast. Occasionally, you get pastries but not in this case. Passengers slowly began to come in, but most seemed to be for other flights. This lounge calls every flight that departs from the terminal, including non QF or non OW flights. There wasn’t a clear first class section, but there was a section with slightly better furniture and a ‘subtle’ sign showing first class. At this hour, no one really cared where you sit, and reception certainly didn’t care. After going through a newspaper with dawn slowly breaking, the tarmac gradually became busier. The lounge and the my gate (9) had a good view of the tarmac. Flights came in and there was even the occasional queue to take off. The QF flights that flew the same route (LHR-SIN-MEL) began arriving, but again there didn’t seem to be many connecting passengers. There were a couple of CX customers from HKG that connected to my flight though.

On this Saturday morning, the lounge never got busy. Passengers were a good mix of leisure passengers and the business type, most likely going home. As I headed back to the gate, I finally collected my boarding pass and passport.

Now that it’s light outside, I headed to the window to have a proper look of the tarmac from my gate. While I saw some construction activities outside my gate earlier when it was dark, now I could clearly see there would be no way they could park a plane there. There wasn’t even an air bridge at the gate. The only possibility would be a bus gate.

Gate 11 which was next to Gate 9 had a 733 parked next to it. 11 looked more like an gate for US flights, with extra dividers. While the departure board still showed gate 9 for my flight, I sat at Gate 11, expecting my flight to move over to 11.

With about 10 minutes before scheduled boarding, the announcement came that the flight would indeed depart from Gate 11. It didn’t look like a full flight, with about 100 passengers at most. When we sat down and the gate agent prepared the necessary paperwork, the occasional passengers would rush up to the gate and expecting to board. It turned out that the departure board has already shown the flight as ‘final call’ (another crying wolf)…Even when the agent had her immediate area roped off, people would still go around it and wanting to board. When you see quite a few people sitting down and the door to the air bridge closed, you are either way too late or boarding hasn’t begun yet…

There was a passenger connecting from HKG with CX and for some reasons her bag wasn’t tagged to go to WLG, only to MEL even though she’d a boarding pass for this flight already. I couldn’t figure out how that managed to happen (wouldn’t that be some security problems?). She asked the gate agent whether she could locate her luggage and have someone put it on this flight. Perhaps she should have gone through customs and immigration before getting her boarding pass… Her boarding pass looked like a QF one, and not a CX one.

Boarding time came and went. Announcements and apologies came through that it was because of the late incoming flight. The plane has been sitting there for well over an hour now. I was there…! It doesn’t take that long to prepare a 733, even if it’s a token international flight.

Boarding finally began and it was a free for all. For a small flight, I didn’t really care. Including myself, there were only 3 passengers in business today. A fourth came up after levelling out, and it was clear he was a QF staff. At first, I thought he might not get the full business service, but he did… Didn’t worry me, just interesting to note.

Unlike the trans-Tasman flight that started this trip, a printed menu was offered. This time, there’s a proper breakfast compared to BA – a cooked option rather than just fruit. The CSD also introduced herself to each of the passengers when she offered the menu.

Normally, the QF CSD would look after the business class and the rest of the crew would look after economy. At this flight, a young FA took care of business and the CSD took care of economy with another FA.

Before breakfast was served, the FA asked whether I would like a DVD player instead of the movie showing at the main screen. I took the opportunity having turned it down at my first flight. While she gave us the movie catalogue and asked for a selection, she ended up giving each of us the entire movie library but with our first selection pre-loaded ready to go.

This was as close to AVOD QF could get at these flights. It also served a good opportunity to finally catch up on 3 or 4 movies that I’ve watched during various flights of this trip but have fallen asleep to.

Arrived at a brilliantly sunny and calm WLG, marked with a very smooth touchdown. (Although after I walked out of the terminal, there was a definite nip in the air that wasn’t there when I left 3 weeks ago.) While WLG wasn’t a big airport, there was a relatively long walk through various air bridges and walk ways before getting to Immigration. As I was the first one to leave the plane, I almost led the passengers to a wrong way as the walk way kept pointing to Departure, but nothing about Arrival. There was no staff around to ask, but with the only other door locked, there was only one way to go.

I collected my duty-free that I bought when I was leaving WLG. Although my original receipt was with my lost luggage, I explained the situation to the shop and with my boarding pass, they gave me the goods. By the time I got to Luggage Reclaim, bags just started to arrive. This flight followed closely from a QF flight from SYD and another one from NZ, so it was quite busy. With all my bags, I went to get a trolley, and with I was just getting used to recognising my suitcase. By the time I recognised it, it has already went past me and half way down the other side of the belt, so I chased after it.

No sniffing dog today, but I did have some food to declare. Joined the red queue (for things to declare), the officer asked what it was, and it was just candy. I always pack any food with my hand luggage for easy retrieval. I showed the officer the food, and he was quite happy, and he handed my customs form to another officer. He was more interested with the places that I’ve been to rather than the food. He didn’t ask me anything that was outside what I wrote on the form, although he did seem extra interesting with my Thailand stop. Perhaps that was due to the recent Bali happenings…

As all passengers were required to do, all bags went through x-ray again for a search on food. Having found nothing that they didn’t know about already, I was allowed to go.

Arrival hall was full of people, and it was good to see the family again after a 3-week whirlwind trip around the world…