According to plan, I could get from Adelaide to Goroka all in one day.
This is not what happened.
Monday 02 Jan 2006
Adelaide to Brisbane QF0657
Departing: 6:25am.
Brisbane to Port Moresby PX006
Departing: 10am.
Transfer from the Domestic to International airports without trouble. Inside the latter, I check out the Departure Board to find out what row I need to check in at. It’s number 7. But:
Departing: 16:00pm.
I groan internally; that’s about 8 hours to spend in this airport! And I will miss my connection to Goroka. I head to row 7 to find out what’s going on; there’s a big crowd of people there already. We are told that the Air Niugini plane flew into Australia last night, was damaged in Sydney’s storms and had to make an emergency landing at Brisbane. The plane is being checked out by Qantas engineers, but there is no information on when the flight will be rescheduled: probably not today, maybe not even tomorrow.
(A German tourist – female, middle aged, cropped hair, long rats tail from behind her left ear – has a verbal spit at the Air Niuigini staff member who is telling us this. She rants and rants, and even calls her an “effing bitch”. I try not to grin. Someone else also comments that it’s a relief it got damaged in Aussie: it will be fixed properly, and flying will be safe for the next few months. It might sound harsh but it’s true.)
(Half of the queue)It takes an hour and a half to get to the reception desk – to be told that there are no rooms available and I will have to wait until 2pm to check in. O-kay…
I head out into Brisbane on a 35degree public holiday. I find the mall – surprisingly all the shops are open – and the cinemas, but there’s nothing I want to see and nothing I want to buy. I wander, then go back to the hotel. I check at 1 if there are any rooms, but there aren’t. I check at 2 – and there are still no rooms. Feeling less adventurous now and more tired, I wish I were as brave as the swearing german woman. But I am polite, and you know what? It works: I get a room in twenty minutes.
Rest of the day passes. That night, at 1:39am, I wake to what sounds like the shower. But how did that turn on? I get up to investigate, and find that an air vent in the ceiling is gushing with water. Why me? I call reception and the night porter comes up, tells me it’s an aircon overflow, and that he’ll move me to another room. I can leave all of my things where they are and simply come back early in the morning. So I chuck my sneakers on and move to an identical room two floors down. Eventually I sleep, but am woken by the sunlight at 5am. At 6 I grab my key card and leave the new room to return to the old. Naturally the newspaper delivery boy is also in the hallway, and we have to catch the same lift. I am wearing crumpled tshirt and shorts, and clutching only my keycard. I can see him peering at me curiously (“What naughty business has she been up to?”).
Tuesday 03 Jan 2006
Brisbane to Port Moresby
Departing: Unknown
Although departure time is unknown, we are taken to the airport at 7:30am. After half an hour, we get confirmation: we’re leaving this morning.
PX004
Departing: 10:55am.
Unfortunately the check in queue is massive: there are now Monday’s and Tuesday’s passengers. More waiting, this time an hour and a half. People are either edgy or resigned. But eventually that’s done, and we do take off. Before we do, I buy myself a reward.
Arriving: 13:55pm.
At PoM, the visa checkpoint is chockers as usual, but the “domestic transfer” line is moving at least. Get out in reasonable time – maybe 30 mins – and find bag-with-wheels within 5mins. Customs is a breeze – they just let me walk through – and so I trundle onwards with the bag-with-wheels, to the Domestic Terminal. It feels really good to be back in PNG, I think.
Port Moresby to Goroka PX962
Departing: 1600pm.
I check in, say farewell to the bag-with-wheels again, collect my boarding pass and wander through into the Domestic Departure lounge. I’ve got 15 mins until boarding; I phone work and arrange for someone to come and pick me up from Goroka.
Boarding time: 15:30pm.
There is an announcement. My hand reaches for the backpack – time to board – but the announcement informs me that the flight has been cancelled. “Please exit the Departure Lounge and go to the Customer Services desk.” No! But no great surprise; almost one out of three flights to or from Gka have been cancelled lately; when I flew out of PNG, the Gka-PoM flight was delayed for four hours, perilously close to being cancelled.
I join the line, and find out that I was the last person they checked in – everyone else was told the flight was cancelled. Great. The bag-with-wheels is off somewhere, alone. Meanwhile I stand in line. When I arrive at the actual counter, I am told to stand in the “reissue tickets” line (luckily someone in the from of the “reissue tickets” line sees my plight, grabs my ticket and gets it processed with theirs). Then I have to stand in the “customer services” line again, while they arrange overnight accommodation.
This takes two and a half hours. I find my bag. I am tired and sick of waiting. But on the positive side I am making new friends, with people in the line. That night we reward ourselves with a few cold beers at the hotel bar for having made it through the last two days.
Wednesday 04 Jan 2006
Port Moresby to Goroka PX 960
Departing: 9:15am.
Check in: 8:45am.
Get to the airport at 7am. Do the check in thing all over again. Wait in the Departure Lounge. First two flights of the day – to Hagen and to Kavieng – both fail to board, let alone take off. Flight to Gka is scheduled as the third – but will we actually leave? And when? No info is given about the delays. And so our check in time comes and goes – and there is no announcement.
But then out of the blue at 9:05am the flight is called and we board. People flying to Hagen look vicious, and I feel sorry, but not that much.
Actual departure: 9:20am.
Arrival in Gka: 10:30am.
The marathon is over. Home!
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