On Friday, July 29th, Nic and I left on our 15 hour flight to Melbourne. Although we were on a completely full airbus, the flight wasn't too bad, thanks in large part to the entertainment system. Nic and I each watched 3 or 4 movies, ate two meals, and had a decent sleep. Once we arrived in Melbourne though, it was time to hustle.
By the time we exited the plane, we had about an hour to catch our next flight. Qantas gave us express passes, so we were able to skip the line through customs. Then Nic went to collect our bags while I got in line for the agriculture inspection. I made it through the line long before he got our bags, so I had to let everyone ahead of me. This was no big deal, until an airport security lady caught on and said I had to exit the line immediately. I of course explained my situation (we had 40 minutes until our departure time at this point) and begged, but she wasn't having it. At the moment that I was slowly stepping out of line Nic showed up and I begged again. The lady rolled her eyes, muttered something under her breath, then said we'd have to take it up with the people in line. Of course, everyone had been so nice about the situation, except the lady we asked to get back in line in front of, she threw a fit. We got in line anyways, and just kept our heads down. Once we got through that obstacle, we took off running for the Domestic Qantas counter.
Of course by the time we got there, the flight was closed, and the machines wouldn't let us drop off our bags. We found someone at the counter who called and got the ok to put our bags on, since they were thankfully alreayd tagged through to Cairns. We rushed off to get in line to go through security, at this point we probably only had about 15 minutes to catch our flight and we could see from the back of the huge security line that the tv was flashing BOARDING. I told Nic, our only chance was to ask someone at the front of the line if we could cut. Nic walked up to some guy and before he finished asking the guy smiled and told him of course. Once Nic looked back at him he realized he was ________ (Nic will have to tell me his name), some famous footy player. He was really nice and even offered to help me collect my stuff (as I was picking up back-packs, purses, jackets, shoes, etc. at lightning speed). Nic meanwhile had been asked to be screened for explosives....apparently they only ask as a courtesy and the response, "Do I have to? I'm about to miss my flight" doens't help.
After the check, and finding our flight on the board we began running/speed walking to our gate (the furthest one away of course). When we finally arrived and saw people still lined up at the gate, we breathed a sigh of relief, we had made it. Then we started searching the crowd for Nic's parents. Susan came running over and gave me a big hug and we both started crying. I still can't believe it had been over a year since we'd seen each other. All of a sudden Nic pointed across the way and to my surprise: Lauren, Craig and Oliver were standing there! (I can't remeber exactly how spotting them happened because it is all a big blur now). I ran over to them and was fully crying at this point. I hugged them all, still in shock, then looked down to say a big HI to my nephew and he was smiling and waving at me! It was the best feeling ever!! My heart just melted. Nic came over too, and grabbed Ollie off Lauren. He just stared at Nic for a while, then I held him and he stared at me for a while too. Everytime we would say "Hi Oliver" he would smile and wave. It was amazing! We of course only had a few moments to catch up before we had to board the plane, and just like that the 7 of us were off to a week long vacation in Northern Queensland!
*I apologize for my appearance in these photos. After 15 hours of flying, an hour of running through the airport, and tons of tears...I'm not super glamorous. ;)
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