My very first Australian experience
I’ve been putting off writing this story for a long time. Uwa!! Procrastination shall not be the end of me so here goes!!!
December 2018
This trip was my first time stepping on Australia’s soil. Might I add, of all my visits to Australia, this particular trip was not only the cheapest but also the one with the most explorations. And, “cheap” was one of my favourite words, still is although quality trumps it these days.
How did it happen? I’m glad you asked!
Second half of 2018, Lamis asked if I’m keen to travel to Australia. “Let’s go together even if no other person wants to come“, a paraphrased version of what she said.
It was at the period that my appetite for adventure had increased exponentially after several other trips around New Zealand. Moreover, since my dad’s passing, I promised myself to take all the opportunities of adventure that I can and to try as many new things as possible (I may have slacked since then but that is not the point of this post).
So, thanks to all the above, I agreed to visit Australia with Lamis. Then, immediately developed cold feet due to the thought of the possibility of my visa application being denied.
Traveling on a Nigerian passport can be tedious!!
You see, the mere fact that I’m Nigerian has caused me extra scrutiny from immigration case officers and border control officers alike, even in my home country. Yes, you read right even in Nigeria!
The whole shenanigans has created a significant level of anxiety in people and for me, the fear of rejection. All of which led to me having second thoughts about going on this my first Australian trip.
But, when I thought about the fight and resilience I put up and in, respectively, after New Zealand denied my first student application (story for another post), I was motivated to give it try.
As is the famous saying in Ibibio mixed with English “afid mkpo akpa trying“
Moreover, I was coming up to a year and half into my doctoral studies at the time. My doctoral studies status was also confirmed by then so, that holiday was well-deserved!!!
Visa and pre-departure shenanigans
It didn’t take long to get my visa. Timeframe from submission to approval was less than a month. I applied in second week of September and got the visa approval 16 days later (My fastest with them is in <24 hours, post-biometric submission).
In October 2018, we booked all our flights and accommodations. My flight to Australia was with Qantas and the return flight to New Zealand was with Virgin Australia. Psst!! I got a free flight ticket from a friend I met at a conference. Don’t tell anyone *winks*.
Our flight was booked to depart and return in December 2018. The departure date was the early days of the second week in December, to return in the third week, early days still.
All our domestic flights within Australia were with Jetstar Airways, the all day, every day, low fare airline. What this meant was that we were only allocated standard 7 kg carry-on for luggage. and we had to buy additional baggage to cover our international baggage size.
That went well. We shared additional 20 kg to reduce unnecessary expense. As such, we had 34 kg baggage size between two of us which required that we had to pack light. I did most of the light packing. Just saying.
The day was drawing closer and closer. I wanted to travel really light so, I needed a backpacking backpack but without actually investing in one. Girls!! right? I know!!
I didn’t feel the need to purchase the backpack because travelling that way will only be a one time thing, or so I thought. What did I do instead?
I borrowed one from Bryan and that became one of my two luggage for the whole trip.
When the day came, we both headed for the airport. Lord I can still taste the excitement and anticipation. I took the SkyBus (now indefinitely suspended) to the Airport; arrived slightly over 3 hours before my flight.
You have to know that this was not just my first time visiting Aussie, it was also my second time travelling out of New Zealand. So you can say I was a bit nervous. Thankfully, the whole process was smooth and a really stressless experience.
Something exciting happen!!
I didn’t expect to see my supervisor at the airport but lo, and behold there he was with his family. Lamis, my travel buddy, saw him first and informed me. Ofcourse he knew I’d be on holiday but I couldn’t remember telling him that I was going to travel out of the country.
Did I need to? Well, I didn’t think I needed to… even though I always put his name as emergency contact. Anyway, we decided to be cheeky and try to be as invisible as possible. I would have gone to say hi to my supervisor but, the idea of hiding sounded and felt more interesting so I went with that.
It made it fun and made my travel buddy feel comfortable in the idea that we thought alike at that moment. Was this the case? It’ll depend on who and when you ask *troublemaker much!”
After much hide and seek, there were no more hiding places so we went up to say hi then proceeded to the pre-departure waiting area for our flights.
It was approx 4 hour flight to Melbourne, Australia. We arrived in Melbourne past 9pm. It was beautiful!!! I was more impressed by the Melbourne arrival terminal than when I arrived in New Zealand for the first time.
Once we got our bags, then hailed a taxi to our AirBnB and still pretty stoked really!! We could use our phones and bank cards in Aussie so we didn’t have to buy those.
We took a lot of photos!!!
Things to do in Australia
We explored Melbourne, visited Tasmania and Sydney in that order, on this trip. Next posts will be me writing about everything I did in these cities and a review of the places we stayed. We were always outside and only returned to sleep so our bags enjoyed the accommodation more than us.
Overall, the experience was wonderful and enlightening. I learnt a lot about myself and my emotional attachment to people. Travelling is fun but travelling with an open mind and willingness to explore is what will make you enjoy the trip.
I learnt so much Australian history in so little time. But that topic will be discussed in details in another post. Perhaps on my podcast… you never know.
I will say that my first trip to Australia increased my appreciation of New Zealand, opened my eyes to many opportunities in Nigeria that were right in my face but I couldn’t see. It also strengthened my love for our culture and way of life, things that many of us take for granted.
I wanted to stay for longer but Lamis was scheduled to travel to India immediately after she returned from our trip. To add to that, I was not great at making random friends let alone travel with random people.
If I was, maybe, just maybe I would have stayed longer. Perhaps long enough to experience the new year celebrations/fireworks in Sydney.
So, since I didn’t have that courage to stay back and explore Aussie with total strangers e.g. backpackers (The people who told me I’m that social lied to me!!), I had to move my flight to leave the same day as Lamis.
Lastly, I’ll be travelling to Australia again in this December, God willing. I’ll try to re-visit some of the sites again. Keep an eye out for vlogs!!! Woo-hoo
