Stranded in a Cyclone!

We are currently stranded in Byron Bay. Our flights were cancelled, there is no way for us to get to Sydney until at least tomorrow, and the rain and wind haven't let up for three days. Oh yeah, and the power went out about an hour ago. So much for our glorious beach vacation/ Australia Day/birthday celebration! I'm down to 7% phone battery, so I should go now. Hopefully we'll get home tomorrow and my family will be able to get to New Zealand somehow.

Catch-up Post: Our Hero Outback Ricky

As mentioned in the previous post, Morgan and I planned on driving from Kings Canyon back to Ayers Rock. That way, we could spend the night camping there, wake up to see the sunrise over Uluru (since the rain seemed to be going away), and catch our flight back to Melbourne at noon.

Well, I backed up the car and then pulled forward to leave the parking lot. But I didn't see a very low wooden post in front of us. Therefore, I rammed the undercarriage of the car into the post, and it did a little damage. Whoops.

That was only the start to our car adventures. We stopped at Curtin Springs campground again to get some fuel. It's basically the only place you can get gas (or even see any form of civilization) between Kings Canyon and Uluru (a few hours apart). Well, I sort of filled our car's tank with diesel gas. Whoops again! In my defense, I was still flustered from ramming the post, and the pump was old-fashioned and not well labeled at all. 

Luckily, I realized what I had done before we drove away. We would have been SERIOUSLY stranded if we had driven away and headed out on the road...no cell phone reception, no people, nothing. Americans, we joke about how there is "nothing" when you drive through states like Kansas or Nebraska. You haven't seen true "nothing" until you've been in the Outback. I've never seen such emptiness; I can't even explain it.

Anyway, as soon as I realized what I had done, I knew it was bad. We told the people inside the little store, and we soon had a few guys who worked there gathered around our car trying to figure out what to do. The first thought was that we could siphon out the wrong gas, put the correct kind in, and be on our way. Well, our rental car was a newer model that had some sort of "lock" on it so you couldn't siphon it out with a hose in the regular way. Not that we had any clue what the regular way was!

One guy who was helping was particularly attractive. His name was Ricky, although to this day we refer to him as "Outback Ricky." Imagine the most ruggedly handsome cowboy-ish Australian guy possible, and that pretty much sums up Outback Ricky. This guy took off his cowboy hat and tried to siphon out the gas with his MOUTH for us. We're talking mouthfuls of pure diesel, folks. He was nearly gagging as he did it, but he tried for several minutes.

Unfortunately, it was soon quite apparent that this method wasn't going to work. After all, I had basically filled the whole tank before realizing it was diesel. Outback Ricky and his friend (a tour group driver who pulled in with his van full of folks for the evening) then came up with an idea where they could undo the fuel line from under the hood of the car and blow out the diesel fuel. This was after calls were made to car dealerships in Alice Springs to figure out if there was any way to easily fix this problem with this model of car (there wasn't). But the big boss man told us that Ricky couldn't do anything on his property, because he would be held liable if anything went wrong.

There was a repairman in Kings Canyon, but he was done for the day and couldn't come out until the next morning. So we were basically stuck. Outback Ricky and his friend pushed our car toward a campsite (since we were apparently staying for the night). Actually, once they were out of view from big boss guy, they pushed it over toward their work shed and kept trying to figure out how they could help us. Unfortunately, big boss man caught them and gave Outback Ricky a bit of a "talking to" around the corner of the shed. We felt so bad that we got him in trouble!

So we stayed the night at Curtin Springs. We made lots of frantic pay phone calls to the Kings Canyon resort to set up the repairman's visit as early as possible the next morning, and to Zack, trying to organize alternative flights if we weren't going to make ours the next day. That night, the tour group guy invited us over to share in his group's campfire. We met some nice folks from all over the world. We shared glow sticks with them, and they shared damper (traditional Australian bread made over the campfire) with us. It wasn't too bad after all.

In the morning, we anxiously awaited the repairman's arrival. He came, but it took awhile for him to get all of the gas out. Then we had to push the car back to the pump, put in the right gas, and head out on the road. Morgan gave Outback Ricky her phone number on the way out, because he was making a trip to the US (including California) in a few months. I desperately wanted a picture of him, but Morgan refused to let me take one. She was too embarrassed! I'll never let her live it down. Unfortunately, he never did call her! :)

Anyway, if we were going to make our flight, we really had to book it. The nice thing about Outback roads is that they are completely straight and empty. I was seriously going over 100mph almost the whole way to the airport, and it didn't even feel that fast. We were a little sad as we passed by Uluru when the sun was actually out; seeing the sunrise would have been awesome.


We made it to the airport in time. In fact, our flight was delayed! Unfortunately, this wasn't a good thing, because it meant that we would possibly miss our connection in Sydney. We had a plan when we got to Sydney; Morgan would get our bag, and I would check in with the Jetstar people and beg them to let us on the flight. Our first flight was with Virgin Airlines, so I knew Jetstar wouldn't be that sympathetic to our missed connection. Well, our bag was the last one out, and the Jetstar folks were closing the flight, saying I would have to get on the next one, which would cost us each over $100.

Morgan ran up the stairs and over to me with the bag as they were telling me this, and I begged some more. They said if we didn't have the bag, it would be no problem. So I said, "Pretend we don't have the bag; we'll leave it back on the conveyor belt with Virgin." They said if we did that, they could get us on the flight with just our carry-on luggage. So we ditched the bag, which ironically we only brought so we could have the tent (which we never used because of the rain!). I knew that Zack was traveling to Sydney for work the following week, so I figured he could pick it up then or something.

We ran through the airport, made our flight, and when we landed, I had a voicemail waiting for me from Virgin Airlines, saying that we had left a bag there (surprise!). I called them back, acting like we "forgot" it in our rush to make our connecting flight, and they actually flew it to Melbourne for free. So when I brought Morgan to the airport to go home the next day, we were able to get it! In the end, everything ended up okay, and we got home safely. Zack had food and flowers waiting for us, and we were happy to be back in Melbourne, where we were dry and warm.

Our trip to Uluru was kind of crazy and definitely not the normal tourist's experience, but it makes for a good story now. And I learned to always double check which type of gas I'm putting in the car!

Our only glimpse of Uluru in the sunshine!

The Day That Didn't Exist

The first glimpse of our new home from the plane.

One year ago, April 28 did not exist for us. We had left Denver on Wednesday, April 27, and we arrived in Australia on the morning of Friday, April 29. Somewhere in the air, we lost Thursday. Tomorrow I'll post some sort of reflection on having lived here for a year, but I thought I should post a short blurb today in commemoration of the day that didn't exist!

P.S. There just might be a blog contest and/or giveaway in honor of our first year in Australia, so check back tomorrow!

Hooray for Scoopon!

This short blog post is just a shout-out to Scoopon. I've bought several coupons through them to use at various restaurants, hotels, etc. We had purchased flights to Thailand through them, but then Air Australia went under. Scoopon refunded our entire purchase price (and everyone else's as well). According to articles I've read, this is going to cost them over a million dollars out-of-pocket. In a time when lots of companies seem to be all about making profit, it was so refreshing to receive the news that we would not be out this money. Hooray for Scoopon! If you're in Australia and haven't checked our their deals before, here's the link: Scoopon. No, I was not paid to do this post, although if Scoopon wants to give me some free deals or something, I'm available! :) Now to figure out when/how we're going to get to Thailand...

Day of Transition

On Monday, November 14, my family spent their final morning in Sydney doing whatever they wanted. Morgan and I slept, my mom and dad packed and rested, and Justin and Cindy explored the New South Wales Art Gallery. Then we headed to the airport for that famed Tiger Airways flight mentioned in yesterday's post. After getting to Melbourne two hours later than planned, we changed our itinerary a bit and headed to Lygon Street for dinner. It's kind of like the "Little Italy" of Melbourne with several Italian restaurants in a row. As you walk by them, people out front offer you free things to lure you in to their place. We chose one that gave us free drinks, garlic bread, and bruschetta. The pasta was tasty, and we followed it up with desserts at Koko Black. I've always heard that the hot chocolate there was delicious, and it definitely lived up to the hype. Yum! Tomorrow I start posting about our trip down the Great Ocean Road. Until then...

Why I Hate Tiger Airways

Here are the reasons why I hate Tiger Airways and tell people to NEVER fly with them:

1. The Civil Aviation Safety Authority suspended Tiger Airways flights for over a month starting at the beginning of July. This meant that Zack and I didn't get to spend our third anniversary together, because he was working in Sydney, and I was booked on a Tiger flight to meet him there. I should have taken the hint and learned my lesson then and there to not fly with them.

2. After the suspension was lifted, Tiger Airways started cancelling some of its routes. That meant that the flights I had already booked for my family from Melbourne to Cairns no longer existed. Thankfully, rebooking on Jetstar was only a bit more expensive, and we got there with no problems. It also meant that Morgan's and my flight to Alice Springs was cancelled. We ended up flying Jetstar to Sydney and then Virgin to Uluru, which meant that we ended up directly in Uluru instead of having to drive there from Alice Springs (that was good). It also meant that we paid double the price of our original tickets (that was bad).

And the one that really "gets my goat"...

3. Several months ago, I purchased my family's November 14 flights from Sydney back to Melbourne through Tiger Airways. Not knowing how many checked bags we would have, I didn't pay ahead for those. I knew I'd have to pay a bit more by not doing it then, but that was okay. We ended up having two, so a few days before the flight, I got online to add the baggage to our reservation. Well, Tiger Airways has no way to add it online except for when you book the flight. Instead, you have to call a phone number to supposedly get it added. The problem is that when you call, all you get is a menu of four options. No matter which option you choose or what button you press (I tried everything), the recorded voice just keeps repeating the menu options. You never get a human being, and there is no way to add your luggage.

So we headed to the airport with our two bags weighing less than 25kg each. Stupidly, I assumed that the Tiger Airways employees at the airport would be understanding and not charge us the at-airport fees, because the problem was with their system. Not only are there NO Tiger Airways employees anywhere in the airport (they contract out their work with some other company), there was no understanding. I was polite, nice, calm, etc., but nobody cared. My dad tried to reason with them as well, but it didn't work. With the at-airport charges, our two bags cost us $257.50!!! When you pay for it there, I forget how much each bag costs, but each kilogram over 15kg costs you $20. Yes, $20 per kilogram! Ridiculous. Oh, and of course there was an extra charge for using a credit card. Yeah, like I would have had over $250 in cash just sitting in my wallet for this. So maddening.

The cost of those two bags was more than the price we paid for all six flights combined!! Just to make things even more frustrating, the flight was delayed over an hour. They even got us all boarded, found out something was broken, and made us all get off because the air conditioning unit couldn't be turned on and it was sweltering in there. So we got to Melbourne two hours later than planned and had to change our itinerary all around. It ended up okay, but I'm still mad about the luggage bill.

4. Tiger Airways makes it basically impossible to contact them. The phone number gets you nowhere, they don't have an e-mail address, there are no employees at the airport, etc. Yes, I will be mailing them a letter, which may have to go to Singapore (where they are headquartered). Yes, I will fight fight fight until I get the luggage costs back. And no, no matter how cheap their flights are (and they are pretty darn cheap-you get what you pay for!), I will NEVER fly with Tiger Airways again. Long live Jetstar and Virgin Airlines! When I get to the posts about Uluru, I will tell you why those low-cost airlines are SO much better.

By the way, if you think my experience was unique, just try Googling "I Hate Tiger Airways." I am definitely not alone. I'll admit it; I was one of those sucked in by the cheap prices and thinking that nothing bad would happen to me. Wrong! I hate Tiger Airways!

P.S. If you know any secret to contacting Tiger Airways or have had experience with actually getting money back for something like this, let me know!

P.P.S. Sorry, none of my own pictures to go with this post...I was too upset on that day to take any! I copied the one at the top from somewhere else.