The story of how we eventually got to Australia and to Sydney is both short and long.

The reality of us leaving England during the midst of a global pandemic was difficult in itself. That flight was cancelled within a weeks notice and we had to very quickly find new flights to be able to quarantine in New Zealand before loosing our spot in Managed Isolation.

I would never wish that kind of stress on anybody, neither of us slept that night and it was upsetting to me to have to cut time with my parents and sister short. Once we did finally get to New Zealand travelling didn’t become much easier.

Our flights to Sydney were cancelled three times without cause. By the end of that week I was emotionally numb and at that point I was wondering whether we had made the right decision. We could have easily remained with one set of parents and been in a bit more of a stable position.

I think that day was one of the first days I was missing the presence of my parents. In the way that I just wanted a reassuring hug from them.

All this being said, one might be able to understand how we felt when we were finally allowed into the airport and to board the plane. It wasn’t relief in the slightest, it was anxiousness that the flight would be cancelled again. It wasn’t until we were 3/4 of the way there that we knew we would finally be getting to Sydney.

However, the story doesn’t end here - oh no! Would you believe that once we had got to Sydney there was so much rain that they couldn’t land the plane? We hadn’t eaten that day, nor slept much the night before. We were tired and hungry and I was bordering on becoming angry.

Another hour went by and then we finally landed. Was this the end of the saga? No! Of course not, that would be silly, wouldn’t it? Colin was actually relaxed at this point because we had landed, even though it was two hours later than we had wanted it to be. This is where the relaxation ended though.

We had to wait another hour in a line. To do a COVID questionnaire, that took maybe less than two minutes to answer. Needless to say, we were both furious. Then we had to wait for our bags to come through, which took about another half an hour.

Eventually, we did get out of the airport and to our accommodation. We even went out to dinner, and that dear reader is how we arrived in Australia.

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