Saturday 14th June
My last full day in Australia was a very relaxing affair, and we spent the time lazing about the house. Kevin and his family called around and we had lunch and hung out on the veranda, enjoying the sun.
Later in the day, I caught up with some of the Euro 2008 replays, and hung out for a bit with Brian. We had a takeaway of Thai food for dinner. I started to get my stuff in order and made a discovery when checking my flight details that I was scheduled to fly from Auckland to Christchurch later the following evening, after we had arrived into Auckland from Brisbane. I had forgotten that this was part of my itinerary, and figured that my thinking way back in October when I had booked my flights was to avoid the North Island completely, and spend all of my time in the South Island, starting in Christchurch. However, my plan as it had been formulated in the present, was to stay with my folks and travel about with them north of Auckland, then hop on one of the bus tours, similar to the Easy Rider trip that I had done in Western Australia.
After I realised this, I had to call the customer service desk at Qantas and explain that I needed to cancel the flight from Auckland to Christchurch, otherwise it might make void the rest of my remaining onward flights. I spoke to a representative of Qantas and she said that it would cost a total of USD150 to make the necessary changes, and advised that it would be best to pay for the change at the Qantas help desk at Brisbane Airport the next morning. It was a bit of a surprise to realise that my itinerary was different from what I had expected, but at least I had noticed it in time. It was a pity to have to fork out the extra cash to make the changes, but it was just another example of what can happen in life on the road.
We were in bed very early that night, as we were due to be up before dawn was even showing early signs of cracking.
