Our flight was changed on Thursday when AirNZ cancelled the direct flight to Adelaide. We had already arranged to drive up to Auckland on Saturday evening as the flight was early Sunday. Our new arrangements meant we had to fly via Melbourne. Steve and Fiona had a different booking so they ended up flying via Sydney.

We arranged to meet them at the Jetpark between 5 and 6pm and set off at 3.40pm. Just as well. The road works at Rangiriri together with the Pink concert and Pasifika concert meant the trip took an hour longer than expected and we arrived at 6.15, two minutes behind the others.

The Jetpark is a great option. The rooms are reasonable with good bathrooms and for a very reasonable amount you can leave your car there in the car park. There is a shuttle bus every half hour to the airport.

We had drinks in the bar and then a pretty decent (though a bit pricey) meal in the hotel and early to bed.

We got the 5.30am shuttle as the 6 am one was booked. It was a bit of a mystery walk to get to the terminal. I was glad of the signs as you go all through these covered walkways past the 2 hotels.

We had bubbles in the Koru Club (it’s the start of the holiday) and some scrambled egg. I was glad of that. The food on the AirNZ flight to Melbourne was awful. Either some sweet chia pudding thing or super greasy cheese and ham pastry. Yuk. Should have photoed it. Will do better.

In the Koru lounge I was talking to a lady that also had half their party travelling via Melbourne and the other half via Sydney. The irony was that she won the holiday in an AirNZ competition which was promoted the direct flight to Adelaide. Good work AirNZ.

We met up with Evan and Shirley at the domestic airport in Melbourne. They are on our cycling trip also. We managed to retrieve our bags, get through customs and then drop the bags off ok with plenty of time before the next flight, which was a transfer onto a Qantas plane. The food was much nicer. You got either a pastrami sandwich or rice crackers. I had a salad at the airport so opted for the rice crackers. Mike was asleep (and in the row behind me) so missed out! He will enjoy his dinner.

It was hot in Melbourne (not that we were outside) but it’s really hot in Adelaide. 37C hot. We got an Uber to the Alba Hotel with rooms overlooking a huge park.

There’s a pool thank goodness. There are also at least 2 hens parties and one stag do. I assume they will kick on somewhere. Nice and quiet in the rooms and the aircon works well.

Getting food proved difficult. Everywhere seemed to be closed including the restaurant here. It turns out it’s actually a public holiday weekend. Australia race day or something. I assume horses but maybe cultural?? Anyway, after numerous false starts we found that the Mayfair hotel (where we shift to on Thursday to start the cycling tour) had room for us. It was a very nice meal.

We are bit scrunched in the Ubers though. Whoever gets the middle seat needs to adjust backwards and forwards to get the seatbelt connected.