Frugal Bastard's Hawaii Trip 2007: Frugal Bastard's Hawaii Trip 2007

Up at 5:40am to have breakfast and to the rest of the packing. Caught a taxi just before 7am and the driver helped himself to the continental breakfast that was on offer.

At the security screening at the airport we were chosen, as a family, for an additional pat-down search. It must be the wife. She has to be jinxed.

Gate 33 was a long walk and after Miky chucked a spaz about water, followed by me purchasing 1L for US$3.65, Yu-Jin and I caught a small shuttle for half of the walk.

At the gate there was more paperwork to fill out. This time it was a questionnaire relating to how much money you spent, where you stayed and how long you stayed for.

Eleven hours on the plane back to Melbourne. Uneventful. Played card games with Yu-Jin and read him a book that we bought. Wasn't interested in watching the movie and got about an hours sleep. We had breakfast before leaving and brought our lunch with us. I asked a stewardess what were Qantas passengers entitle to in the way of onboard services. She said that we were entitled to meals and unlimited drinks. After what happened on our flight over to Hawaii we weren't going to be caught out again and it sure left a bitter taste in our mouths. It made my blood boil seeing as we had missed out on one meal and had to pay for them on the flight across.

We arrived in Melbourne about 10 minutes early. Lots of people couldn't wait to alight the plane but the ground staff were unable to line-up the platform to disembark. Everybody had to sit down while they moved the plane forward. So much for the early landing.

Had quite a bit to declare to Customs - shells, food and plant material. All ok though. Had to fill in an entry form for immigration for Yu-Jin although I was sure that on the plane they said it was one per family. My mistake probably.

There were three hours to kill and we found some half decent and reasonably priced food at the airport! Yu-Jin fell asleep just before boarding time. He'd been awake for 18 hours. The flight to Perth with Virgin Blue was eventful. There were a group of three boisterous, and probably slightly pissed, guys yelling out "Tazza" every minute or so in front of us. Obviously went to the footy recently. We had asked for a seat closer to the middle of the plane to escape screaming babies and were put in row 23 instead of our intended row of 28. Thank goodness for that as there was a screaming, crying kid around row 28. Mind you, we had a drunk behind us who kept headbutting our seats as he fell forward and grabbing the seats every time he wanted to move as he wasn't too steady on his feet.

It was so cold that I couldn't get to sleep and there were no blankets available. Long four hours that. Did kip for about an hour after Miky slept with her legs on me which warmed me up a bit.

Quick ride home in the taxi and I'm glad to see that the new overpass on Leach Highway has been opened.