The 2nd last post

Hello again from Melbourne! Our bags made it on to the plane on Sunday morning, but the flight was cancelled before we could get on.

We had noticed the fog that shrouded the CBD and were worried that it would hold up our departure so we were surprised when the announcement came that we were cancelled due to 'volcanic activity in Wellington' - didn't think we had any volcanoes at home!

The airline got our bags off and organised food and lodgings after a bit of waiting around. They re-booked us on to Monday's flight, but once we started watching the TV we could see that it might take a bit longer than that.

Sure enough, we got a text at 1 am this morning saying the flight was cancelled again. Luckily, we slept through it, but I saw the message at 5-ish and we were on the phone to Qantas by 5.30 am. It took an hour to get through, but we were able to get re-booked for tomorrow's flight.

As more and more people get disrupted, it will be harder to get onto the next flight. We weren't able to get confirmation that Qantas would cover our accommodation and food costs.

We had to go to the airport to do that (fortunately just a short walk away) - what chaos! The queues were massive so it took most of the morning to get sorted.

Qantas have been pretty good - other airlines are not providing accommodation, but we were lucky enough to be amongst the first disrupted. That meant we could find a bed. Some people off our flight opted to go to Auckland even though Qantas were cutting these people off once they landed there - no accommodation or flights or assistance to get to Wellington. Plus we'd been told that Wellington airport was closed, so all in all, it wasn't an attractive option for us. The people who took it didn't get there anyway, but the hotel beds were all full by the time they pulled the plug on that flight.

The communication has been poor though. They talk to a couple of people at a time, rather than announcing it to everyone, and no one really seems to know what's going on.

We've heard some terribly sad stories including a couple coming from London to his mother's funeral. They wouldn't have made it in the end.

The extra days haven't felt like extra holiday - too much queuing and wondering what our next move will be. We can't easily get anywhere from here so we've just had our wee walks to the airport.

Third time lucky tomorrow - hopefully!