I realised that this was the fifth time I’d flown inter-state in Australia and that I’d never been asked for any form of ID at the airport. Flying internationally is different of course, but in the UK I usually have to at least show my drivers licence before getting on an internal flight (Say, Aberdeen to London).

I suppose the airline could check the passenger name against the credit card details used to book the tickets, but that would only work for (at most) one passenger per booking.

I also noticed that my airline’s self-service check-in machine would print a boarding pass with just a name and flight number (No need to know the booking reference or credit card details). I wonder what would happen if someone printed my boarding pass before I got there?

I guess they’d check IDs at the boarding gate if somebody reported it happening. Or maybe have some way to invalidate the bar code on the pass, but it all seems much more trusting than at home.

Rather than sit around doing practically nothing I’ve decided to book a flight down to Tasmania, rent a car, and drive around the island for a week. I’m flying tomorrow and other than staying a couple of nights in Hobart, I don’t really have much of a plan. I think I’d like to stick mostly to the coastal routes rather than use the main inland highway between Hobart and Launceston. I’ve heard the scenery around the island described as “spectacular” so I’d like to see as much of it as I can while I’m there!

I’ve called a few dive centres to try to organise some SCUBA diving either around Hobart or further up the East coast off Bicheno. This has exposed one of the downsides to travelling alone — I have no diving buddy. This, combined with my relative inexperience, means that I’ll probably just have to wait until a boat goes out and hope that I can be slotted in with the group. Hopefully something will turn up, as I haven’t been diving since I was sailing around the Whitsunday Islands.

I made it over to Melbourne with a fairly small amount of hassle. A delay in Aberdeen turned a leisurely stroll across Heathrow into a mad dash to get clear of Terminal 5! I made the Sydney flight with about 10 minutes to spare, worried that like the last time I travelled to Australia, my checked bag would be left on the ground in London. Thankfully, when I arrived in Sydney my big red holdall was already waiting on the luggage belt. Immigration and Quarantine wasn’t so easy though. It seemed like five flights had arrived at once, and taking into account the 2 -hour delay in Bangkok, my connection to Melbourne took off before I even cleared passport control! A few frantic phone calls later, and after another run through an airport I boarded my final flight and met Meg in Melbourne airport just about an hour behind schedule.

So much has changed since I was last in Geelong, but so much still seems the same. It was good to arrive to something vaguely familiar before heading off to Sydney to start something completely unknown.

Basically, OzIntro help with getting visas, accommodation, health care, and all the rest sorted before you leave home. Organised tours aren’t really my thing, and companies like OzIntro aren’t really doing anything that I couldn’t do myself, but after spending most of my first month in Dublin trying to fix tax benefits and open bank accounts the opportunity to get as much as possible up and running before I leave proved too good to pass up! Another reason is that you’re part of a group of people who all arrive at the same time, and are in much the same position. I’ve been in touch with a few of them already and they seem like a good lot. I have no plans at all after my first week in Sydney (This seems to be a common theme throughout the group!), but I’m sure that before the week is over something will come together!