I had a flight booked to Melbourne scheduled for March 3rd from Gatwick Airport. The friday before I had finished work in London, I had one small personal job on the Saturday then I was looking forward to a month off work travelling across Australia, China and the Philippines. Then Saturday 28th February Trump bombs Iran. My flight was with Qatar Airways, it said on there app the flight was still scheduled but, the Qatari airspace was closed. The next few days I spent checking the airline and news as well as debating what I will do if I cannot fly. On my previous trip I had gone through the process of getting a working holiday visa for Australia and was planning to go there, in the end though I flew back to the UK. The expiry date on my visa was March 7th 2026. So if I didnt enter by then my visa would expire and I would have to apply again. The visa had already cost me over £500 with the cost aswell as doing the medical in Thailand. On top of this I had pre booked flights to China from Australia as well as multiple accomodations a shark diving experience and my flight back to Europe from Manila. So not only was I looking at mentally preparing myself to go back to work rather then a months long travel, I was also looking at a significant financial shortfall. March the 3rd arrived and I found myself doing some work at my dads gym rather then taking a flight to Australia, the stress was real.

Still searching for alternative ways of getting to Australia before my visa expired, I found it. I thought to myself how about I go the other way? through America. The flights were intense but a lot cheaper then flying the other way to Melbourne. I looked at flights via China or Singapore, they were coming in at £2k one way. If I flew via USA it was coming back just over £1k. I thought screw it, its just money it will be worth it. So I booked 2 seperate trips to get myself from London to Melbourne. When booking the flights trying to confirm I would make it for my visa deadline was pretty hard. The USA is 5 hours behind the UK where as Melbourne is 9 hours ahead. So although the website told me I would arrive on the 7th of march I was still skeptical. March 5th my dad took me to London Heathrow at 1:30am, I had barely slept, I was extremely stressed and I was preparing for a 40+ travel. The first flight was to Lisbon with TAP Air, there I had 2 hour layover and then a 12 hour flight to LAX. It was my first time flying with the airline and can’t say I was impressed. Uncomfortable seats along with the guy infront reclining his seat right after take off for the duration. Once at LAX I booked the later flight to San Francisco which would then take me to Melboune. I figured after 14-15 hours flying I would need some time to recharge, get a good meal and cleaned up. So I had 6 hours to kill. I started to feel a lot more relaxed, two flights down two more to go. Then my flight to San Francisco got delayed. My layover there was only short so if I didnt make the flight to Melbourne the whole trip was screwed. Once again my stress was extremely high. I was even contemplating going to South America if this flight didn’t make it. The plane arrived about 30 minutes late, it was a small plane due to the short distance of the flight. We boarded and things were looking good. I could not sit still. After getting in my seat we must have sat there another 20 minutes, I was getting extremely irritated. “What is the pilot doing?”, “Why havn’t we left yet?” my mind was questioning. Finally we took off. We landed in San Francisco and I rushed to my next gate, I boarded my United Airlines flight wondering if my backpack would even make it onto the flight in that short transfer time. I found my seat with a women sitting in it and she said “do you mind if I sit next to my husband?” I always want the aisle seat anyway (who wants the middle seat) so things started looking good again.

I arrived in Melbourne March the 7th around 12pm, what was I worried about. After the long travel it was nice to get to a country where English was the spoken language, so getting to my hostel was a breeze. I checked in at the hostel and went to my room, thank fuck for that. That night I slept 15 hours straight.

My stay in Australia was only 10 days originally but, it was now cut short to just a week with the flight cancellation. The day after arriving in Melbourne the F1 was there, so I went to Fed Square to watch a bit of that on the big screen. After I took a stroll down AC DC lane seeing as im a big fan of theres. I then went to get a well deserved beer and took a walk around the rest of Melbourne center. It was a in and out job like much of my time in Australia, I stayed there just two nights then needed to make my way to Port Lincoln to do the Great White Shark cage diving experience. The next morning I took a 10 hour train journey from Melbourne to Adelaide. I would stay one night in a hostel there and then take a 10 hour bus to Port Lincoln the next day. Upon checking in to the hostel I entered the dorm room and honestly all you could smell was cheesy feet. I cracked open a window and then see a guy laying down on his bed with disgustingly dirty soles on the bottoms off his feet, I thought fuck this I am changing rooms, maybe hostel life isn’t for me anymore, I had only enough time to get some food at china town that evening then go and get some sleep. The next morning I took the bus to port lincoln and had booked 2 nights in a cheap 40 dollar hotel. I ate some lovely seafood that evening and got picked up in the morning for the boat trip. The crew told us they had seen a great white yesterday but for a few weeks before there wasn’t any sightings, could be another £500 odd quid wasted. Thankfully the shark arrived and what an experience that was, something ive been wanting to do for years.

The next morning I took a taxi to the airport and then my flight from Port Lincoln to Perth. I visited Perth to get some infromation about working in the mines in the future. I noticed there is a lot of crackheads in the although, Perth was a pretty cool city. I spent spent a couple of days visiting beach’s, eating some good food and just relaxing. A week is not enough time to judge Australia but in the short time I was there I found travel so easy and the people very friendly. It can be quite expensive as I had been told before so if I am to go back I will definitely make use of my working visa. After the hectic week in Perth I had to catch a 14 hour flight to Shanghai via Saigon. In my next post, my second time in China. Please like and subscribe.