Pandemic Travels - Moving home!
So we did it! We finally got to move back home to Australia. If you’re new to me and my story, let me give you a quick rundown of what I mean!
My partner is Australian, we’ve been together for almost 5 years now and for the last 4 we’ve commited to living in Australia. However as we both have been working on cruise ships for the duration of our relationship, neither of us ever got residencies to eachother’s countries. When the pandemic hit we had planned two weeks in Canada with my parents. Once the borders of countries began to close we realized that staying put would be the safest. Australians need an exit visa to leave the country so even if my partner went home, we ran the risk of being seperated indefinitely. So I applied for my partner visa which took longer than usual because of COVID complications.
15 months later, we’re able to return to Australia with me officially having a visa that qualifies me as a permanent resident. We made the most of the unusual circumstances and had an amazing time with my family in Canada.
So here we are. Travelling to Australia from Canada. What a crazy time! We had to have so much documentation in order to leave Canada and be allowed into Australia. We had to register for our quarantine hotel in Sydney, get a negative COVID test, and proof of my visa. Plus just the stress of being in an airport during a pandemic. It felt strange and wrong. But we made it through, the airports were so quiet, there were only four flights out of the Vancouver International terminal for the entire day.
Our 9 hour flight to Tokyo was uneventul and quiet. We had a four hour layover in Tokyo and it was creepily quiet. I felt as though we had broken into an airport and were there illegally. The airport is very energy efficient so comforts like lighting and moving sidewalks or escalators will only activate when you step near them so the airport hallways were very dark until we walked down them.
Next up, an 8 hr 45 minute flight from Tokyo to Sydney, which only had 27 people on it and was very peaceful. From the landing in Sydney to arriving at our hotel was a three hour process of security and temperature checks and buses. I was SO EXCITED to enter the country for the first time on my brand new shiny resident visa! We were escorted directly to our quarantine hotel room by a lovely Navy man who even took our luggage for us (not at all what he signed up for). So here we are! Stay tuned for more updates from hotel quarantine and a travel vlog of the whole adventure that got us here!
Ez
