I was so excited to see my fur babies again today!
Our trip home was a bloody long one! It’s always challenging coming home/going to Niseko due to the Japan domestic travel legs but because we were flying Air Asia it was even longer than usual. On the plus side, the flat beds were once again very comfortable and I had no knee issues because we didn’t spent 12-15hrs in economy.
We left our lovely Freedom Inn hosts with a parting Australian gift of caramello koalas. While we love this accomodation, I am not sure if we will ever return. The large attraction here for B is that you have access to Hanazono lifts early every day and there is very little accomodation on this side of Niseko so its super quiet until around 11am….however as of yesterday a GIANT Park Hyatt hotel has opened on this side of the resort. That, combined with the increase in smaller accomodation venues nearby, means those quiet lift days will be long gone as Hanazono just doesn’t have the infrastructure to support an influx of that many people. It’s just so pretty though! And I really like the small, no drunken idiots feel they accomplish most of the time.
We departed Freedom Inn for Sapporo using a 2hr private transfer as the coach was going to be problematic in terms of timing. It cost a fair bit more than the coach but the stress was hugely reduced around making flights etc. The transfer dropped us at Sapporo’s New Chitose airport and then we flew on a domestic JAL flight to Osaka.
We accessed the public landside lounge there and it was great for a few hours rest while we waited for the air Asia checkin to open. I really wanted to buy duty free in Osaka (ummm hello sake and umeshu!) but had read a lot of things online saying Australian laws now say it will be confiscated if you are transiting in between where you buy it and your Australian destination. Dammit. I used our 6hr stop over here to sit on hold to NRMA insurance in Australia as both our cars have been damaged in a hail storm back home. I did eventually get through. Position 20 was a great improvement from the day before where I was position 189 and the wait time was over 16000 minutes.
From Osaka we flew with flat beds to KL overnight, then had a brief stop before we transited on to Sydney. The air Asia lounge at KL is pretty shit, we highly recommend the SamaSama lounge if you can afford the $30AUD. You get bette power point access, free food and more comfortable chairs. Plus better toilet and shower facilities. This time around we stuck to our included air Asia lounge access since it was only a short stop over. We also got some duty free here – yummy umeshu (plum wine)!
At Sydney we had planned to try something new. Because our flight got in just as the last flight to Canberra for the day left, we were faced with an overnight stay and then an early flight the next day (lots of $$$) or the 11pm bus which meant a 3 hr wait, then a 3hr bus trip and then a 40 min Uber ride home at 2am. Ergh. So we were going to give RoadJet a go. Basically a private car picks you and your luggage up in Sydney and drives you to your house in Canberra. I booked and paid for it about 3 months ago and they have been great with checking in with me beforehand, reassuring me about road closures due to the fires etc. However when we landed, I got an email telling me our hire car in Canberra had been cancelled and there were literally NO HIRE CARS left within two hours of Canberra. So we cancelled road jet at the last minute, hired a car at Sydney airport for 3 weeks and drove 3hrs home.
We finally arrived home just before 1am this morning. Our next few days will be filled with continuing to sort out insurance as it seems there is a good chance both our cars are likely to be write offs….but at least no bushfires came through!
Mel's Travel Blog 