28 October 2023
New airport briefly
Cairns Airport
I am currently in the Cairns international departure hall for the first time in my life. It is tiny. The domestic terminal was surprisingly huge and busy, but here in international, mine is the only flight leaving for another 7 hours, and it is a tiny plane.
The flight to get here was full of holidaying families, horrible. A stark reminder of the horrors of having children. Multiple children watched bluey and or peppa pig on ipads with no headphones, just loud pig and dog noises for 3.5 hours.
Actually before taking off we waited in a queue on the ground in Melbourne for a runway inspection for 30 minutes, this is the second time that has happened to me recently. So I am here in Cairns a bit later than expected, sandwiches are $13 so I am not buying, there is no lounge, and my 7.5 hour flight to Tokyo requires paying for food. I guess I will starve then.
Here is the Cairns international departures hall. The Virgin desk is manned but it seems almost everyone is transferring from other cities, they even mentioned it on my Melbourne flight, 'for all those heading to Tokyo...'. Cairns is the spot to transfer as it is the only airport in Australia from which Japan is in range using such small jets. Why does this photo look blurry?
This is my plane. The terrifying 737 max! Famous for a software glitch that so far murdered about 350 people and nearly sent Boeing broke. I made sure to also take this photo through dirty tinted glass, it helps with the realism. Note it's ridiculous wing tips inspired by star wars.
And for the last pic from Australia unless something interesting finally happens, here is the departure area of the international terminal. There will probably be a third update tonight when I get to my Tokyo hotel, because I know everyone is super excited about hotel photos for some ridiculous reason (this sentence is not sarcasm, unlike most others).