Country Retreat - 59. Travelling Home

“Hunter is joining us? That’s great, he can do all the cooking for us then,” Jarrad said and I heard the others chuckling about this comment. “Gran and Gramps tell us he is a nice bloke, and only a couple years younger than us,” Jarrad said, “Yes that is true, he has been useful as a housekeeper and has become a good friend too,” I stated. “Hello Oscar, how are you old friend?” a new voice said and it took me a while to realise who the voice belonged to.

“Hugh? What are you doing back in WA? Have you had enough of New Zealand?” I asked when I realised that it was Hugh from my old school, and I heard soft laughing coming from the WA side of the call. “No mate, I just came over for a visit, I am here partly for work, and I have a bit of free time,” Hugh replied. “Wow, will you still be in WA when I arrive tomorrow night?” I asked.

“Yes mate, I will be here for Christmas, along with another friend of ours,” Hugh replied. “G’day mate, how have you been,” a new voice said, and the Canadian accent was easy to recognise, “Hello Koen, you are in WA too? What is this work that has brought you both here at the same time?” I responded sounding surprised. “We attended the same conference, as we are in the same field of work,” Koen replied.

“That sounds interesting, I look forward to hearing all about it. Who are you guys spending Christmas with?” I asked, “Well, that is what we gathered here for today, to plan a Christmas gathering just south of here, and I believe you are invited too,” Jarrad said, “I bloody well hope so since our family owns the place,” I responded, and everyone at the WA end of the call laughed.

“It has been approved by Gran and Gramps, so no need to worry about that side of things, so will you be coming straight here when you arrive tomorrow?” Rebecca asked me, “Yes, that is the plan, do one of you want to come and collect me from the airport?” I asked, “Sure, some of the gang will be there to collect you, but I will be remaining on the property, as I have a few chores to do,” Marcus said.

We chatted for another five minutes, mainly about where everyone had been accommodated at the complex before the call ended, and I smiled, knowing that my whole group of friends would be at the property, with the Master Pod free and ready for me to move in, and Hunter could stay in the second room in that pod since all the other staff pods are now full, with Giles sharing a senior staff pod with Marcus.

I had a good sleep that night, the first decent sleep in some time, and I woke up late morning feeling refreshed, even after a long sleep-in. After a lazy breakfast, I spent the rest of the morning doing a good clean of the place, so it would be nice and clean for when we return after Christmas and New Year before I headed down to the beach to enjoy a beachside light lunch at one of the café’s there.

I decided that I had better do some Christmas shopping as well, since all of the gang was back together in WA, so I spent the rest of the afternoon looking for and buying presents for my siblings, grandparents and friends. I had to buy an additional suitcase to pack it all into, and I would have to pay for the extra luggage for the flight home to WA. Once I had everything packed properly, making sure that none of the presents would be damaged during transit, I caught a taxi to the airport, arriving there to check in at 5 pm, a good 2 ½ hours before the plane departed.

Once my two suitcases were checked in, and with just a backpack of basic supplies plus my laptop and iPad bag, I headed to the departure lounge, to have a snack and wait for boarding the flight. When the call for boarding was made, I joined the line to the gate, and as I approached the ticketing gate, I was asked to step to one side by a Customs officer, which was a bit of a shock.

“Good evening sir, have you been drinking at all in the past few hours?” I was asked, “No. I do not drink at all,” I replied, sounding quite shocked at the question. “We have received a report that a person fitting your description has been drinking heavily for the past two hours,” the officer said to me. “Well I am sorry, I do not touch alcohol at all, and all I have had to drink is two cups of tea along with my sandwiches, while I have been waiting,” I replied.

“I don’t smell any alcohol on him at all, and his eyes appear to be clear,” the second officer stated as he leaned in closer to me, “Would you mind taking a mobile breath test for us please sir?” I was asked, “Sure go ahead, you will find that I have had nothing to drink that is alcoholic,” I responded.

As expected the test came out negative for alcohol, and the two officers frowned. “I think you guys have been hoodwinked, maybe to let someone that has been drinking slip past unnoticed,” I commented.

“Yes, that may be the case, thank you for your time you may continue with your journey,” the customs officer said to me, as I nodded and joined the line of passengers again, and presented my boarding pass, and I was soon seated in the business class section of the plane. The flight across the nullabor was smooth for most of the trip, until shortly after dinner service was completed, and I could hear a fair amount of passenger noise coming from the economy section of the plane, which increased with the sound of a woman screaming, and a baby crying.

A few minutes later the first officer exited the cockpit and walked towards the back of the plane, and returned a few minutes later. “Ladies and gentlemen, we are sorry to inform you that we will be making a stop at Kalgoorlie airport, due to passenger safety concerns. We will keep you informed of what is happening periodically, meantime sit back and relax, as we prepare for landing at Kalgoorlie in approximately fifteen minutes,” an announcement was made over the PA system.

As soon as I could, which was just after the plane touched down at Kalgoorlie, I did a quick search and found and booked a hotel room for the night, I also checked to see if there was a seat available for the Prospector train in the morning, which I also booked. As the plane was reaching the terminal, there was another announcement.

“Ladies and gentlemen, please remain in your seats until the security matter has been taken care of. Due to the delay with landing in Kalgoorlie and refuelling, this flight will not be continuing to Perth until some time tomorrow once the crew have rested. We do apologise for this disruption, and we will do our best to make accommodation available for your stay, please see the enquiries counter in the terminal for all accommodation arrangements. All checked-in luggage will remain onboard, and all travel to Perth with you tomorrow,” the announcement said.

I was not concerned, as I had everything that I needed with me in my backpack and bag, and I could collect my luggage at the airport later tomorrow when it arrived, as we observed three men being escorted off the plane in handcuffs by the police. Being in Business class, we were the first group to be able to leave, and I headed straight to the taxi line outside to catch a cab to my arranged hotel.

Once I had checked in, I made a quick call to Jarred. “Hey bud, there has been a change of plans, we had some troublemakers on the plan and we were diverted to Kalgoorlie for the night. I have checked into a hotel and I have booked a seat on the Prospector for tomorrow morning, so I will be arriving at East Perth at 1.45 pm, and the Indian Pacific is due in at 3 pm, so maybe bring two cars to collect all three of us at the same time,” I said when Jarred answered.

“Sure mate, not a problem, we will just turn around and head back to Manakoora, maybe stop on the way back for a snack and coffee,” Jarrad replied, and I heard people in the background agree to that idea. “I guess you were almost at the airport then?” I asked, “Yes, we had just turned off the highway, so once we reach the first roundabout, we will be on our way back. See you tomorrow arvo,” Jarrad said before ending the call.

At 6.30 am the next morning I quickly washed, dressed, and packed up what luggage I had, before dashing out the door, having booked a taxi for 6.45 am to take me to the train station to catch the prospector train to Perth, which is a 6 ½ hour journey, which was fine with me as I was able to walk around on the train, as well as do some work on my laptop computer.

Shortly after the train left Kalgoorlie, I telephoned the airline to let them know that I was already on my way back to Perth on the train and that I would collect my checked-in luggage once it arrived at Perth Airport, which I was informed would be at 1.30 pm, this was perfect as I could go and get it while waiting for the other train to arrive. Jarrad and Rebecca were at that East Perth Terminal when the train arrived, and we hugged, which caught them by surprise a bit, and I chuckled at this reaction.

We were soon in my vehicle, which I was surprised that they brought along, and we headed across the river to the main Airport terminal on the east side of the runway. After locating the luggage department, I presented the two luggage slips for my suitcases, and they soon produced two suitcases, which were not mine. “These are not mine, I am looking for two large soft suitcases that are red, and they were on a Qantas flight from Adelaide to Perth, that was diverted to Kalgoorlie yesterday,” I said to the luggage store person.

He looked at my luggage slips and at the tags on the suitcases, which he said were a match. I was not at all happy about this as I lay one suitcase down and opened it, revealing women’s clothing. “So you are still saying that these are mine?” I asked the store person, as I retrieved my phone and clicked on the photo album app, and soon after I had two photos of my luggage with a closeup of the tags on the screen, which I showed to the storeman, holding the luggage slip next to my phone to show that the same info was on the screen as well as the tag.