Heading towards the Maple Syrup

We commenced the day with 2 full cars of suitcases for the short trip from the apartment to Melbourne Airport. Thanks to John and Julie we managed to get 9 suitcases plus a load of miscellaneous hand luggage to the airport on time for our flight to Sydney.

Our Significant Luggage

We then had a short wait for our flight to Sydney where the kids were treated to their first taste of business class. Qantas managed to put us on their internal bus for the trip to the international side of Sydney airport and then we had a painless transition through customs. We headed up to the Air New Zealand lounge to wait for our Air Canada flight. I changed some money at the Travelex and found them to be the biggest rip off merchants on this earth. Exchange rate was around $1AUD = $1.02CAD; Travelex was offering the princely sum of $0.85CAD for each Aussie Dollar. I told them to politely stick it in their pipe and they countered with $0.95; I relented and changed some there knowing that I could get $1.01 in Kingston. 

We jumped onto the massive Air Canada Boeing 777 and again we were treated to business class. There was plenty of room to swing a cat but also plenty of room for the boys to be a little mischievous. 

Our Seats on the Air Canada Boeing 777

After 14 hours or so we landed in Vancouver to clear customs and to recheck our baggage to fly on to Toronto. We landed at around 0730 local on the same day we departed; quickly cleared immigration gaining authority to stay for the 3 years; then collected our not so insignificant luggage to transit though this massive airport and recheck in. We arrived at the gate just as the final call was being made and jumped back into the same seats for the next leg. 

The next leg was more of the same (another 5 hours across the country) above a cloud layer which spelt trouble for our final leg into Kingston later that evening. We arrived in Toronto at around 1600 feeling fairly average and knowing that we still had a late flight into Kingston to go. With a 4 hour layover we sat ourselves down in the Maple Leaf lounge which was overflowing due to multiple flight cancellations due to the poor weather.  

The Toronto Maple Leaf Lounge

Nevertheless we managed to board on time and after an extremely long taxi we took off on our last flight, or so we thought! We circled overhead Kingston a short while later and the pilot informed us that we would not be able to land due to Freezing Rain and Ice Pellets, so back to Toronto we went. To make a long story short we spent a fair amount of time waiting at the Air Canada customer service counter and got to a hotel at around 0130 after once again collecting our luggage, hauling it onto a bus then moving it in 3 loads to the two rooms we were given. We set the alarm for 0800 after rebooking our flights for 1230 that day. 

After an Air Canada sponsored breakfast we departed again, on time and this time landed on time! Although it was well below freezing with a stiff wind and snow falling, we were very relieved to have arrived at our final  destination. After a short cab ride (in two cabs - yep, 1 for the luggage) we were in our apartment overlooking Lake Ontario, a place that will be our home until we move into our house around 20 Jan. 

The Residence Inn Marriott - Kingston