Today, a number of fellow workers finished their tour of duty, and where due to ship out.
Last night we had drinkies with them, and the normal jokes where shared, such as
where are you eating tomorrow night we will come and join you,
have you got travel insurance, in case you can't make your next flight, etc,etc.
Today, we dropped off one of the Doctors and her partner for check-in, and then said we would be back in an hour or so we could say farewell before they board.
As we drove off, the rain started to fall, and the clouds could be seen drifting between the tree's.
We went down the bottom of the island and went shopping, continuing to see clouds hitting the side of the island, and stream up the side to the top, and more and more rain continued to fall.
After the shopping, we went back to the airport (which is at the top of the island), as we drove up the hill, we entered into the cloud zone, and the rain was so heavy we could hardly see out the windscreen.
On arrival, we where just in time to see the first go-around, we just saw a flash of plane, and heard the roar of the jet engines as the plane climbed for height.
Many the passengers came running out of the airport to see what had happened.
The next attempt occurred about 20 minutes later, this time, most of the passengers where outside the terminal looking for the plane, and wishing it on to the ground, all that happened was we heard a jet fly overhead, we couldn't see any of the plane at all.
After another 20 minutes, the jet was heard again, this time, the entire passenger list was outside, looking and wishing the plane to land.
The roar was heard, everybody strained to see the plane as it approached to land.
The wind dropped, the rain stopped, and everybody held their breath
then the plane flew past out of sight.
Two go-arounds / three landing attempts is the limit.
The grown from the crowd, as the plane could be heard heading off back to Perth was depressing.
The airport guys, opened the doors to the baggage hall doors and drove the baggage trucks outside for all the passengers to get back their bags, a line was created to get every bodies phone numbers, and the realization that they are here for another night slowly dawned on the passangers.
We helped our drop offs to get everything sorted, drove them back to the room allocation building, and then once they had their old keys, returned them back to the room they had vacated just a few hours before.
Now I am sure all the phone lines out of the island will be chocked, as plans are reworked and flights are re-booked.
Just another day on Christmas island, and we are now just hoping that that next week is not a repeat.
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