Ballina News
Answers sought after ‘Nightmare Trip’ to Thailand
Answers sought after ‘Nightmare Trip’ to Thailand
By MARGARET DEKKER
They’re the well-travelled Ballina importers who’d waited 4-years for their ‘dream trip’ to Thailand to finally arrive; The opportunity for a little work sourcing jewellery and bronzes for their Smith Drive store ‘Summerland Antiques’ .. and a chance at last for lots of rest and relaxation in the ‘city of Gods.’
But from the word go, Bert and Marcia Elliott say their August 31 journey became the ‘trip from hell.’
“It all started when I went to organise Marcia’s and my trip to Thailand. I had over 800,000 frequent flyer points with my airline. I’d been told that I had enough points for the 2 of us to go around the world business class but when I went to my travel agent, I could only book one ticket with the points and the other I had to pay for,” Bert Elliott explained.
The cap resulted in Bert paying more than $4000 he said, for his Business Class fare which he believes was available much cheaper, online.
“It’s a bl** dy con,” Bert Elliott told The Northern Rivers Times.
When it came to boarding, Bert said his requests for a wheelchair at both Sydney and Bangkok airports “because of my crook knees” were unheeded.
“If you know Bangkok Airport, it’s a fair walk to get to immigration and I could hardly walk,” he said.
To add insult to injury, once on board the plane, 80-year-old Bert was seated away from his wife, 77-year-old Marcia.
“I’ve flown 72-times to Europe and 71-times to Thailand and we’ve always been seated together. And this was meant to be the first time we actually had a holiday there in Thailand and not just a work trip!”
Bert Elliott also claims he was short-changed on his hotel bookings.
“I had the name of an airline-backed hotel in Bangkok called the Berkeley which I could have got 14-days for $1,300. The airline was charging well over $2000 for the same thing. You save all these points thinking you’ll get looked after, but you don’t,” Bert Elliott claimed.
Bert chose to use some of his 800,000 frequent flyer points to secure reservations with the Berkeley and Rydges Sydney Airport Hotels only to find his balance had dropped to 40,000 points once the bookings were made.
But the real, harrowing toll was still to come.
“After resting for 2 days, on the third day we had a meal .. and in a few hours, Marcia began vomiting. She said she’d like to see a doctor. Mam (friend) took us to the hospital where she went for an operation a few years before. Big mistake! When we got there, they put Marcia in the Intensive Care ward and that’s when the sh*t happened,” Bert Elliott recalled.
High potassium foods affect Marcia Elliott’s heartrate. Bert claims the hospital food served to Marcia was potassium-rich, including rockmelon, honeydew melon and tomatoes.
Bill told The Northern Rivers Times it felt like the system was “killing Marcia.”
“I tried to tell them that those foods were not good for her, but they gave her 3 blood transfusions. On the fifth day I demanded they get her out of ICU and into a room on her own,” he said.
“I finally had her in a room on her own and within 12 hours of feeding her low potassium food, her heartbeat was up around 60 pm. While Marcia was in Intensive Care, they wouldn’t let her out of bed to go to the toilet and there were no bed pans or pads – very degrading for her and the stress on both of us was the worst we’ve ever had in our lives. She was on oxygen but was well enough to travel after 3 days so we contacted the airline to get on our flight back to Australia,” Bert Elliott said.
Bert claims a series of bungles and delays then followed in getting formal approval by a doctor for Marcia to fly, meaning the pair missed their initial flights home. He said he was also unable to withdraw much-needed cash from a Thai bank and believes it was only after he got travel insurer NRMA involved, that the couple secured a flight from Bangkok to Singapore to connect to Sydney. By now, the ordeal was entering its third week.
“But at the Bangkok Airport, guess what? No ticket for me! Lucky for me there was a spare seat which I had to pay for at a cost of 4-thousand dollars,” Bert Elliott said.
Bert reported a ‘good flight’ back to Sydney and thought the couple’s travel-luck had at last improved.
“But when we got to Ballina, we had no bags. All Marcia’s and my medications were in the carry-on bags!” Bert said.
Three weeks on and the seasoned travellers are still coming to terms with their shock “nightmare trip.”
“This is the worst and most terrible trip you could dream of. The stress was unbelievable,” Bert Elliott said.
Not to mention the total cost. All up, Bert says he’s out of pocket $25,000 for the trouble.
“The stress .. we haven’t got over it yet. Marcia is still recovering too. I’m thinking about suing them, I’m serious,” Bert Elliott said.
The airline involved, which requested not to be named while a review is underway, is now “looking into Bert and Marcia Elliott’s booking experience.”
The Ballina travel agency, which handled Bert and Marcia’s ticketing, Frequent Flyer, seat, and wheelchair allocation requirements could be asked questions as well.
Celebrating 50 years of Las Balsas Expedition
By Samantha Elley
When 10 year old Fernand ‘Fern’ Robichaud heard the story of Marc Modena and his trek across the Atlantic Ocean on a raft from Canada to England, it was a story that would stay with him over the years.
“When I was 24, I contacted him and after that we became good friends,” said Fern at the 50 year anniversary of the Las Balsas expedition held last weekend at Ballina Naval & Maritime Museum.
“He invited me to come on the expedition.”
That expedition would make world headlines as it left Ecuador on May 27, 1973 and sailed for 178 days across the Pacific Ocean, having covered around 14,000km with 12 men on three rafts. (Balsa is the Spanish word for raft).
They saw their fair share of bad and good weather and amazing sea life.
“We sailed through a hurricane and were in the eye of a cyclone,” said Fern.
“The rafts became a floating atoll.
“First you had the little fish feeding near you and that attracted the bigger fish and then, of course, the sharks.”
L to R: Col from the Idaho, Dick Greaves, President, Ballina Naval & Maritime Museum, Las Balsas expeditioner Fern Robichaud, Ballina mayor Sharon Cadwallader, Brock from the Enterprise ready to cut the cake.
Seafood was definitely on the menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Then there was the issue of toileting procedures.
“It was the best seat on the raft,” laughed Fern.
“It was the only seat, so it was often used to sit on to read a book as well.”
Fern is very adamant when he talks about the two greatest highlights of the whole expedition.
“The first was when we left Ecuador and you realised that it was too late to jump off and go back to shore,” he laughed.
“And the second was when we arrived at Ballina.
“There were heaps of people on the shoreline and everyone was happy to see us.”
The expedition was originally bound for Mooloolaba on the Queensland coast, but a strong southerly current carried the rafts down the coast and the three rafts crossed the bar, with the help of some local trawlers, on 21st November, 1973.
Australia obviously had an impact on Fern as he now resides permanently here.
The same can be said for the expedition on the town of Ballina.
Fern Robichaud with his assistant Kelly Morton
President of the Ballina Naval & Maritime Museum, Dick Greaves, said when they moved into its present site, a purpose built extension was made to the roof of the old Ballina Information Centre to be able to house the last remaining raft of the Las Balsas expedition.
Two of the local trawlerman Col and Brock were on hand at the 50 years celebrations to share their stories of the arrival of the expedition.
With the Navy’s HMAS Labuan following the rafts from Brisbane to Ballina, they called out for help to get all three rafts safely over the Ballina bar.
The Idaho, which Col was on board, and the Enterprise, that had Brock, responded and two rafts were safely brought in.
The third raft was too water logged to take the strain of being towed and was cut loose, where it drifted down to Newcastle, towed into port but eventually destroyed by vandals.
The two rafts that landed in Ballina were combined using their best parts to recreate one raft, which now stands proudly on display at the Ballina Naval & Maritime Museum.
For more local Ballina news, click here.
Turning the town purple to fight for respectful relationships
By Samantha Elley
If Tere Sheehan gets his way, purple will be the colour everyone sees each Friday, stretching from Ballina, where he is CEO of Cherry Street Bowling Club, right up to the Tweed.
“We have been running a Purple Friday campaign to show our support in the fight against domestic violence,” he said.
“Two Christmases ago we joined with Rotary and put our staff in purple shirts every Friday.
“Then on 1st January this year of 2023, there was news of a woman in our area dying from domestic violence.”
From there Mr Sheehan said they had to really ‘up their game’ and through the ClubGrants program, the bowling club donated $25,000 for more purple shirts, to the Rotary Club in Ballina. They then invited as many businesses as possible to get their staff wearing the purple shirts.
“We just thought if we paint our town purple every Friday, we can get a conversation started about domestic violence,” he said.
“When we offered the shirts, we thought a few businesses might take it up, but instead it went beserk with Ballina Shire Council being the first and putting an order in for 140.
“We are thankful to the many businesses who have come on board to unite as one against domestic violence.”
Purple shirts against domestic violence
Just last week, Mr Sheehan and representatives from Rotary, accompanied Ballina MP Justine Elliott to Parliament House in Canberra as part of the launch of the national campaign against family violence.
“It was wonderful for our group to represent this vital work and voice it at a national level,” he said.
“Cherry Street Sports Group and Ballina Shire businesses have been the instigators of spreading awareness and opening up conversations.”
Mr Sheehan said he was now trying to get fellow club CEOs, up as far as the Tweed, to get their staff wearing the purple shirts.
“We will be advocating this campaign in other clubs in other towns and cities to ‘Say NO to domestic violence and YES to respectful relationships’.”
On Friday December 1, Mr Sheehan said the annual Domestic Violence walk will take place through the streets of Ballina.
“We have the support of both the NSW and QLD police,” he said.
“We will start at Ballina pool, and with the roads closed off, it will head down the town centre, to Ballina school, opposite our club.
“We will have our greens painted purple for the day and will encourage everyone to come over for some memorable shots.”
For more local Ballina news, click here.
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