B.C. woman stranded in Bali now back home in Kelowna
'The airport was absolutely crazy. It was chaos.'
A Kelowna woman who was trapped in Bali because of an erupting volcano has returned home to the Okanagan.
Gina Petrovich arrived in Bali on Nov. 21, the same day Mount Agung began spewing volcanic ash. The island was put on its highest alert and the airport was closed for three days, leaving nearly 100,000 travellers stranded.
"I did almost everything I wanted ... except we'll just add an active volcano onto the list," Petrovich said of her vacation.
Flights resumed on Thursday, but Petrovich was not sure if she would be able to book a flight home due to the backlog of travellers.
"The airport was absolutely crazy ... it was chaos," she said.
"There were people left, right, up, down. There were people crying, people on the phones, people yelling. It was a very stressful situation."
Canadians warned to avoid immediate area
In the end, Petrovich boarded a Cathay Pacific flight to Hong Kong before connecting to Vancouver and then Kelowna.
As of Monday morning, the airport in Bali was still open but many flights continue to be cancelled.
Authorities remain concerned that a major eruption could be imminent.
Petrovich said the ordeal has not changed her attitude toward travel.
"If you travel enough, you're eventually going to to end up on an island with a volcano that's ready to explode," she said.
"There's nothing you can do. You just need to be prepared."
The Government of Canada travel website now warns Canadians to avoid all travel within 10 kilometres of Mount Agung.
With files from CBC's Daybreak South.