‘Welcome to Australia, 87’: Travis Kelce headed to penthouse villa, and Taylor Swift

It’s a safe bet that Travis Kelce never scored a touchdown quite like this.

A private plane carrying the Kansas City Chiefs tight end landed at Sydney Airport around 9 a.m. Thursday, which was 4 p.m. Wednesday in Kansas City.

About 8,000 people had tracked the jet online on its flight from Honolulu to Sydney, according to Australian media. A news helicopter was reportedly on hand to film its arrival. Sydney news anchors were downright giddy earlier in the day reporting that Kelce was close.

And then he was there.

“Welcome to Australia, 87! Get yourself a schnitzel and a Coopers Pale Ale,” tweeted one fan after the plane touched down.

American and Australian news outlets spent hours tracking Kelce’s travel Wednesday as he made his way to join Taylor Swift in Sydney, where she will perform four concerts on her Eras Tour.

Oh what lies ahead for “the guy on the Chiefs.”

A citywide asbestos scare. A presidential suite high above Sydney Harbor. Aussies wearing Chiefs jerseys at her shows like they did in Melbourne, Australia, last weekend. Swifties giving him the rock star treatment.

And every “Down Under” pun the media can conjure. (Ick.)

Not to mention security so tight that on Tuesday, Swift dined with singer Sabrina Carpenter, her opening act, at a Sydney restaurant within a one-minute walk of the offices of British newspaper The Guardian, without the media finding out.

“We missed the story,” the Guardian sheepishly reported Wednesday.

Kelce and Swift haven’t been together since they partied in Las Vegas after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl earlier on Feb. 11. Since then her fans have waited to see them together again, correctly speculating they would reunite in Sydney.

Tragedy, however, struck first, when a mass shooting after the Chiefs Super Bowl parade and rally left a Johnson County woman dead and more than two dozen injured. Both Swift, who was in Melbourne at the time, as well as Kelce in Kansas City, each donated $100,000 to victims.

They meet up in a city gripped by an asbestos crisis that has grabbed international attention because Swift is in town.

Sydney officials announced Sunday that traces of asbestos were found in multiple sites around the city in recent weeks. Asbestos fibers can cause a host of lung problems when inhaled. The human carcinogen has been found in mulch in Sydney parks, on hospital grounds, at grocery stores, train stations and four schools, The New York Times reported.

Photos of workers in Hazmat suits poking around parks and other public spaces have popped up on social media.

Environmental authorities tested the mulch on the grounds of Sydney Olympic Park, where Swift will perform four nights in front of about 300,000 fans beginning Thursday. Tests were negative.

But there are reminders and cautions all around. The Guardian reported that a small garden bed outside the restaurant where Swift and Carpenter dined was marked off with caution tape and a sign that warned of “possible asbestos” in the mulch.

‘The guy on the Chiefs’

Swift just finished a three-concert stand in Melbourne last week, where it became clear that Kelce now has his own fan base among Swifties overseas. Fans showed up wearing Chiefs gear and a lot of No. 87 jerseys — Kelce’s number.

At one show, fans stopped to take pictures with a guy who looked, head-to-toe, like he was ready to hit the field in a Kelce jersey, football pants and socks. All that was missing was the helmet.

Another Aussie who wore a Kelce jersey tweeted that it “only felt right to return the love shown at Chief’s games! I was already a big Chiefs fan, so it’s been sooooo much fun having the two worlds cross over this season!”

Another Australian Chiefs fan tweeted: “As a lifelong Chiefs fan this is just the coolest thing ever, to see so many folks in other countries wearing my team’s jersey. And they’re doing so to support their daughters, wife’s, girlfriends AND Taylor.

“It’s just the feel good story of the year for me.”

The presidential suite

Australian media had the scoop on where Swift is staying in Sydney — the penthouse Presidential Villa on the 88th floor of the Crown Towers Sydney, a two-story suite with panoramic views of the skyline described by the hotel chain as “a sanctuary within the beautiful Sydney harbour.” The hotel sits in the city’s harbor-front Barangaroo area.

The reported rate: $25,000 a night.

It has a living room, kitchen, media room, bar, a marble spa bath, a dining room big enough to seat 12 and a private, heated infinity pool on an open-air terrace.

After Sydney, Swift heads to Singapore, where she begins a six-night stand on March 2. Then she’s scheduled to take a month-long break during April before beginning the European leg of her tour in France on May 9.