On a lighter note, today we leave New Zealand and go to Cairns,
Australia, a tropical paradise in the northern part of
Queensland.
We went there in May 2001, and want to go back. So this morning
we have a very early rise for the 5:50 am QF66 to Sydney, thence to
Cairns on QF167, arriving 11:10am.
This time we're staying at the
Cairns Colonial Club
resort, 18-26 Cannon Street, Cairns.
Hi! Everything went as
planned this morning, our 3:30 am pickup occurred, getting through
Christchurch checkin at that time was simple, we paid our NZ$25
departure tax, got a coffee, went through security, and were off to
Sydney at 5:50 a.m. In Sydney we only had an hour between
flights, and weren't positive that we would not go through Customs
there, but our travel agent was correct - we did an international
transfer in Sydney, which means we went through security again, but did
not retrieve our checked luggage or do customs. That happened in
Cairns, and was nice and easy. We got to the hotel less than an
hour after landing.
Since then we're checking out the resort, which is very lush, and has
several pools and places to lounge around. We're going to go into
the city tonight to look around, but have nothing in particular
planned.
Tomorrow we're on the Ocean Spirit for another Great Barrier Reef
cruise - the same one we did in 2001. We had a great time then
and want a repeat. We'll report back tomorrow night.
Cheers!