The end of our holiday.

We had booked late checkout, so at least we had a relaxing day. We went for breakfast at the bar and grill – where I had wanted to eat yesterday. It was OK. We went for a bit of a walk to the scenic lookout and were treated with marvelous views of the ocean, apart from the fact it was very cloudy. We didn’t really have walking shoes on though (both in thongs) so we turned around and went back to the room; a little tired so took the opportunity to sit and do nothing for a while.

We showered, packed our bags, and called an Uber to take us to the airport at 12.00. We checked in and went in to the lounge. We had used Kaoru’s frequent flyer points to upgrade our tickets to business class for the trip back to Melbourne (we had tried to coming here, but there were none on offer). So we had a champagne, and a few other drinks, and food, to pass the time. The food was pretty average. Eventually we boarded our 3.00 flight to Brisbane. Row 1 – beautiful way to end the trip!

In Brisbane we went straight to the business lounge and had a couple of drinks. We also got changed into warmer gear in preparation for our return to Melbourne. The stopover was only an hour or so, so eventually it was time to board the flight. Row 3 this time (but still business class). We landed in Melbourne on time.

We got our bags, booked an Ola (I had a 15% discount but it was still only marginally cheaper than the Uber *to* the airport, which had bad traffic for a while) and were home around 9.30pm – happy to have had a holiday, but damn it’s cold back here in Melbourne!

This is our relax day.

We woke up and went to the place we had picked out for breakfast. We got there, and they said they don’t do breakfast on Monday’s! So we went to another place (where we had enjoyed the drink with Gavin and Molly) and had a large breakfast there. We went back to the room and I had a sleep in the lounge. It was a “Nothing to do” day, so I made sure I did nothing! When I woke up, Kaoru was asleep on the bed.

I had a cup of tea on our balcony, and when Kaoru woke up we had a game of Saboteur (the present from Rob and Anthea). After a shower it was time to go and have some lunch. We wandered for a bit and ended up going to the tavern. After lunch we went back to the room and had another lay down. It had been a busy few days and it was great to have nothing to do! When I woke up we went to the pool for a swim. It wasn’t as hot as I was expecting (certainly not as hot as it was the previous few days) but it was still nice being in the water. We sat by the pool as I dried off and just enjoyed our holiday.

I had a shower to rinse the chlorine off, and we wandered for a bit before going to the tavern for a drink (Happy Hour), and then to the Thai restaurant for dinner. We then went back to the tavern for dessert, as I had seen an apple crumble on the menu at lunch time. Unfortunately that was a lunch-only special. So we went back to our hotel room and had a drink there (I had brought a small bottle up with me, and we bought a bottle of Dry Ginger Ale from the local supermarket), and watched TV for a bit, before going to bed.

Kaoru’s Birthday

We woke up early and Kaoru unwrapped a present from Rob and Anthea, which we had carried around, and a card from Mum and Dad. We showered, and then I looked at my phone and decided to read the text message that had come in. Luckily I did, as it was from our tour for the day, saying the scenic railway to Kuranda wasn’t running today due to a problem found on a bridge. I called the booking place and they said as we had a return package, they had also cancelled our skyrail ticket back down. Very annoying as there were limited times we could catch it.

I got online and found a booking for the same time (1.30) skyrail – went through the process of putting my credit card in, and it got rejected saying no more tickets available (somebody must’ve done it at the same time). I saw a “limited availability” for the 1.15 timeslot and luckily got that. Now we had to work out how to get to the top. Our options were Uber, public transport, or a shuttle bus. I found a 9.25 bus departure which was our planned train time anyway, so it just means we’d have an extra hour at Kuranda (as the bus is quicker than the scenic railway); they don’t take bookings so we just had to make sure we were there in time. All good – let’s start the day!

We checked out and put our bags in storage, and started walking to the bus stop / train station, looking for a cafe to have breakfast at. We found one and sat down to relax and eat a big breakfast. We continued our walk and got to the bus stop about 9.10. It was then that I realised I had looked at the Monday-Friday timetable. On Sunday’s the bus doesn’t leave until 10.30! So we now had another hour to kill. We walked around for 15 minutes or so, but then stayed at the bus stop, worried that if a lot of people were doing the same thing as us, the bus could be full and we wanted to make sure we got on. So it was a lot of “hurry up and wait” for the morning. Eventually the bus arrived, we paid the $7 or so, and were on our way.

The drive up was uneventful. There were some nice views looking out, but I slept for a bit of it. Finally we made it to Kuranda. After getting our bearings we walked around aimlessly and eventually ended up at the honey shop – which was one of the things we wanted to do. After sampling some honey we purchased some, as well as some balsamic vinegar with honey. We then continued our walk around and Kaoru bought some opal earrings “from Mum and Dad”. When we first arrived at Kuranda it seemed quite small, but as we were walking around we noticed it is really very large, and got to the point of being in a bit of a rush! Once we were comfortable we knew where the skyrail departure point was we stopped for some lunch. The staff there were very laid back. They were sitting down having some food of their own when we arrived and casually finished that (without even acknowledging us) before making a coffee and then *finally* asking us if we wanted some lunch. We ordered and took a seat. Not eventful.

We caught the skyrail down, stopping at Barron Falls for a walk around, and then at Red Peak. Both beautiful sites and it was great to break the ride up and enjoy it a bit more. We arrived at the bottom about 2.40. I called Gavin, and he had just arrived. He and Molly had been in the area for BMX, and had a few hours before their flight back to Brisbane, so we took the opportunity to catch up. They drove us back to Cairns to get our bags, and then to Trinity Beach, which was where we were spending the next couple of days. At Trinity Beach Kaoru and I checked in and then the 4 of us went to the pub and had a drink and chat. It was really good catching up with them, but just after 4.00 they had to head back to the airport, so we said goodbye.

We went to our room and put thongs on, and then had a walk on the beach. The water wasn’t too cold, but I didn’t go in. We had a good walk around the vicinity, having a look at the restaurants that were on offer, and stopping at the Tavern for a cocktail or 2, which had a lovely view of the ocean from upstairs; and as we weren’t staying long we were able to get a good seat – it was reserved but not until 6.30. As it was Kaoru’s birthday I wanted to find a nice seafood extravaganza, but no such luck. We ended up going to a place called “Koi” Seafood – a greek restaurant. It was next door to a Thai restaurant, and we were told we can order from both places, which doubled the size of our menu! So we had a drink and dinner.

Back in the room I took out my scuba gear (fins / mask / computer / etc) and washed them properly in the bath, to get all the salt out. We watched tv for a bit and called it a night.

7.00 wake up this morning…but I was already awake. After breakfast the boat moved, and we had a briefing and went back in the water for our first dive of the day. This was my best ever day dive. There were lots of big fish out, and I started to feel quite confident with diving. Kaoru had a great snorkel, and saw another turtle, and a shark. She actually went out before us, and didn’t get back until after us!

After some time on the ship and tidying up our room, we were ready for our next dive. I decided to go snorkelling instead of diving this time, as I wanted to see a turtle and Kaoru had seen one on 3 of her 4 dives. A few other people (experienced divers) decided to do the same thing! This dive site wasn’t very deep, and we could see the divers below us while we were snorkelling. Quite interesting watching people just 5m below us.

We had a shower and then had to empty our room. I actually started to feel a bit funny so had a lay down and sleep. We passed the time until 2.30, when the other boat came and picked us up, and took us back to Cairns. The Oceanquest (the overnight boat we had been on) will be coming in tomorrow with the remaining people, but that will take them about 3 or 4 hours; the Seaquest (the dive boat we had used for the first 2 yesterday, and was now taking us home) did it in about 90 minutes.

We stayed at the same hotel as last time, but a different room. We dropped things in our room and then went for a walk around the city. We wanted to know how long it took to walk to the train station (in preparation for tomorrow) so we started with that walk. We then just wandered the streets for a while, before deciding to have an early dinner at a Korean BBQ. Luckily we were able to get a seat, as even at 6.00 it was quite full.

After dinner we went back to the hotel, packed our bags and went to bed.

The alarm went off before 7. A shower and bite to eat, and then we went out the front to wait for our pickup from “Divers Den”. There were a couple of people already in the bus, and we had to pick up another couple before going to the marina, where we boarded our boat. It took us about 90 minutes to get out to the reef.

On the way to the dive spot I was given a briefing. Not really a refresher though – I had luckily had Dan come round during the week to refresh my memory on diving, or I would have been much more concerned. Eventually we were at the site and in the water we went. When we were ready to descent I wasn’t moving anywhere! So the dive master put an extra 1.5 kg on me, which did the trick luckily. The breathing and moving in a scuba suit all came back to me quickly and the 50 minute dive went without further incident. Meanwhile Kaoru was snorkelling.

After lunch I did another dive (and Kaoru did another snorkel). We had some fruit, and then the boat took us to a larger boat, which was our “liveaboard” for the night. The 6 of us who arrived together all changed to that boat (and we later found out a few people also changed from the liveaboard boat to the one we did our first dives off), and then the first boat did the 90 minute trip back to shore. We, on the other hand, had a nice “welcome aboard” cheesecake and safety briefing, and moved to another dive site. We found our room and relaxed for half an hour or so.

After a pre-dive briefing we were back in the water for our 3rd dive of the day (again, Kaoru snorkelled, which was great!) My confidence was growing with the number and frequency of dives. Once out of the water we had some time to relax before dinner was served. Dinner was a massive meal of a curry, which was nice; and then it was time for our night time encounter…

Looking off the back of the boat, there were a number of sharks and other large fish hanging around – as they were being fed off the back of the boat. Kaoru did “Sharks in the Dark” – with just a snorkel and mask, she held on to the rear cage of the boat and was lowered into the water to be up close and personal with the sharks. She thoroughly enjoyed this, especially the part where a shark bit the go-pro stick of the person who was next to her! Meanwhile I did my first night dive. Wow! The fish were much bigger, and the whole experience was so much different to a day dive. It was very enjoyable.

After our dive (4th for the day) we had some dessert, and then a number of us played Uno (there were a few people who were already on the boat and had played on previous nights – they were doing 5 days of this!). A couple of beers and I was knackered so we went to bed.

Our first holiday post-covid.

We woke to an alarm this morning, although Kaoru was already up. After a shower and banana to keep me going, we ordered an Uber to take us to the airport.

We went in to the Qantas Lounge, using our passes (we both had some in our accounts, and thought this is the best time to use them). Unfortunately the breakfast in the lounge isn’t like it used to be, but we made do.

We boarded our flight to Brisbane. I watched a movie on the way. Once there, because of the recent Covid case in Melbourne, we had to basically tell somebody (nothing to sign) that we hadn’t been to any of the infected areas. Pretty pointless exercise, and wasted our < 30 minute stopover so we couldn’t get something decent to eat for lunch. We boarded our next flight – to Cairns.

The flight was over the water so we had beautiful views of the reef as we got closer. Eventually landed and our bags were available very quickly. Went outside in the heat. There was a long line for the taxi rank, but no taxis, so Kaoru waited and I went and got changed into shorts.

We checked in to our hotel, and then I was straight in to the pool for a swim!

After getting dried, we explored Cairns a bit, grabbing a bit of food while we were out. There is no beach, per se, so it’s not a “pretty” town. But it was nice and warm.

Back at the hotel we packed our bags for our next adventure, in preparation for checkout, as it would be an early start. We then walked back in to the night market for a massage, and some dinner. Then back to home and we went to bed. It had been a long day, even though we hadn’t really done a lot.