Day 345 / 2016 - Cairns to Perth to Sydney

The past month has been busy. At the end on November we flew back home as Number 4 son was getting married and there was no way on earth his mum would be missing this event.

Leaving Walkamin we caught the Transnorth bus down to Cairns airport. We had some discussion as to catch the 9:15am bus or the later 3:45pm bus. With our flight at 7:00pm the 3:45pm bus would only leave about 3 hours to get to the airport. Under normal circumstance this would be plenty of time but if anything went wrong and the bus was delayed then we would miss our flight not something mother of the groom would be happy about. On the other hand taking the early bus would give us plenty of time to get there but have us waiting around the airport for 7 hours also not a pleasant thought. In the end we took the risk and caught the3:45pm bus. Ultimately this worked out fine as there were no delays getting to the airport. We passed through the airport check in and security pretty quickly leaving us about an hour to wait before boarding. Phew got away with that one.

The flight was reasonable given you are travelling in Jetstar's sardine class sometime I wonder if it is worth paying the extra for exit row seats. Queensland and WA do not have daylight saving the flow on from the other states that have daylight saving is the plane leaves Cairns an hour earlier (7pm instead of 8pm) and therefore gets into Perth an hour ealier (10pm instead of 11pm) which is a reasonable time to arrive. We caught a taxi from the airport driven by what we describe as "Crazy Ivonette" We were not sure where she came from but she had this thick Russian accent and a gung ho attitude and an opinion on everything. Her sentence always started with "crazy b***tards...",  this will be a good ride. While driving along Wellington Street she spies a very drunk local pounding his fists on the bonnet of a car after it came to a sceeching halt just as he walked off the kerb in front of it. She then rolls down the window and yells out "Hey you crazy B***tard get off der road..." Anne and I just look ahead and hope he doesn't come our way.  In fairness she knew here way around the city better than some of the local cabbies who grew up in the area taking us the most direct route. Of all the capital cities we have been in Perth is still the cheapest to get from the Airport to the CBD by Taxi.

We stayed in the Comfort Inn Wentworth Plaza as the price for hotels that weekend was sky high. We normally sleep at the Ibis on Murray but $200.00 for the night was a bit much we normally pay about $115.00. The Wentworth was only $100.00 for the night. It had a shared bathroom but for 8 hours it would do the job. The place was old but clean and reasonably maintained the bed was comfortable. The only problem is our room was along Murry Street and just below our window was the verandah roof. I think the drunks though it was good fun to through their empty stubbies onto the roof just under our window. Its a pitty Crazy Ivonette wasn't there she could have leaned out the window and yelled "Hey You Crazy B***tards..."

Next morning we woke after a broken sleep a quick shower then headed for breakfast in the city. We then made our way to the train station and boarded the Australind to Bunbury. After a two and a half hour journey we arrived in Bunbury where Jeff picked us up then dropped us at Mic and Carleys place. We spent the first week catching up with as many people as we could especially the grandkids. We also spent some time doing various maintenance tasks around the Eaton house. There were some light fittings outside that needed replacing and for some reason all the smoke detectors had been disconnected from the main power. We had discovered this only because we changed the batteries. There were also a lot of spiders along the fence and under eave's so gave them all a good spray.

On the first weekend we headed to Perth with the rest of the family for Andy and Jen's wedding. Our accomodation was in Cottesloe staying at the Cottesloe Beach Chalets with a great beach view. The wedding was held at South Beach South Fremantle and was themed as a day at the beach. Everyone came casually dressed including the bride and groom the meal was simple but delicious we especally liked alcoholic donuts adults only of course. By the end of the day we were all quite sunburned and worn out so opted for an evening in with fish and Chips for dinner. Heading back from Perth we spent the final few day's with family waching some of the Grandkids play their basketball games and graduation shows. Thursday night we had the obligatory pizza night and Friday we said our final goodbyes catching the train to Perth. No 4 son caught up with us there and we shouted him to tea at the pancake palace then we taxied to the airport before boarding the on-time red eye special to Sydney.

The flight to Sydney on Jetstar was even more uncomfortable than usual due to the nice people in the seats behind us continually bumping our chairs as they constantly moved around and digging ther knees into the back our seats. Arriving in Sydney at 6am we grabbed our bags and made our way to the express pickup area. It is a bit of a walk from the terminal but it has a nice waiting area and is easier for cars to get into and out of allowing 15 minutes of free parking making it easy for Johannes to pick us up. Our main reason for coming to Sydney is to house sit Annes uncles place for a few weeks but we also want to experience christmas in a large city. We hoped for lots of lights and wanted to see Carols in the Domain down near Sydney's botanic gardens. We also wanted to experience the NYE fireworks.

The easiest way to get into and out of Sydney CBD is by train. Wim explained to us he drives from home and parks down a side street in Pennant Hills which is free all day then takes a short walk to the train Station. Using Opal cards which is available at a wide variety of stores you tap on at the entrance to the platform boarding the train when it arrives. When you tap off at your destination the Opal card is then charge the appropriate fare. There is peak and off peak fare depending on the time of day you travel. The Opal card allows you to track your journeys and top-up online if you wish and can be used on all Train, Bus and Ferry's.

One afternoon we took a train ride into the city to look at some of the department store displays. David Jones has a themed window series with each window depicting Santa's helpers making toys. We also called into the QVB which was well decorated sporting a large 4 story high christmas tree. Even though NSW is on daylight savings time the sun sets by about 8pm so you can see the outside Chrismas lighting in all its brilliance at a reasonable hour. Martin Place had a large Christmas tree at one end with an electronic banner wrapped around it. People could send messages via SMS which would  be displayed on the banner. Opposite the tree Carollers would stand singing all the festive songs. The rest of Martin Place had a series of illuminated hanging Xmas decorations between street light poles. Pitt Street mall was well decorated with masses of strings of lights between buildings from one end of the mall to the other. Each evening there would be a singers performing Christmas Carols.

A few days later we took another afternoon trip into the city this time to see what decorations were around Darling Harbour. We alighted the train early at Milsons Point then walked acrossed Sydney Harbour bridge by foot. This quite popular with many people opting to walk into or out of the city centre using the Bridges footpath. A Princess ship was in port and just about ready to leave so we walked down through the rocks district to stand at the passenger terminal and watch the Emerald Princess leave the wharf and sail out through the harbour. From here we walked under the Harbour Bridge around to Darling Harbour. There is plenty of building works going on in preperation for the new driverless train system that will go out through the new connext tunnel terminating at Castle hill.

The Darling Harbour precinct was busy as usual and we noted the convention centre has now been completed the last time we were there they were still building it. Walking through the main shopping complex we could see the last remnants of the mono rail system which no longer runs and has been disasembled. After dinner we sat ourselves down at one end of the water in readiness for the fireworks at 9pm. The fireworks were launched from a barge in the centre of the small harbour and lasted about 10 minutes The display was quite good considering they do this each night over December and January must get expensive. 

Boarding the train at Town Hall Station for home we couldn't help but noticed how many people were still lining up to catch the train at this time of night. Our stop was Pennant Hills and a number of other people allighted even though we are almost 30km from the CBD. There are many activities to do in Sydney's surrounding suburbs but the CBD is still an attractive destination for many people living here.

Christmas day was a fairly quiet affair sharing Christmas dinner with Johanness and his girfriend Bernice. We still managed to fill our selves up with food then did some present swapping after that. Boxing day we drove to Newcastle and shared a lunch with Annes Cousins Monique and Caroline as well as her Auntie Anja. Lunch was at Anja sister's Terresa home home in Tanilba Bay north of Newcastle. The house backs right onto the bay giving a spectacular view from the backyard.