So while I have talked about the flights, it has been a really busy couple of weeks so figured I would fill you in on all the stuff that happened while I was away with Heidi.  So many days, so many things!

Monday 18th March 2024

After getting my bags in the airport, I caught the train into the city and got off at Wynard.  Took me a moment on the other end to get my bearings and figure out where I needed to come out, but it wasn’t that hard and I left the station headed to Martin Place and our hotel the Fullerton.  I was checking in the night before to make sure we had a room ready when Heidi arrived the next morning.  This would be easy as rather than just hoping it would be ready, if I fly down and check in the night before, it will be all good and we would also have breakfast as well (if Heidi can make it on time).

I spent the afternoon walking around the city, walked over to Barangaroo and down towards King Street Wharf and over to town hall.  I was looking for a coles and to make sure I could find stuff that Heidi wanted.  When I couldn’t find what I needed, I needed to head over to a different coles and thankfully I found that stuff I needed.  I also picked up some dinner while I was there and walked back to the hotel and stayed in for the night.  It was an easy night!

Tuesday 19th March 2024

Up at my normal time, but had to keep an eye on the flight so had to get moving soon as she was meant to be touching down early.  I was not going to take the train the whole way to the airport, to save $20 I was going to take the train part of the way and finish on the bus and avoid the gate fee.  Heidi was meant to be really early but they got diverted into some holding patterns so had to wait a while for Heidi and eventually she came through immigration.  I had gotten her a coffee so she could be lifelike as we were on the train and then we headed back downtown for some breakfast and some rest time for Heidi.

After a few hours of resting and getting more like a human being, we took the train out to Bondi Junction, a bus down to Bondi Beach and then headed along the coastal walk towards Bronte, where Heidi had a hot chip lunch, I had a fresh squeezed juice and we headed back towards the city.  We got off at Town Hall on the way back and walked through QVB and down towards Circular Quay and the Sydney Opera House.  We had a credit at the hotel that we could use for in room dining and this was our plans for dinner so that Heidi could have an easy night in comfort.  We ordered far too much food, but we ate what we could!  Heidi made it to about 730pm before passing out, good enough!

Wednesday 20th March 2024

We woke up and took a gorgeous morning walk.  Heidi wanted to see Barangaroo and along the water there, so that is where we went.  Weather today was looking pretty crap, so we planned to take a tour of the old GPO as part of the hotel (they have tours at like 10 am that you can take) so after breakfast we had that arranged and then we also booked ourselves a tour of the Opera house for the afternoon.  The tour of the GPO was great and was a great look at some of the history of the city.  Then walking down to the Opera House (in the rain mind you) to tour that, something I had never done.  This was a fantastic experience, as the inside of the Opera House is designed and kept the way it was when it first opened, looked amazing still!

After the opera house we headed down on a ferry over towards Pyrmont as the rain had let up and then walked down through Darling Harbor to China Town and picked up some Custard Puffs (they were delicious) our Starbucks mugs and some dinner from some places I had found a few days before (this ended up being a mistake I think).  We retired back to the room tired and saw after a long day.

Thursday 21st March 2024

Today’s plans was to get breakfast going early and then heading on foot down to Circular Quay and get an early ferry over to Taronga Zoo.  We missed the first ferry and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one, but still made it before the zoo opened.  Rather than walk all the way to the top of the zoo, we took the bus to the top.  We spent hours exploring the zoo and had packed our lunch so that we could eat while we are here and not have to pay the horrible captive zoo pricing. 

The zoo was great and while we could have taken the ferry back, we decided to go out back through the top entrance and to catch a bus back towards the city.  We took a bit of a break in the room for a while and then took off towards the Botanic Gardens so we could get our walk in.  We walked all the way out to Mrs Macquaries chair and got rained on in the process.  We then walked our way around towards the navy base and to a dinner stop first for Heidi…. Harrys Cafe de Wheels.  I had not been there in a looong time and I was excited for a good Pie with Potato and Mushy Peas!  Heidi just had a straight up Chicken Pie but she enjoyed it none the less. I picked up a Custard Tart for dessert and we took the bus back to the hotel and settled in for the night.

Friday 22nd March 2024

Another relatively earlyish morning for breakfast as today was the day I was looking forward to the most.  It was opening day of the 2024 Royal Easter Show.  I was excited!  We had been loaned some members guest passes by a family member and it was time to get moving to the show.  We took a train to central and changed trains to head out to Olympic Park and the show.  The show was great, we explored for hours and had a fantastic time.  I gave Heidi a minimum spend on showbags and she got herself a Cadbury Mega Bag all because it had a cooler bag in it.  I got some cadbury bags and of course a Bertie Beetle bag. 

Some of our highlights of the show for Heidi included getting to see all the animals and for me, watching a live Cake judging.  By the end of the day, we were tired, we didn’t want to do much so picked up some dinner to eat on the way back to the hotel.  We were done for the day!

Saturday 23rd March 2024

We woke up this morning and went for a walk up towards the Harbour Bridge and back through the rocks area.  Sunrise this morning was magnificent and there was a few people down by the Cruise Terminal taking photos.  We walked back to the hotel and had some breakfast and then back to the room to pack things up.  We had arranged, after some negotiation, for a late check out to 1230 so we decided with the fantastic weather to go up the Sydney Tower Eye and booked some tickets for an opening time slot.  We went up the eye which I had not done since 2009, and enjoyed showing Heidi so much stuff.

After the eye we returned to the hotel for some “Brunch” and had a Devonshire Tea at the hotel for a discounted price and using up the last of our credit.  From the hotel we took a DiDi to the airport as we had a coupon.  The flight was good (see the real trip report) and in Cairns we collected our car.  The rental car was with SIXT and since I still have status with them thanks to a status match last year, I asked if there was any upgrades and they said “let me see” and got us a Isuzu MU-X.  This was a bit of overkill but still different none the less. 

We drove up to our hotel in Palm Cove which was the Mantra Amphora.  While we had a kitchen and laundry in our hotel room, it was too late to get any groceries on the way to the hotel, so after passing a pub on the way into our hotel, we decided to go there once we got sorted.  Getting the car into the car park was a shit show (confirmed by someone who worked there who walked past saying “Yeah, the parking is the worst”).  We walked around the corner to the pub for some dinner and then walked back and passed out after a long day!

Sunday 24th March 2024

Woke up this morning and went for a walk along the waterfront all the way to the Palm Cove Jetty.  We had taken our wallets so that we could have some breakfast on the way back and sussed out a number of places on the walk and decided on the restaurant right outside the hotel.  I ended up eating some pancakes (that I could not finish) and Heidi had french toast (she picked it purely because it had bacon).  With some fresh coffees, it was our first real Australian style breakfast experience (not counting the hotel breakfasts we had).

After getting some laundry started, we jumped in the car and headed north up to Port Douglas for the markets and to check out the long road up to see the changes.  There was still some road works and lots of one lane only portions on the road after Cyclone Jasper rolled through a few months ago and did massive damage.  We took some time on the way up and enjoyed the road.  The drive back was a bit more rushed to avoid the bad weather that was meant to be coming (it didnt).  We enjoyed the Port Douglas markets and Port Douglas hasn’t changed much in the years since I last saw it (early 2011). 

We couldn’t get all our groceries, but we were able to get some by the time we visited the bigger grocery store in Clifton Beach.  We retired for lunch back at the hotel (picked up some from the Brumbies in Clifton) and Heidi spent some time in the pool and I spent some time writing and reading.  A pretty chill afternoon/evening!

Monday 25th March 2024

Today we woke up and it was an early morning start as we had to get ourselves ready after breakfast and out the door to be picked up by our tour.  We were being picked up by Billy Tea Bush Safaris for a tour up to the Daintree for the day.  This was a great tour and I will be brief but Heidi enjoyed herself.  We got pretty drenched at Mossman Gorge, had some barramundi and steak for lunch and had some really nice ice cream.  There was still massive damage after Jasper and things are far from normal up there, but some stuff is open and if you are thinking of visiting, you should!  We ended up eating some Salad for dinner back at the hotel.  A very busy long day and we were tired by the end of the day.

Tuesday 26th March 2024

Another early morning for a day tour, but this time in the other direction.  We got picked up by a transfer down to Skyrail as we were headed to Kuranda for the day.  I got an email a few days before telling us that due to landslides the Kuranda Scenic Rail was not running, so Heidi was the one who made the decision we would still go (the railway was part of the reason I wanted to go again as I love that part) and so we did.  But it was a pure shit show with the transfer driver dropping us off early and the tour driver who was meant to meet us and take us, had no idea we were meant to be there and in the end we almost missed out on our entire day if we had not opened our mouth.

Shit show aside, the rest of the day was really good and we got to see Baron Falls with so much water going over it and it was amazing!  We got back to the hotel early so Heidi could go for another swim while I handled dinner.

Wednesday 27th March 2024

Today we woke up and went for a walk.  It was our morning before we head out to Brisbane. I talked about most of the morning in the trip report so won’t go to much into it.  Pretty much we went to Cairns and explored a little bit of the downtown/esplenade area and the Botanic gardens.  When we made it to Brisbane we got our bags and headed out to the rental offices for SIXT.  They offered us a Volkswagen Tiguan which was smaller than what I had booked, and would be no good for our adventures as we were to be picking up someone else tomorrow.  So I asked for something bigger, well they offered another Isuzu MU-X.  This was far to big and not really good for what we thought we were going to be doing (foreshadowing) so they offered us a Renault Kolleios, which had to be washed but we could have it. 10 minutes later we had our car and were heading towards home.

We stopped on the way at Aldi to pick up some supplies for dinner and the next few days a little bit as well as a stop at Dan Murphys for some goodies.  We finally made it to the house, unpacked, repacked and had some dinner ready for a fun day tomorrow.

Thursday 28th March 2024.

As usual, up early and on the road early as we headed out towards the sunshine coast.  We stopped on the way to pick up my school friend Jo and we stopped by the Golden Circle outlet to pick up more supplies and random goodies.  We were heading further up into the Sunshine Coast hinterland so that we could enjoy some “mountain” air and some goodies in the dairy country.  We hit up Maleny Dairies and Maleny Cheeses.  We stopped for coffee in Maleny where I decided to cover my shoes in mud sadly (strike 1). We went around down to Kondalila Falls and went for a bit of a hike (where I managed to just entirely fill my foot full of water and more mud probably… Strike 2) and then we decided to head over to Kenilworth for the dairy and the bakery for lunch.

Picked up some of the most delicious donuts in my life at the Kenilworth Bakery and then ended up on some Dirt Roads ( Regrets…. should have taken that MU-X).  We finally made it to our AirBNB and this was my first ever AirBNB and it was probably not worth the money we had paid for it.  It wasn’t as good as the photos had shown and it was quite strangely set up.  Maybe I didn’t read it properly or should have booked elsewhere, but it had a hot tub and this made Heidi and Jo really happy.  All in all a great day!

Friday 29th March 2024

Woke up this morning intending on making pancakes for breakfast but the kitchenware at the AirBNB was shit so we decided to pack up and head out for breakfast to a little cafe in Yandina.  We hit up a place called Gun Cotton Estates and it was really great!  Public holiday surcharges aside, it was well worth it!  We explored Yandina a bit more (Ginger Factory time!) and then drove down into Coolum and drove down the coast.

We pulled into Marcoola beach and parked up so that Heidi and Jo could go play on the sand.  I decided to keep my feet in good condition and sit and read a book in the shade.  It was a fun little stop for us.  We got back in the car and just drove our way down the coast stopping for pies and other fun things at Van Wegen Bakery in Mooloolaba. We headed further down the coast and dropped Jo off at home and then Heidi and I headed to the Confectionary Warehouse as it was the only thing really open on Good Friday.  We headed home after not buying any candy (deciding to get it the next day at BigW or the like) and took a walk later in the afternoon before dinner.  A good end to a fun day.

Saturday 30th March 2024

Did not go for a walk this morning as there would be plenty of walking involved.  Heidi and I took the train into the city later in the morning and then walked through the gardens towards Southbank and then did a full explore of the area.  We stopped for lunch at the Plough Inn and it has totally changed for the good.  It looks fantastic!

We were contemplating taking the citycat up river towards UQ but decided against it and went shopping in the mall for some sale items and maybe some chocolate and the like at BigW.  We left the city heading towards the car at the station and saw some people heading into town for the Queensland Reds games.  We contemplated going and then decided against it.  We had to go back to the shops to get some stuff for mum and dad as requested and picked up some stuff for dinner as well

Sunday 31st March 2024

Today was a very early wake up and out the door with no time to spare.  Heidi wanted to go to Easter Sunday church services and we headed over to the southside to catch up with Ross and his Wife Kathryn who took us to their church.  We then headed over to their place for brunch and after hours of talking away I found out that Ross lives just two streets away from my friend Angela and at the last minute went to visit her too.  We left around 6pm and headed home and got home about 12 hours after leaving the house.  We were soooo tired.

Monday 1st April 2024

Today was Heidi’s last full day and we were determined to take it easy.  We went for a walk before breakfast and then headed over to Chermside around opening time.  We were going to explore and see how much it had changed and for Heidi to really get a good example of a true Australian Shopping Centre (at least a really big one).  We got some of the things we needed to buy and went through numerous stores and still made it out without being charged for parking.  Took Heidi over to a bunnings so she could contemplate lunch of a sausage sizzle but she decided against it (she had one at the show so she didn’t need to).  We then went back home and spent the afternoon chilling out, I fixed my umbrella while Heidi packed and then we ended up on the couch reading.

We were meeting Fiona for dinner at the local pub (The Brook) and Heidi wanted to go down early to play some pokies.  She made me sign up for a members card (yay) and I stayed with her until she kept losing then she told me to go away so she could win (and she did).  Heidi ended up $15 ahead from when she started when it was time to meet Fiona for dinner.  We had a great night catching up and enjoying the pub for dinner.  Such a fun time!

Tuesday 2nd April 2024

It was a very early wake up.  Heidi needed to be at the airport by 7am to check in for her flight and I will too when I take my flight in a months time.  But it was a sad morning as I drove Heidi to the airport and I walked her up to check in and hugged her goodbye before she went down the escalators to immigration.  I spent the day making bread and catching up on stuff while trying not to think of Heidi and closing out the vacation part of our trip.  The remainder of this visit to Australia was going to be the “work part” as it was now time to get a lot of paperwork handled.