{"id":17842,"date":"2024-04-04T15:33:43","date_gmt":"2024-04-04T22:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/?p=17842"},"modified":"2024-04-04T15:33:46","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T22:33:46","slug":"trip-report-home-the-long-way-the-inbetween-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/?p=17842","title":{"rendered":"Trip Report – Home the Long Way – The inbetween stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.\u00a0 So many days, so many things!

Monday 18th March 2024<\/strong>

After getting my bags in the airport, I caught the train into the city and got off at Wynard.\u00a0 Took me a moment on the other end to get my bearings and figure out where I needed to come out, but it wasn\u2019t that hard and I left the station headed to Martin Place and our hotel the Fullerton.\u00a0 I was checking in the night before to make sure we had a room ready when Heidi arrived the next morning.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I was looking for a coles and to make sure I could find stuff that Heidi wanted.\u00a0 When I couldn\u2019t find what I needed, I needed to head over to a different coles and thankfully I found that stuff I needed.\u00a0 I also picked up some dinner while I was there and walked back to the hotel and stayed in for the night.\u00a0 It was an easy night!

Tuesday 19th March 2024
<\/strong>
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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We got off at Town Hall on the way back and walked through QVB and down towards Circular Quay and the Sydney Opera House.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We ordered far too much food, but we ate what we could!\u00a0 Heidi made it to about 730pm before passing out, good enough!

Wednesday 20th March 2024
<\/strong>
We woke up and took a gorgeous morning walk.\u00a0 Heidi wanted to see Barangaroo and along the water there, so that is where we went.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The tour of the GPO was great and was a great look at some of the history of the city.\u00a0 Then walking down to the Opera House (in the rain mind you) to tour that, something I had never done.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 We retired back to the room tired and saw after a long day.

Thursday 21st March 2024
<\/strong>
Today\u2019s 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.\u00a0 We missed the first ferry and had to wait 20 minutes for the next one, but still made it before the zoo opened.\u00a0 Rather than walk all the way to the top of the zoo, we took the bus to the top.\u00a0 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.\u00a0

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We walked all the way out to Mrs Macquaries chair and got rained on in the process.\u00a0 We then walked our way around towards the navy base and to a dinner stop first for Heidi\u2026. Harrys Cafe de Wheels.\u00a0 I had not been there in a looong time and I was excited for a good Pie with Potato and Mushy Peas!\u00a0 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
<\/strong>
Another relatively earlyish morning for breakfast as today was the day I was looking forward to the most.\u00a0 It was opening day of the 2024 Royal Easter Show.\u00a0 I was excited!\u00a0 We had been loaned some members guest passes by a family member and it was time to get moving to the show.\u00a0 We took a train to central and changed trains to head out to Olympic Park and the show.\u00a0 The show was great, we explored for hours and had a fantastic time.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I got some cadbury bags and of course a Bertie Beetle bag.\u00a0

Some of our highlights of the show for Heidi included getting to see all the animals and for me, watching a live Cake judging.\u00a0 By the end of the day, we were tired, we didn\u2019t want to do much so picked up some dinner to eat on the way back to the hotel.\u00a0 We were done for the day!

Saturday 23rd March 2024
<\/strong>
We woke up this morning and went for a walk up towards the Harbour Bridge and back through the rocks area.\u00a0 Sunrise this morning was magnificent and there was a few people down by the Cruise Terminal taking photos.\u00a0 We walked back to the hotel and had some breakfast and then back to the room to pack things up.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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 \u201cBrunch\u201d and had a Devonshire Tea at the hotel for a discounted price and using up the last of our credit.\u00a0 From the hotel we took a DiDi to the airport as we had a coupon.\u00a0 The flight was good (see the real trip report) and in Cairns we collected our car.\u00a0 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 \u201clet me see\u201d and got us a Isuzu MU-X.\u00a0 This was a bit of overkill but still different none the less.\u00a0

We drove up to our hotel in Palm Cove which was the Mantra Amphora.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Getting the car into the car park was a shit show (confirmed by someone who worked there who walked past saying \u201cYeah, the parking is the worst\u201d).\u00a0 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
<\/strong>
Woke up this morning and went for a walk along the waterfront all the way to the Palm Cove Jetty.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I ended up eating some pancakes (that I could not finish) and Heidi had french toast (she picked it purely because it had bacon).\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We took some time on the way up and enjoyed the road.\u00a0 The drive back was a bit more rushed to avoid the bad weather that was meant to be coming (it didnt).\u00a0 We enjoyed the Port Douglas markets and Port Douglas hasn\u2019t changed much in the years since I last saw it (early 2011).\u00a0

We couldn\u2019t get all our groceries, but we were able to get some by the time we visited the bigger grocery store in Clifton Beach.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 A pretty chill afternoon\/evening!

Monday 25th March 2024
<\/strong>
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.\u00a0 We were being picked up by Billy Tea Bush Safaris for a tour up to the Daintree for the day.\u00a0 This was a great tour and I will be brief but Heidi enjoyed herself.\u00a0 We got pretty drenched at Mossman Gorge, had some barramundi and steak for lunch and had some really nice ice cream.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 We ended up eating some Salad for dinner back at the hotel.\u00a0 A very busy long day and we were tired by the end of the day.

Tuesday 26th March 2024
<\/strong>
Another early morning for a day tour, but this time in the other direction.\u00a0 We got picked up by a transfer down to Skyrail as we were headed to Kuranda for the day.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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!\u00a0 We got back to the hotel early so Heidi could go for another swim while I handled dinner.

Wednesday 27th March 2024
<\/strong>
Today we woke up and went for a walk.\u00a0 It was our morning before we head out to Brisbane. I talked about most of the morning in the trip report so won\u2019t go to much into it.\u00a0 Pretty much we went to Cairns and explored a little bit of the downtown\/esplenade area and the Botanic gardens.\u00a0 When we made it to Brisbane we got our bags and headed out to the rental offices for SIXT.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 So I asked for something bigger, well they offered another Isuzu MU-X.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We finally made it to the house, unpacked, repacked and had some dinner ready for a fun day tomorrow.

Thursday 28th March 2024.
<\/strong>
As usual, up early and on the road early as we headed out towards the sunshine coast.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We were heading further up into the Sunshine Coast hinterland so that we could enjoy some \u201cmountain\u201d air and some goodies in the dairy country.\u00a0 We hit up Maleny Dairies and Maleny Cheeses.\u00a0 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\u2026 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\u2026. should have taken that MU-X).\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t as good as the photos had shown and it was quite strangely set up.\u00a0 Maybe I didn\u2019t read it properly or should have booked elsewhere, but it had a hot tub and this made Heidi and Jo really happy.\u00a0 All in all a great day!

Friday 29th March 2024
<\/strong>
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.\u00a0 We hit up a place called Gun Cotton Estates and it was really great!\u00a0 Public holiday surcharges aside, it was well worth it!\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I decided to keep my feet in good condition and sit and read a book in the shade.\u00a0 It was a fun little stop for us.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 A good end to a fun day.

Saturday 30th March 2024
<\/strong>
Did not go for a walk this morning as there would be plenty of walking involved.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We stopped for lunch at the Plough Inn and it has totally changed for the good.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We left the city heading towards the car at the station and saw some people heading into town for the Queensland Reds games.\u00a0 We contemplated going and then decided against it.\u00a0 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
<\/strong>
Today was a very early wake up and out the door with no time to spare.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We left around 6pm and headed home and got home about 12 hours after leaving the house.\u00a0 We were soooo tired.

Monday 1st April 2024
<\/strong>
Today was Heidi\u2019s last full day and we were determined to take it easy.\u00a0 We went for a walk before breakfast and then headed over to Chermside around opening time.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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).\u00a0 Heidi ended up $15 ahead from when she started when it was time to meet Fiona for dinner.\u00a0 We had a great night catching up and enjoying the pub for dinner.\u00a0 Such a fun time!

Tuesday 2nd April 2024
<\/strong>
It was a very early wake up.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The remainder of this visit to Australia was going to be the \u201cwork part\u201d as it was now time to get a lot of paperwork handled.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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.\u00a0 So many days, so many things! Monday 18th March 2024 After getting my bags in the airport, I caught […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,8,1727,1,18,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventures","category-expat","category-home-the-long-way","category-life-in-general","category-travelling","category-tripreports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p49RU0-4DM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17843,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17842\/revisions\/17843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigmal.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}