Australia 2003 1st Leg

Australia Trip 2003 Feb 24 2003 arrived at the Airport for the start of our flight to Perth West Australia which Anne had booked up with stop offs at Hong Kong, Cairns, on the Great Barrier Reef for a few days, then on to Alice Springs, and then to Ayr's Rock, or as they now call it Uluru, back to Alice Springs then on to Perth. The trouble was that on the way to the airport it starts to snow heavy and was quite cold about minus 20 F , when we got there and lined up for the tickets a guy walks over to me and wants to inspect the bags before we even get to the ticket counter, I say OK and he starts to do so right in the lineup. Its difficult to get the stuff back in the bad under those condition's, and seems to be an omen of things to come. We check our bags in and the guy at the counter tells us that the flight has been delayed until 2.30AM, at which we begin to bide our time, bide out time until the next announcement a hour later when the announcement comes that the flight is delayed until the same time next day, but that they will pay for a taxi to get us home and back the next day. When we get home, quite late, after midnight, with no keys, we have to ring the bell to get in which causes Carter, the dog to howl, and scare Amanda who is now in the house by herself wondering who wants in now. Amanda lets us in at which time we explain the situation and go to bed. We are picked up at 3.00 PM next day for our flight which will take off at 10.00PM bound for Anchorage Alaska for our first refuel on our way, which is a 6.30 minute flight. Jetting through the starlit skies Little dipper in view all the way Listening to the snores and sighs, Children murmuring,babies cries What a bum breaking ride, and, Not because it's bumpy, just so long to sit in one position, tends to make one grumpy. We get to Anchorage more or less on time and expect to be off the plane for 45 minutes, at which time we send a post card home to the girls, and get back on the plane, and have to wait another 45 minutes because of a security risk, until they find out what was the matter, that Omen feeling is starting to creep in again. Got to Hong Kong 7AM local time what a long flight and got a hotel room to rest up for the next leg of the journey. We went to the room and find out that someone is still in it so we have to go back and explain that to them at which time they give us another. When we finally get in the room we find that the key will not work the lights properly so we had to have a guy come and fix the problem. After a relaxing shower and rest we go back to the terminal for the next lap and check in and ask about our flight to Cairns and are told we are not going to Cairns, but to Sydney, but we have one hour to make connections to Cairns, which is from a different section of the Airport, at which we told them we didn't think we could make it in time, what with having to go through Customs, and they said that the plane would be held for us if there was a slight problem. This is a real piss off because to get to Sydney we have to fly right over Cairns and on 2000 miles, then we have to get on another plane and fly back, not only this we have hotels booked up at Cairns, Alice Spring's and Ayrs Rock, and will lose a day along the way. It seems because of the original delay we couldn't stop off at Cairns because the plane only flys there every other day. We get to Sydney and meet an obnoxious Customs Officer who was worried about the food we were smuggling in, and when he asked us for the keys so that he could open the bags, wed couldn't find them right away, and thinking the delay would cause us to miss the next flight we told him to break the locks. They brought a pair of bolt cutters and they wouldn't work on the Mickey Mouse lock that we had put on the bags, and had to send for another pair, which finally allowed them to open the bag. He kept asking us about the food we were bringing in to Australia, and we told him we weren't bringing any food to Australia, and when he asked us why we were not bringing food to Australia I told him we were hoping, above hope that they had enough. The Customs man only opened the one bag and went through it but couldn't find any food. I was glad he never opened the other bag which was full of Egg Salad Sandwiches, and peanut butter sandwiches we had brought for the starving teeming thousands,of Australia, and I was worried the Egg Salad ones would go off in the Australian heat, and can you imagine egg salad sandwiches going off on the plane over Queensland somewhere, The Humanity. Needless to say we missed the next flight they never held it for us and the next flight after that was filled up so we couldn't get on that either, so we were given the OK to use the VIP lounge until the flight we could take would go a few hours later. Needless to say by this time I'm completely pissed off so I just sat and sulked, while Anne had a shower and a meal from the great buffet they provided. We got to Cairns a day late and had to rejig the whole schedule because of that, and as I said I was totally pissed of promises had been made and not kept so we lost a second day of our vacation if not needlessly, at least because the Airline never kept their promise. After getting to Cairns everything went along swimmingly, we enjoyed our stay there and at Alice Springs, and Ayr's Rock, back to Alice Springs and on to Perth, the remotest big city in the world. Talk about Murphy's Law it broke out with a vengeance.
We finally got on our way to Cairns and when we got there and got to the hotel we had a relaxing the rest of the day just wandering around. Cairns is a nice small town and easy to fi nd things.
The next day we took a city snf surrounding area tour by bus and stopped for a tea break at a small cafe where they gave us each 2 large tea biscuits and heavy cream butter and jam, everything they give you to eat in Australia is large. When we returned to the hotel we didn't do much jet lag had set in i guess.
Sunday Mar 2nd we took a half day boat trip up the tidal estuary and saw some birds cormorants, sea eagles etc. We had a relaxing morning on the boat. It rained on and off but it didn't matter because we were under cover, and when we got back to the hotel Anne went to get a few things we needed at Woolworth's which wasn't to far away, and I sat down and wrote some post cards.
Evidently the town of Cairns has doubled in size over the previous five years, it seems much more happening than the previous time we were there a few years ago, lots of cruise ships coming in and lots of hustle and bustle.
Mar 3/03
took a plane AVRO RJ to Alice Springs on time went to the hotel and took a cab to the town centre, a ten dollar ride and looked around for a while. The town had two small Malls and a few souvenir shops, stores and restaurants, but they roll up the sidewalks after 5 PM. We went to Pizza Hut for supper and back to the hotel. Because we were waiting for the bus to take us to Ayr's Rock Uluru, I just had a piece of toast and a coffee I made myself and it cost $15.00 I just about shit, it was considered breakfast and I could have had a whole breakfast from the buffet, but because I only took toast I was charged the same as having an entire breakfast, Live and learn, that was the most expensive breakfast I ever had.
We went on a four hour bus ride to Ayr's rock and the Olgas which was another sort of rock outcroppings, and checked in to the Outback Pioneer, and were took on a tour of Ayr's Rock, and the Olgas. We were taken to the site a few times so the we could see it under different conditions, with the varying light conditions, once at dawn with the sun rising, and once in the evening with the sun setting, when they provided wine for everyone who wished, and once they actually drove around the whole thing. It was very interesting but we then had to get ready for the next leg of the journey to Perth West Australia, which is considered to be the most remote big city in the world.