We Made it!!

Friday, October 4th, 2013

It was an uneventful 18.5 hours of flying time interrupted by a 4 hour layover in Auckland - nearly a complete day of traveling between Vancouver and Cairns. Our seatmate from Vancouver to Auckland was a 31 year old Kiwi from Nelson who was returning home after 2 months mountain biking in Whistler. His left arm, in a sling, was totally disconnected at the shoulder - the result of a fall on his last day in Canada. He would be seeing a NZ doctor about possible surgery later that day. He went to Canada with 2 mountain bikes and as much padded cycling clothing as he could fit around his bikes.  He decided to travel like Helen Murin - no clothing whatsoever. He would get what he needed in a second hand store in Whistler and return it before going back home. He claimed it was the best way to go!

October 3rd, my brother Ken's birthday, never existed for us as we passed over the international dateline sometime during the night. What a beautiful view of the reefs as we approached northern Queensland and Cairns! The first photo here taken from the plane shows some of the Great Barrier Reef and clouds. The second is my first view of Cairns. I was so excited to be here again after 40 years.

Things started to go awry after we landed, though. Unfortunately, we had filled out our landing cards early in our last leg of our journey declaring that we were bringing nothing illegal into the country. But we were given sandwiches just an hour before landing so both Tina and I decided to pack them for a snack later on. Big Mistake!! Tina was chosen for thorough questioning about her comprehension of the questions on the card before her bags were unpacked for inspection. Bringing in undeclared food (especially meat) is subject to a minimum $300.00 fine. After pleading her 'sandwich' case to the satisfaction of her customs officer, she called across the customs hall to me (still waiting to be inspected in the line of other suspect smugglers), "Sandy, declare your sandwich!". I subsequently received a severe tongue-lashing and was told to eat my sandwich now!  With a queue of at least 75 people watching, I choked down one mouthful and told him it was a terrible sandwich and asked him if he'd throw it away. He scornfully quipped, "Airline food - what did you expect?" Then, with a final few words of warning and advice to, in future, fill in landing cards only just prior to landing, we were free to begin our holiday.

We, and about a dozen other passengers, were collected at the airport by a driver with a small bus pulling a trailer for luggage. Our very personable driver, Mick, gave us the choice to be dropped off first or last, after his other drop-offs during which time he would point out town sights. We had a great visit talking about how the community has changed since I lived here 40 years ago. Cairns has grown from a population of about 15,000 people then, to a city and surrounding area now, of 100,000 according to Mick. Unfortunately, when he dropped us at our hotel he discovered he'd lost our bags!!!! He left us to check in and took off to find out where he'd taken them out of the trailer and abandoned them!!!! This is the tropics - we were hot, still wearing the warm clothing we'd donned in Vancouver and more than a little worried that we'd seen the last of Mick and our bags. He came through though, finding them sitting in the middle of the lobby of one of the hotels where he'd dropped a group.

We got settled into our room, stripped and headed out for a cold beer and to go over out itinerary for the next few days. Low and behold - we have 2 extra days up here! No accommodation booked - just 2 days unaccounted for before we catch our train south. We cannot believe we, and 2 travel agents, missed this! Never mind. We'll deal with it (and I'm secretly very happy - I love it here!).

We went for a stroll on the grounds of our resort - the Ibis Cairns Colonial Club - beautiful and lush.