After a late night (about 11pm) sharing pizza and laughs with the crew from CITS, Saturday morning rolled around fairly quickly. Jordy and I got up and left to go to the airport about 8.15am. A quick stop at the shop to say goodbye to Cathy and Graham and get the Courier to bring up to Gerard and we were on our way. Cathy and Graham have spent time in PNG, so they are keen to catch up with us when we get back and share our experiences.
We made it to the airport in plenty of time and I boarded the plane to Brisbane at 11.05am. A quick stopover for 40 minutes in Brisbane Airport and then it was on to Cairns. I arrived in Cairns about 4.15pm and caught a taxi into the Hotel. I was staying at Rydges, but I soon found out from the taxi driver that there are three Rydges and a quick stop was required for me to check my paperwork and find out which one I was booked into. I was staying at “Plaza” Rydges, right in the middle of town. As soon as I got there I was keen to be reunited with my passport which was waiting there for me. The last minute granting of my visa meant that there was not time to get it to Victoria, so it had to go from Brisbane to Cairns on Friday. A bit too close for comfort, I thought.
Once I had settled into the Motel, Brad rang and we met up and went out to dinner. I was starving, since breakfast I had only had a piece of cake on one flight and a cookie on the next one. That’s the problem with two short flights in one day, the one straight through has a meal supplied. Mind you, I had eaten plenty of pizza the night before. Dinner was had at an Italian Restaurant and it was delicious. I had calamari for entrée and then lemon veal for main. We wandered down to PJ O’Briens (the Irish Pub) for a drink and by 10.30 I just wanted to go back to the Hotel and sleep. Brad continued on to the Casino and got back to his hotel very late.
Sunday morning after breakfast we went for a walk along the boardwalk and around Cairns. I had to buy a couple of umbrellas and get some Keena to bring over. 200 keena is about $90. That sounds pretty good until you get to the supermarket and find that a packet of Arnotts Strawberry Shortcake Biscuits is 12 keena. It cost 53 keena for 3 packets of biscuits and 2 litres of apple juice.
About 10.30am we headed for the airport. Lesson 1 -You need to tell taxi drivers that you are flying international, otherwise they take you to the domestic terminal and you have to drag your luggage (a case full of text books etc is very heavy) across to the international terminal. By the time you get there your shoulders ache and you are all wet and sticky. The lady in customs took my cleanser because it was more than the allowed liquid and then she wanted to take my toothpaste too, but it was only 10g over and she gave in. Then I must have looked suspicious because I had to do the explosive test and the frisk search. Finally we are walking across the tarmac and the plane in front of us looked pretty big, then Brad says “our plane is the little one behind it.” It’s the same size as the ones you catch to Bernie in Tasmania, so I have been on that size a few times before. About 30 passengers seated two on each side.
The flight was uneventful, not like Gerard’s first flight in, a short stop in Horne Island to refuel, and then we landed in Tabubil. I felt like I had been travelling for two days! Getting through customs here was funny, the bags are scanned, which they don’t really watch much, but they do one person at a time and it takes forever, then they ask you stupid questions and make you get stuff out for them to have a look at. Apparently my laptop cord was of interest to them, but then it was all OK and I walked through the customs door to meet Gerard. The International terminal is only a tin shed and people waiting to meet someone have to stand outside.
Gerard was very happy to see me and Basel had come down in the car to transport us and our baggage back to our cute little house. We just have a little bed sitter with a kitchen, table and chairs, bathroom and the bed is in the middle of the room. We have TV and are very comfortable. We have even cooked a couple of meals, because they stock our fridge for us. Thomas comes every day to clean for us and does our washing and ironing. Every night we come home to find our clothes all done and ready to put away and our towels have been washed and dried. We have two showers a day because despite it not being uncomfortably hot you either get wet walking home in the rain or you get hot and sweaty walking home in the sunshine. Either way you need a shower. Its really weird to get wet and not feel cold. When it rains the temperature does not change, so you don’t feel any colder, just wetter.
Sunday night we went to Ian and Linda’s for a BBQ. Ian came back to Vic with Gerard last time and was home for a week, so I had met him a couple of times and we had had a meal in Melbourne with him. Linda is a national, very nice and she has a gorgeous little three year old called Kimberley. Kimberley plays with Gerard and says she is stealing his name and everyone has to call her Gerard and him Kimberley. She is totally cute and gorgeous. She didn’t want us to leave. There was also the principal from the International School and his teacher wife and a guy from Queensland TAFE. We had a very enjoyable evening, but I was keen to get some sleep and be ready to work the next day. I wasn’t due to start until Tuesday, but with the public holiday on Thursday I had to start a day earlier, then they decided I had to work Thursday anyway – go figure that!
