3:30am a bright light comes on and Rhonda wakes up wondering what the heck is this? I kinda went back to sleep as the light dimmed then brightened again and we were easily up at 4. When we got down, no super shuttle. 4:20, still no shuttle, I give a call and am assured the shuttle is almost there and we will be fine for our 7am flight to Sydney. Finally about 4:40 a cab pulls up and says he is here for the shuttle. He makes fun for not getting a cab from the start but the hotel said the “discount” cab is $42.00 to the airport and the shuttle was $21 for 2 passengers. The cab was about $25…now we know for next time I guess! We get checked in….totally sweet! Business class rocks! We got our own check in line (there was a huge line for coach) and were treated like royalty. They took extra care of all of our bags and then after check in we headed to the international departure lounge for Air New Zealand. Wow, it was sweet. A big spread for breakfast, any kind of drinks or juices…really nice. We pretty much stayed awake to enjoy all of the stuff but Rhonda got a nap in before the flight. We like the business class experience. On the plane, the great service continued. The seats were comfy, but didn’t recline huge. There were only 2 rows of b class seats since it was an Airbus 320 plane. We had personal DVD players and about 20 movies to choose from as well as a nice spread for breakfast…fruit, pancakes or eggs with steak, etc. We loved it. I slept a lot of the flight; Rhonda stayed awake watching a movie and soaking up the business class experience. One of the highlights of the flight was the taste of vegemite for Rhonda. I put some one some toast and gave her a taste….can’t wait to watch the video of that again! Great stuff! It was cloudy coming into Sydney but was a treat to fly by the city and get to see the harbor, downtown and the opera house from the air. Just like all of the great pics you see of Sydney….that was cool for both of us. We landed in Sydney and had a long, long layover for our flight to Cairns. We claimed our bags, transferred over to the domestic terminal, checked in and got something to eat and just hung out. We had some wireless internet time at the gate for an hour or so as well so that was nice to do some things before our flight. The flight was amazing compared to what we get at home. We were on a Qantas flight and they serviced us very nicely. First of all, we asked about seats and next thing we knew we had exit row, window and aisle and the middle seat blocked…sweet! We had a hot meal, drink service (coffee and tea) and then later they came by with ice cream…twice! I couldn’t believe it when at home for the same flight we get nothing but have the option to buy some chips for $5. We arrived in Cairns a got a cab to the hotel. It was a short ride, probably about $15 or so. We got checked in and I’ll have to say, not as nice as it looked on the internet! The walls looked like they hadn’t been painted in 10 years and our toilet made this constant noise. Not a bad room though and we were of course happy to have it. We relaxed for a little bit then headed out to explore and see what Cairns was all about. Its pretty cool but a little older than I expected. Kinda like an old Florida town I’d say. They have a really cool esplanade on the water and a stretch of a lot of restaurants and shops. We also walked to the harbor to check out where our boat for the scuba trip left from. We were both a little tired from the long day of traveling so we decided to go ahead and eat as it was gonna be an early night (we were also 3 hrs back so it was a lot later for us and we got up at 4am). We ate at the Raw Prawn on an “early bird special” 20% off and it was actually very tasty. I had Kangaroo and Rhonda had barramundi with delicious avocado salsa. Both were very tasty (the Kangaroo was overcooked) and we got a little video of Rhonda eating some Kangaroo! After dinner we walked a little more then headed for home. We had a drink in the hotel bar (since it was complementary) and then went to sleep fairly early. After all, an early morning tomorrow and a long 2 days of the Great Barrier Reef await!
