Airlie Beach

 Arrival 11:30am. We had the entire day to explore. Our day went like this:

    Checked into the motel. Location across the grass to the Ocean. Check - done that right!

    Get groceries. Settled on spaghetti one night and tacos night two. Success />

    Met Horse and Chrissy Villa for drinks at Magnums. Complete strangers to us but friends of friends to my dad. Absolutely lovely people. I wish I was related to them.

    Walked along the beach to Marina #2.

    Sat on the deck at the motel and enjoyed a glass of sparkling water while listening to live music from the streets.

    Went for a walk to see the live music. Consisted of a 12 piece band. Let me remind you this is Sunday at 5pm and this bar is packed with patrons singing, dancing and clapping along to the music.

    Next to this bar is another restaurant with a live pianist.

    Have dinner. Delicious. Yumm. Spaghetti was approved by the 11 year old #goodeats

    Went for an evening stroll to Marina #1. First marina we found.

    Walked along the downtown street. Found live music at Magnums. Enjoyed a few songs. #goodvibes

    Back in the room 8pm. Ready for bed.

Tomorrow we are taking the big red boat to Whitehaven Beach for a snorkel. Stay tuned for the write up.

:)

Townsville

 

The Strand

Townsville. I presumed we were stopping over in a small town, but Townsville, as the name indicates is not a small town it is quite large, spread out, and difficult to get around.

A short walk along The Strand passed the marina, the local port, and trough the treed passage way we arrived at our motel. On the second floor we enjoyed a modern, renovated, two bed suite for the evening. After settling in, the warm pool was our oasis for next few hours.

Walking along The Stand in the evening was beautiful and very windy. We passed by outdoor community pools, many playgrounds, a basketball court, and a netted in swimming area which families could enjoy crocodile free. Ending our stroll at one of the many piers along the way.

The Strand is a seaside foreshore. Until today I have not heard of one. Apparently there is a Strand in London which is famous for coffee shops, restaurants, and taverns.

This quaint town had a sweet smell to it, even my 11-year old son enjoyed the scent. Along with many restaurants, pubs, gelato/coffee shops, and eateries along the street side of The Strand where you could savior cuisine from all over the world.

Here is a photo of us on the Pier with the wind. In the background is an indigenous statue called, "the Ocean Siren." The Siren reacts to live water temperatures of the ocean. Here the Siren is red for warm, the Siren also goes blue for cold.

Cairns

 

Ah the night life. The smells. The beautiful people. The tans. The sensational sites.

What a dazzling little town.

If I could change anything less than a week into my holiday I would stay in this community longer.

We have managed to walk kilometers on end and get turned around several times. When you look at the map you feel as though you only need to walk a couple blocks and you will reach your destination, but let me tell you.... some streets are not named on the map.

I have been to the rainforest where we saw some crocodiles, koalas, kangaroos, frogs, wombats and more. What fun. I thoroughly enjoyed the colors and the experience. It is hard to put into words all of the remarkable area.

Melbourne

We decided we had viewed enough of the Vancouver like city so we took the train down to Geelong. The train system in the state of Victoria from what we have seen is extensive! A relaxing one-hour dip down the coastline and we were there. In Geelong we walked along the water, touched the sand, ate fish and chips at the wharf, walked through the mall, and viewed the cultural district architectural buildings.  The performing arts building front was designed as a curtain opening for the face! Quite spectacular to view.

Back in Melbourne for the night Tash picked us up and took us to Hecho En Mexico for Tacos and Mexican eats. Absolutely delicious. Thank you, Tash, for dinner. 😉  After dinner we went for a nice drive over the big bridge and down to St. Kilda for Gelato on the beach. I am normally not a Gelato fan but that was yummy.

https://hechoenmexico.com.au/

Melbourne Official Day 1

We did a walking tour with my friend Tash. We started off heading to the East from our hotel over to Flinder's station. The architecture of the buildings is amazing. Rounded accents, angled walls, curved buildings and lots of places in town with large concrete pieces sticking out on an angle from the ground like a piece of artwork.

From Flinders station we crossed the roadway and walked along the Yarra River.  It was Labour day long weekend here so there was a festival named, Moomba, happening all along both sides of the river. The festival included food trucks, rides, and entertainment. While on the other side of the river we were able to take in an international wakeboarding competition, I have never seen anything like that before.  The female athletes we watched would attach a rope to their leg and complete one pass of tricks spinning on their board behind the boat, along with front flips and back flips!

From there we headed North to the Museum. Inside the museum was a dinosaur exhibit with in depth explanations through interactive screens and movies about fossils and archeology. We were also able to see insect skins, live spiders in enclosures and a replica of a forest ecosystem in an atrium space at the center of the museum. Fabulous job creating a good, interesting experience.

   

Melbourne is home to a large indoor market where you can purchase fresh produce, meats, and artisans. Due to the public holiday, it was closed. On a side note, due to the public holiday there is a surcharge at each restaurant to eat take-out food…. And if you order a Starbucks, you are most certainly a tourist.

We experienced an indoor mall with six stories! At the top of the mall was a cinema and at the bottom of the mall in the ground was a grocery store and in between all the levels were retail shops and food stops.

After dinner we walked North to see some different sights and find an ice cream shop. Stumbling upon the University grounds we toured the growing Melbourne University campus before making our way for dessert then onto the room for a sleep.

Travel Part 2

 New Zealand to Melbourne 

The airport was nice. We had to go through a bag check/security in order to proceed into the the airport. In line was a flight directory that said Relax next to our flight to Melbourne  

Desperate for a cup of Java we walked around the little airport looking for coffee. Apparently New Zealanders don’t drink drip coffee. They enjoy Espressos, long or short. 

Unsure what either of those options were I asked the nice couple behind me. We had a lovely conversation about Traveling and settled on a long espresso.

Coffee was so delicious we had a second cup!

This Air New Zealand plane was bigger and seats were even comfier! But it is daytime and I have slept enough for an evening. I pre-paid for our seats where I had no-one in front of me so I could stretch my legs out which made a huge difference. 

Although this flight was only 3.5 hours I felt like I was driving through the prairies in Canada. Long, straight, and boring. I would add draining to the description as well. 

In Melbourne we went through 2 security checks as my 11 year old son was not allowed to go through express. The border lady made me feel awkward as she kept scanning my sons passport and looking at him. But in the end she gave us the ok!

Tash was waiting for us on arrivals and took us to the car park to start our journey into Melbourne. 

Travel

 Day 1 - Travel Day

Zero sleep. WOW how little sleep I get when my mind goes.

10am we headed to the airport to hurry and up and wait... sometimes being at the airport can be a terrible experience.  You want to be in the know but no-one shares the information.

After an hour of waiting the APP updates and the flight is delayed. Now what do you do? I profusely click update to see if the delay time changes.

In the end we found out the weather was causing the planes to not land with the ceiling being too low and the pilots were unable to see to land in Kelowna. The planes were circling the sky waiting for the clouds to break.

Finally, a nice Gentleman next to me showed me his phone with a live tracking of our plane, FlightAware, and we could see the plane taking a decent and coming in for landing.

HOORAY 

From our 12:30 scheduled flight to actually boarding at 1:30 I was feeling to sick to my stomach that I was not going to make it to Vancouver for the connecting flight to New Zealand.

But I made it Vancouver for 2:30 found our Gate and settled in for a comfy rest before the Long Haul to New Zealand.

Fourteen hours in the air but we left at 7:15pm from Vancouver so it was dark once we got on the place and dark the entire flight so it seemed natural to have dinner and then watch a movie and doze of for a sleep. The plane was nice, new, clean seats, great food, excellent staff, and free Wi-fi! 

Nervous about the long flight I contact my doctor prior to departure and requested a prescription of Ativan for the flight.

After a little dinner, I popped an Ativan, sorted my belongings, tucked myself in with the nice airplane blanket, and fell asleep.

Completely passed out on the plane, my father attempted to wake me up and request an Ativan from me along with my son attempting to wake me up to go to the bathroom, but I slept.  I believe in total I slept seven hours. I feel great. Thank you medication. 

Lights came on, and breakfast was served, we were on the final trek to landing.

I did it! We did it!

Bring on the Holiday.

Wait, wait, wait...

We have another flight to catch... New Zealand to Melbourne... I'll keep you posted.