After getting home at 1.30am, getting up again at 6.30am was NOT the best start to 2010! But, we had a flight to catch so after finishing packing we got a taxi at 8am and headed to the airport.
Andrew and I still aren’t sure how, but, our luggage seemed to gain 6kg since we left London and we hadn’t bought anything new! It was either £30 or $30 AUD that we had to pay in excess! If that wasn’t bad enough, the online check-in asked if we had any sharp objects in our hand luggage and I had pressed yes as I had the needles in with my medication. When I said this to the check-in lady she proceeded to tell me that needles had to be in our checked in luggage, I said that wasnt the case and that all my medication and needles had to be in my hand luggage…nope, she said, knitting needles have to go into your checked in luggage…knitting needles? WTF! Syringes, with little needles on the end, ones you jab in your arm/stomach/arse or wherever else you can think of…”oh yes, they need to go in your hand luggage”…feckin Qantas check-in staff at their best (again)!
Going through security was relatively easy this time, they only searched me once! After breakfast – which I didnt eat cos Aussies put BBQ sauce on everything – we boarded our plane to Cairns. That didn’t go so well. Despite having received confirmation from Qantas that seating had been arranged we were put in normal seats and I had to request to be moved. The cabin crew were great and sorted it out straight away for me. So far I have been very impressed with Qantas cabin crew…shame the office and check-in staff can’t be the same way!
The flight seemed to fly by (excuse the pun) and as we touched down in Cairns I prepared myself for the horrendous heat everyone had warned me about. Thankfully it wasnt as bad as I was expecting!
We collected our luggage and headed to Avis to collect our hire car. I think we got stuck with the most annoying (and probably boring) assistant Avis in Cairns have! About an hour later, and after haggling over a GPS and electric seats, we got the keys and headed for the car (as quick as possible!).
Job 1: Whack the air con on!
It took us just 10 minutes to get to our B&B from the airport. Abbey’s Guesthouse was a lovely, and what I assume to be traditional house for the area with its very own slice of the rainforest in the backyard. The owner, Abbey (funnily enough), was a very sweet lady who made us feel right at home from the moment we arrived.
Andrew and I were absolutely shattered! It would normally take me about a week to get over travelling like we had the last few days so food and sleep was about all we had the energy to do…so if you’re looking for pictures of Cairns, you aren’t gonna find very many here lol
I have to admit that I wasn’t keen on opening the windows in the room to let some air in as Abbey suggested…what about the spiders!? So, we put the fan and air con on instead…when we eventually found it!
Once we had unpacked and cooled down we headed into the town. I was expecting a great beach but it wasn’t golden sands…more Southend-on-sea with some heat lol They did have a very busy lagoon though and lots of nice places to eat.
After dinner we went back to Abbey’s for an early night…hopefully uninterrupted by creepy crawlies!
You can read a full review of Abbey’s House in Cairns HERE
