Time to move camp

Monday 25^{th August}.

Pack up and move on day. Early breakfast downstairs (Holiday Inn), very disappointing, nothing was hot. I had to ask the waitress to put my meal in the microwave to make it hot enough to eat. I’ve already been a bit ‘off’ this trip, I’m not taking any chances eating luke warm food. Turns out that no-one had lit the burners under the food, so it had been sitting for an hour just getting cooler and cooler.

We have one suitcase on wheels each and having already checked out where the Reef Fleet Terminal is, we figure we can walk along the boardwalk to get there. Easy, and we arrive in plenty of time to check in and get all the tickets we need for island transfers, reef tour and snorkel tour. Decorative wristbands attached and we head out the boat, where we wait and wait. Why would you refuel the boat 10 minutes before departure when the dock is crowded with people? I don’t know, it must be a FNQ thing……. We seem to be the only ones with the fish wristbands.

The boat taking us to Fitzroy continues out to Moore Reef for the day, the same trip we’re taking tomorrow. Let’s hope it’s not as crowded. Apparently there’s around 140 on the boat today, mostly Asian tourists, who haven’t been warned to take seasickness preventatives. By the time we were half way to the island, the boat resembled a hospital ship! It was a very sad and sorry sight. It was a looong 45 minute boat ride!

Our room isn’t ready yet, we’ve arrived early, no worries, we can leave our luggage in the luggage room near Reception and start checking out the resort. Zephyr Restaurant has just closed after breakfast, 10.30, quality hours! The resort faces the sea and the mainland, there is a beach to the left and right of the dock. We wander along the beach for a bit, and see the start of the path that leads to the Lighthouse and ultimately, the summit. Might tackle that while we’re here. I do like the view from the top of things! Returning back past Reception and Zephyr’s we follow the path to Foxy’s bar where they serve more casual food, and find the general store next to it. Feeling a bit peckish, we grab a serve of wedges and a couple of beers – well it is a bit warm here! By the time we’re finished, our room is ready, so up we go.

We booked an ocean suite and it’s amazing! It’s a one bedroom apartment, complete with full kitchen, and balcony with a lovely water view! We’re blown away! This so much more than we expected! The other rooms are much smaller and while that would be ok, they have no view, the only window faces the walkway and offers no privacy. Be warned though, some of these ocean suites have no water view. Make sure to request one with a view of the water! There are 3 little bungalows down in front of our building that would probably be quite good too. Each one house 2 units and we figure they’re probably the original accommodations, but they have no cooking facilities.

We’re really keen to see what the snorkelling is like here so, there’s no point waiting any longer. The water is a bit cool at first, but ok once you get in. The tide is low so probably not the best time to go in, you have to go out so far to be able to get in, maybe up the other end of the beach is better, that’s the area marked for snorkelling on the map. We’ll have to wait till later in the week to find out. Tomorrow is our reef tour.

We’re booked at Zephyr’s for dinner but there’s always time to admire the sunset.

We’ve nominated to pay for half board which gets us breakfast and dinner and we sort out our own lunch. The food is top notch and so is the service. Hmmm, I wonder if we’ll ever have dinner at Foxy’s?

A day in Cairns

Day 2. Sunday 24^th Aug

Day at leisure in Cairns. Tossed up about going up to Kuranda on the skyrail and coming back down on the train, but basically couldn’t be bothered. We went up there when the boys were little.  This trip is all about doing as little as possible after all! Trevor wanted to have some lovely fresh seafood this trip and expected that it would be easy to find. Surprisingly, there’s not a fish co-op in town, well, within walking distance from our ‘home’. We knew we wanted to go to a supermarket and get a few things to take across to Fitzroy Island, so that was top of the list. We had a couple of tips of where to find seafood from the waitress at breakfast, the best one required a car to get to the industrial estate where the best seafood is sold from apparently. Anyway, that’s out. I suspected that perhaps this lady had trouble with maps when she couldn’t even find where we were on it! She told us about Rusty’s Markets that sold excellent fresh produce and possibly seafood. She also marked something else on the map that turned out to be a wild goose chase, not that great in 27 degree weather. So, we found a supermarket, went on a wild goose chase and then found Rusty’s. A bit flea market, lots of fresh fruit and veg, and one seafood stall/shop. Most of the variety was frozen, but there were fresh prawns, Moreton Bay bugs and oysters. We bought some bugs and prawns and with a crunchy baguette, lunch was sorted.

I think I’ve been bitten by the FNQ sleeping bug, had a lovely long nap after lunch, getting in the ‘zone’ for the island.

Who would have thought it?

I've always wondered why people could go to a resort somewhere, spend a week, not set foot outside the resort, not mix it up with the locals and experience the culture, ie eat the food. After the past 12 months, all I've wanted, surprisingly, is just that! So we've booked 4 nights on Fitzroy Island, just off the Queensland coast, near Cairns, 2 nights prior in Cairns and one night on the return. Chillaxing, here we come!!!

Photos to follow.

Saturday 23^rd August 2014.

We’ve been waiting for this day for a while now. It’s time to go north and veg out on a tropical island!

An uneventful drive to Newcastle Airport, checked in and not so far to walk on the tarmac to the plane due to building work. The plane is full and we’re in for a bumpy flight, no hot drinks will be served on this leg to Brisbane. We gladly farewell the grey skies and once we’re at altitude it’s bright sunshine but can’t see a thing below.

We’d eaten 2^nd breakfast at the airport and weren’t hungry on this flight, so kept the sandwiches we’d bought at the airport for the next leg. There was a young family behind us and it was quite entertaining listening to the conversations. Turns out that the Mum is the cousin of the husband of someone I know at work. Six degrees of separation doesn’t apply on the Central Coast, even though this family is actually from Newcastle. They’re headed for Port Douglas so they’ll be on our next flight as well.

Flight 2 for the day, Brisbane (still miserably wet) to Cairns is not as full. I’d changed our seats when I checked in to get us away from the wing and as it turned out, we had the back 6 or so rows to ourselves. The only other person back with us was the spare pilot. At least he wasn’t like the blow up auto pilot from ‘Flying High’! Ha ha! Actually, I think he was repositioning, from what the cabin crew were saying to him. I wondered why he didn’t get an upgrade to Business. Must have been full. So, if you’re not right up the front, you’re right down the back! The poor guy across the aisle from us was a very nervous Nellie, I felt sorry for him, grabbing the armrest in a vice-grip at every bump.

Cairns did not disappoint us, it was comfortingly warm as soon as we left the plane. Didn’t take long to get our bags and find our lift into town, with an orientation tour thrown in for free. I think the driver forgot where we were going and we went all around town first. Not that we minded, and we scored a pretty good room at the Holiday Inn. We’d asked for a high floor with an ocean view and we got the top floor with half ocean, half town view, looking towards the marina. Best of both worlds really, we got the pretty night lights view.

Gosford Council could take a page out of Cairns Council’s book. The boardwalk along the waterfront is fabulous, and between the road and the water is all grass, paths and gardens, with a few memorial features to pause at. And then there’s the ‘lagoon’, a free, public swimming area that’s massive and graded from a trickle to about 1.5m deep. If you’ve been to Cairns, you’ll know there’s no beach there in town, only mudflats, so to have this wonderful swimming area combined with large grassed areas, bbqs and picnic tables, is a real drawcard.