Follow the travel diary of Val and Rosney (The Man) as they travel from Brisbane to Cairns. First travelling by tilt train from Brisbane to Hervey Bay – where they pick up a rental car and continue on an unhurried drive to Cairns.
Auckland to Brisbane
Skitten-cat did not want us to go on holiday, she took refuge under our bed, dug her claws into the carpet and held on tight. It was quite a drama getting her out, but we finally outsmarted her and eventually it was off to the doggy-catty-holiday home for the menagerie. Dogs like going holiday-homing, not so with the most-regal Queen Cat.
The weather was mild and sunny when we left town; we are heading for Auckland where we are staying the night before flying out tomorrow morning. After a reasonable night’s sleep, in basic accommodation, we took the 7 am a shuttle to the airport for breakfast. The Man feasted on toasted sandwiches and Danish, while I stuck to the fresh fruit salad.
The call up for boarding was right on time. However, we didn’t get our requested seating on board, which miffed me off for all of ten seconds. The Man organised himself in the seat by the window. I’m piggy in the middle. There’s a travel agent from New Plymouth in the aisle seat. All very cosy…
We had a smooth flight, with just a hint of turbulence. The airline food was un-flash – but they were forgiven due to giving us a reasonable landing in Brisbane. I do not like landing in Brisbane, there always seems to be a thick cloud-layer you have to shud-shud-shudder your way through to set wheels on mother-earth. Some passengers were complaining about the shuddering this time, but I figure it was mild in comparison to other flights, and I bet they’ve never done a two-wheel landing in Queenstown (mere amateurs).
We were required to stay on the plane after landing as a child had broken out in spots. A heath team boarded the plane for a literal spot-inspection – it must have been a heat-rash as we were soon released out into the thick, hot-as Brisbane air.
Being Kiwi seniors with sort of honest looking faces, we breezed through customs but didn’t manage to locate the airport to city shuttle bus (where had it gone?), so had to pay for a taxi into town which was expensive.
The hotel we had pre-booked into was situated conveniently on a hill overlooking the city, on first view, it certainly lived up to our expectations, but found they had lost our booking details. I showed them the email confirmation and they smiled nicely and soon found us a room. After freshening up we strolled down to the congested CDB, where people kept bumping into me, I found myself saying sorry-sorry-sorry like some idiotic auto-wind-up talking toy. If there is some sort of Queensland pedestrian code it sure isn’t to keep to the left as in New Zealand, but as nobody bumped into The Man, maybe I’m invisible?
Brisbane hadn’t seen rain for a time, the city gardens struggle for survival, the fact that smokers are using the gardens as giant ash-trays wasn’t helping (not a good look Brisbane). The highlight of our sightseeing afternoon was a relaxing ferry trip up the river. I love ferry-tripping and could spend hours settled back watching the world drift by – once body-cooked in the afternoon heat and suitably wilted, we headed back to our hotel for a refreshing beer, then wined-dined in-house which was Delicious with a capital D.
It was then off to bed for an early night. As our holidays have a habit of turning into adventures some serious shut-eye is needed before heading off to Maryborough on the tilt train come morning.
Brisbane to Hervey Bay:
Weather sweet and sunny.
All went according to plan, after breakfast at the hotel we rolled our suitcases down the hill to Roma Street Station and were early enough to have a wee walk around Roma Park.
The train was right on time, and we are immediately impressed – real dinkum comfortable seating and she rolls along as smooth as silk. We are told she doesn’t go as fast as she once did, due to derailments while cornering. I’m pleased that they’ve sorted that one out!
The scenery along the way was typical Oz, dry fields, palm trees, gums interspersed with crops, sugarcane, pineapples and macadamia nuts – an odd cattle station flash by, and I did see three kangaroos, Ma, Pa and Babe, however, The Man blinked and missed the family scene.
The only blight of the trip was a LOUD woman sitting behind us who non-stop nagged her silent, sad looking husband from go to woe. I turned and glared at her a couple of times (I have a glare that has been known to turn people to stone) but to no effect. Hopefully, the behaviour of this dragon-lady would impress upon my husband what a sweet, un-nagging, quietly-spoken, wife he has, but somehow I doubt it!
We said goodbye to the train just out of Maryborough where the transfer bus to Hervey Bay (pronounced Harvey, and yes there’s no accounting for these Aussies) was waiting, right on schedule. The bus dropped us at our accommodation at the hotel (which was a reasonable distance out of town) where we are to occupy a motel unit out the back, which is a sort-of wild-life reserve with a lake.
We walked around the lake and bird-watched for a time. It was now late afternoon, tomorrow we will pick up the rental car. We decide to eat at the restaurant at the hotel, which was fine, except I ordered Deep Sea Perch, as I’d never tried it before. I cannot recommend this fish. In fact, it was ‘orrible! Very strong tasting, dry with thick rubbery flesh. On further investigation I discovered something I should have known – New Zealand has cold water fish. Australia has warm-water fish, which makes a significant difference in taste and texture. One must be careful when ordering white fleshed fish, that is, if one does not know what one is doing.
No daylight saving in Queensland, so it was really dark early – walking back from the pub to our motel I patted the cute frogs that were literally everywhere, only to find out the next day they were Cane Toads, oh well, a girl can’t win them all.
We awoke to another hot blue sky day. Some late drinkers from the hotel had kept us awake part of the night with ‘loud antics,’ I figure they’d carried on drinking by the lake after the hotel closed which only is a stone’s throw from where we were trying to sleep (grrrr).
The hotel courtesy van ran us into town to pick up our rental. Hervey Bay is actually a city (population around 55,000) and much busier and bigger than we had expected but at the same time a real-top-of the-class tourist place with lots of loos, coffee lounges, sitting places and to top it off a wide blue-sea bay.
After collecting our rental and going grocery shopping for provisions, we went for a drive, then walked on the beach absorbing the scenery, explored the boat harbour and walked the pier (saw a sea turtle pounding its way through the ocean). It was here we got into a weighty discussion re. climate change with a couple of Kiwi who live locally. She a firm believer, while he scoffed. The Man and I are in agreement on this issue, so the nonbeliever was outnumbered.
Next up we walked through dry-looking botanic gardens, no birds anywhere.
Where have they gone?
Have discovered our rental has a broken back tail light, will call in to the hire place in the morning to tell them – we figure it must have happened in the supermarket car park (we did stop in on our way to town, and were told we would have to pay insurance excess in Cairns when returning the vehicle).
The weather once again is totally hot and fairly windy, have to make sure we drink enough water as you can almost feel dehydration setting in. Dined at the hotel again (no fish meal this time) then played a couple of games of pool, (The Man always wins) then it was off to bed. Tomorrow it is off to Bundaberg.
To be continued….
By Val Bird
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