Australian Trip 2010/11

Well here’s something a bit different – we have spent the last two months land-bound in Australia.  We left Bluestone secured (with armed guards) and flew out of Malaysia on Christmas Eve landing in Melbourne at 10 past midnight on Christmas morning.  Air AsiaX’s flight was smooth and Tullamarine was, as ever, bustling when we landed.  We think the customs officials may have been in the Christmas spirit (or very tired) because the only question we were asked was “do you have anything to declare?” – Answer:  “No” – “ok go straight through thanks” YAY.  Merry Christmas!  

The waiting staff at one of the marina restaurants in the Christmas spirit before we left for Australia

Our advert for Air AsiaX

Son and daughter arrived shortly after to take us home for a few hours sleep before grandchildren woke up early for Christmas day.  On the drive home a ‘short cut’ turned into a major detour as a nasty vehicle accident had roads closed and our first chosen alternative proved to be a dead-end.  Also lots of laughs and directions from the back-seat drivers made daughter forget that you need to STOP at RED lights - aargh!  Thank goodness it was 2am out in the back blocks. 

Early Boxing Day morning saw us once again trudge out to the airport for our next flight to Adelaide and although only a handful of passengers waited in the gate lounge we were all reluctant to move when the flight was called (all nursing early mornings and hangovers no doubt) which prompted the hostie to ask “doesn’t anyone want to go to Adelaide?”  Funny.

From here we collected the car and proceeded with our usual ‘road trip’ through three states to see all the children, grandchildren, siblings and parents.  Unfortunately while we were visiting Queensland and Victoria fell foul of floods and we sat sadly watching Brisbane and the Lockyer valley go under meters of water on the news.  But good things can come from bad and our drive through the Hay Plains was beautiful, the flood waters having slowly dissipated southward.  Last time we drove through Hay it was the usual flat, red dirt as far as the eye could see. This time however, green, green, green with good farming crops and further still in the Riverland abundant wildflowers and good river levels. Just spectacular.  Lake Eyre has water more than 2m deep in it for the first time in around 20 Years and Goolwa at the Murray River mouth once again has water flowing.

The little girls always seem to find Grandad's lap

Our friend Lee found his street in a bar in Lygon Street

Although we were land-based we still managed to end up on boats and while in Adelaide we spent a few days board brother’s boat on the Goolwa lakes and were able to watch local New Year’s Eve firework displays (and Sydney harbour’s on TV) and actually stay awake until midnight.  Well done.  

Hindmarsh Island, Goolwa is full festive swing

Of course there is always the obligatory shore-trip for the dog’s ablutions.  

Keep rowing John, there is a landing somewhere!  

We took a detour into Canberra en-route to Sydney, the crew not having been there since she was little, and although I’m sure ‘Julia’ was on our Christmas mailing list – or us on hers, she was not there to greet us.  Strange that.  Oh well, we filled in our time taking photos – see you next time Julia. (MAYBE)

Black Mountain communications tower

The lights are on....

but no-one's home.  Hmmm.

Sydney was, as always, beautiful and we were able to snatch a bit of family time to catch up with old cruising buddies aboard their yacht ‘Peter Pan’ on Black Wattle Bay for a night.  This is where, you may remember, we spent 7 months on our way north.  This time the bay was very busy and there were many more boats anchored than when we were there in 2006. 

The skyline is still the same

The lovely 'Peter Pan'

But all good things to come to an end and we boarded another Air AsiaX flight for the return to Malaysia.   Unfortunately all did not go as smoothly as our exit but we get that – Melbourne had l-o-n-g queues on the entry road up to the drop off point, again in the security scan section (where we were held up because the guard saw a couple of ‘D’ cell batteries and couldn’t make out what they were – “Urr, they’re batteries”) and yet again at Customs check-out.  By the time we reached this last desk the girl said “where have you been, you better run for your flight”.  Where have we been???  In the ….. queues.  Note to self: next time add another hour to check-in.  So we ran – the crew carrying the big stuffed polar bear Skipper had bought her acting like a fur coat and making her even hotter - ……in the direction of the gate number on our boarding passes WRONG!  ‘Oh look at the board it says Gate 4 not Gate 14’ – U-turn RUN!  Thanks for that.  Of course, the plane was duly delayed and we could compose ourselves before boarding.  Now a good flight and an empty seat beside us would be most welcome – and that’s just what we got.  

Oh actually, the seat was for polar bear and the hostess made sure he had his seatbelt on.

We were greeted with humid and wet conditions in Malaysia as usual and we had enough time between flights to have some icy cokes and local food to refresh the palate.  Don’t know what happened to our taxi driver though, we sent the sms and got a reply that he would wait for us at Johor Bahru but when we landed he wasn’t there – must have got hungry and went home.  The local airport limousine service was still open luckily (or not) so for a little more than the taxi (and looking exactly like a taxi not a limo) we had a super fast trip home.  Crew had her eyes closed most of the way.  Not sure about the skipper. (Yep, me too).

Bluestone was just as we had left her albeit with a bit more mildew around and a nice waterline ‘beard’ but now with our new cockpit clears and covers that were still being made and fitted when we left.  I think also a couple of sparrows had designs on the mizzen sail folds (they fold down and make a perfect hole for a bird’s nest) but the crew had words with them, throwing the grass overboard and stuffing up the holes while berating the birds.  Sorry guys, do that somewhere else!  Although she was just a little cautious about lifting things and reaching into dark lockers after the friendly python experience last year.  Eeeuuww.  Blaaaah.  Getting goosebumps now.