Australia Day 11--Going home, Part 1, Cairns to Brisbane

Australia series

Australia Day 1--Qantas flight 8 DFW-BNE (Dallas to Brisbane)
Australia Day 2--Flight to Sydney, the Westin Sydney hotel & sightseeing
Australia Days 3/4--Hunter Valley & the Blue Mountains
Australia Day 5--Sydney sightseeing and Manly Beach
Australia Day 6--Paddy's Market, Bondi to Coogee Walk & Darling Harbour
Australia Day 7--Sydney to Cairns, Holiday Inn Cairns & the Cairns Esplanade
Australia Day 8--The Great Barrier Reef
Australia Day 9--Kuranda Koala Gardens, Skyrail & Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park
Australia Day 10--Daintree Rainforest & Cape Tribulation
Australia Day 11--Going home, Part 1, Cairns to Brisbane
Australia Day 11--Going home, Part 2, Brisbane to Honolulu

Sadly, it was time to leave Australia. My cousin once again had an early flight back home via Sydney, so she took a taxi to the airport around 5 am. 

My return flight to the USA was three legs, Cairns to Brisbane on Qantas, Brisbane to Honolulu on Hawaiian Airlines and finally, Honolulu to Dallas on American Airlines. The entire journey was scheduled to take around 31 hours, including layovers in Brisbane and Honolulu. Again, I booked round-trip in business class for 125,000 AA miles. Essentially, these were first class flights, as they were all two-cabin planes. 

I would have preferred the direct flight home from Sydney on Qantas, but since I was returning from Cairns, it didn't seem to be an option. Other options from Cairns included layovers in Los Angeles, however the prospect of a nine-hour layover in Hawaii was enticing because it seemed like a "bonus trip." 

I talked to the porter at the Holiday Inn Cairns the evening before leaving about arranging a shuttle to the airport. The shuttle was through Sun Palm Transport, an outside company, and cost $15, which was cheaper than a taxi ride since I'd be traveling solo. He said he booked the 10:10 am shuttle for me, but to come down around 10 am since the shuttle is sometimes early. He said it could also run a few minutes late. 

Well, after checking out at 10 am and waiting until 10:20, there was no shuttle. I went to the porter desk (there was a different guy there in the morning) and asked if he could check the status of my shuttle. He called the company and they seemed to have no record of my booking. The porter found my reservation on his computer and had the shuttle company promptly send out a driver to pick me up. Like the hotel's other staff, he was very apologetic and offered me free drink coupons, which I used to get a Coca-Cola from the bar.

The shuttle came within 10 minutes and gave me a direct ride to the domestic airport, which was nice because it meant I didn't have to wait around while they picked up people from other hotels. 

At the Cairns airport, I checked in and cleared security pretty quickly. I decided to check in my luggage. Normally, I wouldn't, but I they said it would be checked through to Dallas (though I would have to pick it up to go through customs in Honolulu and drop it off again). I did this so I wouldn't have to lug around my suitcase since I planned to leave the airport during my long layover in Hawaii.

Cairns Airport

  
Then I had some time to visit the Qantas Club lounge, which was located upstairs. I showed my business class boarding pass to the attendant to get free access to the lounge.

Qantas Club lounge at Cairns Airport

I thought the lounge was quite nice. There was a selection of free hot and cold food items.

Free food in the Qantas Club lounge

There was lots of comfortable seating and nice big windows to watch the planes taking off and landing. 

Lots of comfortable seating

Big windows to watch the airplanes

I was on Qantas Airways flight 649 to Brisbane, which was scheduled to leave at 12:55 pm. However, the aircraft was late getting in, so we were late departing. I had selected seat 3F, the window seat in last row in the business cabin. This was a short flight of around 90 minutes or so.

Seat 3F

Looking out the window before departure

I had a pre-departure glass of water, then champagne with a package of pretzels and cashews before meal service.
 

Snack and drink before meal service

For the meal service, I was offered a choice of tuna salad or toasted ham and cheese with tomato sandwich. There was also a soup option, but the flight attendant said they had run out. I tried the toasted ham and cheese sandwich. That was not something I would normally eat, but it tasted okay. 

Toasted ham and cheese with tomato sandwich

Shortly after meal service, we were on the ground in Brisbane and I headed from the domestic terminal to the international terminal. Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 of this report with my thoughts on my Hawaiian Airlines flight, long layover in Honolulu and American Airlines flight from Honolulu to Dallas.

Australia Day 7--Sydney to Cairns, Holiday Inn Cairns & the Cairns Esplanade

Australia series

Australia Day 1--Qantas flight 8 DFW-BNE (Dallas to Brisbane)
Australia Day 2--Flight to Sydney, the Westin Sydney hotel & sightseeing
Australia Days 3/4--Hunter Valley & the Blue Mountains
Australia Day 5--Sydney sightseeing and Manly Beach
Australia Day 6--Paddy's Market, Bondi to Coogee Walk & Darling Harbour
Australia Day 7--Sydney to Cairns, Holiday Inn Cairns & the Cairns Esplanade
Australia Day 8--The Great Barrier Reef 
Australia Day 9--Kuranda Koala Gardens, Skyrail & Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park
Australia Day 10--Daintree Rainforest & Cape Tribulation 
Australia Day 11--Going home, Part 1, Cairns to Brisbane
Australia Day 11--Going home, Part 2, Brisbane to Honolulu  

Sydney to Cairns

Another one of my aspirations was to visit The Great Barrier Reef. I decided Cairns (pronounced "cans" by the locals) was the best place for us to stay based on the hotel options and reef tours. So after five nights in Sydney, we packed up our belongings and flew to Cairns.
 
My cousin had a very early flight to Cairns, so she headed to the airport just before 5 am. I got to sleep in a bit, checking out of the hotel around 7:30 am. As I mentioned previously, the train to the airport was quite expensive for such a short ride. The ride from Sydney CBD to the domestic airport was $16.40 AUD. I like to cut costs wherever I can and splurge on the fun things, so I decided to once again go with the cheaper train/bus combo to the airport.

Going to the airport

 
I got on the train at St. James station (a 10-minute walk from the Westin) and bought a $3.80 ticket to Mascot station, which was the stop just before the airport. At Mascot, I was supposed to catch the 400 bus, and I had a little trouble locating the bus stop, but I eventually found it. After 10 minutes, the bus came. I thought the bus cost around $2, however the driver told everyone getting on that it was free fare. Woohoo!
 
One stop later, I was at the domestic terminal checking in for my three-hour flight to Cairns. I booked a one-way flight in economy class using 10,000 American Airlines miles and paid $21.50 USD in taxes. I was on Qantas flight 922, departing at 10:40 am and sat in seat 25A, which was near the back of the plane.

Goodbye Sydney!

Typical economy leg room

 
I was surprised that we were served lunch, being that USA domestic flights in economy don't get lunch. I was offered a hot choice of chicken pie or fish curry. I declined both and just took the tray without the main course. Later, we were given an ice cream bar.

I was surprised to get food in coach

And dessert!

 
When we landed in Cairns and de-planed, I immediately felt the difference in temperature from Sydney. In Sydney, the days were nice (highs in the 60s), but the nights were colder (40s to 50s). In Cairns, it was much warmer (highs in the mid to upper 70s).

Hello Cairns!

 
My cousin was waiting for me near the car rental counters as we had previously discussed. In researching transportation options from the airport to our hotel in Cairns city, I found the taxi to be the most reasonable, as far as price and convenience. There was no public transportation, so the only options were shuttles and taxi.

Holiday Inn Cairns

The taxi ride to the Holiday Inn was around $24, so $12 per person & we didn't have to worry about it taking longer to drop other people off like a shuttle would do. We arrived at the hotel after 15 minutes or so. It was around 2 pm.

Photo taken later in the evening

Holiday Inn atrium

We were able to immediately check in. The room cost 30,000 IHG Rewards points per night, so I used 120,000 points for 4 nights. The nice thing about the IHG program is that if you have the credit card (I do), you get a 10% percent rebate on all points redemptions, meaning I should get back 12,000 points. This usually posts to my account 4-6 weeks after the stay. This drops the number of points used to 108,000.
 
I got the points by participating in IHG's Big Win promotion earlier in the year. This promotion involved completing various stays at IHG properties. Everyone's specific promotion was different, but I was able to "mattress run" four nights in my local area for a total cost of about $300 to receive over 100,000 points. Instead of just paying this out of pocket, I used cash back bonuses from some new credit cards, bringing my expense to $0.
 
Unlike the gorgeous Westin we stayed at in Sydney, the Holiday Inn Cairns was quite rough around the edges. As I am a platinum rewards member (thanks to the IHG credit card), at check-in, I was upgraded to a sea-view room. The view was the best thing about the room.

Balcony in the room

I could look at that view all day

View in the other direction

First, the room and the bathroom were considerably smaller than the room we had in Sydney.

No more Westin "Heavenly Bed"

Second, there were bugs! When I felt the tropical climate, I had a feeling there might be bugs. Well, I opened a desk drawer and saw a nice little note from management about if you see ants in the room to call management for spraying. The note also mentioned that the geckos were quite common. We have those in Texas, so I understood, but still not a fan of them.
 
I didn't see any geckos, but I definitely saw ants. We had to call for spraying on the first night and the last night. I will say that customer service was top-notch. They came in to spray promptly and even changed my cousin's bed sheets. They were very apologetic and offered us drink coupons the first time and free breakfast the second time. The hotel had free Internet for rewards members, but the signal was very weak from the room.

The Cairns Esplanade

The Holiday Inn was located was well-suited for visiting the Esplanade, or the main drag in Cairns. There were lots of shops, restaurants and live entertainment along the Esplanade.

Live music on the Esplanade

Cairns Esplanade

Entertainment on the Esplanade

Some people are surprised to find that instead of a beach in Cairns, there are only mudflats. However, I had done my research, and I knew there was no beach.

Cairns is NOT a beach town

Since there is no real beach in Cairns, there is a free public swimming lagoon along the Esplanade. It was a little cool, but I really wanted to swim, so I hopped in for a little while, while my cousin used the free public wi-fi.

Swimming lagoon

 
We enjoyed the beautiful sunset. Then we grabbed dinner from a local spot along the Esplanade and watched a Japanese man performing a fire show before calling it a night.

Where we ate dinner

More entertainment

Australia Day 2--Flight to Sydney, the Westin Sydney hotel & sightseeing

Australia series

Australia Day 1--Qantas flight 8 DFW-BNE (Dallas to Brisbane)
Australia Day 2--Flight to Sydney, the Westin Sydney hotel & sightseeing
Australia Days 3/4--Hunter Valley & the Blue Mountains
Australia Day 5--Sydney sightseeing and Manly Beach
Australia Day 6--Paddy's Market, Bondi to Coogee Walk & Darling Harbour
Australia Day 7--Sydney to Cairns, Holiday Inn Cairns & the Cairns Esplanade 
Australia Day 8--The Great Barrier Reef  
Australia Day 9--Kuranda Koala Gardens, Skyrail & Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park
Australia Day 10--Daintree Rainforest & Cape Tribulation 
Australia Day 11--Going home, Part 1, Cairns to Brisbane 
Australia Day 11--Going home, Part 2, Brisbane to Honolulu 
 

 

Qantas flight 505 BNE-SYD (Brisbane to Sydney)

I arrived in Brisbane around 5:20 am, and then I had a short layover. My flight left Dallas on a Sunday night, but since I crossed the International Date Line, it was now Tuesday morning. Flight 8 from Dallas actually continues on to Sydney, unfortunately, the award ticket I booked had me on a regular domestic flight (flight 505) so I had to go through customs and take a bus to change terminals.

After arriving at the domestic terminal and going through security, I went to the Qantas lounge & watched the sun rise while eating pancakes.

Watching the sun rise from the Qantas Club lounge in Brisbane

Then it was soon time to board for the 90-minute flight to Sydney. I was in seat 4A.

Seat 4A

Leg room

It was nice, but nothing particularly special. It was nice that window seat on the left was on its own, so there was no one right next to me.

The business class cabin

Every seat (even in economy) had iPads with preloaded music, movies & TV shows, which I thought was cool. The iPads had some sort of security feature that made sure passengers returned them to the seat back pocket.

iPads for everyone!

 I was served breakfast again (my 3rd breakfast of the day!) I declined the main entree (I think the choices were some sort of granola cereal or an omelet), and opted for just the yogurt and bread.

Another breakfast

Then before I knew it we were landing in Sydney.

Landing in Sydney

Plane-spotting in Sydney

My cousin had flown in from Chicago, so we met at "The Meeting Point" in the international terminal & then we headed into the city. I thought the train to the city from the international airport was quite expensive at $17.40 for a 13-minute ride, so I researched some inexpensive options and came up with a bus & train for about half as much. It took a little longer, but we weren't in a rush.

The Westin Sydney hotel & sightseeing

 

We exited the train at Martin Place & it was a couple minutes walk to our hotel, The Westin Sydney. The Westin is a category 5 hotel and 12,000 points per night in the Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) program. One benefit of the program is the fifth night free on award stays. So I took advantage of this benefit and booked 5 nights for 48,000 points, which I obtained by signing up & spending on the SPG American Express card.

Since it was only just before 10 am & check-in wasn't until 3 pm, there was no room ready for us. I don't have gold or platinum status with SPG so I wasn't really expecting them to let us check in early.

The Westin lobby

We left our luggage and walked about 10 minutes to the Circular Quay, home of Sydney's most famous landmarks--the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

Most folks pronounced "Quay" as "key" or "cay"

Circular Quay railway station

I was enthralled to finally be in the place I had seen so many pictures of and always wanted to go. And the sights did not disappoint.

Sydney Opera House

Sydney Harbour Bridge (and the Park Hyatt hotel in front)

We went to The Rocks area nearby and checked out the free Discovery Museum, which gave us a brief history of Sydney's oldest neighborhood.

The Rocks Discovery Museum

We were a bit too tired to fully process all the displays and information at the museum. I appreciated the fact that the museum was free. A perfect activity for a frugal traveler!

Museum exhibit

Museum exhibit

We grabbed a quick bite to eat at Hungry Jacks (which is the Australian version of Burger King), then went to the nearby library to use the free wi-fi to book our tour for the next day.

Hungry Jacks at Circular Quay

By this time, it was around 2 pm, so we headed back to the hotel. Our room was ready and they had nicely already delivered our luggage. We took the elevator up to the 6th floor. I found the room very impressive. It was large & comfortable. The Westin "Heavenly Bed" definitely lived up to its name.

The room

No view to brag about

The bathroom was also very large, with a separate toilet room. There was only a glass wall separating the bedroom and bathroom, but there was a shade to pull down for privacy.

We had some laughs at the glass wall in the bathroom

Being that the Westin is mostly a business hotel, everything costs money. For example, the bottle of water in the room was $7. And there was a minibar with lots of pricey drinks and snacks. Unfortunately, my lack of status with SPG meant the wi-fi was not free. Luckily, there were plenty of places around Sydney with free internet, including a McDonald's that was a short walk away.

We kicked back in the room for a couple hours, then went out again around 4:30 pm. I wanted to walk across the Harbour Bridge at sunset, so we went back to the Circular Quay.

Sun setting over the Opera House at the Circular Quay

It was a long walk to the bridge's pedestrian entrance and then across the bridge itself, but it was worth it for the nice views, even though it was mostly dark by that time. For the more adventurous, there is the Bridge Climb for a cost of $248 AUD for a daytime climb. Or there is the lesser known Pylon Lookout for a much more reasonable $13 AUD. However, I was happy with my free walk across the bridge.

The Harbour Bridge pedestrian walkway

Sydney skyline from the bridge

Opera House from the bridge

After crossing the bridge, we went to Luna (amusement) Park because I wanted to see it all lit up. It was 6 pm and just closing for the day, but it was nice to stop and take pictures.

Too bad it was just closing for the night

Then we took some more pictures under the bridge. I had hoped we'd find something reasonably priced to eat in Milsons Point, but we really didn't know where to look.

Milsons Point area under the bridge

We decided to take the train back because it was a long walk and our feet were hurting. It was $3.80 to take the train to Martin Place. We grabbed some cheap food for dinner near the hotel (McDonald's, I think) and we went back to the room to go to bed. It was only 8:30 pm, but we were so tired. Jet-lagged, I suppose. Probably due to that 15-hour time difference.

Sydney transit system was very easy to use