Setting the alarm is something we don't do very often but as we
had to be up by around 5 am it was a necessity. While we have been
staying in the house Tim has been sleeping on a stretcher in our bedroom and
Jake has been in one of the boys' rooms and Connor in the other. Last
night Jake wanted to sleep in our room as well, so with mattress on the floor
he joined us.
Peter got up first and headed off to the
shower and Jake and Tim both climbed into our bed with me for a few minutes to
chat. It was a special time. However, before too long Peter was
reminding us we had to be away by about 5.30 am so reluctantly we all got up, including
Connor. It was going to be a long day for Connor travelling to Cairns and
back. We had decided that we would not have breakfast before we left as
it was just too early, so I had packed all the breakfast stuff into a bag and
took it along with us for a stop along the way.
We drove out at 5.35 a.m. and followed the
Bruce Highway north through Ingham, Cardwell, Tully, Innisfail, Babinda and
Gordonvale to Cairns. We had noticed last year as we drove south from
Townsville that there were road works every few kilometres and it was constant
stop/start as we travelled. Whether they have finished those areas south
of Townsville we have yet to find out, but they are certainly undertaking heaps
of road works north. Every few kilometres we had to slow down to 60 and
then 40 and then stop waiting for our turn to proceed. We would barely
get going again and we had to stop. We didn't count how many times this
happened but it seemed to be constant.
Time was quickly going and we realised
that for us to arrive at Cairns Airport in time for Jake and Tim's check in we
would have to forget stopping for a picnic breakfast. Instead, during one
of our stops at road works we collected the bag of food from the rear of the
car and ate our cereal in the car. Not quite as we planned!
We had about 380 kilometres to travel -
surprisingly both Jake and Tim had a sleep and then as we neared Cairns we had
our final car quiz on our travels and then decided to have a round robin of
compliments for the person beside us and then random compliments. It was
really interesting to hear the boys thank each other for their contribution to
the trip and was a very worthwhile activity.
Check in time was 9.50 a.m. and we arrived
at Cairns International Airport at 10 a.m. - not too bad considering the stops
that we had. The lady at the service desk was very helpful and very
quickly the check in process had been completed and we were told to wait at the
café for the assistant who would come to escort Jake and Tim to the
plane.
It was sad for us to say goodbye to our
two grandsons as it will be some months before we see them again back in New
Zealand at the end of 2013. A quick cuddle from Jake and a tearful
farewell from Tim we said good bye and our travellers were on their way.
We waited in the airport until the plane was actually in the air before we
headed into Cairns central.
Connor had not been to Cairns before so we
wandered around the central area and then parked on the Esplanade and had
lunch. The esplanade has a large water park very similar to Townsville
and this was being enjoyed by lots. Unfortunately Connor didn't have his
bathers so couldn't join in.
We hit the road again bound for Townsville
and after a short stop at a roadside stall selling bananas we headed for
home. We were all exhausted as it had been a long day of travel.
No comments:
Post a Comment