The alarm went off at 2.55 am (aaaagh!). You might ask ‘why so early?’ As loyal AB fans, we felt we had to watch at least the first half of the rugby test! So, self inflicted sleep deprivation. We caught a taxi at half time and managed to watch the last 20 minutes at the airport after check in and before customs. The flight was a little bumpy but we both watched movies so the time passed quickly enough.
It was too early to check in to the apartment (Queensland is 3 hours behind NZ so we landed at 7 am local time). It was nearly 9.30 am when we got to the Phoenician to drop our bags. They promised to put priority on getting it ready, and they phoned at 11am to say we could come in, so that was great. We have lovely views of the river and hills, it’s very sunny and spacious, so we’re set. The hotel is brilliantly located, minutes walk from everything, including dozens of restaurants (therein lies a story - to come!)
We’d wandered over to the Oasis Shopping Centre while we waited for our room - do NOT ask me how it happened but we got roped in to attending a (sort of) time share presentation at midday - only 90 minutes of your time and you’re guaranteed to win a LCD TV, a holiday or $2000 cash - yeah right! It was actually not a bad concept and we could have been interested if we had been contemplating a big overseas holiday. Our friendly little salesgirl called the manager in to help close the deal - what an oaf! He did not like our questions and got quite aggressive. I (Sue) was smoking - it’s not like me to get mad with strangers, but I wasn’t letting him get away with not answering valid, due diligence type questions. In the end, he commented that we were probably quite interested until he sat down to talk to us, and I emphatically agreed with him! We laughed about it afterwards - but we have won a week in a resort (mostly in GC) for only a $199 booking fee. Maybe we’ll take it, maybe we wont! Can’t believe we let ourselves be conned in to giving up 2 hours of hour first day here!
We went to a lovely restaurant across the road for dinner - I love the al fresco dining you can do in in these warmer climates. I noticed a whole lot of people walking through the restaurant (one at a time) and onto the street carrying kitchen implements. They seem to go around the corner and then come back. I was puzzled to the point of wanting to flag down the waiter to ask why - it was so bizarre! Fortunately, the penny dropped (before I embarrassed myself) when I realised that all the men carried a whisk, and the women a ladle - the toilet keys were attached to the devices, presumably so people wouldn’t put the keys in their pocket and take them home! Mind you, I was further perplexed when I then saw men with the ladle and ladies with the whisk - best not ask!!
So, a lot of laughs on our first day on Oz.
Back to the apartment for the Australian Idol final - doesn’t screen in NZ until Friday, so I won’t say who won, but off to bed at 9.30 pm, after a 21 and a half hour day.
Tired but happy to be here at last!
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