![\"Leaving](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/lindeman-island-267.jpg\" "\\"Leaving")
Leaving Lindeman<\/p><\/div>\n
I was very grateful to have been dosed up for the boat journey, it really was quite rough and in fact I laid down on one of the benches for the first 5 minutes just to make sure I had my sea legs before I sat up. A girl across the other side of the boat looked rather green for quite some time but seemed to rally round after about 15 or 20 minutes.<\/p>\n
Apparently we were travelling with the tide, or the swell, or some other nautical term so we arrived very soon after that at Hamilton Island. Yet again we were bundled into a bus and had no time to explore the shops. Such a shame. I just love to look.<\/p>\n
![\"Hamilton](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/lindeman-island-269.jpg\" "\\"Hamilton")
Hamilton Island Airport check-in<\/p><\/div>\n
The tiny airport check-in area could all fit easily into one photograph \u2013 so cute! And the day\u2019s flights all fitted very easily onto one screen; five in and five out. We were really surprised to see planes being fuelled on the tarmac. The fuel would have to come in by boat or plane to get to the island and it was only a short hop there, but I guess the Melbourne flight was quite a long distance and it would have been that plane that we saw being fuelled.<\/p>\n
![\"Hamilton](\"http:\/\/mayl.id.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/lindeman-island-270.jpg\" "\\"Hamilton")
Hamilton Island's Flights<\/p><\/div>\n
We were keen for our flight to be on time as we\u2019d cut it fairly fine for transferring in Brisbane. We were to land at 13:35, had to collect and check our luggage back in by 14:05 and fly again at 14:50. It was only a matter of 200 metres between where our luggage would arrive and where we had to check in with Qantas so it was possible<\/span>!<\/p>\n Anyway, still on Hamilton, the kind lady took our bags and printed our Qantas boarding passes for us to save us some time in Brisbane. Things were looking good. We\u2019d arrived at the airport at 10 am instead of the 11.45 it \u2018should\u2019 have been so we walked outside a little but feared we did not have time to walk all the way to the shops and back so gave up and went into the little departure lounge. It was so cute! I\u2019d guess they had a total of about 200 chairs in there with one tiny caf\u00e9 and a tiny shop that shut while we were sitting there.<\/p>\n Well the next thing we knew was that the arrivals screen was saying that our flight was to be 30 minutes late from Brisbane. Bugga! That\u2019s the last thing we needed but we were still hopeful. Silly us! David went and bought us a prawn salad each and I have to say that they were very nice but the time dragged on. If only we\u2019d known earlier of the delay we could have walked to the shops after all.<\/p>\n The plane arrived on time for its delayed timetable so we\u2019d been sitting there for 2\u00bd hours after only travelling for the 30 minute boat journey so far. Not a good start! We walked across the tarmac and everyone loaded into the plane. I\u2019d deliberately booked seats right at the very front \u2013 row 2 \u2013 so that we could make a speedy getaway in Brisbane to help our cause but once we were all on it seems that there was some kind of problem with one lady\u2019s boarding pass and there was lots of dithering and very frustrating time wasting as the minutes ticked by and our connection seemed like more and more of a fleeting hope.<\/p>\n Eventually the doors were shut and we were given our safety lecture as the plane taxied forward about 2 metres and then stopped. Aaaarrrrgh!!! Now what? We had to wait for a teensy little sea plane to land and we pretty much gave up all hope of catching our Brisbane flight.<\/p>\n The trip was uneventful but the absolute smoothest flight I\u2019ve ever taken. I sat there wondering why I\u2019d bothered with travel sickness meds. I truly think that even I could have done that one unaided, but you don\u2019t know that ahead of time.<\/p>\n We landed in Brisbane and David shoved his way into the aisle with one last glimmer of a wish (can\u2019t call it hope) that we might catch our flight, and I went in front of him and off we ran down the tunnel. I shot off to find the boarding gate, which was easier said than done because the number was not printed on our boarding passes. I was asking help of anyone in a uniform but they all seemed unmoved by my plight. Eventually a lovely passenger in a boarding queue helped me by looking at the screen which in my panic I hadn\u2019t thought to do and sent me off in the right direction.<\/p>\n I found a man at a (misnamed) help desk next to our gate and he assured me that we had (quote) \u201cBags of time!\u201d He hadn\u2019t wanted to spend that many words on me, it was clear. So I rang David and went to join him. He was just grabbing our bags as I reached him and we hurried to the Qantas check in only to be greeted by a queue of about 15 people and we finally accepted that we were out of luck. On reaching the check-in counter we were told that we were too late and we\u2019d have to rebook at\u2026 and a vague hand was waved at the blank wall at the end of the terminal.<\/p>\n Not to go into too much detail\u2026 It\u2019s OK, I\u2019ll wait for you to pick yourself up off the ground\u2026 the rebooking clerk told us that on our new flight we were not assured catering and that we\u2019d never stood a chance of catching the original one. Well we thought we had; had the first flight been on time, and anything, ANYTHING was better than what now lay in front of us. Another<\/span> 5 hour wait at Brisbane Airport. And most of that with our bloody luggage in tow!<\/p>\n Well, now we had a change of luck.\u00a0 In a minor way, but we\u2019ll take any positive experience we can get our hands on.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why we spoke to the girl on the end of the Qantas check-in lines but she told us that because we\u2019d missed a flight we could check our bags in up to 6 hours early!\u00a0 You ripper!\u00a0 So we did.\u00a0 And the check-in lady made a humfph noise and said \u201cI don\u2019t know why the other clerk gave you these seats, here, I can get you a window!\u201d\u00a0 Oh happy, happy, joy, joy!!!!\u00a0 She was our favourite lady in the entire airport!!!<\/p>\n So, free of luggage, we wandered outside into the grey skies that were trying to drizzle \u2013 why not?\u00a0 We went up the escalators and over the bridge to watch the train but it wasn\u2019t very entertaining and not worth the cold wind so went back inside.\u00a0 We stayed on the lower level for a while and had a small bite of lunch which was very ordinary and eventually decided we may as well go air side.<\/p>\n We slowly walked the entire length of Brisbane Airport from gate 7 to gate 49, including the legs to the satellite gates.\u00a0 We bought some assorted lollies from the Sweet Doctor (who was rather hunky!) \u2013 almost $20 worth and ate about 80% of them tee hee!<\/p>\n As we walked we could hear announcements for all of the flights being assigned different gates than previously announced and we got caught up in some stampeding passenger lines to boot.\u00a0 Yes, this is relevant : )<\/p>\n Eventually we just gave up and went to sit at our gate.\u00a0 Have we ever been so bored in our entire lives?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 I did have a dice game in my cabin bag so we played that in the lid of its box and made a lot of noise and got stared at by all of the people waiting for the flight before ours at our gate and we enjoyed watching them look at us even more when we didn\u2019t move after the flight was called.\u00a0 Gotta get a laugh somewhere!\u00a0 Or was it the flight before the flight before ours?\u00a0 LOL<\/p>\n David went for a short walk and when he came back he showed me the departure screen and our gate had changed so up we got and trundled our tired bodies along to the right one.\u00a0 We\u2019d barely sat down when he looked up and the screen had changed back to the original number.\u00a0 We were just too exhausted, through doing nothing, to be in the mood for this!\u00a0 Having heard all the other gate changes earlier we never considered sitting and waiting to see if it was true \u2013 and we had both looked at the screen, it isn\u2019t that he was mistaken.<\/p>\n And at last our plane landed, and at last it was time to board, and at last it was time to get airborne.\u00a0 Hip, hip, hoo\u2026 oh, I haven\u2019t got the energy ROFL\u00a0 And it came to pass that we landed in Perth at 11 pm instead of 6 pm and even then we had to sit on the tarmac for 15 minutes because our gate was already in use.<\/p>\n Did we have a nice holiday?\u00a0 Yes.\u00a0 I read the whole 6 pages to date last night and I can hear the disappointment in my tone all the way through but it truly was only at the weather, the mud (although it caused entertainment in a grubby, smelly kind of a way!) and the lost helicopter flight.\u00a0 Club Med was a fabulous idea with as much food and drink (including alcohol) as we could desire, heaps of totally free activities, and some particularly wonderful staff members.\u00a0 We are rather hoping to go to Club Med in Bali next July but we will see what eventuates.<\/p>\n Oh and PS.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been told, and rightfully so, that I must thank David for all the cooking that he did last week while I was writing this.\u00a0 I also thank him for the kitchen tidying that he did afterwards, and he says I must also mention the whingeing he did about it but he truly didn\u2019t.\u00a0 He\u2019s usually back to work before I write my story but this time he had an extra week off and I do thank you David.\u00a0 You\u2019re an amazing and wonderful man who I would holiday anywhere with, any time, mud included!<\/p>\n Please feel free to leave a comment in the fields below before leaving this page. Email addresses will not be used in any way, nor displayed for anyone to see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wed 24th Nov I\u2019d set an alarm for 6.30 because we did want to have a breakfast before the 9.15 boat. Our next flight was to be a JetStar so there would be no food until we got to Brisbane, … Continue reading