Home, Sweet Home

 Disembarking off our ship was an easy process at the port of Melbourne and we had a short wait for our driver as we were running early.  Time for a couple of photos.

The drive to Tullamarine Airport takes around half an hour but the Priority Check-in at Virgin seemed to take forever.  There were a couple of trainees on the counters so that didn't help matters.  We have a stopover in Brisbane on our way to Cairns, and we thought our suitcases would just be re-loaded in Brisbane for the connecting flight to Cairns but because Silversea booked the flight from Melbourne to Cairns and we booked our own flight from Brisbane to Cairns, they would not marry up on the computer system.  Seems ridiculous but all the complaining does not change the fact that we have to collect our suitcases in Brisbane and check-in again for our flight to Cairns.

Onboard Virgin Airlines,  we find it is about three hundred percent better than Qantas.  The planes we flew on were  737-800, and they are relatively new with leather business class seats that have all the bells and whistles including reclining seats with footrests! Win, win for me with my knee…..

Brisbane is cloudy as we fly over but the city skyline is always a lovely site.

We have around three hours to kill in Brisbane Airport so what's a girl to do except airport shopping!  It's was more like "window shopping" but I did end up with a nice top (on sale) from Witchery.  By the time I got back to Philip, waiting patiently in the Virgin Lounge, I only had time for a Macchiato and quick toilet stop before they called our flight to Cairns.  About an hour out of Cairns we went through quite a bit of turbulence that stayed with us almost all the way to Cairns and when we reached Cairns it was a very cloudy wet day.  But the clouds parted enough for me to get a great shot of Palm Cove!

It is lovely to be home again and I took full advantage of a sunny morning to do a slow walk around my home.  The water is calm after raining almost all night and the Palm Cove Jetty looks very picturesque against the stormy background offshore.  

Thank you everyone who followed along on our journey through New Zealand, Hobart and Sydney.  This was a very short cruise for us but one of the more enjoyable ones.