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In 2016 we had planned for a flight to Hawaii and then cruise back to Sydney on the Carnival Splendour. This is an overview of the trip

HAWAII FLIGHT AND CARNIVAL CRUISE.

Sydney to Hawaii– Maree and Bill – Ellen and Peter

 

14^th September 2016

Today is the day that we have been looking forward to for a long time now and it has finally arrived. A lot of planning and backwards and forwards over the previous months including visas and paperwork and many other things that had to be organised. But now it is upon us.

This is two days before we fly to America and then sail back to Sydney on the Carnival Legend Cruise Ship.

We decided to head down to the airport two days before hand to stay the night in a hotel close to the airport and also close to where we were going to leave the car for the time we were away.

We stayed at the Pullman which was a brand new hotel that had only been open for a few weeks prior. As a member of Accor I had a free night to claim and we stayed a second night for a cut price so it was worth the funds that we paid and also when the 16^th September arrived for the flight we would be less stressed and only a few minute form the airport.

 

This is Maree in the hotel on the night before the flight

 

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16^th September 2016

We had organised to meet Ellen and Peter at the car parking place on the 16^th September 2016 so after checking out we then drove to the place where we were to meet and met up with them handed over the car to our chauffer and was then dropped to the airport.

The cruise that we were booked on from Hawaii was booked as a buy one and get one free cruise with Maree’s sister Ellen and her husband Peter.

The plan was to fly to Hawaii first and stay a week in Hawaii and then cruise back to Sydney on an 18 day cruise aboard the Carnival Legend. More about the cruise later.

We boarded the flight to Hawaii in Sydney after parking our car at Mascot at which time we were chauffeured to the airport by the people who parked our car in a safe area for our return trip and who would meet us at the overseas terminal at the end of the cruise and chauffeur us back to our cars.

After all the formalities of passing through customs and getting our information taken by Jetstar we were handed our boarding passes and then you guessed it – time for a beer or two in the terminal inside customs.

The bar area was not too busy inside customs which was unusual for a Friday afternoon but we found a spot and parked ourselves down for a couple of drinks. After a period of time we heard the boarding call for our flight and then we headed off to the boarding gate to get on the plane.

We boarded the plane after a period of time and had 13 hours of flying time ahead of us and it was late in the evening which meant that we would be flying during the night. We were lucky that we had seats together with Ellen, Maree and I on the RHS of the plane and Peter across the aisle next to us.

Each seat had a small screen with headphones for listening to music or watching TV shows or movies. So initially we ordered drinks of course and just had general chit chat amongst ourselves.

After a period of time we were talked out and we decided it was time for a movie and started watching one and then we tried some sleep as the night was moving on and it was getting late. Remembering that all the time we were turning our clocks back and losing time.

Because of the time zone in the US we arrived at 6:00am on the same morning that we left at abut 6:00pm 16^th September 2020 it felt strange but anyhow we had arrived in the US at Honolulu airport so all we had to do now was clear their customs. Which was fairly quick.

This is us at Hawaii airport outside and I forgot the name of the bus company who was picking us up so into the old trusty computer.

   

 Ellen and Peter an Maree and Bill in Hawaii

Anyhow we arrived in Hawaii on the 16^th September 2016 and after a little time we were escorted to the bus that was taking us to our hotel and off we went. The trip from the airport was eye opening as we were in peak hour traffic in Hawaii and the traffic was fairly heavy and we had the chance of a fair bit of sights seeing along the way.

The bus dropped off passengers at different hotels along the way so we had the opportunity to see a lot of the side streets of Oahu which was also great. Because of the rigid check in times for hotels in the US we were not allowed to get into our room before 2:00pm but we were permitted to leave our luggage in the foyer of the hotel in a secure place.

The Ilima Hotel Oahu Hawaii this is our hotel

We were so tired and jet lagged we could hardly keep our eyes open. However our luck had changed because Ellen and Peter were signed into a different hotel than we were which had a directors room on the top floor that was not being used and we were allowed to use it.

The director’s room had a kitchen and coffee machine available which we used often during the day.

As it was early in the day we decided to head down and out to a café which in the US is like a small restaurant and we sat down and had breakfast.

We headed downstairs and then looked for a bus to take us to the nearest shopping centre. Across the road from Ellen’s hotel was an arcade that lead to another street where the bus exchange was so we walked off in that direction.

After some confusion and because they drive on the LHS in America we were waiting on the wrong side of the street for the bus as we thought that this was the direction we had to take  which it was only on the other side of the street. So we had to ask somebody where to go and after getting the advice we changed sides of the road and had to walk about 100metres to the bus stop then caught the bus that we wanted.

PIZZA 

      

The infamous American pizza – great

After having a feed it was getting towards 12:00noon and we just headed back to Ellen’s hotel and sat around albeit with small snoozes in between and waited for our room to become available.

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When Maree and I arrived at our hotel and checked in we looked at our bags then the bed and promptly pulled back the sheets and blankets and dropped into bed and slept. It was hot and humid in Hawaii.

We slept soundly during the afternoon and we awoke about 8:00pm and as one would expect we were hungry so we went out to the local supermarket, as most of them are open late each night.

We picked up some salad and cold meats and had dinner late and watch a little TV as we were both tired and went back to bed later on in the night.

 

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17^th September 2016

After a good nights sleep and a lot of the jet lag slept off we woke up and jumped out of bed and took a look around the room and facilities which included a verandah.

We made a coffee and took it out on the verandah to consume and just sat and took everything in.

Coffee in the US is great, the room had a coffee maker and included a couple of pods for it which were nice and mild and just what we wanted.

Just relaxing

View of the lake from the balcony

View from the Balcony

Jet Lagged but awake

 

We had previously organised with Peter to find a place where we could activate our telephones. We were fairly lucky as Peter’s cousin had only recently returned from the US and she had bought some US phones when she was there and she loaned them to us for the trip.

We met half way between Peters and my hotels at a small news agency/telephone sales store and promptly purchased sim cards for the phones and were allocated numbers so that we could use them while we were on holidays.

After getting the phones online we returned to our hotels and decided that we would meet up later in the day for lunch. So we had a nice lunch walking around Hawaii and returned home to our motel.

Because our hotel room was a self service room ie had a kitchen and dining area we had a lot of the meals at home. So on Saturday we went shopping at the local drug store as it is known but in fact sold some legal drugs and was mostly a supermarket.

We stocked up with groceries and other essential items and headed back to the hotel and stacked the fridge and cupboards and the Peter and Ellen headed home for a nanny nap. So did we except we were home.

That night we met again at our hotel for dinner and hit the fridge for the essential items that we purchased earlier and slowly got ourselves inebriated. Then we cooked tea.

This is them getting inebriated

Makes you wonder why we bought them along. Bloody drunks.

 

     

Its amazing what a couple of drinks can do to grown adults.

     

Oh God we changed from white wine to red wine

Anyway we had a great night at home with a nice meal and a few drinks. The night was over and I am not sure how they got home!!!

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18^th September 2016

Its Sunday today and we did not have too much planned out for the day and we did a little vegetating with a nice sleep in.

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19^th September 2016

Monday and after a good sleep in we had some breakfast and a lazy morning on the verandah prior to heading off to meet Ellen and Peter for lunch at the famous cheesecake factory near our motel.

The cheesecake factory in Hawaii is a famous licensed restaurant which serves a variety of delicious meals all of which are very tasty. See photos below.

 

     

Ellen and Peter relaxing and Maree and Bill looking at the menu

     

The pasta meal that Ellen had and the open hamburger meal the rest of us had

A great meal with a number of drinks as we were not driving, a lot of giggling from the women and then lunch was over. And off we head.

We did a little bit of sight seeing and then back to the motel for dinner.

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20^th September 2016

Tuesday and today was the day that we agreed to head down to the USS Arizona memorial and boy was that a day to remember.

This is a photo of the ship where the Japanese surrender was signed which we were allowed to look through.

     

     

      

The USS Arizona below the water level and a tribute graveyard

We had a great day at the memorial including a bus trip to and from it and although the above are only a few photos of what we saw they were a very hard reminder of what had happened.

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The remainder of the week was spent on sightseeing and wandering around Hawaii and just taking in the atmosphere.

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The last night at the hotel in Hawaii for Maree and I.

     

The last night at the hotel for Ellen and Peter

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JUST OUR LUCK!!!

Well today is just the pits. We woke up this morning and went to the car to get some milk from it and to my surprise I found the LHS canopy window open and as I got closer to the car I noticed that the clips on the lids of the Engels were open.

I rarely leave the car in this fashion and with hope I lifted the lid on the fridge Engel and found that the two bottles of wine that I had in it were both missing. Luckily, I thought, we had finished the beer in the Engel that night and would load it up with one of the cartons on the back floor of the car.

I picked up the milk and despondently walked back into the van and Maree had breakfast ready for me so I ate it and advised her if what had happened. I was really angry.

As I finished breakfast I had an inkling that all was not right and said to Maree that I wondered if the beer that I had on the back seat of the car was still in tact and I should check to see.

So I walked back outside and looked through the passenger side window looking for the cartons of beer 3 X Cartons of West End that I purchased in Darwin for the trip back to SA which was planned for about 4-6 weeks on after spending some time in Alice Springs.

They were gone so I walked around to the other side of the car and to my surprise I found that the RHS rear window had been smashed and they had taken the beer out through the window. I was really cranky.

I notified the park owner and she notified the Police who attended fairly quickly and took our statements and ordered forensics to check for fingerprints. They took some glass away with them as they had found a print on the glass. It was probably mine.

After they left I attempted to have the window fixed and lucky me the repairer had a rear glass panel for a Colorado and when I got to their shop it was a left hand side one and I needed a right hand side one. My luck heh!!!

Anyhow I contacted Alice Springs looking for a repairer with a glass for the car and found one near where we had planned to Stay at David's place. I booked it for Tuesday next and will leave Tennant Creek on Sunday to go there and hopefully we dont have much trouble form here on in.

We can only hope.

Only one thing left to do now and that is to check out the Tennant Creek Memorial Club up the road and get pleasantly pissed!!! - Well I dont have any booze left now do I!!!!!

SEE YA IN AUSTRALIA

During 2000 and in between blogs I did not have available to me a lot of time and possibly due to some slackness on my part I did not do a lot of postings. When I retired I decided that I wanted to get the blog as accurate as I could and over time I did take many photos of events that happened during 2000 and some times before.

I have the blog set up as a record of times and dates which I have inserted in various dates and times so that there is some consistency with dates and times in the blog and also I have commented on each date so that when I have finished the blog I can print it off as a story.

NEXT STAGE OF OUR TRAVELS

25th July 2020

A lot of water has run under the bridge since we left South Australia for Darwin.  Due to the worsening of the pandemic in Victoria and NSW we decided to start the trip up to Darwin on the 25th July 2020 for a number of reasons.

The first reason was that we were to meet about 30 people in Darwin for the spreading of the ashes of Maree's brother over Darwin Harbour as that was his last request. More about that later.

On the 25th July 2020 we finished packing the van for the trip after we had it serviced at the local service centre and commenced our trip to NT.

During the time we were in SA we had a diesel heater fitted to our caravan and also we had the Baby Q Weber that we had, fitted to the rear of the van on a slide out tray and also had a gas bayonet fitting fitted to the van so that we could use the BBQ from the gas supply on the van and not a separate bottle.

Once that was done and we left home we needed to stop at Port Wakefield so that we could have fitted a cover over the BBQ which we had previously ordered from the canvas maker. So we stopped off there and had it fitted. The pictures don't show the cover as it has bird droppings on it and I will show it later when it is clean.

This is the BBQ opened with the Pizza stone on it (Pizza last night)

 

This is the BBQ closed and the tray locked in

After we had the canvas fitted to the BBQ we fuelled up and left Port Wakefield to commence our travel North to the NT. The first stop was at Woomera in SA and we needed a couple of things so we drove to the local IGA to purchase before heading into the BIG 4 caravan park at the end of town.

It is a nice caravan park as we had stayed at it on a number of times previously and knew the layout of the park and we jagged a spot near the dunnies which was very convenient. As the NT border had only just been opened there was a lot of travellers on the road and the park was reasonably full.

The weather was warming up slightly and we used the new diesel heater that we had fitted to under the bed and it warmed the place up nicely. That was the last time we used the diesel heater so far on the trip. As you will understand shortly.

Next day we left Woomera and recommenced our journey North and our next stop was at Coober Pedy where we had also stayed previously on a number of occasions. The trip from Woomera was uneventful and the caravan park that we stayed at has its own Italian Pizza restaurant and we like to have a glass of wine and a pizza in the restaurant but to our despondency it had not at this stage opened from the border closures and we had to cook our own dinner in the van. Maybe on the way back.

We headed for the caravan parking spots and set ourselves up for the night and sadly cooking our own meal in the van. That night we slept without a heater and the windows closed as the we were getting a little closer to the tropics and its weather so the need was not there for a heater.

Next morning we headed into town and fuelled up the car and off to our next destination which was across the NT border at Erldunda. 

I mentioned earlier that there was a couple of reasons that we wanted to go to Darwin and the second reason was to meet up with about 30 other friends and Maree's relations so that we could attend a scattering of the ashes of Maree's brother over Darwin harbour which was his last request. I mentioned this in my last post.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN - Sort of

G'Day we are on the road again (Sort of):-

Its now nearing the end of May 2020 and although we have been stuck in Queensland now for some time about 7 weeks and the end looks not too far away we are still here. The restrictions are slowly lifting in Queensland and we are allowed to go 50 kms in lieu of 5-10 kms from our base on the Sunshine Coast. 

We took the opportunity to drive to Caboolture on a couple of occasions to buy essentials since they were lifted and we live in hope that they get lifted further

I rang the local Police station to enquire about moving from the Sunshine Coast to the border with NSW so that we could start our trip home. The police advised that we could travel through Queensland as soon as the restrictions for travel are lifted further.

I also contacted the NSW government and enquired about travelling through NSW and they advised that we were free to travel through NSW as long as we were travelling home to SA.  

About a week or so later the restrictions to travel were raised to 250 kms and we then decided that it was time to go home. We left the Sunshine Coast around mid June and headed towards Broken Hill as we would not be allowed to travel through Victoria and Mildura.

So we decided to drive a route that we had not been on before so we headed out to Kilcoy, Moonie where we stayed the night. 

The sign out the front of the road house in Moonie

A sign out the front of the park painted in the form of a truck. At first it was deceiving.

The caravan park was a road house style park and we parked up the van in the area nominated to us and as the weather was reasonably nice we opened to van up and then set up the satellite TV for eception and then just vegetated until the next morning.

The next morning we left Moonie and drove towards St George and closer to the border with NSW which was open and had not been closed during the pandemic. It was very strange as every bordre was closed except NSW.

 

After we drove through St George we then headed South West towards Cobar which was our next stop over point where we stayed the night.

Cobar caravan park

The locals out back are pretty big on painting walls in caravan parks

The trusty old van and car in the park

We left Cobar the next morning commenced our journey West to Wilcannia which is about half way between Cobar and Broken Hill and as it turned out was a reasonable style caravan park.

Parked just outside the amenities block in the park

View of the amenities block

The BBQ in the kitchen area of the park

This park in Wilcannia is where Jim and Linda helped to build some time ago and it really looks very nice. It has a lot of motel style rooms and plenty of caravan spots in it and it is worth stopping at here if ever you are passing.

Next morning further west to Broken Hill which is the last stop at the border with SA. The trip was not a sight seeing trip as we had to get to the SA border in the most direct way so that we could get home. However we decided to stay a couple of days at Broken Hill before we had to isolate for two weeks in SA.  We kept to ourselves and only went into town when we needed to. The park is kms out of town so we decided that it was safe to stay as we had isolated in Qld for about 10 weeks and we did not have nay of the symptoms.

There were very few people in the caravan park which was a very nice park as it turned out and had not stayed here before as it was fairly new. 

The entrance to the caravan park off the main highway

This is the reception/hotel/restaurant building in the park

We were only 1 of three vans in the park at this time

On the 8th  June we left Broken Hill and drove towards the SA border where we were stopped by the Police and our particulars were recorded and then told that we had to travel direct to Ardrossan and to Isolate at home.  

At last we had made it home on the same day 8th June 2020. Our isolation started on 9th June until midnight on the 22nd June 2020. We had been in Queensland for about 10 weeks and although we were lucky enough to stay with a friend in her front yard in our caravan it was still an experience that would have been better as a social event and not a forced isolation away from home.

The two weeks isolation was good as far as we were concerned as it gave us the opportunity to get things done around the place including packing up a lot of our belongings in preparation for the cut back of our onsite van that has been forced on us by the local council. (A totally different story that I will share at a later time). 

The two weeks passed without too much concern or issues and we were lucky enough to have the local Drakes Supermarket deliver our groceries during the isolation period. 

After we concluded our isolation we decided to go down to Stansbury with the caravan and stay at Maree's sisters place as we had some repairs to the caravan to be done and Peter did the honours for us. We also decided that we would have a diesel heater fitted to the van for the colder periods and Peter would do that for us also so we ordered one and had to wait a couple of weeks for it to be delivered. 

We stayed the weekend at Stansbury and then headed back to our home and parked the van up for a couple of weeks. 

Our next project that we had planned involved driving up to Darwin so the Maree could attend her brother's scattering of the ashes into Darwin Harbour and a group of about 30 people were booked to attend and we would have a bang up party to see him off.

The pandemic was worsening in particular down South in Victoria and it appears that a second wave was about to be spread around the country.   

See ya next post