DAILY UPDATE #28 – AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND 2018

Red Centre to Downtown

Today’s update is very straight forward, we departed Uluru & Yalara (the resort area right outside Uluru & Kata Kjuta) with Sydney as our destination.  Our day wasn’t going to be perfect when the hotel’s manager came over and told us our flight was delayed.

how does a hotel manager know your schedule?

As part of our initial check-in, we provided the hotel with our departing flight information.  They even went ahead and checked us in for the flight so that I didn’t need to struggle with an internet connection, nor finding a printer in the middle of Australia.

The manager informed us that our flight was delayed.  Once he returned to his office I pulled up FlightAware that confirmed the worst:  Sydney airport was operating one runway, not their usual two parallel runways due to the wind direction.  This resulted in our scheduled departure changing from 2:10pm, to 4pm.

Ayers Rock/Connellan Airport

This airport is so cute it needs cheeks to be pinched.  It has one arrival gate & baggage carousel.  It has one security checkpoint where we had to wait for two people in front of us to go through.  Once on the airside, it’s one waiting area as only 4-6 flights arrive daily.  The afternoon is the busiest and we got to see it in full swing.  Our flight, and a Jetstar flight to Sydney were the last to leave, however a Qanatas flight from Alice Springs arrived, picked up passengers and then headed for Cairns.  No jetways to cloud the view from the terminal.  Full floor to ceiling windows to the apron and runway to watch everything, albeit few, happen.

Flight to Sydney

A final bonus to flights out of this airport is that there is a 50/50 chance of a final tourist view of Uluru as the plane climbed to attitude.  Also with our flight being later, we had the pleasure of the sun setting behind the plane as we headed east to Sydney, instead of a sunset during approach into Sydney.

Flight overall was good, the wind in Sydney was a little bumpy but we arrived without issue, and were at our hotel quickly enough.

Argh!  A cold

Yup.  I’ve come down with something.  I blame nature, specifically the Great Barrier Reef and my attempt at snorkelling at Green Island.  Being in Uluru with extremely low humidity helped prevent the sinuses from building, nor the nose from trying to be plugged.  However, now that we’re at sea level with high humidity I’ve had the pleasure of one completely plugged ear since we landed.

This cold has nothing to do with the multiple early mornings that ranged from 4:30-5:30am.  Who thought being on vacation required alarm clocks?

Tomorrow, it’s up to the heel-toe express to dictate our adventure.