We had a late flight out of Perth (11:40pm Perth) to Brisbane which got us in at 5:30a.m Brisbane time. With the two hour time difference we only got about 3 hours "sleep" on the plane. Once we landed in Brisbane, we had a SIX hour layover before our flight to Proserpine (Whitsundays).
Desperate for some sleep, we walked the entire length of the terminal looking for a Delta partner lounge. The only two lounges in the airport were a Qantas and Virgin lounge. Giving up hope, we decided we would just pay for entry to the Virgin lounge. As we were paying the fee, Bernard casually asked if they happened to be partners with Delta. The attendant asked if I was Gold and Bernard smugly announced that he was DIAMOND. "Oooh", said the attendant. "Can you prove it?". "Why, yes. Here is my card." After typing something in the computer, the attendant said "This is good by us". Really, no fee? Score!
We stumbled into the lounge and found the nearest quiet place to sleep and crashed for a couple of hours.
Our sleeping quarters
The Lounge
After our nap, we ate some of the snacks that were available and had a couple of tasty lattes. We freshened up in the restrooms and then went to our gate for our flight to Proserpine. Since we hadn't eaten a real mean in awhile and we didn't know what would be available on the plane we figured we'd grab some food in the airport to take on the plane.
Since we have pics of all our nice meals, here's one of a not so nice meal.
The Nudie is actually a mango smoothie
The sandwiches weren't too bad actually. The corned beef was actually more like a ham but AM's egg sandwich was pretty good.
They called our flight as we finished eating and we got on yet another packed Virgin Blue flight. This was a short hour and fifteen minute flight and when we landed in Proserpine it was sunny, muggy and scorching hot.
Welcome to the Whitsundays
The airport at Proserpine is tiny! It has one gate, although they are doing a AUD$7 million renovation so maybe they'll add a gate :-) The baggage claim was a little chaotic but we managed to get our bags with no issue and grab a taxi to Abel Point Marina in Airlie Beach.
We checked into our charter company, Whitsunday Escapes, and they gave us the keys to our boat and the marina so we could spend the night on the boat. Then we went downstairs and got our snorkel gear and loaded our luggage on our boat.
Our catamaran, Lulu
Once we loaded our things onto the boat, we had to go into town to get our provisions for the week. We got a taxi to the local supermarket and got enough food for our trip. The shelves were pretty empty and our choices were limited because of all the flooding in Queensland. They were not able to resupply the area very easily.
When we got back to the boat, we organized everything and settled in for a hot night.
Tomorrow we have an 8am briefing and then we start our trip!
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