The last two days of our holiday have been chilled. I write this from Hong Kong International Airport Ferry Terminal as we wait for the ferry to Shekou.

On the morning of that the cruise ended we woke up at 6am to find that we had already docked. However someone had been up early enough to take photos of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House. (Photo credit to James Jeffrey -part of the family that Boo, our duck came from)

Breakfast was at 6:45am in the Animator’s Palate, there were a lot of empty tables and I assumed that those people who lived in Sydney were simply going home to breakfast. We didn’t have that luxury.

The evening before, we had packed our suitcases and given them a Minnie Mouse luggage label. This would mean that our luggage would be taken off the ship and we could collect it ourselves after disembarking. If we didn’t do that, we would have had to walk off the ship with our luggage and when we saw the queue for the lift – we were super glad we had availed ourselves of the luggage service.

Off the ship and onto Sydney Airport for our departure to Brisbane. We didn’t have to wait that long for an UberXL to arrive and we got to the airport some 7.5 hours before our flight. I think even for Martin this was too early. We thought about going back in to the city and Eleanor and I were going to go while leaving Martin with the luggage but I had inspiration and we tried checking our luggage in, which worked. So we ended up sitting in the lounge for 7 hours. We were all tired and while Eleanor and I did a bit of airport shopping we also slept a bit too and spotted fellow cruisers as some wore their Disney attire. We had tried to get an earlier flight, but all Qantas flights to Brisbane were fully booked.

To add insult to our long day, the flight was delayed by 20 minutes. But once on it, we made good time, and as Queensland doesn’t do daylight savings, we went back an hour in time.

We were in Brisbane for one night and one day. About 26 hours in total, but it was enough to collect a Starbucks mug.

We stayed in Wynnum. 20 minutes from the airport, and home to Veronica, Jim and their lovely cocker spaniel who won our hearts. Eleanor and I had last seen Veronica and Jim in Bangkok February 2020. They were the ones who could have had us as extended guests as we were with them when we found out we were going to online learning and when we found out that the flight returning to China that we were on was cancelled. Veronica is kind and generous for when we first arrived in Suzhou, she gave me a bottle of gin for my birthday having not even met me! It was lovely to see her and Jim again.

Jim greeted us with a frog in his hand. The frog escaped and Eleanor screamed. however, the frog was quickly shown the door so that the dog wouldn’t eat it…

We had a lovely BBQ, we had champagne and good chat. We all went to bed with the world still rocking and this was nothing to do with alcohol consumption!

Our world has kept moving since we got off the ship. Mal de debarquement syndrome causes people to feel that they are moving when they aren’t. It can take up to two days to feel normal again!

Martin was up early to run and while he had discussed a 10km the night before, the heat and humidity was too much for that, and he ran a 5km before heading back to try and cool down.

We had breakfast alfresco and I earned my keep by cleaning the pool, debugging the pool using a net though having done that, I actually didn’t go in.

The options were numerous including a trip to the Gold Coast. Thanks to Jim we actually now have a Gold Coast mug… however, while discussions revolved around movie world and rollercoasters, or beaches, we actually decided to stay local. Eleanor and I did a bit of window shopping in “op shops” (charity shops) and in our last shop, Eleanor bought a dress. We also went into a boutique and she bought a pair of jeans, and I bought a top that can be worn with jeans or a suit.

We packed when we got back and breathed a massive sigh of relief as just before lunch our gin and whiskey/whisky arrived that we had ordered when in Margaret River on 23 December! Thankfully Martin and I due to gold status with Qatar / Sapphire with One World, means that we get an extra bit of luggage allowance!

Dinner was at a marina at Manly. I hadn’t realised until Wednesday night that there was a Manly in Sydney and also outside Brisbane. It reminded me a lot of the Windrose in Carrickfergus. We hadn’t booked a table, so we were in the bar area. It was busy, and for a Thursday night, just after Christmas it was great to see. This is of course still school holidays in Australia but the restaurant was full of people all ages who clearly weren’t up for cooking.

After dinner, Jim and Veronica kindly took us to the airport (Jim has a car that seated us all and our luggage comfortably and from there, we flew the 8 hours back to Hong Kong on a really full flight.

We had already checked in online and went to do a bag drop that was also done without interacting with a person… that is until we had the first bag weighed and it was over allowance which the computer wanted us to either repack or pay the extra. Knowing that we were allowed extra meant that we went back to an actual person who could override the system.

Our economy seats were ok. None of us remember the safety briefing, taking off, or dinner. We had all passed out and we slept most of the flight. Martin and I woke up for breakfast, which actually wasn’t worth waking up for and then I went back to sleep.

Arriving in Hong Kong at 7am we got the 9:45am ferry to Shekou. However to get the ferry, you need to present your bag tickets, passports and Hong Kong dollars. We failed at getting the bag receipts in Brisbane so we had to go all the way back to the transfer desk to get the receipts before making the journey back to the ferry ticket desk. In all, we walked a kilometre but as all of us had been cooped up for 8 hours none of us minded.

Now back on the ferry it is a whole lot smaller than our cruise ship and has 4 passengers on it.

The weather at 17 degrees Celsius is cooler and a welcome relief from the Brisbane heat. Home by 10:45am with wonderful memories.

We have had a fabulous Christmas and start to 2024 and now the countdown begins for when we land on Irish soil in 29 days time.