The Land Down Under

Our second Cathay Pacific flight was again excellent, the superb service and seating make you almost forget that you are in an airplane at all. We enjoyed a glass of wine, had a good meal and watched a movie or two, while the plane made its way to Brisbane. The descent to the airport was somewhat bumpy, but given the weather conditions, it could have been a lot worse. Apparently the whole four seasons thing we have over in Europe doesn’t really exist in Brisbane. There are mainly two seasons: the wet and the dry season. It turns out that half November is not the dry season. You might even say that it is not the wet season either, no, November is the soak season. For those of you who’ve been to Sea World Florida: Brisbane in November is like sitting on row 1 to 8 during a Shamu show.

The taxi driver that brought us to the hotel was very friendly, although we have no idea of what he tried to tell us. Australians have their own language and although it sometimes resembles English, it is quite different. There are the words that are shortened versions of normal English words (Brisbane becomes Brissie, mosquito becomes mozzie, barbeque barbie, Tasmania Tassie and so on), these take some practice, but are not the hardest part. There are the words and catchphrases that are only heard in Oz, feel free to look up some examples on Google (or Goggie, I’m not sure anymore?), but these can mostly be ignored since they rarely matter in the whole sentence. The hard part is that Australians hate to spill a breath of air and will try to fit as many words or even sentences in one breath as possible. Gdaywheryaoffto? I’m sorry? Nameofthehotel? Ah, eh, Metro Hotel Tower Mill please. Noworries…

After a handsome three and a half hours of sleep, we headed back to the airport (some brilliant planning here, the flight from Hong Kong arrived at 23.30 and the flight to Darwin the next day departed at 08.25). Qantas provided us with a lovely light breakfast during the flight, so the morning was not too bad. We arrived at the Darwin Travel Lodge Mirambeena before check-in time, giving us some time to do nothing. Victoria Bitter is best enjoyed when it is hot and humid and, wouldn’t you know it, Darwin was able to provide us with exactly these conditions. Two VBs later, we checked in and spend the rest of the afternoon mentally preparing ourselves for the next day: A 6.10 departure for a two day Kakadu National Park tour with Adventure Tours.