The Trip Home

Our trip back to Brisbane was done in a day. I had originally planned a two day journey, but was asked to facepaint for a birthday party on the Sunday, so knew that I would need to make the trip in one day. As it turns out, I would rather get it done in a day at any rate - 'cause the closer I get to home, the more I just want to get there, and sleep in my comfy waterbed.

We had planned to be up at 5am, but after a really terrible night of tossing and turning, I woke up at 4am. It was either struggle to get back to sleep for an hour or just get up and on the road. I chose the latter. I dug mum out of bed (she was actually half dozing anyway), we packed up the car in about 15minutes and were on our way by 4.30am.

I actually enjoyed driving at that hour. It was a bit chilly outside, but with a bit of heat on in the car and very few other drivers on the road, I was enjoying myself. It was still dark out, so we got to see sunrise as we were driving. It turned out to be quite the foggy morning from most of the way between Rockhampton and Mackay. It turned out to be a blessing in that the sun rising in the windscreen was muted by fog. As you can see in my photos, it was very thick in places, and in Rocky, it was actually quite smokey as well.

We made it into Rockhampton by 8.15am for breakfast at the Coffee Club, which just so happens to be on the highway. And by 8.45am we were back on the road. The next stretch took its toll and I was starting to feel tired. We stopped just outside of GinGin at a rest site so that I could try to have a nap. 10 minutes later, I woke up with a start and was all good to keep going. It's really amazing what a 10minute kip will do for you.

Our next stop was Childers at around 1pm where we filled up with petrol and sat down to a late lunch. Soon we were back on the road and on the last stretch to Brisbane. We had thought that we might make a stop in Gympie for a drink but when there's only 1.5hours of travel left to home, you just want to keep on going. In the end, we rolled into our garage at 5.15pm. All in all, a really good day of travel. Mind you, I am exhausted. My back is stiff from sitting for 13 hours and my knees and butt certainly didn't like being cramped up in the car all day. But you cannot imagine the relief at getting home not only before dark but in time for a hot shower and to snuggle in my own bed. I got the best nights sleep.

Day 14 & 15 - Home Again

And after over 24 hours, we are home. Well, I am at any rate. We woke up on Wednesday morning and got stuck into packing our suitcases. With extremely full, and slightly overweight bags we decided that we would just head straight to the airport instead of trying to fit in more shopping. It turned out to be the best idea as it was freezing out and snow had started to fall.

So, at 10am we checked out of our hotel. We jumped on the free shuttle bus to Ueno station. From there we proceeded to hike to the Keisei Skyliner station. It's simply a separate station from the main JR and subway rail line stations and isn't linked underground. It's not really that far of a walk, but when you are struggling with three suitcases each and you toss in a bit of snow, wind and water, it makes for an uncomfortable trip.

The Keisei Skyliner then ferried us out to the Tokyo Narita station where we would be checking into our flight home from Terminal 2. I didn't take any photos of the day, but it's a pretty scenic journey out - we were both so exhausted from terrible sleep and illness (at least on my part) that we nodded off for most of the trip. Once at the airport, we proceeded to wait until 18.20 when we would be able to FINALLY check our luggage. Mine was a little bit too much overweight, (3kg) but they took it, I paid the excess and we were ready to wait again for the flight.

We grabbed some dinner and headed out to gate, on the way stopping to pick up some duty free booze. I grabbed a Yamazaki Whisky and another Muscat type of drink made from Japanese Plum (Ume) Blossom.

I popped some head cold pills before jumping on board our flight, hoping to knock myself out. Unfortunately, things went down hill from there. I got about a collective three hours of sleep on the flight. Stuffiness, cough and nausea hit me, culminating with a hunt for the courtesy paper vomit bag at 4am.

The flight landed in Cairns after 7hours and 15minutes on board at 6am. We collected our suitcases and made our way through customs, thankfully without any problems. I cannot stress enough that if you have something DECLARE IT! Much better to declare something that you didn't need to than to get caught not declaring something because you weren't sure. Case and point - my fur earmuffs. The fabric is so soft, I would be surprised if it wasn't real fur, but I just had no idea.

We then hopped on over to the Cairns Domestic Terminal (outside in the humid north Queensland heat) where we had to wait to check in our bags. Once that was done, we waited some more in the lounge area before we were allowed to board our flight - at 9.45am. Yes - a whole 3.75 hours later. Grrrrr.

Once on board, all I could think about was getting home to shower and change into some clean clothing instead of the clean-ish yet horribly rumpled dress that I was wearing. It was another trip of fighting off the nausea. I had the jerk in the seat in front of me push his chair back into a recline, giving me no room (why seats even recline on a 2 hour flight is beyond me), but he must have overhead me speaking to the flight attendant that I wanted ice to settle my stomach after throwing up on the last flight, because almost instantly, his chair popped up. So, note for those out there who need more room - threaten vomit. It's amazing what will happen.

Then we were back to Brisbane. My wonderful father came out to pick us up. We jammed our suitcases in my car and home it was. I jumped straight into the shower to wash my hair and take care of some deforestation.

Tomorrow, the unpacking continues. But I have never been more happy to be in my own bed. If only the itches would keep themselves away - because yes, to top it all off, I have had an allergic reaction to something and am now covered in the most lovely red bumpy itch. Argh!

Tokyo Trip Day 9: Tokyo - Brisbane

And then we come to our very last day in Tokyo. I don't really have anything exciting to report on this day as it pretty much consisted of us sitting in the airport. L headed out in the morning to shop around a little, while C and I waited around at the Hostel before we had to check out at 11am. We took our time dragging our heavy suitcases to the train station and onto Ueno where we would catch the Narita Express. In our whole walk there, we only had to take them down one flight of stairs, managing to find lifts and escalators instead.

It was nice catching the express train out to the airport. Even though it is a 70 minute trip, we were able to see the city end, the outer suburbs and then the countryside as we rushed on past. On the way in, we really missed it all as it was night time, and we were just excited to finally be there. C and I sat in the airport all afternoon, reading and doing puzzles just waiting for it to be time to board our plane. The real contrast with the airport is just the sheer size of the place. I mean there are many full restaurants upstairs as well as shops (where I spent the last of my Japanese money). Not only that, once you make it through airport security and customs, I had to catch the shuttle to the other half of the departures terminal to the bay where we would be catching our flight.

We finally boarded at 8.20pm Japan time. 9 hours later, and after much shifting around in my uncomfortable and tiny Jetstar Economy seat we landed on the Gold Coast. I really didn't get that much sleep. A quick taxi ride back to the car and we were finally on our way home. I dozed off while I was sitting in the back seat and it seemed that I was home in no time. Home and cuddling my kitty.