Today was a travel day. We slept in a bit later than usual, as our flight wasn’t scheduled until late in the morning. We didn’t have much to do at the AirBnB except finish packing and give the place a final clean. We headed to the Cairns airport via an Uber around 8:45. It was a short drive, and we arrived shortly before 9:00. We had a bit of a quirky driver, he was super friendly but apparently didn’t believe in wearing shoes while driving. Once at the airport we checked in and cleared security without any issues; both the baggage and security lines were thankfully short. We grabbed a quick breakfast at the airport, then settled into a pair of comfy chairs and waited for boarding to commence. Our flight was scheduled to depart at 10:55, so we had lots of time before our flight. I went through the photos on my camera and began deleting duplicate or blurry photos, while Todd read. Our flight ended up being delayed by about 15 minutes due to the late arrival of the inbound aircraft, but it wasn’t a big deal, and shortly after 11:10 we took off.
Our plane to Sydney. Tigerair boards from both ends of the aircraft, which certainly sped things up.
Tigerair is a discount airline, and one of the ways they keep costs low is by not including in-seat entertainment units on their planes. Instead, I watched some TV show episodes that I had previously downloaded onto my phone during the flight. The flight was an uneventful 3 hours, and we landed at the Sydney domestic terminal shortly after 14:00. On the way out of the terminal we made a quick stop at the food court to grab a sandwich for lunch. We picked up our bags quickly, as the detour to get lunch gave the ground staff time to unload our bags from the aircraft and have them waiting for us when we reached the conveyor belt. We then walked to the Domestic Airport station, and got onto the T8 line towards Central Station. Our final destination was Newcastle, NSW, where we were going to meet some of Todd’s extended family. After arriving at Central Station we walked through the Southern Concourse, heading towards Platform 9. This was the platform that trains on the Central Coast & Newcastle Line (CCN) departed from, and we were going to be taking the CCN line up to Newcastle. Our train was scheduled to depart at 15:15, and we got to the platform just after 14:45. We had a half hour to relax on the platform; we ate the lunch we had purchased at the airport and then enjoyed the sunny weather while we waited. The train pulled into the station about 15 minutes ahead of its scheduled departure, so we boarded and found a place for our suitcases before settling in for the trip.
We were on the train for about 2 hours, which passed through the very scenic New South Wales countryside. We arrived Fassifern station shortly after 17:15, just after the sun had set. We were greeted on the platform by Marilyn (Todd’s first cousin, once removed) and her husband Jeff. We hadn’t met either of them before, but thanks to Facebook we knew what they looked like! After some quick introductions we made our way to their car, and then took a quick 10 minute drive to their house. Here we had a lovely conversation with them, where we got to know them a bit better and share some stories of our travels so far. We had a lovely dinner with them, and after more conversation we turned in to bed around 22:00.