Hamilton Island to Coogee Beach

Today was my final morning on Hamilton Island. After waking up to the spectacular balcony view of the rising sun over the Coral Sea, I began to pack up and get ready for my flight to Sydney. I had about 2 hours between check-out and the time that the bus would leave to take me to the airport, so I went for a walk down to the marina and spent some time watching yachts sail in and out of the marina. After a quick lunch, I returned to the hotel and was on my way to the airport!

The airport on Hamilton Island is very small and does not have air conditioning in any of the areas of the terminal. I checked in for my flight and decided it would be better to stay outside of security where there was a nice breeze. I sat for a while reading up on Sydney and Brisbane in my travel book and then decided it was time to go through security. I arrived in the departure lounge and immediately regretted that decision. It must have been 90 degrees and 95% humidity in that room! They had a bunch of fans going, but nothing seemed to be helping. I found a seat next to a window that offered some breeze and I figured that was about the best I could do. After sitting for a while, the girl sitting next to me decided to start up a conversation by asking about the flight they had just announced. After I replied, she asked where I was from and, low and behold, it turned out that we were both from Austin, Texas! What are the chances of meeting someone, by chance, from the same city on a tropical island located on the other side of the world.

Anyhow, I talked with Alex for a while. She is an event coordinator who works in the Far West area of Austin and lives down south of the Colorado River. She had something like 18 days off of work, so she decided to do a whirlwind tour through Australia for a couple weeks. It was nice to have someone to talk to since it made the heat and humidity seem less noticeable. She liked to talk, so I did a lot of listening. Turns out that she was born in the San Francisco bay area and went to college at Cal Santa Barbara before moving to Austin a few months before I moved there. So, that was nice. We talked about San Francisco (since I will be going there after I return to the States). It's always interesting to meet new people - especially when, compared to everyone else here, we had so much in common. Eventually it was time for her to head off to Brisbane and my flight for Sydney left shortly thereafter.

Boarding the plane was an interesting experience. The outside air was so humid, that it looked like the plane was filled with smoke because the air conditioning in the plane was condensing most of the water right out of the air. It was a bit strange, but the AC felt great! The flight was just over 2 hours long and it wasn't too bad. I've been somewhat spoiled by all these international flights and the domestic flights just aren't quite the same. Eventually we made it to Sydney and we had a great view of the harbor from our side of the plane. It was really cool seeing the Opera House as we came in to land at the airport.

I made my way to Coogee beach where I will stay for the night. Tomorrow I will give a seminar at UNSW (right down the road) and then I will fly to Brisbane to meet up with Anita and Matt to tour the University of Queensland. I was given an upgrade at the hotel to a 1-bedroom apartment! That means that I have a room with full laundry facilities and a fully equiped kitchen! The first thing I did when I arrived was make a trip to the grocery store to figure out what I was going to cook for dinner! I was limited by the fact that I will only be here for a night, but I decided to do baked salmon and a salad. Not bad considering I wasn't planning on being able to cook. I was so excited, though, because I haven't been able to cook a meal since I left Austin! Dinner was great and it was nice to sit down to a homemade meal.

After dinner, I made my way down to Coogee Beach. I would describe the town of Coogee as being similar to Virginia Beach in that the town is a bit outdated in some aspects (though I think this is not quite as bad in Coogee). However, the beach and surrounding rocky cliffs blow the beach at VA Beach out of the water! The sun was setting on the town side of the beach, but the views were still great and I walked around quite a bit. The weather and general feel of the area reminded me of our high school band trips to VA Beach in 2001 and 2003. Those were fun times and I certainly have a lot of good memories from those trips!.

I climbed up to the top of one of the cliffs and just stood there for a while enjoying the view and watching the surf crash over the rocks below. A lot of people were out walking around and it gave the place a very laid back and pleasant feel. Even though it lacked the 'middle of nowhere' feel of some of the other places I've been recently, it was still spectacular and I really enjoyed being out there for the evening. I stayed out until the sun went down and then came back to my room to finish things up for the night.

I took advantage of the laundry facilities (by 'purchasing' laundry detergent from the mini-bar). Even at $4.50 for the detergent, this will likely be the least-expensive laundry opportunity I'll have during this trip. So, I definitely wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to wash all of the clothes that I wore hiking and exploring during my Hamilton Island visit. I also finalized and practiced my UNSW talk one more time. I just finished ironing my dress clothes for tomorrow and setting up my timing plan for how the day should go. I plan to get up early to go watch the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean and then I'll head to UNSW for the seminar. My flight is later in the evening, so I should have some time to make it back to the beach before I need to fly out!