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Old 28 Jul 18, 12:53 PM  
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lensgirl
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The suprise 40th Oz trip

So it might be a bit late in the day really to write this, but here goes!

For my DH birthday in February 2019 I wanted to knock something off his bucket list. I'm not sure if anyone knows about them, but we watch an Australian race series called V8 Supercars (its since changed its name, but to us its still V8's!). In October they do an epic race at a circuit in Bathurst, about 3 hours away from Sydney.

On that race circuit is a hotel and has awesome views of the track. I knew that if I was going to do it I would need to book that, so 3.5 years ago I paid the deposit to stay in the hotel for October this year.

I managed to keep it a secret until last Christmas when I surprised DH with a DVD I had made of our trip. I wasn't sure how he would react, however I wasn't prepared for the floods of tears I got (I often joke that if he ever cried it would be stones that fell from his eyes!)

So here is my pre-trip report of what we have planned.

Us -
Its just me and DH going, the kids are old enough to stay at home now so aren't coming with me. I will be 39 in December, and as I said above, DH will be 40 in February


Flights out

Again, as this is a big thing I have paid out for Business Class flights. Not sure if DH will find anything to eat as he isn't fancy at all, and I can see him asking what economy are having!

Flights are with Emirates, who we have never flown with. We are being picked up by chauffer at lunch time with our flight out of heathrow at dinner time

First stop over is in Dubai for around 6 hours, so time to enjoy the lounge facilities and Fag Ash Lil to de-stress!

we then fly to Hong Kong, however this stop over is just a quick get off, "de-stress" and back on the plane again for our final flight to Sydney.

We arrive at 8am, so I hope to get through customs and then we are going to get the train which stops just a little way from our hotel

Sydney
We are booked to stay at the Quay West Suites in a Harbour View Room. I don't expect to be able to get into our room that early, however if not, I hope we can drop our bags off at the hotel and go for a wander

We don't have anything really big planned as we are only in Sydney from Sunday morning until Wednesday morning. We have friends who are also going so we plan to meet up with them on the Tuesday. We are intending on doing a walk to Coogie Bay I think, past Bondi and maybe a ferry ride to Manly. Then we are going to do the bridge walk, which we want to do when dark, and then go and have dinner somewhere.

Bathurst
So on Wednesday the reason for our entire trip arrives We are due to pick up the car and then drive through the Blue Mountains and get to Bathurst. I hope to stop off at Scenic World along the way and have lunch and take in some views. I think we will aim to get to the circuit for late afternoon where we can meet up with our friends again who are camping, and have a track walk and see some car action.
Its then a full on 4 days, where we stay until Monday.

Return to Sydney
I have family who live in the Blue Mountains, so on our way back to Sydney we are going to stop by and see them. I haven't seen them for many many years, so will be lovely to have a catch up
At Sydney we are only staying at the airport as we have a plane to catch on Tuesday

Great Barrier Reef

Time for a bit of relaxation! We are flying to Hervey Bay and then on a sea plane to Lady Eliot Island. Typically the only time we have got a super baggage allowance, we actually cant use it as the sea plane has a kg allowance of 15kg! We are going to look to get a backpackers type one, and I have seen one where it has a little one that attaches and can be removed, which I think will also be handy for Bathurst.
We have a reef unit booked, which is a little bungalow thing right on the beach. Nothing fancy, I just knew that DH would love to stay on the beach so went for this location rather than somewhere on a much bigger complex.


Brisbane
We are only at LEI for 2 nights, so we fly back to Hervey Bay on the Thursday. We then have a car hired and we are going to drive from there along the coast, to Brisbane. We hope to stop off along the way to Australia Zoo. It will only be for a few hours as I don't expect we will get there until the afternoon. We have booked to stay at the Regis, so nothing much just somewhere to stay. On the Friday I am going to book for DH to do a V8 driving experience before our evening flight home

Return flights
We have a much longer first flight home. We fly from Brisbane to Singapore, which is a 13 hour flight (and on an older style plane too, so not quite the same amount of luxury on the way back ). We then have a 7 hour stop over, so have a hotel provided by the airline
Flight is then straight back to Heathrow, although when we land we don't have a drive home so will have to organise a taxi

Its going to be fab and I have waited so long for it, but will be over in a heart beat
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Old 28 Jul 18, 01:57 PM  
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Tor32
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What an amazing adventure! Look forward to reading about it.
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Old 6 Sep 18, 11:48 PM  
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Andi
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Sounds fabulous, looking forward to hearing more.
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Old 18 Feb 19, 03:04 PM  
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Hi Robin. Hope you're ok - I just found this by chance! What an amazing trip and such a surprise - I don't think anyone would every have guessed such a birthday trip! Have a wonderful time.
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