The Last Leg in Australia

Monday morning Rachelle and I got up early to repack and check out of our hotel.

 

Scary, eh?

The plan was for Rachelle's friend Drew to pick us up and drive us down to Mackay, but there was a confusion on the dates and he wasn't able to make it.  Rachelle and him worked out a way for us to meet up with him during our connecting flight in Brisbane, and we started working on getting bus tickets down to Mackay.  But much to our surprise Drew has rented us a car!

We were SO excited. Not only did we now have total freedom in Mackay but we got to drive in Australia too!  And the torrential downpour followed us all the way down the coast.

 

 But when the rain took a break, it was beautiful all the way to Mackay

  

 

Oh, and there's this

 

The Smart State? As opposed to...

Mackay is an interesting little city. It empties for weeks at a time while workers head out to the mines, so there isn't much to do there.  But since we had a day to kill before we flew out we made the best of it in true tourist form.

  

  

Their liquor stores are called Liquorland.  Appropriate.

Outside our hotel we had this view:

and had these wondering around the grounds

  

On Tuesday we went to the Botanical Gardens (after driving in circles for about an hour).  It was probably beautiful, but the cafe was closed and it was getting super hot, so we pretty much saw the entrance and left.

  

Apparently everything in Australia can kill you. Even these trees are caged. 

Next on the list was the Orchid Garden. I'm pretty sure we were two of the 10 tourists they've had in the last year, and probably the only ones who went out of our way to see this little gem.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Then it started raining. Again.

So we went and watched Avatar.  Three hours successfully killed!  We finished up the day at a restaurant belonging to a friend of Drew's, Fish D'Vine .

On Wednesday, we connected through Brisbane and were able to meet up with Drew.  He brought us Australia wine bottle coolers and drove us to the international terminal so we didn't have to take the shuttle.  I liked him already. 

We had a long layover, so we were able to have a cup of coffee and chat about his life in Australia - he moved there about 12 years ago and has since got married and his wife just had a baby.  We said our goodbyes and Rachelle and I headed for our gate, and took off for home.