I woke up pretty late this morning, and didn't do much apart from organising my journal. Once I had caught up enough, I went to the post office, so that I could post the New Zealand luge photos and the Copellia programme back home, as I didn't really want to carry them with me for another year or so!
On the way back to house, we grabbed a pie and pizza for lunch, and then I got to work packing. This involved another re-arrangement of things, as I wanted to move the warmer thicker clothes in to the 'not used so much' area now, so that the lighter ones were easy to get at.
It took longer than I had anticipated even, so that come 5 to 4pm when I left, I felt a bit rushed o get out the door so that we could be at the airport in time for check in and security checks.
This time around I again put the camera in the day bag, and so the main bag only weighed in at 18kg - this has reaffirmed that I ought to invest in a more compact camera and lens bag, as it is a bit of a squeeze to put in the day bag.
Once I got through security, I got a notice from Jessica that I had left my phone keyboard at theirs. There was a bit of dialogue about how to get it to me, but I advised them that the flight was delayed at least 30 minutes now, so they came back to the airport with it, and checked it through security.
By the time the flight left, it was almost 1 hour late, which was time that we didn't make back during the flight, arriving in Brisbane 1 hour late too.
Once I had got my bags from baggage reclaim I made my way to the rail transport hub, and got a 'Go' card (translink card for trains/busses/trams in the area). The person at the ticket office advised me that the rail line was being worked on so the train only went so far and then there was a bus train replacement service. This meant it looked like I wasn't going to reach Surfer's Paradise until well after midnight.
I called the hostel to let them know, and they advised that they were closing at 10pm, and there was nobody else who could look after reception, so I would have to lose my deposit and find another hostel for that night, though they did say they would only charge me 3 nights and keep the reservation open.
I called the Islander Resort, and found they hvae 24 hour reception, and plenty of beds, so reassured I would have somewhere to sleep, I got on the train, and started on the way to the resort.
The notices on the train had said nothing at all about any interuptions to the service, nor did they say any stations after Greenleigh, so I started to get nervous that I was on a train that wouldn't get me to Nerang, the transfer point I needed to get the bus. The person at the ticket office had also implied that the works on the line were much closer to the airport, so when we reached Central Station, I got off the train, thinking that was a better hub to be uncertain about trains, than some unknown suburb station.
This turned out to be the wrong thing to do, as I had been on the right train! Fortunately this service was every 30 minutes, so I was able to get back on the next one without any problems, and followed through with the bus rail replacement on to Nerange.
Once I had arrived in Nerang, I had about 20 minutes to wait for the 740 bus to take me in to Surfer Paradise proper. This meant that I had not really lost any time by the hop off at central, as the 740 was an hourly service by this point at night (that being 11.49 pm). I was the only person on the bus, and got dropped off at the last stop on Cypress Street having to walk about 1km south to get to the hostel, as all the other services had stopped for the night. I found the hostel, but struggled to find the entrance, due to the bottom floor being refurbished and turned in to a construction site. I eventually found the entrance, and checked in to room 13 at quarter past midnight on the 13th.
Before I went to bed I cheked my emails to see if I had received confirmation of my tours from STA yet, which I hadn't, but I did have an email from the flat agency asking me to provide authorisation for something, so I contacted Sara and got that sorted out before setting my alarm for an early start and falling asleep.