Suzie’s Whirlwind 75th birthday Tour.Day two. 5 January 2025.

Bron and Suzie awake and up earlier for a walk.

Time to pack before our pretty awesome breakfast at Conservatory downstairs at Crown. Lots of choices and too many tastes mean we are full – again!!!

Whilst at breaky we got the first notification of flight delayed by 40min – Virgin Melbourne to Sydney. No stress we can chill at airport.
Last views from room and final touches – teeth and packing.

Lots of Go Boats taking off from 10am. We really do have a lovely capital in Melbourne City.

Our car was booked for 10:30 for our 1pm Virgin flight which, en route to Tullarmarine, was cancelled – now things are serious! Virgin rebooked us for a 4:30pm flight which was messing with our Sydney plans.

Our driver Nick was quite the comedian and we arrived safe and sound for Hayley to try and talk us onto an earlier flight. No luck – it’s a bit busy – I guess lots returning home for work tomorrow.
The best option seems to be Qantas. So to Terminal 1 we headed while travel agent extraordinaire, Keith worked at home to see what magic he could weave. And we wait.

Hayley and Keith weaved the Sloan magic and Amex again!!! And we have a Qantas flight at 2pm. CRISIS AVERTED. Hayley has some more work to do to secure a refund from

Virgin.
Snack and coffee at St Ali in a very civilised Terminal 1 at Tullarmarine.

Off the lounge and boarding in final group.

After calls asking people to put hand luggage under the plane due to a fully booked flight, we all managed to get a spot. Not bad seats for last minute – rows 7 & 8. Up up and away at 2:17pm.

As always the The Qantas Magazine provided good intel. Including a few books to add to a long list of must read!

Landed on time at about 3:30, with a few bumps as we hit the clouds. Next stop luggage and check in at Rydges Airport.

The luggage all arrived however Hayley’s took a bit of a pounding, sporting a very big dent in her case that was purchased in 2024 and has only done one trip to Vietnam. We popped the dent out but the case does feel a little weakened.

A tiny hitch in that kiosk checkin couldn’t ’make a room card’ all sorted the desk and we have good functional clean rooms.

Time for a cuppa and chill before we head to Coogee for the evening.
Off in a taxi to Coogee. A walk down to the coast and great views of the beach and the baths around the bay.

The place was pumping. Coogee Bay Rd was filled with eateries from all over the world and people everywhere. Lots on the beach and in the baths. Bron walked down to the baths to test the water temp – not too bad.

A bunch of musos jamming on the edge of park and an all round nice vibe.
Back to a place called Yana for pre-dinner drinks. The staff are mostly backpackers from all over. One from France.

Then to the Coogee Wine Room. A small selection of food and a massive selection of wine. Again fabulous staff. Kelly from Ireland looked after us magically. Talking about ‘rollovers’ (keep drinking the next day is a rollover and three days is a bender, four days makes you an alcoholic) she was delightful, very helpful with food choices and just all round lovely.
Topped off our night with a homemade lemoncello- we ordered ONE shot to share but she poured four and informed us it was on the house for Suzie’s birthday. We REALLY didn’t need it but it was deelishus.
We then wandered down to the beach again and caught a cab back with a 74yo American from Chicago Illinois (now Aussie) Taxi Tim who was full of stories and tales of his life and family.
An awesome night made all the better by the company of Family and lovely staff.