Apart from the luxurious (and hugely expensive) Longtitude 31, accommodation is within the “resort”. There are various offerings, from camp site up to “luxury” (ish). We had opted for the latter end of the spectrum, and were not that disappointed at what we found on arrival. Cool, airy, reception with cold juice offered whilst checking in. Which went something like;
Receptionist: “Checking in?”
Us: “Yes”
Receptionist: “Your name”
Us: “The PJHs”
Receptionist: “ How are you spelling that?”
Us: “As on this card”
Receptionist: (silence)
Us: “Is there a problem?”
Receptionist: “One moment please..”
Now to me this is not a good sign. It usually means “we have no booking for you” which in a place which is 3.5 hours flying from anywhere is not a great message to receive.
To be fair, they did have a booking for us. Unfortunately for the 2nd February. Luckily we had the Booking.com confirmation that cleared stated the 2nd January, and again luckily they did have a room, but not the one we had booked. This led to some terse “negotiations” about what we would be offered, and settled on a similar room and AUD100 to spend around the site.
And they then dropped a surprise bottle of chilled fizz in the room, which in the end sealed a good recovery on their part.
For my part I also did a good recovery, remembering that I had secreted some Old Gold chocolate in our luggage. Which was now sitting in 44 degree heat. I had remembered to wrap it rather thoroughly, so when I did get to it, it was very runny but hadn’t leaked…
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Anyhow, apart from that initial fun we did a sunset trip to the Rock, with BBQ (kangaroo is ok-ish), a sunrise trip the next day with a couple of walks at points at the Rock itself, and then a Star Talk that evening. That really did make us feel small, and drove something home when the guide drew a line in the sky and said “and remember that you will never see anything below this line from the northern hemisphere.” And I got to see the Southern Cross for the first time…
And then it was time to leave to begin the next bit of the adventure. We were picked up two hours before flight time, which is a little bit excessive given that it is about 10 minutes to the airport. When we got there no-one was on duty. At all.
Eventually a couple of check in staff appeared, looked surprised and then started to process the queue so that we could then proceed through security (where I was checked for explosives) through to the main waiting area which featured a souvenir shop and a coffee bar. All of this will still 90 minutes before the flight. I was hoping that the flight wasn’t going to be late!
What I did manage to do was remember to download the iPad app for the wireless IFE (just in case) and buy a t-shirt that reads “Hard Rock – No Café” which along with the Phoenix Nights-like name of the noodle bar in the resort tickled my funny bone.
We also had this visitor – not a common sight by the reaction of the staff.
Time passed, as it tends to, the incoming flight disembarked and a quarter of an hour or so later we boarded.
This proved to be a rather tatty older 737 with seatback VERA Reel style IFE. And the newer style Wifi version, so we had fun with both. I can see the latter catching on for shorter haul flights, even if the selection wasn’t huge.
On this leg we were on a bargain fare, so tea coffee and water only.
Other than that, the flight was much as on the way in – several hours of red – and a descent that was announced as starting way before any form of habitation was visible. One thing that was absent was turbulence – I’d been led to expect that thermals around the Rock made the flights in and out of the airport rather bumpy.
We were on stand a little early, and then through baggage to pick up the car for the trip to the Blue Mountains and the Hunter Valley.
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We can get better, because we're not dead yet
The hotel problem was well retrieved on their part - I have experienced all too often the uncomfortable silence when it is clear the booking information you have doesn't match the hotel computer! 
