OTR: Day 5 … Brisbane

When we booked the villa at Cavvanbah, there was an offer for massages on the lanai. Why not, we thought to ourselves and booked a couple of treatments for yesterday afternoon.

Turns out that a therapist was not available on Sunday afternoon. Instead, we were given two options. Cancel the massages and receive a refund. Or, accept a late check-out today and have the massages this morning. Since we had just 100 miles to drive to Brisbane — and we were looking for a way to kill time before we could check-in at the Meriton Suites — we accepted option 2.

By noon, muscles appropriately worked and relaxed, we were ready to check-out and begin our drive north.

With an estimated 2-hour drive ahead of us, we’d still be arriving in Brisbane before the 3:00p check-in, but we could drop off our bags at the Meriton and go to Avis to drop off the car while we waited. Good plan. Except that we gained an hour when we crossed from New South Wales into Queensland! The good news? Even though it was only 1:00p when we showed up at the Meriton, they checked us into our suite … no questions asked. Excellent.

After taking our bags up to suite 1904, we drove the car to Avis. Not an easy feat with all the one way roads further complicated by all the construction and road closures around Brisbane. Happy to be sans-wheels in the city, we walked back to the Meriton … stopping along the way for lunch at Vapiano, a casual Italian restaurant.

By the time we got back to our suite, we were ready to do nothing but chill.

Chores and errands can wait until tomorrow.Read more