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Tasmania and the Great Barrier Reef

Tasmania and the Great Barrier Reef
Tasmania and the Great Barrier Reef
via Qantas First Class
December 2018

Mrs. SFO777 is not a morning person, so this is not going to be a good day.   Our 6:50am Qantas flight to Sydney means a 4:30am wake up.  The drive to the airport was 15 minutes and we arrived around 5:30am or so.  With no one in front of us at security, we were in the departures are a few minutes later. 

The good news is the Hobart has a Qantas Club.

Unfortunately, that is also the bad news.  Although reasonably large for such a small station, none of the seating looked comfortable, and the place had a foul odor, which matched the mood of the unfriendly lounge dragon.

I'm guessing that the griddle without any exhaust fan was source of the smell.

After 30 second walk around and some pics, we left for the much more comfortable departures area.

Hobart HBA to Sydney SYD
QantasLink QF 1582
6:50am-8:30am
717-200
December 31, 2018
Seats 2DF

Boarding began at 6:25am with a call for all to board.  OK, so what is the point is the Prirority signs?

2-2 Business class seats which were not very comfortable, compared to AA's old Mad Dog seats or even Delta's 717 seats.

PDB offerings of apple juice or water.

Mrs. SFO777 wisely passed on breakfast and tried to sleep.  I decided to try the frittata.

With salt and pepper, the frittata was passable but the spinach and sausages were pretty gross.

On the other hand, the warm macadamia bun was delicious.

The Bliss Balls were OK.

No wifi on this plane although entertainment is apparently streamed to your personal device... if you have the Qantas Entertainment app, which is not the same thing as the Qantas app.  Jeez.

We arrived SYD about 20 minutes early and were at the gate a few minutes later. 

We arrived at Gate 9 in Terminal 3 and very close to our connecting Gate 13.

We headed for the Qantas Club, or so we thought.

Unfortunately, at the top of the escalator, the Qantas Club dragon informed us that the Club was temporarily closed.  When I inquire whether "temporarily" meant 30 minutes or a few hours, she replied "for a few weeks".  LOL.   I'm thinking that a sign would be a little cheaper.  Just saying.

We were directed down a long narrow corridor to the Business Lounge.

Past somthing called the Private Lounge, where a snooty dragon informed me that the lounge was indeed private and/or for Chairman's Club members.  

Unfortunately, the Qantas Business Lounge was one of the sorriest lounges I've seen in a long time.  When you start to miss the Admirals Club or even a United Club, you know this is bad lounge.   Tons of people and seats with very few power outlets.  Yeah, who needs to recharge personal devices.

The most notable thing about walking around the lounge was how utterly and disgustingly flithy the place was.  Either Aussies are slobs and/or the staff only cleans up once a week.  This is only a sample at 9am.

And then there was the food offerings and the masses jockeying for position to scoop up the slop being offered.

Just love the perfect-size-for-horse carrots.

After my first walkabout, I asked the dragon if there was another Qantas Club or First Class Lounge available to One World Emeralds.  She seemed taken aback when I told her that "this lounge is disgusting".

At T-40 we headed for the gate and our similar QantasLink 717.

Sydney SYD to Hamilton Island HTI
QantasLink QF 1572
10:35am-11:45am
717-200
December 31, 2018
Seats 3AC
 

QantasLink pillows, apparently washed once a month if ever.

About the same frequency as floors are vacuumed.

Or the arm rests or trays washed. 

In the air, drink service.

At around 11:30a meal service.   Choice of a classic reuben or the same breakfast frittata as on our previous flight.  Unfortunately, QF only loaded 3 reubens for a 12 seat cabin and by the time our FA got to our row 3, the reubens were long gone.   Apparently, no one at QF catering thought that many pax would actually want lunch... on a lunch flight.    I just had the macadamia nut bun.

The Japanese couple next to so were apparently so hungry that they accepted the frittata.

Our FA disappeared and I got tired of waiting.

Mercifully, we began our descent 30 minutes ahead of schedule.  Pretty scenery on the way down.

Happy to arrive here after a long day on one of the worst airlines in the free world.

From the air, the view of Hamilton Island with Qualia Resort in the foreground of this pic.  Inside the HTI terminal, there is a Qualia transfer desk where reps greet Qualia guests and transport them to the resort.   They would even collect any checked bags on your behalf and then deliver them to your bungalow (pavilion) a short while later.  Since we didn't have any checked bags, we were driven promptly to Qualia in a nice van which we shared with the Japanese couple from across the aisle on our inbound flight.

About 7 minutes later, we arrived at Qualia.

First stop was the Long Pavilion, where checked in. 

Since it was just a little after noon, our pavilion was not quite ready.  Each pavilion has its own golf cart for unlimited guest use during your stay.  We hopped into our cart and drove down to Pebble Beach Pavilion for lunch.

A cocktail to start.

Mrs. SFO777's prawn and pasta salad was delicious.

My reef trout was amazing.

By the time we finished lunch, our pavilion was ready.

Oh yeah, this will do.

We relaxed the rest of the afternoon enjoying our pavilion and the view.

At around 7:15pm, we headed back to Pebble Beach and a special New Years Dinner.

Our 6 course tasting menu was amazing.  Even better with sommelier Ben's wonderful wine pairings.

Our amuse bouche.

Hiramasu kingfish with tomato, kiwi, jalapeno and capsicum.  Paired nicely with Piper-Heidsieck Essentiel.

Marron with green mango, nam prik and squid ink crisp.  Paired with 2015 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay from Margaret River.

OMG, the bread was incredible.

Next was our favorite dish of the night, the fabulous Duck, with swede, horseradish, celery and cinnamon jus.  Paired with the 2015 Willian Downie Pinot from Mornington Peninsula.

The Wagyu, with beetroot, bone marrow and burnt onion.  Paired with the 2015 John Duval Eligo Shiraz from Barossa Valley.

Yuzu sorbet with apple and sesame.  Paired with 2017 Frogmore Creek Iced Riesling from Coal Valley, Tasmania.

And the finale: Mint aero, chocolate sorbet, mint ice cream.  Paired with a glass of amazing 2015 Chateau d'Yquem.  

What a wonderful meal and treat, and one of the best meals anywhere in the past year.

New Years Day dawned with gorgeous sunny skies.

Our resident cheeky cockatoo was back, no doubt looking for food.

With this setting and view, in room dining for sure.

Mrs. SFO777's pancakes...

... and my Spanish omelet.  Delicious.

Later in the morning, I decided to give our golf cart a workout and headed out to explore Hamilton Island.

The Hamilton Island harbour.

Hamilton Island Yacht Club.

Back to Pebble Beach for lunch, prior to our helicopter tour to the Great Barrier Reef.

And back at our pavilion, lingering clouds were moving out.

At 2:20pm we hopped in the cart and headed to the Qualia helipad for our 2:30pm flght to the Reef.   Our great pilot and guide Tallum.

Simply gorgeous secenry along the way for our 30 minute flight. 

Whitsunday Beach.

On the helipad at the reef, with a resident ghost (aka Mrs. SFO777 veto-ing the pic... LOL).

First stop was the underwater viewing area.

And then pics from the "submarine" which moved along the reef.

Next we're headed out for some awesome snorkling with a few hundred of our new friends.  Sadly, no pics as I decided not the test Apple's claim that the iphone Xs was waterproof.

After an hour and a half at the reef, we shuttled back to the helipad.  Our gorgeous bird...

Back at Qualia just after 5pm.  What an incredible experience and visit to the Great Barrier Reef.

Later that evening, a private dinner outdoors at the Long Pavilion.

Tonight's entertainment, a curlew who kept walking by our table growling at us for apparenlty invading her territory.  Pretty funny.

Another wonderful meal and experience at Qualia.

Another gorgeous morning at Qualia.  Unfortunately, it's getaway day and time to go home.  We relaxed all morning, packed and then headed out in our cart for our 1pm shuttle ride to the airport.

HTI was pretty empty and we were thru security quickly and at the gate in no time.  While getting to Australia using miles was easy, getting home directly using miles during the New Years week was simply impossible.  The best I could come up with was a $4,700 roundtrip Qantas Business Class fare.  Hated to do it but I used Chase UR points at 1.5x so each ticket cost 315,000 points.  The good news is that we found a very convenient connection and a short 12 hour BNE-LAX flight on the new-ish Qantas 789.  We earn miles for the flights and get a free return trip later this year, which we will use to position for Bali.

Our 717 arriving from Brisbane.

And now scheduled to depart 15 minutes early.

Hamilton Island HTI to Brisbane BNE
QantasLink QF 1575
717-200
2:25pm-4:10pm (sked)
2:10pm-3:20pm (actual)
January 2, 2019
Economy Exit row 14AC

 

Gate agents dutifully rolled out the Priority Board sign and like we've become accustomed to with QF, then proceeded to ignore it and announced general boarding for all.  We are in Economy on this short HTI-BNE leg since Chase now uses expedia.com as its search engine and for some reason, despite a completely empty Business cabin, would only sell Economy on this short flight.  Not to worry, as QF sold us much more comfortable and roomy exit row seats for only AUD $10.  

Since we were sitting right in front of the gate podium, we were the first to board.  The long but pleasant walk to our plane. 

Roomy exit room with cloth seats that had more cushion and were actually more comfortable that the 717 Business Class seats.

Much more underseat space for bags than in Business.  Yes, we did put them in the overhead for take-off and landing.

One last look at the gorgeous scenery around Hamilton Island and the Great Barrier Reef.

On board beverage and snack box service in Economy.

Our first look at Brisbane.

And on the ground at BNE.  

For Economy, this was a very pleasant flight with a ton of room in the exit row.

Since our original connect time at Brisbane was only 75 minutes, I was relieved when we arrived from Hamilton Island some 45 minutes early.   We're now used to QantasLink and lack of jet bridges.  Today was double exercise as we had to climb a long set of stairs from the tarmac to the terminal.  

International Transfer.  I guess that's us.

A Qantas customer service agent confirmed that the International Terminal is indeed nowhere near the domestic terminal and that we had to exit and take a transfer bus to the International Terminal.  

Outside, just a gorgeous summer day.

Nice enough bus, but this drive just went on and on and on.  BNE is apparently designed by the same crazy guy that designed Heathrow with the BNE International Terminal about as far away from the rest of the terminals as T5 is at Heathrow.  Finally, we arrive.  

After 20 questions from a pleasant security guy forced to ask stupid TSA-mandated questions, we both got our stickers and headed for security.  

Where there were a mass of people in the regular line just beyond this point, but only a handful of folks in the priority line.  And once again, access to this priority line is entirely on the honour system with no one checking our boarding passes.  

After security and passport control, the crazy long walk thru duty free to the concourse.

At the far end of the concourse, the Qantas Business Lounge.

Pleasant lounge dragon welcomed us but advised that the 2nd level was closed since there aren't many flights at this time of day.  OK, but there aren't many open seats.  Probably more like Qantas is too cheap to staff the 2nd level.  

We parked ourselves at the reasonablly pleasant communal table which seemed more pleasant than the rest of the lounge...  

... near the food trough with a mediocre selection of food offerings.

... and bar.

At T-50, we headed out for what turned out to be the furthest gate away from the lounge.

And Gate 87, apparently selected as it is the end of the world here and the easiest gate to manage stupid TSA pre-flight screening.  As bad as the TSA mandates are, the process here was more like the Gong Show or chickens running around with their heads cut off.

Brisbane BNE to Los Angeles LAX
Qantas QF 55
787-900
5:25p-12:00p
January 2, 2019
Seats 4EF

 

With no apparent organization at the gate and the only agent announcements for those who had not already answered security questions at check in, we parked ourselves near the front of the Qantas "Priority" Lane.  Or rather the Qantas Fake Priority lane, which once again became meaningless when the security folks opened the Economy lane first.

We waited near the gate podium and then the agent began scanning boarding passes without any announcement and certainly no invitation for Business Class to board first.   A left turn from 2L into a rather pleasant looking Business Class cabin.  Since we were one of the few Business Class passengers to board, I had lots of time to take pics of the cabin.

It's certainly not First Class but seems comfortable enough for 12 hours. Indeed, Mrs. SFO777 opined that this was much better than she expected and in fact, looked pretty nice.

Tonight's menu with a familiar looking cover.

And the breakfast menu, which we filled out and handed back to one of our FAs.

The Qantas Business Class amenity kit...

... with a bunch of meh.

Pre departure choice of champagne or water.

The 789 IFE is much better than the A380 IFE, but once again, NO WIFI.  On a new plane??  Yeah, who cares about Wifi and keeping in touch on a 12 hour flight?

After take-off, my usual G&T and a mostly pastry empanada canapé.

Dinner started with a salad and bread.  The salad was basic but the bread was delicious.  With a pleasant glass of shiraz.

My starter was the Tasting plate with sweet potato hummus, dukkah spiced labne, butter bean and chickpea salsa, roast capsicum, marinated zucchini and pita.  It was quite tasty.

For my main, the Chicken biriyani with roasted pumpkin and raita was really good.

But the summer berry pudding with creme fraiche was dry and disappointing.

After a movie, I asked one our FAs to make my bed and went to change.

Now that's a pretty cool idea, although a little freaky looking... a mattress pad that wraps around the seat.

While not overly thick or cushiony. the resulting bed was pretty comfortable as I slept for a solid 6 hours.

The snack counter in the forward galley.

Breakfast... the largest croissant I've ever seen, and a delicious bacon, egg and cheddar on Turkish with Neil (Perry)'s barbecue sauce.

OK, now this was really good.

We landed at LAX on time, but were banished to the Gate 200+ bus gates where all the unimportant flights go, aka flights from those airlines unwilling to pay for a TBIT gate.

Huge lines inside CBP but with Global Entry we were in and out in less than 5 minutes.  Today with Qantas was a much better day than our Hobart to Hamilton Island day.  OK so Qantas isn't one of the worst airlines in the free world, at least today.  Just don't plan on staying in touch with the rest of the world while you are in the air. 

What a wonderful but all too short visit to Tasmania and the Great Barrier Reef.   Thanks for following along.

And a post script.  After we relaxed and unpacked, we headed for groceries at our local Gelson's where we found carrots worthy of the Qantas Business Lounge in SYD.

Oh yeah, and one last vacation dinner... at our brand new IN-N-OUT.  LOL.