The last dive got out of the water before noon yesterday, meaning we were able to take flights in the afternoon today. I had booked a 12:20pm flight from Cairns to Melbourne on Virgin Australia, but I woke up to find out the flight was delayed by an hour because the inbound flight from Melbourne left an hour late. I didn't really have enough time to do the major tourist attractions in Cairns, which are to visit the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest rainforest in the world, or to take the scenic cable car above the rainforest or an open-air train through the rainforest. So instead I took a relaxing walk to a nearby coffee shop before grabing an Uber to the airport.

I had a nice conversation with my uber driver, Allyn, and before long I made it to the Cairns airport. I waited in line to check-in, and as usual for Virgin Australia the line was pretty long, but at least it moved pretty quickly. At check-in they wanted to make sure I knew that my flight was delayed.

I headed through security and found a good seat at the food court. It was close enough to lunch time so I ordered a pineapple and peri peri chicken burger from Oporto, a peri peri chicken fast food chain. It came with fries that were good, but the sandwich itself was just okay, primarily I think the bun was too much. I also had a bit of a stomach ache.

I sat around and killed time in the food court by facetiming the family, then finally it was time to board the flight. As per usual in Australia the flight boarded through both the forward and rear door, so it went really quickly. Before long we were in the sky, and I was able to get a good nap in before we landed in Melbourne.

Once landing, I had to take a shuttle to the Bargain Rental Car office. The major international rental car companies have offices right across the street from the terminal, but they were all prohibitively expensive to book. I picked up my car, a red MG ZS, and drove to St Kilda, a beach-side suburb located southeast of Melbourne where I would be spending the night before embarking on a roadtrip down the Great Ocean Road. The Great Ocean Road is located west of Melbourne, but I wasn't able to find a good place to stay over there. I was spending the night at Selina St Kilda, a hostel that was trying hard to be trendy, but it felt like some of the amenities, in particular the bathrooms, were falling apart.

Because my flight was delayed, it was after 8pm by the time I was able to head out for dinner, so there were almost no restaurants still open. I went to Kor Jee Chicken, a restaurant with good review online that makes very good roast chicken. It was way better than the chicken from the Cairns airport earlier that day. After eating I stopped by Piccolina Gelateria to get some gelato before heading back to the hostel for the night.