Auckland to Cairns: Real Costs of Being Thrifty

We eventually headed back to the airport, picked up our bags and boarded our Pacific Blue flight to Cairns. In contrast to Air New Zealand, which tried to make the flight as painless as possible, this was a no frills flight. Whereas Air New Zealand weighed our two checked bags together for a total weight of 40 kilograms maximum, Pacific Blue forced us to repack items so that each bag stayed under 20 kilograms. They charged for personal entertainment devices, and they even charged $3 for each coffee, bottled water or soda. We stuck to free tap water and read our books. The seats weren't too uncomfortable, but when comparing air prices, remember that flights aren't necessarily equal commodities. As a further note, because we booked this flight through an international site, the price was padded upward a couple of times after the fact to cover currency exchange fees and rate adjustments.

When we arrived at the airport in Cairns, we caught a shuttle, although we found out later that a private taxi would have cost about the same as the $9 per person we paid. Still, the driver was friendly, and we only made a few stops in the relatively traffic-free city of Cairns, soon arriving at Rydges Esplanade, a modern hotel where we were assigned a room with a view overlooking the pool and the ocean across the street, an incredible deal for approximately $90 per night we pre-paid through the hotel booking engine at CruisePlanners1.com.

We walked off toward town and had dinner at Outback Jack's, which had a deceptive sign that promised somewhat less expensive fare than they offered. Still, I enjoyed my Barri Burger, made with grilled barramundi, a fish theoretically caught locally. By the time we finished dinner and walked back to the hotel, we were ready to fall asleep quickly, and did.