Christmas Day was very different this year but in a good way. We woke up in the morning to discover that our flight had been pushed back an hour, meaning we didn’t have to rush and could take the morning’s minimal festivities easy.

The managers of the Cocos Village Bungalows put out bags of lollies (or rather, said Santa had) on the tables outside our bungalows, which was a really nice thoughtful touch.

We finished packing up our luggage and wandered to the only place making anything close to breakfast that morning. We had coffee and toasted ham and cheese sandwiches. After that, we bundled into the car with our drinks and went south to one of the many crystal-clear water beaches.

We cracked a bottle of Champagne, took some photos and wished each other a merry Christmas. We then returned to town, only to discover that our flight was delayed again by another two hours. So we sat around, chatting to Gail, one of the managers, drinking our drinks and nibbling on some snacks. It was definitely a different kind of day.

The plane eventually arrived and we boarded and flew off to Christmas Island. We were there for all of an hour I think but it was cool to say that we were on Christmas Island on Christmas Day.

The flight from there to Perth was only 3 hours and 15 minutes but god I was bored. I couldn’t wait to land. When we did, we had to go through the customs line. Glen had filled in both of our cards and instead of crossing each ‘No’ off individually, he simply put a line straight through them.

We went separately up to the counter and while my officer simply recrossed each ‘No’ for me, Glen’s officer made him fill out a whole new form. Meanwhile, I merrily skipped through downstairs, breezed through the G2G checkpoint and collected our baggage, perfectly timed for him to join me.

We found out later that Narelle, Justin and Andrew had to wait an hour to get through everything, partly because Justin’s phone died while he was standing in line. We had thought about waiting for them outside but Christine was already there to pick us up.

To my shame we had Maccas for Christmas dinner. To my even greater shame, it wasn’t that bad.

We sorted out our luggage, dumped everything in the washing basket ready to be rewashed (because even sitting on a tarmac for a few hours things had gotten damp and smelly), and the cat meowed at us for about four hours, expressing her displeasure at being left behind.

Our first overseas Covid holiday was now complete.

Would I go back to either Christmas Island or Cocos Islands?

I’d go to Christmas Island to be in the middle of the spawning or migration, stay in the settlement and go snorkelling again, but that could all be done in a matter of days. I feel like I’ve done everything else that the island has to offer, as great as it was.

I could go to Cocos Islands for a few more days, maybe to have a bit of a relax, and Gail mentioned there was a beach where you could see about 60–70 sea turtles at once so I definitely want to see that.