Arrival of our first grocery order from Cairns!

Our first Coles grocery order arrived on Thursday Island today!  Hooray!!  We ate beautiful, fresh food for dinner tonight!

Anyone who is new here spends a lot of time discussing / asking / researching options for procuring food...it's a time-consuming hobby!  Of course, a good range of things is available at the IBIS supermarket in Douglas St, but everything is expensive because it's been shipped here from Cairns & there's no competitor supermarket.

So, I had a go at a coles online order...I set up a shopping list on colesonline.com.au & an account with Seaswift freighting company before we moved here.  Then after much "to-ing and fro-ing" about whether or not is was worth paying the cost of the freighting, decided to give it a try - because I figure you can't make your mind up till you've tried it yourself!  

Some long-term residents here do fortnightly or monthly orders with coles, wholesale butchers or green grocers in Cairns, others just do there groceries here every week...so there's no one definative answer.

I had originally expected my order to arrive here last Friday, & was so disappointed when I realised I'd missed the cut-off times for delivery to the Cairns wharf...so we had a 'skinny weekend' where we continued eating a restricted diet for a few more days while waiting for it's Monday arrival. 

Dropped in to the TI wharf Monday morning to see if anything was ready - told to try again at 3pm.  Took the girls with me after school pick-up & our freezer & chiller goods were ready, so took those & madly rushed to carry heavy boxes to our downstairs fridge/freezer & unpack everything before it melted while the girls whinged & got in the way!  Went back to the wharf at 4.30pm & collected the dry goods & Dwayne helped me unpack those.  Happy days! 

Wow - our freezers, fridges & pantry look so much happier now!  We all enjoyed chicken breast, cheese, cream cheese & fresh salad, on wraps tonight...ahhh!

Jayne doing a happy dance in the driveway with her coles groceries sent from Cairns!

My pantry is now happy - but not as happy as my stuffed-full fridges & freezers!

Will take my coles receipt down to the IBIS this week & compare prices - see if it really was worth all the effort??  Keep you posted!