The third and final part of our Australian adventure....
Our flight from Brisbane to Cairns was delayed, so we arrived in Cairns at the stroke of midnight to bring in Christmas morning. I am not sure, but I think I saw a sleigh and reindeer while we were making our landing! We arrived so late that the rental car agency left our van in the "car park" with keys under the mat. We loaded up and headed on the 25 minute drive to Palm Cove. By the way, Phillip loves driving on the round-a-bouts. I think he may run for governor of Ohio when we return using the platform of replacing all stop lights with round-a-bouts! Ha. It was dark and rainy. We found our apartment building, but Phillip and I could not get the after hours code to work. Good grief. It is 12:45am on Christmas morning. I did not want to call the Island Views emergency number. Then, I finally remembered that the lady told me “hash” before the code. Hash? Ahhh…. The number sign….. Alas, the code worked! Our tired bodies got a bolt of energy when we walked into our apartment to find 3 bedrooms, 2 family rooms, a kitchen, and a big balcony with grill, table and chairs, couch and a stunning view of the ocean. Who can sleep now? Well, we finally settled down around 2 something….
We found a church on Christmas morning. I always love to hear the Christmas story and sing Christmas songs together as a family. It is the best way to celebrate Jesus’ birth. We wanted to eat what Australians eat on Christmas, so our restaurant search began. Many restaurants serve a 3 hour, 7 course meal, full of seafood. The cost was between $110 - $140 per person. Yikes! So, we found a restaurant that serve these foods ala carte – just one course would be fine for us Americans!
 |
| Christmas Day in Cairns |
On Sunday, we went to Tjapukai Aboriginal Park. We learned about the aborigines (think our Native American Indians). They showed us via performances of dance, theater, and demonstrations. We learned about their weapons, their laws, and medicines. Then, we all got to throw spears and boomerangs! Very cool. Matthew learned to play the didgeridoo, their musical instrument of choice.
On Monday, we took a beautiful 35 minute drive to Port Douglas. (We ended up making this gorgeous drive 3 days in a row!) We did a full day private tour. (Yes, the Maloneys did a private charter tour. With 6, we almost fill up the land cruiser any way!) Neville was a delightful man, and he connected with the children right away. He told them to call him “Uncle Nev”. We experienced the Daintree River, Daintree Rainforest, Mossman Gorge, Cape Tribulation. Amazing. We saw crocodiles, lizards, butterflies, and birds on our river cruise… We had a barbeque lunch in a jungle… The boys ate ants with Uncle Nev in the rainforest… We swam in the clear waters of the Mossman Gorge. It was definitely a full day! We saw lots of plant life, but we were surprised that we did not see many animals.
On Wednesday, the entire family took that beautiful drive back to Port Douglas. Grandma was very nervous because she had never snorkeled before. We picked Quick Silver as it included an underground viewing area, as well as a semi-submersible vessel to allow all to see the fish and coral, even if you did not snorkel. The boat was huge with 3 floors. It took 1.5 hours to get out to the Agincourt Reef (along the outer edge of the Great Barrier Reef). We got our lycra suits on. Grandma took some time to put her face in the water, and then she headed out into the ocean with her snorkel buddies Phillip and Jacob. Matthew, Jessica, and I followed behind them. We had a great time snorkeling, enjoying the seafood buffet, going out in the semi-submersible vessel, and then snorkeling some more! We were all very proud of Grandma! On the boat trip back, we met a lovely couple from England. We talked the whole way back about cricket, rugby, the royal family ... they were wonderful with our kids. We found out that they had 5 children and 4 grandchildren, so no wonder they were so good with kids! It turned out that their apartment was right behind ours, so they rode back to Palm Cove with us. I love the wonderful people that you meet along each journey.
For our last day on Thursday, we took the Kuranda sky rail to Kuranda to see the rain forest, Barron Gorge, the cute little town, and of course, the wildlife sanctuary where Jacob, Matthew, and Jessica got to hold koalas. They are so doggone cute. Then, we got to pet and feed more kangaroos. We headed back via the Kuranda scenic sky rail. We picked up pizzas and ate poolside that evening. It was a lovely evening and a wonderful way to end our trip as we headed out to the airport on Friday morning. Wow. Two weeks just flew by.
 |
Going to Australia was truly a dream come true. It is a beautiful country with friendly people. We enjoyed many of their sayings, like "G'day, Mate", "Nana", make sure your seat belts are"done up", etc. However, my favorite Australia saying is as much an attitude as it is a saying. "No worries, Mate!" We heard this from so many people. The great thing is that the people really mean it - Don't worry. Things will be just fine. So, our family has adopted "No Worries, Mate!" as our attitude for 2011. During this holiday season, we continue to be so very thankful for good health, safety, family, home, and the opportunity to have such wonderful experiences.
So from our family to yours, "Merry Christmas, and No worries, Mate!"
Peace and Love,
Tina
No comments:
Post a Comment