After a pretty busy week in the Outback, we spent our first day in Cairns relaxing and enjoying the fact that we weren't living in a van with no air conditioning. We booked a trip to the reef for the next day and took a nice walk along the boardwalk along the water, where the most amusing part was the signs (in English and German) warning people not to swim because of the crocodiles. We also watched New Zealand win a crazy Cricket World Cup semifinal against South Africa. I won't get too into the details of cricket, but it was like the equivalent of a two out ninth inning walk off home run.
The next day we took a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef, which was one of the highlights of the trip. We got to snorkel in three different spots on the reef and spent about five hours in the water. The coral reef was really amazing and we saw all kinds of fish and other sea creatures like giant clams, sea cucumbers and rays. We had a lot of fun and even made some new friends, Josh (from Melbourne) and Bob and Deb (from Indianapolis).
We had rented a car for the next day so that we could drive up to Daintree to check out the rainforest. We had a moment of worry when we googled the directions to get to the hotel we had booked for the night and the directions came back with "this route involves a ferry". After some brief concern that I may have booked something in Papa New Guinea we realized that a car ferry was necessary, but that it was just a quick crossing across the river. The rainforest was a really amazing ecosystem and it runs all the way down to the reef and forms the only meeting point of two World Heritage sights. We did a couple of walks along a few of the boardwalks through the forest and along some beautiful beaches. We also met up with our new friends that we met on the reef for our walks and got some really good ice cream.
Ice cream with our new friends! Can't vouch for it being "Supernatural", but it was definitely good.
Hiking in the rainforest
Thornton Beach
Our ferry ride across the river. I think that's Papa New Guinea on the other side
After spending the night at a cool little rainforest lodge up in Cape Tribulation we did a few short walks in the morning and had a brief cassowary sighting. We drove down to Port Douglas and walked around the harbor and downtown, which seemed pretty upscale, before driving back to Cairns to catch our flight to Sydney.
Arriving in Sydeny was interesting since it was the fourth time we'd been to the airport (for connecting flights), but the first time that we were actually staying. We continued our good fortune of having friends and relatives in really cool places as my cousin Zoe lives in Sydney, with her partner Tom, and their son, who before this trip I would have described "my little cousin, Elliott", but now will be known as "Gina's best friend Elliott".
Zoe, Tom and Gina's best friend, Elliott, did an amazing job of tour guiding us around Sydney. We started with a walk along the coast from Coogee to Bondi Beach, with a swim at Bondi when we got there. We got some fish and chips for lunch and then walked around Circular Quay, Sydney Opera House and the Harbor Bridge.
The next day we took a ferry ride out to Watson Beach, where we had another nice swim and walked around the South Head, which is at the mouth of Sydney Harbor. We had a couple of nice family dinners as Auntie Debbie and Danny came up from Canberra as well.
We spent one day running some errands like getting a new camera battery and doing our taxes (some things you can't escape by leaving the country), and did a nice walk around the western part of Sydney.
Our last day in Sydney we took the train out to the Blue Mountains. The weather wasn't great when we got there, as it was so foggy you could barely see your hand in front of your face. We walked to a couple of view points and took some pictures that look exactly like a close up of a blank piece of paper, which we won't post since I think you all know what that looks like already. It also starts to rain and since the weather wasn't so good we decided to head for something that is always good in Australia - coffee. We found a little place and got a couple of flat whites while we waited for the weather to improve.
Just waiting out the storm
After about an hour, with little improvement we set back out. We decided to hike down the valley a little and as we did, the fog started lifting and we got some great views of Katoomba Falls and the surrounding mountains. The weather held long enough to get back to the view points where we had started and by the time the skies opened up on us again we had made it most of the way back to the train station.
Katoomba Falls
Hiking down into the valley
The next day we said goodbye to the family and commenced 24 hours of travel to go to Punta Arenas, Chile. Our best, random moment of the trip occurred in the Santiago where we ran into our friend Johanna who has been traveling in South America for the past three months. It was a very nice surprise on a long day of travel. We have made it to Chile and are head impede into the mountains to do a trek in Torres Del Paine National Park.
Hope all is well back home. Go Warriors!
B and G
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