Naturally Brewed Mate!

Mum has a guide book that has heaps of information specifically on the East Coast of Australia, so while in Rockhampton she read up about a small council zoo and botanical gardens so we checked it out. I wasn’t feeling well at all because I had been having bad sleeps because we had thin mattresses and the Aussie soil wasn’t very soft. I haven’t had one sleep here where I have slept through the whole night without waking up at least twice. Before we got to Rockhampton thought, I went for a walk on the beach with mum and Esmee. It won’t stop raining! It sucks for us because we came for the sun, but its good for the Aussies because they are in a severe drought so they are loving the rain at the moment. On my way doing the dishes I felt something on my toe. It was an electric ant! It wasn’t quick enough to bite me though. I flicked it off immediately.

The Rockhampton zoo wasn’t too bad for a council research centre. We saw our first koalas! They were very sleepy. We were the only ones there and one of the rangers was walking a dingo through the park. They has wombats and heaps of different types of birds of all colours. We could hear the chimps from the other end of the zoo (though it wasn’t very big), so went over to check them out. We also saw some wallabies, kanga’s and a python. Even though they are non venomous they are still pretty scary and can kill you if they really want to! After a short walk through the botanical gardens, we left and saw that we had 600km to go until Brisbane. We have been thinking about taking a tour to Fraser Island, but have decided not too because its too expensive. Fraser Island is a beautiful Island just north of Brisbane. It is an island of complete sand and you can only go there with a 4wd. They have beautiful fresh water lakes in the middle which are surrounded by forests. There is no soil, its pretty much sand! Its a beautiful place, mum and dad went there 20 years ago. I would have loved to do it, but most of the 4wd were sold out anyway so the lady at the information shop suggested sky diving to me as an alternative. Uh.. maybe later!



Wallabys

So we hit the road again and ended up in Bundaberg! Yes this is the home town of the famous Bundaberg ginger beer and lemon lime and bitters. I thought of Kieran, Ross’s little brother - I know he likes his ginger beer! Camiel was keen as to visit ‘The Barrel’, where you could do a small tour on the Bundaberg drinks. The tour wasn’t bad. They had a 3d movie and interesting facts about the Bundaberg and how it is naturally brewed and everything. They even had free tasting! I walked out with a ten pack of lemon lime and bitters because it was cheap (Only $10!).


Bunndaaberrrggg!!!

Then we drove down to a beach called Mon Repos Beach, which is famous for sea turtle laying and hatching. You have to book tours to see the sea turtles, but it was booked out until the 1st of January, and we were going to be 300km south by the time January came around... We checked out the beach anyway to see if we could see any sea turtles. They sea turtles come from about November to January to lay their eggs at night. The eggs take about eight weeks to hatch, so from February to May you can watch them hatch. The turtles dig their eggs into the ground, so when they hatch the turtles have to make their way to the surface and then to the sea. Its quite amazing to see, as the turtles are endangered.


We found a turtle!

On our way back from Mon Repos we saw kangaroos in the wild! We also saw (and heard!) many kookaburras! We had dinner at McD, before driving to Maryborough to set up camp in the dark. We were pro campers by now, so the darkness wasn’t a problem!

Hope you are all well!
Fem
xox

Are we There Yet?

We left Bowen and drove along the coast line at 8am. It was already 32 degrees outside and people were already at the beach swimming. We still haven’t gotten the chance to go in the sea water yet, but the more south we go the less stingers around, so we’ll have to wait until Brisbane or something close to that. The reception at the campground closed just after we got there last night, and was still closed this morning so we just left. We weren’t gonna wait around until it opened because we had to start clearing some serious distance, out first week was gone. So we got a free night at the campground. Sweet!

I was woken up this morning by the lorikeets squealing at each other. There were heaps in the trees above our tents. I had a shower and my hair dried so fast! It usually takes hours to dry back at home, but here it dried in about 15 minutes. We drove back through Bowen and discovered that it is the ‘fruit town’ of Australia, particularly for Mangos. We spotted a big mango statue as we drove through the town. We drove for hours until we got to McKay - which was awfully quiet for a big town. We needed to do some shopping so we headed to the mall, only to find it absolutely deserted. There was nobody around and the whole mall was shut at 10am on a Monday morning. We found out that its a public holiday here in Australia, because boxing day was on a Saturday. We had nothing for dinner so McDonalds was looking hopeful! But then our dreams of McDonalds got shattered as we found a small grocery shop called ‘Spar’ open. Dad bought some food for dinner and we set off again south.



The country side?

On our way to Rockhampton were some cool signs that the city council had put up. When we left McKay it had signs saying ‘How far to go mum?’ ‘How far to go dad?’ ‘Still 3 hours to Rocky kids!’ and as we got closer there were signs saying ‘2 hours to go kids!’. It was funny, someone in the city council obviously had a sense of humor! We stopped in the tiniest town called Clearview for lunch. It was just one street that had a few houses on the beach front. We pulled up into a patch of dirt and trees and ate there. There were heaps of ants and spiders on the soil, and we found a big ant hill.


The ant hill

We turned off just before Rockhampton to stay in a place called Yapoon. We didn’t like the campground there, but it was nice and cool. I think Yapoon is where everyone goes to escape the heat. We drove for another half hour south to an even small town called Emu Park. We stayed at a city council campground, which was full of toads - they were so loud! As it got dark, bats flocked the entire sky. I hate bats, I think they are disgusting creatures! Camiel and I watched them as they would come close to an object and then quickly turn away as they used sound to direct them. I saw my first wild snake! Dad spotted a small black snake slithering through the grass next to the kitchen. Even though it was small, it could still be lethal but It soon quickly slithered away into the forest.

I’m tired now!
Fem
xox

Bowenwood?

This morning we left early again. So early that we didn’t even have breakfast, we all just jumped in the car. We stopped after about an hour of driving at a deserted town (all the small towns here are so deserted - no body is around!) and had our breakfast. Next to us was two trees which were full of birds and nests. Literally hundreds of nests were scattered throughout the two trees. Most of the birds were black birds, but Esmee spotted a beautiful yellow one. There was a horse behind us in a paddock, so Esmee and I went to say hello and fed it the remains of our carrots. We gave it the name Brownie. Poor horse, having to stand in the heat all day.



The horse we saw

The drive was getting less scenic. Today all we saw was sugar cane farms, banana farms and dry land with a few cows on it. We stopped at a big city called Townsville which had a big aquarium which I wanted to do. It was a replica of the Barrier Reef, and seeing as we had just done it, we decided to wait until the aquarium in Sydney, which is apparently really really cool. We drove down a street called ‘The Strand’ which was along the waterfront until we reached two water/swimming parks. One was a kids one and the other was a big salt walter out door pool, which was nice seeing as you couldn’t actually swim in the ocean because of the stingers. Esmee decided to go to the kids one, so we lay on the grass and watched her for a bit until she got bored and wanted to go to the other one. After the salt water pool, Camiel and I decided it was time for McDonalds. Finally! We drove to McD and got some cheeseburgers, and took the advantage that Australia has 719 McDonalds that have access to free wireless. I plugged in my laptop as It was dead, and went online to post my blog, check my emails and talk to Ross and Shannon for a bit. After fourty five minutes, it was definitely time to leave as dad was getting impatient.


Camiel found his sister school!

It’s a shame that the first kangaroo I saw while in Australia since the last was a dead one. We were driving and came across a dead one on the road. There are dead kangaroos on the road all over Australia, as people accidently drive into them at night. It must be a pretty big bump, because they are reasonably sized animals. We also noticed a big smoke cloud up ahead, which turned out to be a bush fire right next to the road. It’s a shame, the problem of bush fires that they have here in Aus. Families got wiped out during the Melbourne bush fires early this year.

We drove over a bridge that was suppose to have a river flowing underneath it. There was no water. It was just a dry patch of land underneath the bridge. So dry you could walk across the whole thing. Not a single drop of water was beneath the bridge. I found this pretty insane, that the climate could get so hot here that a whole river would dry up during the summer months. I have seen some water signs asking to try and preserve the water as Australia is experiencing a major drought. You could say that alright! We came up to a place called Bowen, which has had an increase of 25000 tourists since the making of the film ‘Australia’. Why? Because Bowen is the place where the cast and crew stayed while filming. Some of the movie is filmed here in Bowen, and casts would travel a few hours in land to shoot the more desert scenes. The even have a ‘Bowenwood’ sign up on the hills, replicating ‘Hollywood’. Its a small town though, nothing interesting. No shopping mall. Only a Subway and Eagle Boys. There isn’t much to do here. It was coming close to 5.30, so we had to set up camp. We found a camp ground that accepted tenting (most here don’t) which is called Horseshoe Bay Resort. It was dry - thankfully, so we had no problem setting up our tents.


Esmee on the beach

I took Esmee to the pool (she can never get enough of the water!), and we spotted some colourful lorikeets in the trees. You know the ones you can buy at the pet shop which are rainbow coloured? We had 2 minute noodles for dinner as there wasn’t really a kitchen, and then climbed into our tents. Its 550 km to Rockhampton, which is our next big destination. We’ll see how far we get tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Brittany!!!! :)
Fem
xox

Waterfalls

When we woke up it was still raining. We quickly packed up and left Cape Tribulation at about 8am after seeing some more lizards and turkeys. We drove back through the rainforest and caught the ferry back over the Daintree river before stopping at a look out over the ocean. We grabbed some snacks from the back of the car, then carried on towards civilisation! We stopped at a small town in the middle of the forest called Mossman, and checked out the crocodile tours. The town was deserted and the tours weren’t that appealing so we kept driving. We next stopped at a mall closer to Cairns and stocked up on groceries. We also went to KMart to buy pots and pans for our cooking as we realised that not all places supplied these. Bunnings was across the road, but teased us by pretending to go to McDonalds - still haven’t been yet, I’m craving a cheeseburger! Dad went into Bunnings to buy a chair, while Camiel and I went to the sausage sizzle to get some lunch. We had a good chat to the Aussie blokes at the sausage sizzle, and paid $2 for a sausage! Expensive!



Bunnings! (for Ross)

The weather was sunny in Cairns, and as we were driving through the city some idiot ran a red light and dad had to slam on the breaks as he zoomed right infront of us, inches away. It was so freaky. People were slamming on their breaks and tooting their horns and the idiot just zoomed right through the red light at at least 80 km/ph. After this, we drove south of Cairns and took a detour route to see some waterfalls. The rain decided to come back, so what was supposed to be a nice scenic drive turned into a foggy wet drive.

Nevertheless, our crazy family still decided to go and visit the waterfalls. We parked up at the parking lots, I put on my bikini and saved my dry clothes for when I came back, put my camera in a plastic bag, and we all counted down from three and opened the doors, shut them, and ran down the bush track to the waterfalls. The tracks would only be two minute walks, but we still ran for our life because it was now only 20 degrees and we were getting soaked. Once at the waterfall mum and I would pull out our cameras and try to protect them from the rain and snap our photos. The falls were huge long skinny ones which would pelt down into a swimming hole. There was even one crazy family who decided to go and have a swim in the swimming hole. They were only in there for about 30 seconds until they realised they were crazy to do this in the cold and the rain haha.


Waterfalls

After the waterfalls we headed down to Innisfail to a public campground in Etty Bay. There were heaps of tea farms on the drive south. Etty bay is the only place known where the Cassowary’s come so close to the humans. We spotted a Cassowary and stopped to take photos as we thought this was a once in a lifetime thing to actually see one. We continued on to the campground only to be greeted by 4 Cassowary’s roaming around the campground coming right up close to you. There were adults and babies, and Esmee decided to pretend that she was a baby Cassowary and tried to make friends with them. There was no kitchen at the campground, so we had ‘lunch’ for dinner. This means we had bread rolls with cheese and lettuce. They had a stinger safe area on the beach which had a net around one section of the beach which was safe for swimming in, but it was dark by now. Esmee and I thought we saw a kookaburra on top of a power line, but it was too small to be one. Walking through the campground, Esmee and I spotted 7 frogs that jumped around the grass. They can jump pretty fast! Time to rest up for another day of driving tomorrow.


Cassowary!


Peace
Fem
xox

The Wet Tropics

I am writing this in the world’s oldest rainforest. Three million years older than the Amazon. However here is where the rainforest meets the reef. Two minutes away is the golden beach, however you can’t swim in it for two good reasons. Crocodiles and box jellyfish. It’s a shame really, because its 35 degrees outside and the water looks so inviting. Crystal clear and warm. There are no crocodiles in the bay where we are tenting, which is called Cape Tribulation, but in the bay next to us is apparently a 3 metre crocodile. Waiting. Cape Tribulation is the place where James Cook came on land in Australia for the first time. You have to catch a 2 minute ferry across the Daintree river to our camp ground because of the crocodiles. There are warning signs everywhere along the beaches and bottles of vinegar just in case you get stung. The box jellyfish are deadly, and their tentacles are invisible in the water, so it’s best to keep out! Esmee and I dipped our feet in the water though. You can see the swampy mangroves off to the left and right of the bays, which is where the crocodiles like to live. Mum and I were brave enough to check them out and snap a few photos. Didn’t see any crocodiles though!


Us at the beach!

We took some short walks through the rainforest to see the wildlife. Its so tropical and exotic in the forest. There are thin tall trees with fan shaped fern leaves, and spaghetti vines twirling themselves around them. We saw some turkey’s, which we wanted to catch for Christmas lunch (just kidding!), and also we think it was a small boar pig type thing. Heaps of lizards. We’ve seen small skink like ones, and I even spotted a huge yellow spotted 1.5 metre lizard crawling through the edge of the forest in the campground. The butterflies here are beautiful. Bright orange and blue, reflecting in the sun light. The cicadas are very very noisy! It’s amazing because they all suddenly stop at the same time, and start again at 6am. Its like your morning alarm; that’s how loud it is!


Our tents

There is no air conditioning or power at the camp ground, except for a fridge; so its very hot here in the shade and out of the shade. In the shade is 28 degrees, so imagine how hot it is in the sun. We pitched up our two tents without the outer cover on it because its too hot. You can see right into our tents, and when you lie down, its like you are sleeping outside. Looking up you can’t see the sky because all of the trees are in the way, but you can see the leaves on the trees, and hear small animals lurking through the forest 2 metres away. Mum read that there are python snakes here; but I haven’t seen any snakes, yet. Last night when Esmee and I were going to brush our teeth, we saw a giant frog sitting next to the fence. It didn’t move as we came closer, but eventually jumped away. I have never seen such a huge frog! It was bigger than my fist.



Christmas morning Sunrise

Esmee, Camiel and I were so hot, so we asked mum and dad to drive us down to the swimming hole (which had no crocs in it). The swimming hole was a big pool of fresh water in the rain forest. There was a swing, and most of it was covered by the canopy, so it was really refreshing. We saw heaps of fish in there, some of them huge! You can do sea kayaking here, but I wouldn’t even dare too, just incase of a croc jumping at you! The mosquitoes here drive us nuts. There are hundreds, and even with insect repellent, they still decide to come and attack you.


The swimming hole

We drove up to a look out which looked over the sea. There were two small islands close to shore. This bay was where Steve Irwin got stung by a sting ray and unfortunately died. He was taken to one of the small islands, but they could not save him. It makes me wonder why he didn’t wear a stinger suit. You can hire stinger suits for $10 a day which protect you from the jellyfish and stingrays. It was kinda freaky and surreal that I was looking out into the exact water where Steve Irwin died. Definitely not a good place to swim.

Here we are also just north of the Tropic of Capricorn. I had to get dad to explain to me what this actually is. Basically, at 12pm the sun will be directly over head of you, minimising the shadows, and making it extremely hot. If I look up to the sky, the sun is directly on top of me, rather than in Wellington where It will be off to the side a bit. If we drove north for a few hours, we would reach the tip of Australia, where we would then be able to see Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, which would be even hotter than it is here because they are closer to the equator.

This morning we went and watched the sunrise on the beach. It was a really nice start to Christmas morning as there was the bright colour of orange reflecting through the forest. This rainforest is home to the native Cassowary bird. They are big birds the size of emus and are endangered as there is only 1500 left. There are warning signs about how to act if you come across one, as they are very defensive birds and will run after you and attack you by jumping up and using its long legs and claws to attack. We didn’t see one. Towards the evening the clouds started to look a bit dodgy, and seeing as we didn’t have the tops of the tents on, we would get soaked if it rained because here in the rainforest when it rains, it rains cats and dogs. To be on the safe side we put the tops of the tents on and half an hour later it started hosing down! We were just in time!

Camiel and I set up my laptop in the tent and started watching James Bond, but fell asleep after half an hour. It was too hot to watch and we were tired from all of the days walks. Tomorrow we will start heading south - don’t know where to yet!

Merry Christmas!
Fem
xox

A whole new world

If you aren’t one of those people that have a life time goal of visiting all of the 7 natural wonders of the world, I suggest you become one. In my short life I have already been to two of them; The Grand Canyon, and now the Great Barrier Reef. Both were spectacular.

We booked our Reef trip with ‘Sunlover Cruises’, and were one of the first out of 200 people to arrive. I wore my new board shorts that I bought from Myer last night, with a bikini top. Dad wore long board shorts instead of speedos, thankfully! We put on our caps, sunnies and loaded up with sunblock before boarding the boat. We made our way to the top level where it was nice and cool inside. In Wellington you would go inside to feel the warmth, here you go outside! Its much colder inside here than it is outside. The weather was looking good, and the crew said it was a really good day for the Reef. The boat ride was an hour and a half out to the reef which was 40km from shore. Esmee was pretty tired already so she nodded off to sleep and stoked up on energy for the rest of the day.


Camiel and I on the boat

They had a pantoon out in the water, which was like a big docking station that had tables, chairs and all of the equipment needed. We instantly got ready to snorkle and jumped in the water. Once under, its a whole new world. We swam out and saw so many species of fish and coral. It was beautiful. There were hundreds of colours and the fish would swim so close to you! We couldn’t touch the coral, but seeing it was enough. There were thousands of fish at the edge of the reefs, which would get to depths of about 20 metres. Esmee real enjoyed it until she started getting salt in her eyes. There were little tiny jellyfish that would sting, but they were only small stings, like little pricks which were a little irritating for a while. We kicked around and spotted fish like Nemo, Dorie and stripy black and white ones. Mum and I really wanted to see a sea turtle, but couldn’t find one. It was truely amazing. After an hour we kicked back to the boat and had a buffet style lunch which had heaps of fruit! I ate lots of rock-melon, and thought of Ross and all of the fruit he needs to be eating now he’s on a high fiber diet. Eh Ross?


Geared up and ready to go!

They had small tours going every half hour or so so we jumped on some after lunch. The first one we went on was called the Bottom Glass Boat, which was a boat with glass at the bottom so you could see all of the coral. There are 400 different species of coral in the Barrier Reef, and 1500 different species of fish. The tour was about 15 minutes long, and it was really amazing to see the fish from birds eye view. After this we crammed onto the Submarine. It was a boat that had a bit under the water with windows all around it, so you could look out into the reef. In this we saw tiny jellyfish and big fish about half a metre long. There were rainbow coloured ones, bright blue ones, and even ones that looked like they were glowing. We then decided to get back in there and do some more snorkeling, but it wasn’t long until Esmee got attacked by stings so I took her back to shore to sit with dad. They also had a helicopter tour there, where you could see the Reef from the sky.


The Bottom Glass Boat

I’m lost for words on what to say about the Reef. I could try and write it down, but there’s no point; you have to experience it for yourself. It was amazing, and nothing compared to Rarotonga where I previously snorkled. The water here was so nice and warm, and crystal clear too.

The boat trip home was nice and cruisey and Esmee, Camiel and I sat outside majority of the time. We came home tired after a long day. The reef was so amazing - I wish I could go and do it again tomorrow!

Bye bye

Fem
xox

Shop till you drop!

I woke up early this morning in my bunk. Camiel shot-gunned the bottom bunk, so I was at the top. It was very hot up there, even with the air con and fan going. I slept with no blanket at all, and in shorts and singlet. Once everyone was up and had breakfast (free breakfast at the motel until 9am! Sweet!), we jumped in the car and headed off to the Cairns mall.


Us kids at the mall

The mall was big compared to the size of our malls, and was just opening when we arrived at 9am. Although there was only 2 floors, it was still big. The food court consisted of McDonalds and a lot of chinese. There were also lots of bakery’s inside and a juice bar called ‘Boost’ - which Camiel claims do the best slushies and smoothies. They had a lot of the same stores that we do; Cotton on, Diva, Equip, Supre, Yd... but a lot of new ones as well. We bought Esmee some pink flip flops and a skirt, and Camiel some singlets from Cotton On. The first thing I bought was sunnies :) . I needed them! It was so blinding outside, not to mention the colour of my legs... haha. We finally reached the shop that mum and I were so eager to see. Target. I heard that there is one coming in Porirua sort of besides Bunnings? Anyway, this was exciting! I love Target, so we had a look around for things like towels and water coolers, as we needed these if we were going to tent. We didn’t have much luck, but I enjoyed the short experience anyway.



Target!

After the mall we hit an outlet mall which was about 2 or 3 times the size of Dressmart in Tawa. We saw the HUGEST ants I have ever seen in my life on someones car. They were still there when we came back half an hour later. Smiggle was there, along with Jay Jay’s and Just Jeans. The prices of the clothes here are roughly the same, which sucks! I was hoping it would be a bit cheaper so that I have a good excuse to buy heaps of new clothes. So after a bit of clothe and cutlery shopping here and there, we decided to go and hunt for our essentials; a tent, sleeping bags etc. So we hit off to the camping stores. We kept going up and down from one store to the other, comparing prices and trying to find the cheapest and most affordable. A couple of hours later we had two identical tents, 4 mattresses and blankets and pillows for almost everybody.


The ants that we saw!

Lunch had passed by now, and we headed back to the motel as everybody was tired and grumpy from the up and down shopping. From the size of the shopping malls and outlets here, I could shop forever! So Esmee and I jumped in the pool when we got back to the motel to refresh ourselves, and our now chilling in our room while mum and dad are out doing the groceries. Tomorrow we are doing the Great Barrier Reef! I am so excited for it. We are taking a boat cruise out and then snorkeling. Still haven’t hit the beach yet, but that is definitely on my to-do list!

See ya later!
Fem
xox

The Longest day of the Year

I’m sitting outside in the cool summer air in Cairns, Queensland Australia. Its still stinking hot, but comforting. Its been a really long day...

We got up at 4.15am to leave the house at 4.45am. Of course, our family takes forever to leave the house so it wasn’t until 5 when we left. Esmee and I went straight inside the Wellington airport to beat the chilly wellington wind, only to be greeted by “BRISBANE.....DELAYED UNTIL 7.40AM” Great, now we had an extra half hour to kill. You gotta love waiting at the departure lounge, where all you can do is study everything about the stranger sitting opposite you. After eating a bread roll to cure my starvation being annoyed at the fact that my sister’s had cheese in it, we boarded.

Pacific Blue then decided to greet us with a ‘Due to the delay of this aircraft, there will be no catering on board.’ My stomach rumbled. We went and bought some water to keep us hydrated, but our hunger would have to wait for another 4 hours until we landed in Brisbane. We boarded the aircraft and squeezed our way to the back as our seats were in the last row. As I passed a crew member he said ‘Sorry, there’s a lady sitting back there who is not very well, we will move her soon.’ Great. A lady from Switzerland with minimal english sitting in my seat feeling queazy. Somehow, they got her back to her seat for take off, and I sat next to Esmee with Camiel at the window. No Ross. There was no cute guy :) . I read my last months edition of Cosmo, which entertained me for a good hour then just killed time by watching my siblings. They had The Simpsons playing though, which was good.



We landed in Brisbane and realised we had a short hour to catch our flight to Cairns thanks to the delay of our first flight. We collected our luggage, went through customs, then got lost. Then we went to the domestic transfers, where the kind Aussie lady informed us we had to catch a bus because we were at the international airport and needed to be at the domestic airpot. ‘The bus comes every 10 minutes.’

So we waited outside for 10 minutes. Then frantically jumped on the bus first as we realised we had about 15 minutes until our flight actually took off. We didn’t make it. We were trying to go through customs not realising that we had our cabin luggage. So we got caught up on all sorts of things. ‘M’am there are scissors, pocket knives... you cannot bring these with you on board.’ So we then rushed to check in to put our luggage on the plane. It was so embarrassing. Rushing around the airport. Literally running while carrying our huge bags as our flight took of in 3 minutes. So we got connected to the next flight, which left at a 11.30am. We had an hour and a half to wait, which I was quite greatful for as it meant I could finally fill my stomach! I noticed an Eagle Boys in the food court, and also Red Rooster, which looked exactly like KFC. The prices are horrendous here thought. $8 for a cheeseburger, $10 for a combo.

Back to the departure lounge. Our flight was in about 20 minutes, but our plane hadn’t even arrived yet. Once it hit 11.30, we realised that there was no way we were going to be on time. We left at 12.30. An hour later. It’s so ironic that the 21st of December is the longest day of the year, and all the flights were late. Oh well, at least mum gets to celebrate her birthday for an extra 3 hours. Doesn’t make her any younger though!

I slept on some of the flight to Cairns. I was exhausted by this point from running around with luggage and waiting for late flights. It was the most...scenic flight I have been on. Looking down you see small tropical islands with golden sand and the sea was mixed with different shade of blue and green, creating a turquoise pacific look. The Great Barrier Reef certainly looks amazing from birds eye view. I can’t wait to actually swim in it!

The word ‘Beauty’ or ‘Beautiful’ is probably the most common word I have heard all day. Add an Aussie accent to it and thats pretty much their most commonly used word haha. I’m already picking up on the Aussie accent a little, which is bad. Sorry Ross. Well the car was a disaster. We had hired and organised this car which had beds and a fridge and everything in it for us! Until we realised we were short one seatbelt. 100 phone calls and 2 hours later, we had a car. Then we had to find a place to stay. Then we had to eat. Subway it was. By the time we actually got to our room, after all the travelling, it had been 14 hours since we left home.


All our luggage

It’s been a really long day, but lots of fun! Cairns is quiet and reminds me of Rotorua. Although I haven’t been shopping yet, that is still to come! Hmm, I see a Mac shop across the road. I just might have a look...

Until next time!

Fem
xox

ps. Happy Birthday Mum! :)