My parents, aka Grandma and Papa, arrived on Good Friday for an extended Australian/New Zealand vacation. It was so nice to have family around for the Easter holiday and beyond. The celebration of Easter is very similar to the States. However candy filled plastic eggs are not the norm and large hollow chocolate eggs are popular. Did you know that the Australian Easter Bunny brings chocolate koalas, bilbys and wombats instead of bunnies?
It was so much fun to have visitors to show around! To begin with we gave my parents a tour of the Brisbane area. We took the Citycat, which is Brisbanes version of a water taxi, up and down the river with stops to eat on scenic parts of downtown and South bank to ride the ferris wheel.
No trip to Brisbane is complete without a trip, or multiple trips in our case, to the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary.
The kids were out of school for their two week term break and we all took off for our first big Australian adventure.
Our first destination was Palm Cove and the Great Barrier Reef. The six of us hopped a plane and flew about 2.5 hours north up the coast to Cairns where we shuttled up to the next town of Palm Cove. Ahhhh, what a beautiful location. Our resort was gorgeous and the little beachfront town beautiful and quaint.
We travelled through the rainforest and past gorges and waterfalls.
The trip down was via a different mode of transportation. The skyrail put us in a gondola where we travelled high above the rainforest canopy.
Those of you who know me well, know I am not that fond of heights. However, after the first few minutes when I realized the ride was pretty smooth and the car wasn't going to fall off its cable, I was able to enjoy the breathtaking views.
The trip down also included two stops where we walked some trails to other waterfalls and lookouts over the rainforest. In one of the stations however, we saw something we were not expecting. The largest spider we have seen yet. (and we have seen some very large ones)
Now, unfortunately I realize there is nothing in the photo to help you gauge the size of this spider, so I will help you. The spider is 20 feet away from where we were standing and its body is probably as big the palm of my hand. Its a Golden Orb spider and if you are interested you can Google "golden orb spider eating bird" and see one for yourself. Yikes!
The highly anticipated part of our holiday was a snorkeling trip to the Low Isles which is part of the Great Barrier Reef. We took a catamaran an hour out from Port Douglas before we came to our stop (no trick photography here - the water really is that beautiful).
Once we got to our island location, we donned our "stinger suits" and got ready to see the reef.
Papa even got in on the act and snorkeled for the first time.
I would love to show you some of our fabulous underwater shots of fish, coral, etc, but the very nice underwater camera my parents purchased for me for my birthday flooded with water the moment it plunged below the surface. (Nikon has already replaced it, but now I guess we'll have to go to the reef one more time for photographic proof.) We didn't see any turtles or sharks, however a small reef shark was swimming off the back of the boat (behind us in the photo above) while we were aboard eating lunch. Eeek!
The anticipation of the trip seemed to have worn off for the ride home....
The rest of the time we spent at the resort pool and walking the beach.
Thanks to signs like these...
we never got in the open water here at Palm Cove. We could have gone for a dip in the netted area, but never got around to it. The safety of the pool was just fine with me.
We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the North coast of Queensland, but had to bid it adieu and head to the airport for destination number two, Ayers Rock/Uluru.
It was a three hour flight to the center of the country. You can see why it is called the red center. This photo was taken from the airplane. What a drastic change in scenery!
Our accommodations changed a bit too as we were almost camping, but that's ok since it added to the charm.
The whole point of this destination was to see Uluru (aka Ayers Rock), a massive 600 million-year-old sandstone rock that is considered a very sacred site for the Aboriginal people of the area.
I will quickly mention the one minor drawback of this vacation destination.....the aggressive black flies. We had been warned about the pests and purchased fly nets the first moment there. Although they are not the most attractive accessory one can wear, it is far better than the constant swat of these tiny flies who seem to only want to be in your eyes, ears, and nose. Thankfully, they disappear in the evening.
The first night we went to The Sounds of Silence dinner. A bus dropped us off in the middle of red-desert-nowhere where a path lead past tables complete with china and white tablecloths, to a viewing area to watch the sunset.
All the cooking was done at this outdoor kitchen.
We started the evening with canapés and Champagne while watching the sunset over Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.
Once it was getting dark, we were ushered to our tables for some aboriginal dancing and a delicious Australia bushtucker buffet, including Barramundi and kangaroo and never empty glasses of Australian wine. The most amazing part of our dinner, and our stay in Ayers Rock, was the night sky. As a result of minimal air and light pollution the star gazing is PHENOMENAL! We didn't even have a moon that night which made it even better. There was an astronomer there to point out the southern sky constellations and even point out two distant galaxies. He also brought along a telescope to show us the rings around Saturn and the moons around Venus. It truly was amazing.
We spent the next morning lounging by the pool and then Dad, David, and I took off to trek inside the national park and see Uluru up close while Mom stayed back to play with the girls at the pool. It was awe inspiring. It is easy to see why the Aboriginal people find it sacred. The shuttle dropped us off at the start of the base hike. There were no water fountains, very little shade, no bathrooms that we were aware of, and very few people there during the high temperatures of the afternoon. We hiked around in the heat and took pictures where it said we were allowed to.
Although every piece of literature begs visitors not to climb on Uluru as not to offend the aboriginal people, you can hike to the top if you choose.
That night we all went for a sunset camel ride. Australia has a very large wild dromedary (one humped) camel population thanks to the importing of the animal to help build the railroads. The camels we rode used to be wild, but have been well trained and are well looked after.
The getting up and getting down times were the wildest parts of the ride. The rest of the ride was fairly smooth and very easy going. Although most of the camels were not muzzled, it just so happened that the three camels we were on had to be. They have a fondness for leather and the guides were tired of repairing saddles.
We had a tour guide who walked along side of us describing the flora and fauna of the desert, as well as unending facts about the camels.
The sunset was beautiful and afterward we had drinks and fresh damper (beer bread) while mingling with the other riders. That was the end of our trip to the red center. We headed back home the next day to show Grandma and Papa a little more of Queensland in between their trips to Sydney and New Zealand.
We took them to the Australia Zoo where we happened to be there the day the much publicized rare baby rhino made its debut. The baby ran all around the grounds and mama just kept after him. I've never seen so much action in a rhino enclosure before.
It rained quite heavily that day, but it didn't dampen our spirits. Crikey!
We also took them to our favorite park and playground to see all of the bats (if you missed my post on the bats you can check it out here), the Gold Coast, Lamington National Park, Mt. Coot-tha Botanical gardens and lookout, and a local lawn bowls club for a little barefoot bowling.
It was great to have my parents here for a visit and we really appreciated them making the long trip to see us. Our guest room is now empty and ready for some more visitors! Who's next?
