During our holiday, I had very little internet access and it cost to use it in most places. I did write blogs on a Word document and saved them to publish now. Here is a look at the first part of our trip...
Day 1 - Friday, September 25th (Happy Birthday, Dad!)
Friday, September 25th at 3:00pm marked the beginning of our “Spring Break”. Friday at school was my last day with my Year 3s. We had Pirate Day to finish off our term of studying pirates and all of the students (and teachers) dressed up. It was very fun and easy-going day. After school, I finished packing for my trip and John came to get me around 8:30pm. We picked up Kendall and then headed for the airport. Once we got to the airport we checked in for our flight. We were shocked that the lady behind the counter did not even ask for identification. We found that very strange! However, we were happy that we made the weight limit with our bags and even had room to spare. That is so unlike us! Anyway, we moved on to security and once again, they didn’t check ID. We then decided to name this night “No Worries”, the famous Australian motto put into action. We flew over night to Cairns and arrived EARLY the next morning.
Day 2 - Saturday, September 26th
Once we arrived in Cairns (5:30am Cairns time/3:30am Perth time), we took our hotel shuttle to our hotel and prayed for an early check-in. We were able to sleep about 3 hours in our room before we had to start our Contiki journey at noon. Our first event on Saturday was a trip to Tjapukai, an Aboriginal Culture Park. At the park we were guided by an aborigine and he taught us how to throw a spear and a boomerang. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful at both. Our guide did show us that a boomerang will return to you – so cool! We also watched him play the didgeridoo. I was really amazed by the music and even got chills. To make our aboriginal day official, we got our faces painted and got to watch Aboriginal dances. By the way, those men have some amazing leg muscles. I got lots of good pictures and video footage at the park, and yes, we were allowed, and no, we didn’t take their spirit. I ended up buying a hand-painted boomerang… a LEFT-HANDED boomerang. I can’t wait to try it out!
After the park, the Contiki bus took us back to the hotel so we could shower and get ready for a night out on the town. We had a bar crawl that included dinner and drink vouchers which was really nice. I did win a dance competition dancing to “Cotton Eyed Joe”. It was so random, but so fitting. Who knew I could line dance? Whenever I meet people over here that are my age, they always ask where I’m from because of my accent. As soon as I tell them Tennessee, they reply with “Jack Daniels!” I’m glad we have such a dominant alcoholic symbol representing our state.
Day 3 - Sunday, September 27th
On Sunday we woke up to catch a boat to head to the reef, The Great Barrier Reef! This boat was a very rough ride and Kendall was very seasick and I got nauseous. Once we finally made it out there, we put on sunscreen and suited up for snorkeling. The second our masks hit the water, I felt like a choir was in my head singing "Ahhhh!" in the most glorious voices. It was absolutely breath taking! We were so close the the coral reef that I would panic whenever I got close to it in hopes that I wouldn't kick it and/or get cut by it. I think I snorkeled for about an hour and then decided to view the reef from a semi-submarine. It was all about the same view, just not wet. After a seafood lunch (so quaint), Kendall and I laid out on the back of the boat and ended up falling asleep. I think we snorkeled one more time before we headed back to shore. This should definitely be a must-see if you come to Australia. Sunday night, we ate an early dinner and I fell asleep early... around 7pm. I guess all this fun will take it out of you!
Day 4 - Monday, September 28th
We spent our fourth day of vacation in the Northern Queensland Rainforest. We took a SkyRail above the rainforest and got to see some amazing views. During our ride up, we made a couple of stops in the rainforest and got to see Barron Falls. Once we made it to the end of the SkyRail, we got off at a small village called Kuranda. Kuranda had a bunch of cute shops and markets. We spent about 2 hours in the village and then rode the train back down to Cairns. The train offered similar, yet very different views from the SkyRail. When we got back to our hotel, we hit the pool and the hottub before getting ready to go out again. For our last night out in Cairns, a group of us went to dinner and walked around the town. We didn't stay out too late because we were heading for Whitsunday at 5:30am the next morning.
Day 5 - Tuesday, September 29th
Today we spent the majority of the day driving to south to Whitsunday. We left so early that we got to watch the sunrise. Kendall and I had great seats in the coach - right in the front with a nice, big view out the front windows. We ended up making stops every 2 or 3 hours and played loud music on the bus to keep us entertained. I even took the microphone for a while and sang some karaoke for everyone... surprise, surprise. I sang Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" in that high-pitched, whiny voice. When we finally got to Whitsunday late that afternoon, half of our Contiki group split up. One group went on a 2 day sail (that did not sound fun at all) and the rest of us went to Daydream Island and relaxed at the resort. We didn't do much on Tuesday night... just got settled in to our hotel room and looked around the island. Daydream Island can be walked from one end to another in about 10 minutes. There aren't even any cars on the island... just golf carts.
P.S. Be sure to scroll down to look at all of my pictures from the trip!
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