G’day Mate, Let’s Put Another Shrimp on the Barbie!!!

08.13.2006 – 08.20.2006

Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants to see us happy. -Benjamin Franklin

A plane transported us from New Zealand and Lord of the Rings to a massive country of kangaroos, every deadly animal that ever existed in the world that kills a person immediately, and where everyone adds “ie” to the end of every word. “How about some brekkie this morning? Ah crockie! There isn’t any bread left!” And one of my favorite Dumb and Dumber quotes of all time, “G’day Mate, Let’s Put Another Shrimp on the Barbie!!!”

One definitive characteristic between New Zealand and Cairns, Cairns is warm!!! I really do enjoy me a bit of warm weather as I stand in 70 degree solidarity with my kinfolk back in Texas. I do feel your pain . . . from an Aussie beach.

This also marks the point in the year where we are not returning to the excitement of school, teenagers, psychological tests, papers to be graded. Quite the contrary, we are responsibly traveling around the world for another 7 months learning about it in person. As you return to the joy of education, we will think of all y’all fondly as we read lots of books, good and bad alike. We can afford to read a bad book.

Crockie, hard to believe, but we’ve been already traveling for 2 months. Time, she is a passing by at an “incredible rate Harry!” Enough about not “contributing to society in a responsible manner,” what have we been up to?

There is one thing every person that visits Northern Queensland must do, and that is visit a little piece of real estate right below the water’s surface, the Great Barrier Reef! After a few days soaking up some sun, we boarded a sea going vessel, the Super Cat, to smoothly transport us out to “The Reef”. We climbed on a cozy little boat jam packed with 110 other enthusiastic snorkellers and divers. The ride out lasted a little over an hour. A combo of wind, waves, and a jumpy Super Cat, sea sickness quickly came to those not able to focus on the horizon.

Neither one of us succombed to sea sickness, because we were to busy talking to Deb and Krista on the deck of our super feline. They are two Canadian kindergarten teachers that we’ve run into three times. So we chatted about common topics at a time such as this, the wind, the need of a wetsuit, waves, more wind, and the probability of actually running into a great white shark during the day.

At the reef, we gladly jumped into the water with a massive, and I do mean massive set of coral resting under our fins. It was more like the Mexico City of coral. We proceeded to explore this incredible mass of coral reef. Unfortunately, Nemo was nowhere to be found. Maybe working on a sequel. Despite the distance and time traveled on Super Cat, our time in the water only lasted 30 minutes with a chilly wind nipping at our backs. Big, fluffy clouds conveniently hung over our dive spot and Cyclone Larry helped reduce water visibility. Less than ideal conditions best describe our visit. For brief moments when the sun peeked its’ head from the clouds, the entire reef blossomed into a picture of a thousand colors. Quite impressive.

Back onboard, we enjoyed a little gastronomical delight prepared by “Frenchie,” the onboard chef, as we continued on to our second dive sight. Clouds and a few of their closest friends conveniently joined us at the second sight. The waves were quite a bit larger and threw us around like untrained New Mexicans on a steer at a rodeo. On our final approach to the Aussie shore a good distance from the reef, the clouds parted and the sun revealed itself. Stupid clouds!

We visited the tropical Tablelands on a 2-day tour. Bart, our tour guide, picked us up nice and early. At the beginning of the first day, we meet an elderly giant, the Cathedral Fig Tree, which just happens to be over 500 years old. This tree has a unique story. When a bird ingests one of the delicious figs, and as nature tends to do, the bird needs to poop. They may deposit this on top of a leaf on another tree. Amazingly the fig tree starts growing right there on top of the leaf that it comfortably landed on. As the years pass, the tree grows and its roots spread towards the ground and water, eventually covering and killing the original host tree. I couldn’t think of a better tree to climb.

After the fig tree, we passed by a few volcanic crater lakes and made our way to the Millaa Millaa Falls. As the most photographed falls in Australia, according to Bart, it was a nice little place to photograph AND swim. Swimming in this little pond with the falls pounding on top of rocks is only for those who have a carpe diem spirit. Nadine and I were the only ones to partake and we had to psych ourselves up to plunge into the ice cold water. A 5-minute refreshing swim to the waterfall, under the waterfall, and back to shore left us quite rejuvenated and awake. We also saw a platypus in a creek close to town of Yungaburra….tiny little bugger.

Next day, we enjoyed the country side with some mountain biking and an afternoon of canoeing on Lake Tinaroo. Lake Tinaroo has a little secret. It is hiding a former town under its’ waters. Divers search the houses hidden at the bottom of the lake. Further up a tributary, we played with our creative skills doing some face painting with the red ochre rock. Simply wet it, rub it against another rock, and you have a red paint. We reverted to preschool and painted each other. Upon our departure, we were fortuitous enough to see the timid and shy tree kangaroo. He didn’t leave the security of his tree branches, but we did see him. We didn’t have a chance to warm him about the Cathedral Fig Tree.

We discovered a gastronomical delight in Cadbury chocolates and a cookie, or biscuit for non-Americans, called Tim-Tams. Every flavor is wonderful. Best cookie that has hit my lips. The third foodstuff I’ve enjoyed are hamburgers with the lot. Now what is the lot? Here ya go. In addition to your regular meat, there is a toasted bun, lettuce, tomatoe, onion, the Ozzies add carrot, fried egg, bacon, some type of “special” sauce, pineapple, and for those of you who like beets, they add beets. I always pass on beets.

Our time here in Cairns, Northern Queensland, is coming to an end, and tomorrow we are flying across the country to Adelaide and the wine country. We are not going to drink and drive, we promise. Instead, we are going to drink and ride. Much safer.

Enjoy the blog, share it with others, but read in moderation please.

Two questions for everyone if you have made it this far in the blog.

Question #1 – What is the difference between a cyclone and a hurricane? Also, why are they called the Iowa State Cyclones?

Question #2 – What is special about the amethystine python?

Answers will be revealed next week. Oh the anticipation.

Peace
John and Nadine

Caterpillar: and who are you?
Alice: I hardly know, sir, just as present at least. I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland