Sydney

Alas, the end of the road.  We had a great day and a half in Sydney, definately a lot more to explore.  Full post will have to wait until we get back, but we did a tour of the Opera House, took a Ferry ride to get a bird's fish's eye view, explored China Town, the Rocks, chatted with our favorite busker, and of course made it back in time for a swim!

They begged, but I couldn't fit a performance into my busy schedule

Last Few Days in Cairns

After what has been a busy few days touring, we spent Saturday bumming around by the pool and spending a few hours in delightful conversation with Jon and Tegan.  A really nice 'vacation' day where we had no agenda, didn't have to get up early, and copious amounts of Bundaberg (Red!  Thanks Chris) was consumed.

The next day we headed out to Port Douglas to get a view of another Australian town, see some shops, Four Mile Beach, and Mossman Gorge where we had a nice cool swim.

Four Mile Beach is Four Miles long

I'm hesitant to keep typing, as we know that we've barely scratched the surface for things to do and see in Australia and trip is winding to a conclusion.  To be honest the concept of completing this journey is not something we hold in very high regard.

When we got back from our touring, we had a picnic on the beach consisting of fresh-caught prawns (3KG worth!), mud crab, and local fish-and-chips.  How very Australian for the conclusion of our Cairns leg of the journey.

Bam!

3KG of fresh prawns.  Jon ate most of these.

Next up is Sydney for a couple of days before heading home.  Not sure about internet access going forward, so the next post might be bleary-eyed from an Airport lounge or upon our return. 

Kuranda and Hartley's

We spent the last two days doing a tour up to a small town called Kuranda, followed by a Crocodile wildlife park where Jon got to feed the crocs!

We took a heritage train up to Kuranda, which was pretty cool.  There was a lot of information about the engineering and hard labor that went into building this railway during the gold rush.  It also offered some spectacular views.

We have another picture of the back of the train too!

In Kuranda we visited some local markets, had a pint at a pub where '...the beer was so cold it took a bloke's breath away - he needed to be revived by the barmaid', and did a short nature walk which emptied out into a delightful terrible 1.5KM walk through the town streets.  Nothing like an uphill walk through a asphalt bitumen jungle!

To get down from Kuranda we took the Skyrail.  It took six years to get the necessary permits to build the towers in the National Reserve Forest and about a year to build.  All of the cement and metal was flown in by helicopter to prevent damage to the rainforest.  We had a lot of fun on the way down and the view was breathtaking - only a few meters from the forest canopy!

Just meters away from the Canopy - and (Bear Grills voice) certain death!

After a successful day we made our way home and had a delicious barbeque with Jon, Tegan, Chris, and Janice who are also in Cairns.

The next day was dedicated to Hartley's Crocodile Adventure - a smaller zoo/park that started out as a roadside Tea House.  The entrepeneur purchased Charlie the Crocodile on a whim and the tea house morphed into the conservation park as we saw it today! 

I ended up comparing this park with Australia Zoo - not quite as many animals, but it felt a lot more intimate and truthfully we enjoyed it a lot more.  Jon got to pole feed the crocs, we saw a cool crocodile show, snake handlers, a river boat tour, the kids held a crocodile and a snakem, Austin fed the crocs some chicken... it was a great day!

This is for Tanner and Alexis

Jon with Ted

The Snake Handler said "$1B in tourism to see sleeping balls of grey fur"

Still working on my form

Green Island

We've got a whirlwind few days planned, including a trip to Green Island to do some snorkelling and diving at the reef, a train/cable car trip up to Kuranda, and likely a crocodile tour before heading into Atherton Tablelands.

Green Island was named by none other than James Cook, who after seeing the low, green island named it after the on-board astronomer, Mr. Green.  Apparently, it was originally off-limits to Australians and under Japanese dominion!  Now it is classified as an Australian National Park.  That said, it had a distinct cultural feel as it was primarily Japanese tourists.

Green Island at High Tide

It is a stopping-off point with a myriad of activities.  We met up with Tegan's parents on the island.  The weather was perfect and visibility in the water was fantastic, about 15-20 meters! 

The 50-minute boat ride occurs during high tide, so that the larger ships can reach the Jetty, pictured to the right. Several tour companies moor here, and some of them go on to the outer reef

Coralee, Tegan, and the kids stayed on the island and snorkelled, built sand castles, etc while Jon and I headed out on a morning and afternoon reef dive! 

Austin fashioning a canoe out of an old log

Alyn created Tegariel

Coralee and Alyn Snorkelling

I can't say we are the best divers ever, except that we are

The day was perfect, the diving (my first!) was incredible, and everyone had a great time.

The start of the Jetty - a tired crew ready to board the ship

Like Mother, Like Daughter

In Search of a Motorcycle

So, one of the great things about Australia is that the roads are all winding, and I can't count the number of times I yearned for a motorcycle to send through the twisties.  Alas, my mode(s) of transportation have not been particularly confidence inspiring. 

Whilst in Kakadu the Toyota Hiace Camper Van was a rolling brick, with a sail attached to the top.  If you hit a downslope corner a little hot you had to ride it out since any pressure on the brakes would make the whole van want to fold over the front outside tire.  The good news is I got my heart rate going a few times - the bad news is that it wasn't at a particularly impressive clip.

Yeah!  Twisties Ahead!

Stupid Van

 The other cool thing about the Northern Territory is the recently implemented speed limits.  These northern roads used to be limitless, but after an unfortunate Cannonballrun-esc accident they put a limit of 130 on the roads. 

To be clear, these roads are in decent shape, but the picture below shows the largest shoulder that exists.  The margin for error is very small, and the roads are also shared by road-trains (large semis pulling 3 - 4 trailers), so it isn't what North Americans would call 'safe' - the chance of a prang was imminent.

Of course, I was in my pathetic Hiace van.  Although in good nick and capable of 130kph, it drank gasoline like an alco on the grog and the add-a-roof stuck out like dogs balls - making any sustained clip nearly impossible.  

Ready to Wind It Up

Stupid Van

Finally, after a long trip up to the Northern Territory, we relaxed with a 'Darwin Stubby'.  I also have us modelling my new tilly made from recycled Road Train tarps - cool!

At least I wasn't two fisting these bad boys

No Children were harmed in taking this picture

Not Shown: Alyn's necklace that didn't make it back from the market

The Sheila's will have a Stubbie if there isn't a Cask around

Darwin, Kakadu, Litchfield

It was sad to leave Mackay, but we also felt a bit guilty for staying at the newly-married Jon and Tegan’s house, so it was time to keep moving and give them some privacy. 

We flew from Mackay to Darwin on Monday evening and arrived very late, caught the shuttle to the hotel and fell fast asleep.  The very next morning we hopped in the rental camper, dropped off some luggage and George and Melanie LedichiIcan’tspellitdacious’s (I might’ve misspelled the last name) house, and headed out to Litchfield National Park. 

Oh, its a sweet ride all right

We’re doing the triangle loop of Litchfield-Kakadu-Darwin in 5 days.  I’ve debated about writing the events of each day with pictures and emotions vs. simply summarizing the trip.  What I’ll do instead is summarize the commentary and try to put up more pictures.  The park is located in the Northern Territory, where Crocodile Dundee was set/filmed and gave a very good overview of the rugged Australian landscape.

It was interesting to see the variety of landscape as it changed from unattractive bush, to wetlands, to tropics, to fields, to mountains, termite mounds, aboriginal rock art, with massive cliffs and boulders thrown in for good measure.  It was ever changing and really fascinating.  In Canada you’re used to seeing a gradual change in scenery, here it was very rapid.  And very spectacular.

Magnetic Termite Mounds

Regular Termite Mounds

One of many plunge pools

Another plunge pool

The hike was worth it

Rugged, just like in the movies

Relaxing dip... in crocodile infested waters!

A NT Walking Path

This was part of the Yellow River tour

This guy was part of the tour too!

This picture doesn't do justice to the size of the boulder

Sunset in Kakadu

Next time, bring a better camera

Upon returning to Darwin, we were able to take in a meeting, spend the next morning at the museum, then water park in the afternoon with George, Melanie and family, and cap off the day with the Mindi Beach Markets.   Off to Cairns tomorrow morning. 

I’ll try to have another update soon – Internet access has been spotty and expensive!  Special thanks to George for lending us his Cruiser whilst in Darwin, much better than driving around a huge billboard.

Introducing Jon and Tegan Leason

A few days before the wedding we had a large family supper at a restaurant called Simon's Wok Inn.  It was a banquet feast, where they just kept bringing new and interesting dishes until you were no longer able to eat or move.  Interesting too is that many restaurants, this one included, is BYOB.  It was a great evening, we ate outside and got further acquainted.

The wedding was Saturday.  Being in the wedding party I don't have many good actual wedding shots since I was busy, ok?  We brought 'virtual Merilee' on the iPad so she and Eleanor watched the wedding and met a bunch of people after the wedding.

We stood for the whole ceremony and I was very proud of Austin (and Sean) for making it through with no major drama.  After the wedding everyone in the whole hall went out on the Kingdom Hall steps for a picture - I've never seen that before and kudos to the photographers for getting everyone organized.  Then the photographers took multiple family shots at the beautiful grounds, which is where I stole the shot below. 

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We were all happy Jon is kneeling in this shot

After the family pictures at the Hall, the wedding party loaded into the four Holden Commodore SS's that Jon and Tegan organized and we drove off to the first of three picture spots.

I'm not going to lie, this picture taking expedition was a ton of fun.  The day was perfect, the company was great, and we all goofed around while the photographers tried to keep us in line.  It was a blast.

We spent our time trying to make traffic honk their horns

Its a camera, not a sniper rifle

After the fence/yard picture place we headed to Eimeo Beach for another round of pictures.  This one constituted a lot of jumping / holding Jon / dropping Jon / props and of course the beach and ocean.

Soon after the beach shots were done we headed to another smaller beach where the sun set in the background.  I don't have any pictures of this occurring since it was all just Jon and Tegan and the rest of us were too busy err... talking... to get any pictures.

The reception was a smashing success.  Leona gave a great speech and made Jon play a tiny blue organ from his childhood.  He of course, nailed it - "Little Brown Jug" was epic and sure to be in the compilation CD of his greatest hits.  Chris and Janice also gave Jon back his childhood teddy bear so nostalgia was in full swing.

"Tiny Bladder" Leason

I got to give a little speech, but that was upstaged by some pretty funny telegrams from Jon's friends who couldn't make the evening.  Jon put together a memories slide show that was very well received.

Then the party began in earnest until around midnight.  The lighting wasn't the best for pictures, but here are a few:

Thieves!

Vogue?

So You Think You Can Dance?

Sunday is gift opening day at Jon and Tegan's house - guess we'll have to clean it up!