Wednsday, August 3rd
We slept in to let our legs recover and soon after started our adventure of the day: a trip to the mountain resort town of Hanmer Springs. It is the largest hot springs area on the South Island. The resort has a number of pools with water of varying temperatures. It was chilly outside so the walks between pools were made quickly. It was nice to be in a relaxing hot pool while looking at snow-capped mountains in the background. We also did a little shopping in the boutique stores that line the town’s streets. We ended the day with a dinner at a Thai restaurant in Christchurch. We had to be in bed by 9pm since we had an early flight the next morning and needed to be at the airport by 4am (ugh!).
Before I continue, here are few things that are different in New Zealand in comparison to America (in no particular order). Every electrical receptacle has a little switch above it to let the electricity flow (maybe it’s a safety mechanism?). None of the places we stayed at had a coffee pot; instead, they all have these self-standing water pots that heat very quickly. At home in NZ, everyone drinks instant coffee (that’s about all they had at the grocery stores). Also, all the bathrooms have heated towel racks that dry your towels. New Zealand loves roundabouts (traffic circles); after getting used to driving on the left side of the road and knowing how they work, they are actually pretty efficient. There are few four-lane highways (only in the city and out a few miles). Everything else is two-lane, and most of it is curvy because of the mountainous terrain. To help traffic flow, however, they periodically add a lane for a few hundred meters to allow for passing of slower vehicles. Almost every big rig truck is pulling a second trailer which is kind of scary given the curves and narrow roads. While the roads are in good shape, they don’t have many guard rails. And bridges over rivers are ridiculously narrow.
Pictures from Hanmer Springs.
Thursday, August 4th
We woke up early and headed out the door at about 3:45am to get the airport for our flight from Christchurch to Cairns (pronounced “Cans”) in Australia. We had to book two different flights with our frequent flyer miles (you take what they give you). It ended up that Thomas and I were in the luxurious business class while John and Megan were in economy – which was fine for the flight from Christchurch to Sydney. We continued on to Cairns on Qantas while John and Megan had to fly the next leg on Jetstar (the discount carrier mentioned on August 1). We were again on Qantas in nice seats with great customer service (champagne, linens, great food) while John and Megan were jammed in seats with no service (not even beverage service, and to make things worse, it was hot on board). Plus, Qantas provided a shuttle for transportation between terminals while Jetstar made John and Megan pay to take the metro rail between the terminals. Nevertheless, we all made it to Cairns and got another Rav4 as a rental car (which, by the way, can carry more luggage that it looks). The temperature in Cairns was much warmer than in New Zealand. Cairns is sort of equivalent to Miami in terms of weather. Since it is winter here, the daytime temps are about 80 and evenings are about 65 with little humidity. Our home for the next five days is just north of Cairns in a town called Yorkeys Knob. We have a two bedroom, oceanfront apartment (the beach is across a small road but there are no buildings on the beach side). Our third floor patio and living room have ocean views, and the breeze flows through the entire unit. As we settled in, we heard some loud, odd sounds from Kookaburras (the bird made famous by the Australian children’s song, Kookaburra Sitting in the Old Gum Tree). John made us listen to the song so now it is in our heads (Megan is singing it right now). We ate at the Yorkeys Knob Boating (Yacht) Club and sat at a table right on the marina. It was a nice evening, but we were tired from the early start and hit the sack early.
Pictures of Cockatoo birds outside our house (see below).
Friday, August 5th
We started our first full day in Australia by taking a walk on our beach. The water was warm and the beach was beautiful with mountains in the background. There were large white cockatoos flying in the trees along the beach which John thought was amazing. We spent most of our day in the tourist area of Cairns. Since Cairns is a cruise ship destination, there are lots of little shops and some casinos. In central Cairns, there are large trees that are home to flying foxes, the huge bats that eat fruit. Hundreds of the bats were hanging from the trees and making all kinds of noise (that night, we saw them flying in front of our place; think of a bat literally as big as a seagull flying around. John and Thomas absolutely loved it – I wanted nothing to do with them). That afternoon, we also went to a nearby field to see wallabies (like kangaroos but smaller). There were hundreds in the field and we were able to get very close. We could see a joey in the pouch on one of the closer wallabies. I was even able to get a few pictures of two wallabies in a fist fight (very cool). We cooked dinner at home, which we have done a few times. We usually eat breakfast at home and either pack or eat lunch out. The first few meals at home were easy – pasta and sauce or something like that. Last night I made BBQ chicken. Shopping in the grocery stores is very weird… all brands I do not recognize, weird cuts of meat (& mincemeat – what is that?). Also having to think about the prices (either in NZ or Australian $$) – how much is it really? A couple times we have handed a particular clerk $$ to be told – oops wrong country (need to separate our NZ and Australian $). So, BBQ chicken, rice, and broccoli seemed like a safe bet. Again, we were in bed early! But the last two days we awake very early to loud birds screeching what sounds like “NOOOO, NOOOO, NOOOO”. The first morning here I thought there was a fight outside and was worried someone was being attacked. But realized it was just a bird and managed to get back to sleep.
The flying foxes (huge bats) right in the middle of downtown Cairns in broad daylight!
John absolutely loved this, me…not so much!
It was really cool to see wild Wallabies…and to catch a picture of two of them fighting.
The girl on the right has a joey in her pouch but I didn’t get a great picture with it’s head out. Bottom right girl was a poser!
Today we are off to Port Douglas, which is another beach town. We have scheduled our first dive/snorkel trip to the reef for Monday.