The Aussie Odessy Ends

Hi darls, Lynda here, with our very last blog from Australia boo hoo. What service you get here, wish Arriva would take heed, we were picked up by bus from our hotel in Port Douglas, the driver loaded our luggage (and that in itself is no mean feat, let me tell you), and then he drove us right up to the reception of our new accomodation (Southern Cross Atrium Apartments) all for $6 - what a service and what a bargain!!

We had a studio apartment and although not quite as nice as the last one, still good value and fairly well situated near the town centre.

I'll get straight to my exciting bits before Tina takes over. First I decided that I hadn't really learned anything about the Aboriginal culture or heritage so I booked a tour to Tjapukai Cultural Centre to learn more. I doubled this up to a trip to Kuranda on Good Friday. Although Tjapukai, I thought, was a bit "showy", dance, theatre, demonstrations of bush food and medicine and boomarang & spear throwing, I know more now that I did before!!

Next I took the Skytrain up to Kuranda which is a very exciting 7.5k trip over the top of the World Heritage listed tropical rainforest canopy. It stops twice on the way, first stop the rainforest itself for a guided tour (not another bloody rainforest tour I hear you say), sorry just can't resist it. The second stop was to view the Barron Falls which were absolutely spectacular, mainly because of all the bloody rain we've had!! I could feel the splash from the viewing platform.

Then onto Kuranda which is known as the village in the rainforest. It's really very quaint and picturesque with craft markets and a lot of shops selling Aboriginal arts & artifacts (hope you're all eagerly awaiting your digeridoos with instructions on how to play)!! There's absolutely loads to do here but I only had a couple of hours (due to filling all your names and addresses in for your digeridoos) so I just wandered around taking it all in.

The highlight of the day was the journey back down on the Kuranda Scenic Railway. It runs on a railroad through tunnels and over bridges which was hand made by North Queensland pioneers. The journey is spectacular and takes about an hour and half with a running commentry along the way so its really interesting - I know damn well I wouldn't have wanted to be one of those pioneers!! By the end of it I was bloody exhausted but had a wonderful day.

You know the saying no rest for the wicked - I must be bloody wicked!! As the next day it was another early start this time to go horseriding in the outback. I was so excited about this as when we were planning the trip we did two lists, one where we wanted to go, and two what we wanted to do. This was one of my "things to do". It took about hour and half to get to the Atherton Tablelands which is where the stables were. I was introduced to my horse and his name was Winston (made me laugh because he was just like Winston I work with - big black and very laid back!) I had just the best time even though I was walking like John Wayne when I got off!! Only got to trot, only the experienced were allowed to canter (and that's definitely not me!!)

Needed a well earned rest by the time I got back so went to the lagoon for a lay in the sun with a band playing on the esplanade, really relaxing afternoon, just what the doctor ordered - even though I was still walking like John Wayne!!

The lovely end to a lovely day was that at last I got to speak to Jimmy - does anyone remember my son Jimmy? I was beginning to think he was a figment of my imagination! Anyway over the last two days I got to speak to all my babies and all their babies, so I was like a pig in sh*t!!

(Tina)G'day from the phobic one! No scenic train round trecherous mountains and skyrails for me I'm afraid, I stayed home and did the washing, quite missing doing the chores so was very happy to get prepared for our onward journey and get our smalls in order. One good thing about our time in Cairns was that we didn't have any of that torrential tropical rain that we had up in Port Douglas, so whilst waiting for the washing and drying managed a few hours reading my book lazing by the pool. If you have to do jobs might as well enjoy it!!

Also did a bit of shopping and bought a few last minute bits from Australia, like we really need more souvenirs, just can't seem to resist, always been a sucker for a bargain!

So all in all had a few lazy days just preparing for the next leg however the evenings were more of a trial. Our first night out in Cairns we headed for the night market, very different from the night markets of south east Asia and somewhat disappointing, although we both managed to get legs waxed and toe-nails painted. We had been told by a couple of girls we met in Port Douglas that you could get a really good meal in the food court there for $5, bargain we thought, so off we toddled but the price was $10, still quite reasonable we thought so made our choices and filled our plates. Sat down to eat dinner with our jug of ice-cold beer when all of a sudden all the stalls started holding up $5 signs, talk about feel cheated, if only we had waited another 10 minutes we could have eaten for half price. They do this in order to sell all the food already prepared, if only we knew, so anyone out there who goes to the market and eats, don't buy your food until the special offer signs come out, think it was about 8.30pm.

After leg-wax we thought we would find a pub to have a few drinks so we wandered, and wandered, and managed to find an Irish pub which was full of backpackers out for a night of merriment, so we had a pint there but felt as 2 middle aged women maybe this wasn't the place for us. Next stop was another bar just up the road, again filled with youngsters and karaoke, 'ah' I here you say 'thats more like it', only it wasn't cos didn't feel quite right here either so after one drink decided to go home for an early night.

Next morning asked our receptionist for recommendations on pubs which she gladly gave and so the following night off we trotted again heading for Sole on Sheriden only to find it shut being Good Friday, next stop was Shennanigans, also shut, hence another early night.

Saturday night, our last in Oz for this visit, and we decided to splash out on a meal at Hogs Breath, a chain of steak restaurants throughtout Australia, we had heard very good reports about it and can only say that we were slightly disappointed with it, although the steak was very tender had no flavour and the LIIT's were very average. However our mission was to find a pub in Cairns that didn't make us feel like OAPS. First Shennanigans, well it was open and it was busy, and full again of youngsters all bopping away to Garage or Hip hop or something we weren't quite familiar with, so with only one more pub to try we set off hopeful. Sole on Sheriden was the next stop, got our drinks in as on first glance the age group was right, however as the time was ticking on we looked at each other because we didn't really know what to think, we decided that it was what we fondly know as 'grab-a-granny' night, it was quite surreal in actual fact and although our age was no barrier here neither of us felt particularly comfortable so we supped up and had yet another early night!!

Maybe we were unlucky with our night-life in Cairns, maybe we are just too bloody old for Cairns but whatever we got lots of beauty sleep!!

Sunday morning loomed very early, woke before eight, a girl can only sleep so much. Sunday was moving day, we had to be out of our apartment by 10am but our flight wasn't leaving until 10.50pm. A problem really when you're carting as much luggage around as us. Reception said they were quite happy to look after our bags until 7pm when the office shut which was fine so we booked our airport transfer for 7pm, just meant that we would be extra early for our flight but no matter, didn't want to miss this one, not with the rellies waiting! (or not, but thats another blog).

So with just a towel, a book, etc., we headed off to the lagoon where we had a lovely 10 minutes lazing in the sun reading and topping up the tan before the rain started, a few drips first then a few more, then lots more. Both went off wandering and actually the rain didn't last too long. Met up at 4.30pm and had our last Oz supper, Lynda got her Barramundi again and I had Spanish Mackeral, both lovely although not on a par with Airlie Beach, which got both our 1st prizes for Bestest Ever Fish Award, yummy, Fish D'Vine, if you are ever there check it out!!

The worst thing about travelling is the travelling, especially when you get kicked out of your room 12 hours before your plane leaves, its such a bind. We got to Cairns International in plenty of time, the check in desks were just being prepared and we got first in line. The woman in charge told us firmly that we couldn't get processed until 8pm, 40 minutes away and then proceeded to put a bloody great notice up in front of us about 20 kilos maximum luggage allowance. We both then spent the next forty minutes sh**ing ourselves and guessing at how much excess we would be charged. Talk about panic, better things to spend our money on than excess baggage, if push comes to shove we would just have to dump all your presents!!

At 8pm on the dot they all marched out, Gestapo like, and called us over. Glad to report we had a lovely girl check us in and I don't know if our star alliance tickets entitle us to more allowance or whether we were just dead jammy, but we got to check our cases and hand luggage in and no mention of any excess charge, phew. You'll all be glad to know that for this leg at least your presents are safe.

Flight all on time, tune in for the next chapter of this exciting expedition, New Zealand here we come!!

Lots of love and a happy easter to you all, keep blogging L & T xxxxxxxxxxx

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