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Airlie Beach
Breakfast on the beach!Hello again, is the weather still nice over there?😞😊 We've ended up driving 4163 miles (over a 1000 miles a week!) between and around Melbourne to Cairns settling into fine sunny dry weather by the second half of our journey and now (via a 4hr flight) have been put back right where we started or so it seems! Auckland, like Melbourne can't make up its mind between being sunny and overcast or wet and is nearly as cold (about 15 degrees). What's more we're travelling south from here (rather than north) so it will get even colder. Oh well it's hard to get everywhere at its best time of year when you're going to so many places. You can't get everywhere at once in Australia alone at its best time of year! Despite being a bit miserable in Victoria, it is now Queensland's best season being dry and fairly hot. It's strange to think that they actually look forward to their winter, with their summer being hot but muggy and stormy! Plus the 'stingers' (jellyfish) are not around during the winter, meaning you can swim without a suit.
Anyway, after having breakfast and lunch on the beach at Airlie Beach
we had another 300 mile drive up to Mission Beach - famous for not only its beautiful beaches but also home to many Cassowaries. A large bird related to Emus but far more colourful (skin under the chin like turkeys), however a lot more dangerous also - they can attack if too closely approached! We enjoyed relaxing on the beach, having a swim (the sea now a fair bit warmer than in the Whitsundays) and putting our table out for lunch before going for a walk in search of these birds. Unfortunately we picked the wrong time and didn't manage to see any despite the multitude of road sign warnings. We later found out that like the platypuses, the best times to see them are dawn and dusk. With not enough time to wait around till dusk, we moved on. After stopping to take a snap of the 'big' cassowary that is!
Next stop - Paronella Park, voted Queenslands no.1 tourist attraction, it took me a while to realise why. Paronella Park was built in the 1930s by a Spanish immigrant called Jose Paronella. Despite being only a baker by trade, Jose was not only a astute businessman (he
made his fortune by buying and selling the sugar cane farms in the region) but a great architect and most importantly a dreamer, realising his dream by designing a beautiful theme park that incorporated a large natural waterfall with a suspension bridge across, botanical gardens, tennis courts, a ballroom, 'tunnel of love' and a castle - all with a European/Spanish themed design. Today however, the buildings are largely ruins, but his dream is being continued through maintenance financed by the influx of tourism. I was a bit sceptical about the high admission price ($33) at first, largely due to feeling like I was just walking around another botanical garden all but with a specially built castle. After taking the day tour however, the history and beauty of the place set in. A lot of what makes the place special is its subtleties. For example, the fact that the magnificent waterfall can be seen from many areas of the park - such as the Kauri pine avenue being directed towards it, or underneath the arch of the castle. Being able to feed a multitude of fish, turtles and eels naturally added to the positive and despite the 'tunnel of love' (a
dark tunnel through rock that would have originally been romantically lit) being half closed due to cyclone flood damage, it housed hundreds of little bent-winged bats which tightly huddled above your heads as you walked through. We were to be further inspired though when we later took the night tour, which we partly stuck around for as we were given a powered caravan spot for the night, free with the ticket. Romantically lit with spotlights, the waterfall and castle became even greater wonders that transfixed the mind and eye with a magical quality that made the place truly unforgetable.
In the morning we arose early and set off around 6:30 to again try and catch some platypuses at Yungaberra in the Atherton Tablelands. Punctuated not only by sugar cane fields, the Tablelands is a fertile plateau (between mountains) of farm lands featuring many banana plantations. The bananas here though were curiously covered by plastic bags. This was a means of keeping the bats from eating them, which are rife in the area (we saw some huge flying foxes later in Cairns!). Unfortunately the platypuses must have returned to their burrows by the time we got to them. Disappointed, we
carried onto Kuranda, a town near Cairns famous for its wildlife tourism. After looking round the market we visited the Koala Gardens and finally got the chance to cuddle a Koala! Unfortunately, holding a Koala is outlawed in Victoria and New South Wales hence why we could only previously stroke them. Now in Queensland though we had the opportunity. A massive money making opportunity (especially now after being outlawed in most other states) we had to pay extra but thinking it was one of those once in a lifetime, archetypal Ozzie experiences I couldn't not! They are soft and very laid back animals, however their large, sharp claws are far from 'cuddly', leaving me with a souvenir of a pulled thread from my t-shirt! We also saw another joey in its mum's pouch, however this one was licking the faeces off its mum's bum! Something they do to ween them onto being able to digest eucalyptus leaves. Also on show were snakes, crocs and kangaroos which we again got to feed.
With only a couple of days left in Australia and not having the time to properly get out into the outback, we wanted to at least experience some
aboriginal culture and so we went to the recommended Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultue Park. Just north of Cairns, the park left us rather disenchanted, with the displays and activities feeling artificial, uninspired and lacking enthusiasm. After watching a dance show that rather went through the motions we engaged in boomerang, spear throwing and digeridoo workshops that similarly lacked imagination. Even after watching a couple of video presentations we came away wishing to have learnt more. Anyhow, we moved onto Cairns where we found the 'big' Captain Cook before walking along the esplanade spotting many birds including large pelicans close to shore. In the evening we explored the night market and then went to a bar that featured a free salsa dance class to learn a few new moves!
For our final day in Australia I had been left in a quandry. Cairns is the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef and struggled deciding on a boat trip out to snorkel and dive or to travel 2 hours north to Cape Tribulation. As you may know we had just done a similar dive boat trip in the Whitsundays and we are later going to Fiji, where the marine life is meant
Lunch on the Beach!
Bingil Bay, Mission Beach to be even better. Therefore with this is mind and still having petrol in the tank we travelled on further to Cape Tribulation. Another fantastic drive along the windy coast of the Captain Cook Highway, we stopped at various scenic lookouts before the town of Port Douglas where I managed to catch Andy Murray's defeat on a big screen - not that I had my hopes up for him. Further on, a snake crossed our path during a walk at Mossman Gorge before spotting a couple more and a load of Saltwater Crocodiles on a wildlife cruise down the Daintree River. Continuing north we eventually arrived at Cape Tribulation - a stunning headland where the rainforest meets the beach (the finest of beaches!). This is also the furthest north you can travel up the east coast in a 2wd as beyond here the road turns into a gravel or dirt track which is largely only suitable for 4wd.
As you may imagine, where we now were was a bit in the middle of nowhere and our petrol light had been shining for a fair while on the way up, more than a little concerning! Having had a faultless run
over the last four weeks, we were determined to get back to the last petrol station we had passed, however this soon turned into the least of our problems. As another Cassowary protection measure, not content with putting up sign after sign (some comical ones!) the road up to Cape Trib (that's an Ozzie habit by the way - they shorten everything they can e.g. sunnies, avos, this arvo etc) had speed bump after speed bump and one too many it proved. I had learnt that this one particular bump was far steeper than the rest on the way up catching the undercarriage, however despite slowing down as much as possible on the way back for it, it completed the damage it had made on the way up. Screaaaaarrrrrrrrr.... We had to stop for something had obviously fallen off. Pulling over and having a look, we found part of the bracket that held the water tank underneath was sticking into the ground. We weren't too surprised when we realised how low the watertank was positioned - we would have expected more clearance with such a large vehicle. Anyway after failing to budge the bracket, a good samaritan stopped at the
side of the road and helped us take the whole bracket and watertank off (after waiting ages to empty its 140 litre capacity). Something that was a god send when we had neither the tools or the practicality. So with the watertank now inside the van we again set off and got to the last petrol station to get us back to Cairns. No shower tonight! That night we went for our first restaurant meal since Melbourne to relax a bit before getting our stuff ready for departure in the morning. However we still had the problem of finding water to washup and clean the van before return and ended our final night in Australia driving round Cairns city centre looking for a public toilet!
Something we didn't find until the following morning before taking the camper back by about 8. Fortunately I had a 'no worries' insurance policy so didn't need to worry about the watertank (though it wasn't damaged, it just needed to be hooked back on). A short taxi ride took us to Cairns airport before a 4 hour flight to Auckland, New Zealand. And so we left hot sunny Cairns, glancing down at the Great
Barrier Reef amidst the clear bluey green waters.
After watching the excellent 'The Boat That Rocked' (Richard Curtis comedy about a pirate radio station in the swinging 60s) we arrived in Auckland at 6:15, 2 hours ahead of Australia and 11 ahead of home. Being winter here, it was dark and only 13 degrees - "how was Australia?" said the passport officer, "warmer there but nicer scenery here". Fortunately we had a much warmer greeting here also, as we were to be staying with a friend of ours for the first two nights in Auckland. That friend was Andy Allan who was the first drummer we had in Mojo Risin' before he emigrated over here a year ago. It was nice to see a familar face - the first on our travels that we knew from home. He and his 9 year old daughter Mia met us at the airport before taking us a half hour journey back to meet the rest of his very welcoming family, wife Sarah and 14 year old son Oliver. What's more we had roast beef for supper! A very homely welcoming! After talking over our travels and after everyone else had gone to
bed, I was kept up till 5:40am by Roger Federer and Andy Roddick battling out the longest (in games played) tennis final in grand slam history! What a marathon, but I was so glad had the opportunity to see it. However, despite being such a closely fought contest, I thought it lacked the excitement of last years final due to it being far too heavily based around the server. As both players were serving so well there was a lack of rallies and the games were sometimes monotonous. However that fifth set kept me on the edge of my seat, despite previously nearly falling asleep!
The following day we looked around Auckland, 'the city of sails' so called due to the sheer number of sailing boats in its harbours. It is also home to the tallest structure in the southern hemisphere - the skytower. We considered going up but instead took a ferry across to the suburb of Devonport - one of the oldest settlements that still had plenty of Victorian era buildings. The ferry journey was an opportunity to see Auckland's striking skyline and its large harbour bridge (though only about half the size of Sydney's). At Devonport
we went to a pub called 'The Patriot', another British themed pub(!) before eating at a Greek restaurant. After a frustrating wait, we finally got the last bus back to Andy's.
In the morning I blogged while Jessie did some laundry and then Andy kindly took us to pickup our campervan. Despite being the same model but older (we were upgraded in Oz from a Backpacker camper to a newer Britz) our new camper is nicer in side and in some ways better equipped (we now also have a grill). After saying our goodbyes to our very hospitable friends, we left Auckland via the harbour bridge driving up north (coming back down south later) to Whangarei ('Wh' is pronounced 'F' here btw) where we stopped to do our New Zealand shop-up, stocking up on 'Pam's' items - the budget label here. Another hour north took us to Paihia - the central hub of the Bay of Islands, where we are now.
The Bay of Islands features the best of the North Islands coast and is home to many dolphins of which we took a cruise out to see the next day. We were also hoping to swim with
them but unfortunately this was not to be the case. Under New Zealand law, if the pod of dolphins has babies or even juveniles within them, you can't swim with them. The reason for this is because the young are the most inquisitive, they might stray away from their mother for too long and miss their feeds (they need to be fed every 3 minutes!) which could lead to tragic loss. Despite being a little disheartened by this, we at least managed to see a large pod of 30-35 dolphins jumping and swimming close to the boat (they often rode at the front of the bow). We also went through the 'world famous' 'hole in the rock' arch and stopped off at an island and climbed to the lookout. The scenery here is very much like Cornwall's coast and at times we forgot we were around the other side of the world! The roads are also much more like Englands - being far more windy than Australia's long and straight. In the afternoon after getting a ferry back to Paihia from Russell (on the other peninsula) we moved onto Waitangi - famous for being the oldest European settlement in New
Zealand and the site of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi between the Maori people and the British Victorian government, who took sovereignty in 1840. Here we learnt a little more, visiting the treaty grounds which contained the first British settlement, the largest war canoe in the world and a Maori meeting room. This is the oldest visible history gets in New Zealand! It makes you appreciate why older history and buildings are such a novelty in England to overseas visitors!
Today we are about to take a scenic drive south to Rotorua and the sun is shining! Love to all x x
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