Cairns, Australia, 1st stop of a 6-stop tour with Grand Circle Travel (Cairns, Sydney, Christchurch, Queenstown, Auckland and Fiji)

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Down Under Australia



Cairns, Australia. Feb 10-14, 2008


Our tour director is Andrea Smyth, a resident of
New Zealand (A Kiwi).



44 tour members traveled with Andrea by planes and by
buses like this one.



We were strangers at the beginning of the trip...



but quickly became friends just a few days into the tour !!!



Monday Feb 11, 2008:
Our first visit was Hartley's Crocodile farm in Port Douglas

Had a chance to pet a Koala bear

Ned and Janet from New Jersey and others did same thing.

Watched them tease the crocodiles with food.

A shot of the 2 black swans running around the premise.
Swans are normally white. Not in Australia, they are black !!!.

We had a break for drinks and snacks. Guess what they served:

BBQ Crocodile meat on skewers. We all tried. Tastes like pork !!!

Then on to the Kangaroos !!!

Feeding Kangaroos with carrots

Here's Sherril trying to attract them.

Here's Roger being a little cautious!

Here's George doing a great job!

A visit at a cattle farm named Wetherby ...

...run by a knowledgeable and tough farm woman named Jenny.

We had a delicious dinner at Wetherby and was entertained by

a very good Australian cowboy singer.

Bob & Jean, Lon & Evelyn and Ed & Lee

Sitting at our table were Jeff & Betty, a lovely couple, too young

and too energetic to be in retirement!

Also at our table were Joe & Sharon from South Dakota

Andrea talking to Les & Joan, Hal & Jane, Sandy and Roger.

Lorraine, Annabelle, Bill & Fran and Janet.

Claudette & Guy, Jim & Penny, and Audrey.

Everybody participated ...imitating kangaroos...

Tuesday Feb 12: We all took a big boat going out to the Great Barrier Reef!

The sea was rough. It's been raining cats and dogs the previous days!

The rain has stopped but the ocean was still very choppy.

Some of the fun activities were cancelled.. and we were concerned...

Some passengers below were sea sick.

We could see the vast area where the Great Barrier Reef is

by observing the color change in the ocean water.

We were ready to hop on the pontoon to do some snorkeling.

Nghiem tried but Sherril chickened out!

Snorkeling wasn't fun in this condition, and I didn't see a damn thing below the surface.

What a pity! Everybody got knocked around and quit early before we get injured.

We saw some interesting fish in the fish tank!

On the pontoon we made the best of it, having lunch and

watch the choppy waves in the ocean!

A lot of Asian passengers were sick, throwing up...

The much anticipated "Great Barrier Reef" experience was a bust,

but to be fair, that was the only disappointment of the whole trip.

And it isn't anybody's fault. We just had bad luck with the weather !!!

Next day Wed Feb 13, the day the Australian Parliament finally

said "Sorry" to the Aborigines for sending a generation of

children away from their families. Just by accident, on this day,

we came to Tjapukai to learn about the Aborigines by visiting a Museum,

learning to throw boomerangs and watching a show put on by the natives.

Here's Sherril showing off her skill with her enthusiastic teacher !

Interesting museum.

We learned to throw the boomerangs across the wind.
Here's Lorraine

Annabelle

Evelyn

?

Sherril

Sandy

Nancy

Don

Janet

Janet

Ned

Frances

Sally

Sharon

Ann

Ann

Bill

Bill

? Lefthanders had to face the other way, so I didn't see her face?

Curt

Roger

Jean

Bob

Bob

Show time.

Making fire

Taking skyrail over the rain forest. Beautiful waterfalls.

Janet & Ned

Nghiem & Sherril

Ned

We had ice cream in Kuranda. Shopping for Kangaroo and

Koala bear toys!

Oh, for lunch we all ate kangaroo pies. Taste like beef meat

pies. Not bad ! Washed down with delicious Ginger Beer !

Valentine's Day Feb 14, on the way to the airport for Sydney

we visited the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

In remote areas there are no hospitals so these doctors and

nurses fly in on this plane to treat patients on regular basis.

Les and Nghiem

Sandy

Nancy

Shopping at the Flying Doctors Center.

To see next blog : Sydney, Australia, click here :
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http://www.downundersydneyaustralia.blogspot.com/

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