Pictures and Our Last Days Down Under... For Now!

Happy Thursday! Time for breakfast! We wanted to try the “Australian Brekkie” (Australian breakfast), but the place where we saw it advertised looked shady to me. So we carried on to the Esplanade. We found a place with a buffet and tried that out. Their breakfast buffet reminded me of Ireland’s breakfast because it included baked beans. I guess perhaps that’s a UK thing. Also on the buffet were stewed tomatoes with herbs (Italian herbs, so it tasted like spaghetti sauce), eggs, sausages, bacon, two types of pasta dishes, yogurt with honey, fruit, cereal, toast with jams, Vegemite, and/or peanut butter, juice, coffee, tea, and… I think that’s it. Quite the feast! I stuck with sausage, eggs, tomatoes, toast, and coffee. I’m glad we got all that fuel, because our next stop was maybe four kilometers (a couple of miles) away!

I didn’t realize quite how far away the Botanic Gardens were from the Esplanade, but that’s all right. Steve and I both like a good walk! We got there with about 15 minutes to spare before the guided tour began. There were about seven or eight other guests on the tour, and it was quite informative! We got more information about the rain forest and saw many beautiful flowers, including the largest flower in the world and the oldest and biggest tree in the Botanic Gardens! The most interesting take away for me was the discovery that vanilla is an orchid! It has no natural pollinators, so it has to be pollinated by hand—that’s why it’s so expensive. The particular type we saw was from Mexico.

After the tour, we started back to the Esplanade—we had a ferry to catch! We made it down to the wharf with plenty of time to spare and loaded the boat to Green Island. This is the one we read about most in our tour books. We signed up for a glass bottom boat ride so we could see the coral, and all we had to do was step from our boat onto the other—easy!

And what an easy way to see the Great Barrier Reef! Our tour guide and boat driver took us just a few meters away (a few yards), and though her boat was only about a meter (just over a yard) deep, we got up-close views of beautiful coral! She pointed out all sorts. They really do call some of it “brain coral,” and other types are all named similarly—by what they look like. She pointed out hard coral and soft coral (the stuff that moves, like the anemone Nemo and his dad live in), sea cucumbers, sea grass, and lots of fish! She even fed some for us so they would come close enough for us to see. After about 20 minutes, it was time to get back to land. Next stop? The beach—with sand!

We laid out for a bit (we had about an hour and a half on the island) and got ourselves nice and sunburned. I took a walk along the shoreline. It was very peaceful, and there were fish, just sitting in schools only a couple of meters from shore, so those were fun to watch! We started back to the boat, but we had to wait a while. We looked out beside the jetty and what did we see? Sea turtles coming up for air! They’re so cute. =) Back on the boat, Steve and I decided to ride up at the top in the open-air section. The water and coral and islands are so beautiful to see! Steve even saw a whale breech!

And then we grew hungry! I’d seen a place on the Esplanade called The Raw Prawn, and I’d asked Steve earlier if we could go there for dinner. They have bugs on the menu! So that’s where we went. Steve got the Cairns Duo, which included prawns (face included) and barramundi with asparagus and potatoes. I got the Bugs and Prawns Combo! Bugs are really just another crustacean, like shrimp or crab or lobster. It was certainly worth trying! I liked it—they tasted just like shrimp to me. We even got dessert this time. Steve let me pick because he’s wonderful, so we got the chocolate torte—yum! It was delicious. We made a pit stop into a souvenir shop on the way back to the hotel and just got a couple of things. The next day we were scheduled to fly back to lovely Sydney.

Friday morning we took it easy. Check-out was at 10:00am, so we left then and had the owner call us a cab to the airport. The Cairns domestic airport is quite small, but we found plenty to keep us busy while we waited for our plane! We both picked up lunch for the plane ride back, and Steve wanted to look at every shop there, just because there weren’t that many and we had the time. =) So he did that while I picked up a couple more post cards, wrote them, addressed them, stamped them, and gave them to the lady at one of the shops to post for me. Then I began to blog, and then we got on the plane—so exciting! =)

Once we landed back in Sydney, we got our train tickets back to where we’re staying, checked in once we got to the hotel, and set off on our last grand evening in this beautiful and iconic city! Steve said it seemed so familiar—like we’ve already lived here for years! He knows the city even better than I, since he goes running every morning. It’s a beautiful place to see at all times of day!

We picked up a few final items on our way to dinner. Steve asked me where I’d like to eat, and I said any place with a view of either the Opera House or the Bridge. We chose a seafood place with a view of the bridge. It was quite a lovely and enchanted evening. Tomorrow we fly home. Back to reality and back to the Northern Hemisphere—where toilets flush the other direction and people drive on the right side of the road.

And so ends our Australian Adventure: Quick Whit’s 28^th Birthday Extravaganza. I told Steve I’d never be able to give him something like this, and I can’t possibly thank him enough. If I say “thank you” again, it’ll begin to lose its significance. He said I’ve already thanked him, and he wished me a happy birthday once more. He doesn’t seem to mind I can’t give him a big trip somewhere he couldn’t simply take himself.

Thank you all for joining us on our Grand Adventure! Perhaps we’ll venture out together again soon! 

As promised... pictures!
Australia 1:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100106895941998.1073741830.52700845&type=1&l=1f1351890e

Australia 2:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100106896570738.1073741831.52700845&type=1&l=c1427d817c

Australia 3:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100106897643588.1073741832.52700845&type=1&l=f84cd420f5

Australia 4:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100108114774448.1073741833.52700845&type=1&l=6a5c5dc52a

Australia 5:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100108806039148.1073741834.52700845&type=1&l=3f498faf1f