Queensland Road Trip

The freedom of having our own transport allowed us to travel at a much faster pace than we had been used to. In just four days we managed to see and do a whole lot in the northern part of the state of Queensland. The first day we did the "waterfall circuit" and checked out a few nice waterfalls. One of them had a nice pool at the bottom that you could swim in, but Steph wouldn't have any of it, so I swam by myself.

Millaa Millaa Falls

Ellinjaa Falls

Along the way we stopped at a little stream that is home to a few duckbill platypus (or should I say platypi?). We spotted one from a distance behind a little blind they had set up and thought we were pretty lucky, but when we took a short walk down a path along the stream we got really lucky and saw a few more from really close. What a strange animal. Apparently when the discovery of the platypus was first reported back to England around 1900 they thought it was a practical joke. A furry little mammal that swims in rivers, lays eggs, has webbed feet and a bill like a duck. Can't really blame them.

As I may have mentioned earlier, Australia is expensive! Easily the most expensive place we've been. Anyways, with the cost of a rental car we couldn't really afford to stay in a hostel every night, so we camped. Australia may be known for it's wildlife, but I didn't realize that this also included crazy amounts of bugs and other creepy-crawlies. Despite the constant buzzing of the insect life, our campsite at Granite Gorge was awesome! Literally on the side of a granite gorge, it's home to a huge colony of rock wallabies. Sort of like mini-kangaroos that love to eat food out of your hand. We had an awesome time feeding and photographing the little guys and seeing their little joeys hanging out of their mama's pouch.

gimme some

cute lil' guys

see the little joey? with his head and one leg hanging out

Day two was a trip to the "Outback," or as close to the Outback as we were gonna get. There's some cool caves a couple hours drive inland from where we are staying, so we made a day of it, stopping along the way to spot kangaroos, kookaburras, parakeets, cockatoos, and other stuff you've only ever seen in a zoo or pet shop. A quick side note on kookaburras: I don't think we ever saw one in a gum tree, mostly they were sitting on telephone wires, but that didn't stop us from singing that song over and over. And I can verify that those things really do laugh...and laugh and laugh... at 5:30 in the morning at an amazing loud volume. Anyways, it was a gorgeous day for a drive though the caves weren't super exciting. Still, we got to see some amazing wildlife, scenery, and even some aboriginal paintings on a rock wall.

kookaburra sitting on a telephone wire, laugh kookaburra laugh...

this could pass as the Outback, right?

a roo having a look at us

Steph in one of the caves near Chillagoe

big rock

aboriginal rock paintings

We liked Granite Gorge so much that we decided to stay two nights. Who wouldn't want some more time hanging out with our little wallaby buddies? Part two will (hopefully) follow soon...

come back soon!

Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef

We made it to Australia! It was kind of a strange feeling at first. It was our last country on our trip before coming back to New Zealand, so we were a little sad about the trip being almost over. But Australia has always been a place that we've wanted to visit so we were happy to finally make it. Sometimes we laugh about how we used to think Australia was this exotic destination that you could only dream of visiting, when in reality it is probably the country most similar to the US, after only Canada. Still, it is a dream destination and we were excited to get started. Cairns, pronounced "cans", is on the northeast coast and is known as the "gateway to the Great Barrier Reef." We were greeted with blue skies and a blazing hot sun that we were more than happy to soak in. I was immediately disappointed at how expensive Australia was going to be. The Aussie dollar is really strong and is basically 1-to-1 with the US dollar. A shuttle from the airport a mere 2 miles into town cost us 18 bucks. What happened to the $1 taxi rides we had in Thailand? Make no mistake, we'll walk back to airport when it comes time to leave.

Of course #1 on our agenda in Cairns was the Great Barrier Reef. Who doesn't have visiting the Great Barrier Reef on their bucket list? The reef is a couple miles offshore, so there are a bunch of tour operators vying to take you out for a full day trip. Seeing as it is such a huge destination, we wanted to spare no expense and actually splurge on a dive or two. Even Steph, who has never dove before, signed on for an introductory dive. In fact, she enjoyed it so much that we both went for a second dive. We had awesome weather, so one of the sites we visited is one that they rarely get to visit because of strong currents. You could tell it was less used as the coral was much better here. Although I was hoping to see a shark, the only major wildlife we encountered was a huge moray eel, though Steph was the only one that saw it. Still, there were tons of cool fish and coral and all that good stuff that goes along with snorkeling and diving. Maybe should've put more sunscreen on, but other than that an awesome day.

The only tangible evidence of our $500 reef excursion. The memories are priceless

Though we didn't see all that much wildlife on our reef excursion, the town of Cairns was home to some animals we weren't expecting to see much of. Bats. Tons of huge, hairy, noisy bats hanging around by the hundreds in the trees around town. I believe they are fruit bats, but they were pretty nasty.

Other than that, we didn't get up to much in Cairns. They actually have a Target so we did manage to do a little shopping. With only 6 days in the area, we were anxious to get out of town and explore the countryside a little bit. That's right, another first for the trip - we rented a car, bought a tent and air matress at Kmart, and hit the road. Road trip! Coming soon...