Mom's Extra Week with Me

Okay, okay, so it was a few weeks ago that mom and I had an extra week of vacation together after our road trip ended and dad had to head home.  I have been going through a bit of an adjustment to being back in school and having so many readings. I hope that I will get to tell you about my first two weeks in class, but truthfully they are a little boring, and I need to focus on catching you up on our mother-daughter trip.

So, as you'll remember (if you're a return reader of course), dad left early on a Saturday morning.  Mom and I went back to bed after saying goodbye and had a bit of a lazy day.  We planned our next week, went shopping, made dinner in, and went to a movie.  Despicable Me 3, to be exact.  We are big fans of the minions and it was a really cute film.  We may or may not have laughed out loud a couple times, with or without the other people in the theatre.  

On Sunday, we had a bit of a bus tour.  We packed a picnic then took the bus to Bondi Beach.  We ate cheese and crackers, chips and veggies with our feet in the sand.  It was a really nice sunny day.  Not to jinx myself (*knocks on wood*)  but every time I have been to Bondi Beach it has been perfect sunny weather where the water looks incredibly blue and the waves roll in nicely.  

Our picnic, which we would defend to the death against aggressive seagulls

After sufficient time at the beach, we took the bus to Centennial Park.  We had a little walk about the huge park area for an hour or two.  I had never been to that area before and it is really pretty.  There are several ponds with swans and other birds.

From the park we made our way back to Newtown.  I did mess up a little with planning our bus ride home.  I don't think I have kept it a secret, but the bus system here is the only thing that isn't magical about this city.  But in any case we found a bus that explicitly stated that it went to Newtown.  It was a bit of an adventure because it took all of the back roads, the small residential streets that it barely fit on and could barely drive around the roundabouts.  Everything turned out well, even if not to plan.  We ate dinner at Bangkok Bites, which is Thai street food.  It was very tasty.  We walked the rest of the way home and finished packing for the big trip that we decided to take.  We also did matching nails, because we were headed somewhere warm, somewhere where our toes would be exposed... Have I built enough suspense? We went to Cairns!  Here is an outline of our four days there:

Day One:

We arrived in Cairns pretty early and headed straight to the main strip of the city.  We put our bags in lockers next to the Esplanade Lagoon and had a little walk along the Esplanade Boardwalk.  I'll admit that I was a little cranky because I was hungry (i.e. I was hangry), so we looked for a place to eat along the wharf.  We had a nice pancake breakfast, or at least I did, mom wasn't that hungry.  Then since we were there anyway, we booked a tour to the Great Barrier Reef for the next day.  I was feeling much better, except that I was overly hot.  I had over dressed by wearing pants and a t-shirt. The weather there was in the mid-20s, which is so much hotter than Sydney.  I do not think I would be able to handle being there in the summer.  To support this argument, our cab driver who took us to the Esplanade from the airport told us that the temperatures reach up to 40 degrees and with upwards of 90 percent humidity.  Unreal.  Our solution: go for a swim in the Lagoon.  It was so refreshing.

Us in front of the Lagoon, a salt water pool of sorts.

Needless to say, we went through a lot of sunscreen on this trip.  After we were finished with our swim and Lagoon-side relaxing, we made our way to check in to our hotel.  We found our way on the city bus and stopped at woolies for a few groceries.  Our hotel was pretty cool in that it had two pools.  We had a very small patio outside of our room that opened out onto one of these pools.   The sun was still shining so we went for another dip.

Pool #1.  Very tropical

We ordered some Indian delivery and watched some TV for the night, because we had a very early and exciting day ahead of us.

Day Two: SNORKELING THE GREAT BARRIER REEF!!!

I got to cross off another bucket list item that day.  We had to be at the wharf for 7:45 and caught a coach bus from the hotel.  We checked in and hopped on the catamaran.  No need to worry, they provided coffee and mini muffins, so I got my caffeine fix before the start of the voyage.  We took about an hour and a half to get out to the reef.  We took sea sickness pills as a precaution, which was a good call.  By the time we got to the first stop, the sun was in full effect.  We put on our gear and had two hours to explore.  It was ridiculously cool.  I splurged and rented a waterproof camera to reflect on.  Lucky you:

Mom and I

We got back on the boat after exploring, where they had prepared a buffet spread for lunch, including prawns, four different salads, and a couple of hot dishes.  Then we headed to a second snorkeling location.  Mom and I did not anticipate the need to snorkel for two entire hours more, but the second spot was so different and much closer to the surface so we could get right up close to the fish.  Part of the initial instructions were to not touch the coral under any circumstances.  But, their being so close made that tough.  I accidentally knocked one with my flipper, which I feel terrible about.  But, there was one guy that was sitting at our table who came back after both stops bleeding.  I really don't know how that happened.

We saw so many fish, some of which I probably harassed a little bit.  There were lots of nice colours and my favourite, a blue starfish.  We also came across a few very big fish, a couple of feet wide.  They gave be a bit of a scare because I saw the one in my peripheral vision.  So my first thought at seeing a huge grey fish coming my way was shark! A few other snorkelers on the boat said they saw a couple of sharks, but we did not which is both a good thing and a bad thing.  Also, no sea turtles, which really disappointed me.  I guess I will have to try again to see them.  Here is a video.  Forgive the shaky camerawork.  If you push past that, you can sort of see what it was like to be there!

                                             

We had to be called back to the boat so that we could head back.  Once we had our feet on solid ground, we went for dinner at a happening pub called the Rattle and Hum.  It was good food, and it was also happy hour so we shared a couple of pitchers of cider.

Day 3: The Rainforest

We booked another day tour for this day.  The tour bus picked us up from the hotel and took us to the Kuranda Scenic Railway.  The train took us through the Daintree Rainforest and up the mountain to a small town called Kuranda.  Along the way there was commentary and a ten minute stop off for pictures of Barron Falls.

We railway was very well named because there was a lot of pretty views to see along the way.  We had a few hours to spend exploring Kuranda.  It seemed like a bit of a hippy town, and very tourist oriented, but there were several markets to walk through.  I bought a few prints from a local artist, that I absolutely love.  But, the highlight of our time in the town was going to the Koala Gardens.  It was a small little zoo with native animals to Australia, including crocodiles, turtles, wallabies, possums, etc.  The most exciting of which were the six or seven  koalas that you could get up close and personal with.  Mom and I opted to not get our photos taken holding a koala.  We also walked through the entire zoo, but decided to do a second loop to see the koalas again.  This was an excellent choice because one of them had woken up and was moving around a little.  Koalas are the cutest!

Our first loop of the zoo all the koalas were cuddled up sleeping

Second loop, this one was awake 

 Following our trip to the Koala Gardens and walking around Kuranda, it was time to head back down the mountain.  We opted to take the Skyrail back, which is a 7km-long gondola ride.  It provided excellent views over the rainforest canopy.  There was also a change over of gondola lines at which point there was a small boardwalk through the forest.  The gondola ride itself was a little eerie as we passed through clouds/fog (not 100 percent sure which) and couldn't see anything surrounding us.  We could barely see the cables that the gondola was attached to.

The mid-way change of gondolas

Mom in the eerie fog

 When we got to the end of the line, we ate a very late picnic lunch while we waited for our tour bus to pick us up from there.  It took us back to the hotel, where we had a little chill. Then we headed to dinner by the wharf.  We at some nice seafood meals at a place called Tha Fish, which our tour bus driver recommended for good reason.  After dinner we had a walk about the night markets in search of souvenirs.  When we got back to the hotel, I decided on going for a night dip in the other hotel pool, just to say that I did.

Day Four:

We spent the better part of the day before our flight back to Sydney at the Botanic Gardens.  We started by taking the city bus there and eating brunch at the Botanic Garden cafe.  It was a nice start to the day because the food was fantastic and the tables were practically surrounded by flowers and trees of the Gardens.  We then proceeded to walk around the different areas of the gardens, which included heritage gardens, spice/herb gardens, and a butterfly conservatory, among other things.  There were several weird and wonderful plants all around.  But, one of the highlights was a small 1.5km hike on the Red Arrow trail.  This was a pretty hike up to a couple of lookouts.  It was also interesting because it passed directly through Cassowary breeding territory.  I think I mentioned that Cassowaries are the third largest and most deadly bird on the planet.  Clearly, mom and I survived, since the only birds we saw were turkeys and scrubfowl.  But, even the chance to see a wild Cassowary was pretty cool.

Mom Looking out at the lookout.  If you look far  enough out there is the ocean, take my word for it.

From the Botanic Gardens, we headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and get a cab to the airport to catch our flight back to Sydney.  We said goodbye to Cairns and had quite a noisy flight back, since there were a few cranky babies on the flight.  Thank goodness it was only a three hour flight.

The next day was mom's last day in Sydney.  So we did a little bit of shopping, and mom set me up with some groceries for the upcoming week, a.k.a. the first week of classes.  Then we took the ferry from Circular Quay to Manly to meet mom's friend Karen from university for dinner. We had some time to kill before Karen arrived, so we went for a small walk along the coastal walkway.  We kept our eyes peeled for penguins as it was about the time that they come in from fishing for the day.  And we actually did see one!  Very briefly we saw it waddle under the docks at the wharf, which was so cool.  Then we met Karen and went to a little walk to Shelly beach and a catch up before going to eat at a place called Hugo's.  It was a delicious meal and a very hip restaurant.  What a fantastic way to end of mom's visit.

Karen, mom, and me

Mom left the next morning and made it safely home.  I took the next two days to recover from all the excitement of the previous three weeks of adventure with the parents, and to also mentally prepare for being back in school.  Truth be told, I still need some more time to mentally prepare for class, even though I have already started.