Friday 12 June

What a great feeling it was waking up and knowing we were not traveling another great distance in the van. No Willie Nelson interfering with my thoughts or doing my head in.

Today we went off to Kuranda a small ex hippie village in the Tablelands known for its markets and wildlife displays. We had booked into a package deal that had us picked up at 9.00 am and taken to the Skyrail, a gondola that stretches for 7.5 kms from Cairns to Kuranda. It starts at close to sea level and its highest point is 545 m. There are two stops along the way that offer some spectacular views. At the first stop we had only just got off the gondola when we saw a snake about 2 metres away from us. Got a pretty good picture of it. The second stop offered views of Barron Falls a quite an amazing sight.

Lorraine being afraid of heights spent most of the Skyride looking down. I had to describe what could be seen or show her the pictures I had taken. She also had to sit on the side which was away from looking up hill. Throughout the trip it was tempting to rock the cabin to and fro but the look I was getting told me my life was not worth even thinking about it.

Safely in Kuranda we looked through the markets but bought very little. Tried to haggle at one stall offering a lady $20 for a little dress she had for sale at $25. We had seen something similar at $19 in the city market. The lady claimed she wouldn’t make enough profit if she sold it for that price with the recession and all. In the end we just walked away so instead of making maybe $5 profit she made nothing. Aussie logic I guess. Lorraine did buy herself a pair of opal earrings for the huge sum of $10.00.

To return to Cairns we hopped onto an old steam train. We bought the Gold Class Ticket for this part of our trip. It was well worth the extra expense as we were totally spoiled; Food, free drinks that were forever being topped up and window seats. Took plenty of photos but most did not turn out as I just wasn’t fast enough to get the view before trees got in the way. The train also stopped at the Barron Falls but on the other side of the gorge so more photos were taken. We also stopped at another set of falls that were equally as spectactular but the train was to close to be able to take a photo that showed the whole length of them.

After the train trip we were dropped back at our caravan park. We then through some careful negotiations that included a phone call from NZ meet up with Tarsh. We then went out of the main part of town to a place called Sizzlers for tea. It was one of these places you order a main but everything else is self service ie soup, entrée, salad and dessert. The meal was good but the restaurant was freezing. The three of us shivered throughout the meal. I don’t think the people of Cairns no how to handle temperatures in the low 20s as they still had the aircon going full bore.

Saturday 13 June

A designated shopping day! Picked Tarsh up at 9.00 am as arranged but didn’t get on our way until 9.40 am. Forty minutes of shopping time lost. Started off at an outlet mall. Then it was into Cairns CBD to a discount Pharmacy that had extremely cheap fragrances. Central Plaza with its 150 or so shops was the next destination. The shopping lasted until nearly 5.00 pm and at the end there were three very weary shoppers. Not a lot was bought but there certainly was a lot of looking and walking. The best thing about the day was knowing that we had done, completed, finished, ended our Cairns shopping until the need to visit the Big W was mentioned as something to do on Monday.

We dropped Tarsh off at home as she had a 30th Birthday to attend. Next on the day’s list was dinner with Eric, Lorraine’s cousin. We went to a place in the Pier Complex that specialised in steaks and we all order seafood?!? Lorraine’s dream of eating Tiger Prawns came true. She had a plate full and enjoyed right to the last bite. It was good to catch up with Eric over a very tasty meal and a few drinks. He was very pleased with his move up from Brisbane and felt he should have done it years ago. He was especially rapt getting out of working night shift. After dinner we had a walk along the harbour side. It was really alive with lots of people out and about.

This is our last night in the camper van. It has been quite a good experience, mainly positive, but there were a number of things we would change when we do it again.

I wont miss the early morning bird noises. I used the word noise because that is exactly what they are. There is no sweet melodic sounds coming from the Aussie birds. No sweet sounds like those of the tui or fantail, just arrogant squawking of crows, loud laughter from the Kookaburra and screeching from some other bird. I wonder if there is any relation to this and the personalities of the people from each nation?

Sunday 14 November

Said good-bye to our home of eight days. It was quite a frustrating morning really. When we picked up the van we were told that it would take an hour when returning it. It took a grand toal of 15 minutes. So we ended up stuck at the depot for nearly 90 minutes waiting for the Car Rental firm to pick us up. They were 15 mins late and then we were a further 30 minutes at their depot waiting to be served. It was becoming quite nerve wracking as we had booked a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef and time was getting on. It was nearly 12.15 pm when we finally were in our car and we had to pick Tarsh up, park the car and get to the terminal by 12.30 pm. So what did I do in our rush??? Turned a street to early on our way to Tarsh’s losing us another 5 minutes. The pressure was no on!! I dropped the two of them off to pick up the tickets and started looking for a park. I finally got to the terminal at 12.55 pm, five minutes to spare, breathless, hot and bothered.

The ferry trip was about 50 minutes out to Green Island on the Barrier Reef. Tarsh was not looking the best, she was in recovery mode from her arty the night before. She had shown a noisy Aussie female just how good the kiwi gals are when it comes to shots and sculling. Anyways once the boat got into the rolling sea, Tarsh’s eyes starting rolling and she made a hasty run to the toilets. Unfortunately for Tarsh but fortunate for the seagulls she didn’t quite make it and had a technicolour yawn over the side.

Once on the island we went for lunch. As it is a Heritage Park everything is protected the birds are quite friendly to a point of being cheeky. They have no fear of humans what so ever. I had a filled roll on the table and one of the birds jumped up on my knee and when I wasn’t looking attempted to steal my roll. It would have got the whole thing if I hadn’t grabbed it in time. As it was it took off with quite a big chunk of bread for its efforts. It sort of reminded me of the film The Birds and I started telling Tarsh about it.

A few minutes later Tarsh was talking (any one surprised here?) and had a chip dangling from her fingers. One of the bird jumped up and sole the chip. It gave Tarsh such a fright she screamed which in turn gave Lorraine a fright so she screamed and both of them nearly fell off their chairs. Everyone at the nearby tables had a good laugh on their account. Tarsh, once she got over the initial shock laugh so hard she had tears running down her face. Lorraine and I weren’t far off from doing the same.

When then spent the rest of our time on the island sitting on the beach and enjoying the sunshine. Oh the stress of being on holiday.

We took Tarsh home and then checked into our hotel. After 8 days in the campervan we felt spoiled with the space and looked forward to sleeping in a real bed. The room had sea views and large sliding doors that open to shaded balcony. Oh the stress of being on holiday!