Awoke to sunshine, hot and humid. The tree outside our balcony is full of
flying fox bats. We can almost look them
in the eye. They’re kind of clowns,
climbing from branch to branch and hanging from limbs like monkeys. They hang upside down wrapped in their little
wings, little heads peeking out, beady eyes staring; little Dracula’s! Then they wrap themselves totally with their
wings to sleep and look like closed umbrellas.
After a nice breakfast of huge variety we head to the bus for the wharf
for departure. We enter a two decker
catamaran for Green Island off shore about 35 minutes. This is a 29 acre national park on a reef cay
(island) that has the only rainforest in all of the 2900 reefs making up the
Great Barrier Reef. We opted to stay on
the island and not go out to the outer reef platform for various reasons. Upon arrival on the island we boarded a glass
bottom boat. We take a half hour tour
showing us many fish varieties, sea turtles and coral varieties. We also see a couple giant clams and many
beautiful white ruffled nonpoisonous jelly fish. Head to a lunch at a local restaurant as part
of the tour. It’s a huge lunch of a
large fruit platter, burgers, fries, salad and sorbet for dessert. We take off
to walk the perimeter trail of the island through the rainforest and then along
the beach. Sea turtles swim by and
seabirds wade. The water is emerald
green near the shore over white sand and the reef is a darker green. It is very hot and humid, the sun burns. We stop at the sand beach and swim around in
the clear water. The water is
refreshingly cool. Small minnows and
larger fish and sea turtles swim around us.
We are only cool in the water and hot everywhere else. We change and board the boat back to
shore. We change again and walk over to Barnacle Bill’s on the
Esplanade for Barramundi/shrimp tempura dinner.
Lovely day of adventure but time for rest. Getting to know our fellow tourers
better. We are spoiled with this small
tour of 32. Every thing moves faster and
not crowded. More to come.
Welcome
Rambler’s Blog –PatnChuck Pacific Adventure 2016 (February 12 - April 12, 2016)
A word about this blog…. It has been our goal in recent years’ lengthier travels to record for posterity a diary of travel stats, pictures, and personal reflections. So, when we can no longer indulge in trains, planes and automobiles we may relive fond memories. We have invited a few friends and family to ride along through this travel blog (a combo of blather and log), risking exposure to bad puns, spelling errors and sore feet complaints.
It has been our dream to visit Australia and New Zealand for years. Our Australian friends who we met while living in Scotland, the Knights, have invited us many times. With Chuck finally retired it’s time to go! We have planned a whirlwind tour of the Pacific. We are fortunate to front load the tour with a diversion to Alaska and extra time in Sydney staying with friends and time at Palm Cove Resort near Great Barrier Reef. We are able to back load the trip with 5 days in Oahu (Honolulu) for R&R before returning home.
For Oz and NZ we chose a AAA tour as it offers the most comprehensive experience in a good amount of time. We fly from point to point through Australia which is similar in size to the US (New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory, Victoria and Tasmania) and bus tour through North and South Islands of New Zealand. We have several opportunities to learn about the Aborigine and Maori native people. We chose the fall season, taking a chance with transition weather but much less heat and being present for the grape harvest at some of the famous Oz, NZ wineries. Their seasons are reversed from ours and they live a whole day later in time. And then there are Oz opals that know no season!
This trip is particularly special because of being with family, old and new friends. We will visit Brenna and Zach in their new Anchorage home and have a baby shower for little scooter due in May; we will visit Phyllis and Ray Knight in their Killara home north of Sydney; we will stay overnight with a native New Zealand family; and we will meet travelers along the way.
Onward and upward. We enjoy knowing friends and family are with us in spirit. We will lift a few glasses of great southern hemisphere wines and ales, meander through cities, mountains and desert, and have a few shrimp on the barbie!
Pat and Chuck
* We may not have daily access to Internet so updates may be delayed, but once they appear they will be in sequence
* The blog includes pictures based on the day’s blog, sometimes delayed depending on schedule and access.
* A map of our route appears on the Homepage.
A word about this blog…. It has been our goal in recent years’ lengthier travels to record for posterity a diary of travel stats, pictures, and personal reflections. So, when we can no longer indulge in trains, planes and automobiles we may relive fond memories. We have invited a few friends and family to ride along through this travel blog (a combo of blather and log), risking exposure to bad puns, spelling errors and sore feet complaints.
It has been our dream to visit Australia and New Zealand for years. Our Australian friends who we met while living in Scotland, the Knights, have invited us many times. With Chuck finally retired it’s time to go! We have planned a whirlwind tour of the Pacific. We are fortunate to front load the tour with a diversion to Alaska and extra time in Sydney staying with friends and time at Palm Cove Resort near Great Barrier Reef. We are able to back load the trip with 5 days in Oahu (Honolulu) for R&R before returning home.
For Oz and NZ we chose a AAA tour as it offers the most comprehensive experience in a good amount of time. We fly from point to point through Australia which is similar in size to the US (New South Wales, Queensland, Northern Territory, Victoria and Tasmania) and bus tour through North and South Islands of New Zealand. We have several opportunities to learn about the Aborigine and Maori native people. We chose the fall season, taking a chance with transition weather but much less heat and being present for the grape harvest at some of the famous Oz, NZ wineries. Their seasons are reversed from ours and they live a whole day later in time. And then there are Oz opals that know no season!
This trip is particularly special because of being with family, old and new friends. We will visit Brenna and Zach in their new Anchorage home and have a baby shower for little scooter due in May; we will visit Phyllis and Ray Knight in their Killara home north of Sydney; we will stay overnight with a native New Zealand family; and we will meet travelers along the way.
Onward and upward. We enjoy knowing friends and family are with us in spirit. We will lift a few glasses of great southern hemisphere wines and ales, meander through cities, mountains and desert, and have a few shrimp on the barbie!
Pat and Chuck
* We may not have daily access to Internet so updates may be delayed, but once they appear they will be in sequence
* The blog includes pictures based on the day’s blog, sometimes delayed depending on schedule and access.
* A map of our route appears on the Homepage.
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