Trains, skyways and tropical rainforests

Today we got picked up at our beach apartment and driven to the Freshwater train station to catch the Kuranda Scenic Railway. The train trip up the mountain took a little less than 2 hours and passed some spectacular scenery.

While in Kuranda, we shopped for opals, hiked through the World Heritage listed rainforest, ate crocodile, saw tropical animals and birds and avoided rain at critical moments. 

At the end of the afternoon we rode the skyway back to sea level.The skyway passes over the canopy of that rainforest we had hiked in. And goes for several miles. Just amazing to look down into really tall trees wrapped in lawyer cane, and hosting treehouses of ferns and other plants. Pictures don't do it justice.

As the skyway makes its last descent, beautiful views of Cairns and the Coral Sea pan out below. If it isn't raining. 

Did I mention that we've had rain every single day we've spent in the Cairns area? They don't call this a rainforest for nothing. And we're enjoying all of it.

It was a rough day at sea

Let me start by saying that I get seasick watching movies.

So imagine my glee when, as we are heading out to what I imagine to be an idyllic tropical float in beautiful aquamarine waters of the Great Barrier Reef, the captain of the boat comes on the loudspeakers to announce that conditions will be rough and nausea prevention is critical. 

I have already taken bonine AND ginger tablets at this point, so I'm feeling good about my level of preparedness. Then my stomach starts falling out at each lurch of the boat. So I chew gum. The crew has already passed out the barf bags to every passenger. And my tension is growing. Somewhat.

Then the captain announces that as we get around the Island we are passing, things will get "a little worse." In fact, he goes on to say, after we pass this island, we are not allowed to leave our seats. If we must leave our seats, the crew must escort us. 

I look around and see that the crew members now have on latex gloves and are holding more barf bags and boxes of Kleenexes. Then all the silverware flies out of the drawers. And I think, "Oh Shit."

I have already been told that  it takes 90 minutes for this boat to arrive at our destination; a "solid platform that doesn't bob around like the boat does." I think,"Is this what hell is like? This 90 minutes?" As I repeatedly ask Jan what time it is and try to calculate how many more minutes I have in this hell.

When we arrive at the platform, I see that it is not going to save me. It too is being thrown around. And we will be on this tilt-a-whirl for 5 hours. Before we get back on the boat and spend another 90 minutes getting back to shore. And I almost cry into my barf bag.

One of the extras that you can buy on this trip is a helicopter ride back to shore. It costs $349 dollars. I briefly consider my budget, but ultimately decide against the luxury, knowing that I really would hurl in a helicopter. Meanwhile people are using their barf bags all around me.

We all - and I mean all 200 of us on the platform - stagger around like drunks. You just can't get your sealegs in this kind of chop. Despite all of this, Jan and Jim get ready to snorkel as soon as we get situated. Wearing their handy stinger suits (lycra body suits designed to protect against the deadly box jelly fish), they get down to the snorkel steps, don their masks and fins, and push off into the chop. Within a minute the current has separated them. In another minute they are both back on the boat, too uncomfortable with the conditions to feel safe. (Believe me when I tell you that the pictures below don't show you how bad it was.)

I mope, watch people barf, try to eat some of the food from the excellent lunch buffet, watch more people barf, and think to myself, "I came all this way for this? No. Get your big girl panties on and do something." The seas had calmed by some miniscule degree, mostly undetectable to me. It was time. If I was going to hurl, it might as well be out in the water.

So I put my bathing suit on; eschewing the stinger suit. I mean how in the heck could a jellyfish be in these waters? Jan worriedly helps me get geared up. And before I can back out, I walk down to the snorkel area. The chop makes it hard to get the flippers and mask situated, but eventually I push off and put my face in the water. Just do it.

And voila! The coral was amazing! It distracted me. Within minutes, Wally (see the commercial picture below) came to visit me. He is an inquisitive, friendly 5 foot long Maori Wrasse who frequents the reef here.Then about 5 minutes later he found me again. He actually saw me and swam to me and let me pet him.

I only stayed in for 10 or 15 minutes, knowing that Jan was worried. But it completely changed the tone of the day for me. At Pat's encouragement,  Jan and I even went out on the glass bottom boat (which again induced vomiting in some folks). 

I never did use my little white bag; but I was certainly glad to step ashore when we got back to Cairns! One more thing to check off on my bucket list.

Commercial photo of the fish that swam with me

Auckland: From coast to coast (almost)

The first thing we did upon arriving in New Zealand's largest city was make a run for the Sky Tower. We had heard it was a great place to watch the sunset, and we didn't want to miss it. We didn't have a map for how to get there. We didn't need one. We just kept looking up. I don't know how how tall the whole thing is, but I do know that there is an observation tower on the 60th floor. That's high.

As the elevator doors opened to let us out on the "lower" observation deck on the 51st floor, I saw the flash of a body falling by the window. Not expected. Creepy. Cringe-inducing. Then I looked again and saw a sign that said, "Next jumper in 4 minutes."  You can pay good money to jump (harnessed, of course) from the 53rd floor. These Kiwis are serious adrenaline junkies!

We had dinner at Orbit, the rotating restaurant on the 52nd floor. It really was delicious food and a beautiful way to see the city. And eating there let us into the  Sky Tower for free. Highly recommend this experience. 

I really wanted some good exercise,  so on our final full day in New Zealand, Jan humored me by setting out on the Coast-to-Coast Tramp. The entire walk is about 10 miles, and literally crosses Auckland from one side to the other on this narrow isthmus. The track also climbs volcanic peaks and meanders through neighborhoods and parks, along the way. 

There are periodic signs marking the trail.  I had downloaded a high level image of a map onto my phone. We repeatedly got lost. It was really more like orienteering than anything else, and it was a total hoot. Especially when it started raining as we started up one of the volcanoes. A dad out with his kids told us where to find shelter, and by the time we got there, the word "deluge" came to mind. 

We did about 8 of the 10 miles and decided it was time to catch a bus back to our hotel. It was a great way to see the city, and we met fun people along the way. Especially when we got lost. In fact, we must have walked more than 8 miles, what with all the course corrections. My fitbit was very happy, even if Jan's legs weren't.

Jim and Pat used the hop-on; hop-off bus to see the sights. So they were pretty refreshed by the time we caught back up with each other.

Tonight we had AMAZING mussel pots and Belgian beer at the famous Occidental Tavern and mourned the end of our time in New Zealand. Everything you hear about the beautiful country and warm friendly people is true.

And then we remembered that we were heading on to more great adventures in Australia!

From farmland to glow worms

Travel from Hobbiton to Waitomo,  New Zealand took us through gorgeous rolling hills of farmland. It's really easy to see why Peter Jackson selected that part of the country to depict the shire. Even though we are here in the late fall, everything was green and lush.

And I don't know why, but fat, grazing sheep always comfort me. (Wierd fact: Jackson thought that these sheep - and there are 130,000 of them on the farm that hosts Hobbiton alone - looked too modern. So he brought all of the farm animals in from elsewhere for the making of the movies.)

There are outcroppings of tall rocks periodically tucked amid round green humps. We found out that these formations are actually parts of cave structures which pervade the area. And that is why we went to Waitomo.

Waitomo is the home of many accessible caves, some of which can be explored in the dark, via adventure crawling and rafting. In the dark.  But let me get back to discussing something we were willing to do. 

We didn't have much time, so just went to the iconic Waitomo Glowworm Caves. Glowworms are pupae of a kind of fly. In addition to glowing, the create and hang sticky strings. Newly hatched insects instinctively fly toward the sky. When they hatch in these caves, they see what they think is a starry sky and fly right into the glowworm traps.

The caves were jointly discovered by a Maori man and his white friend. Many of the descendents of those two men still run the tourist attraction.  Our guide, who really knew her stuff, was the great, great grandaughter of the Maori man. Very cool.

Funny moment: Since we are traveling during the off-season, we get to connect more with locals, who exceed our expectations for being kind and welcoming.  While we ate dinner at our backpacker-stay lodge, a crusty old guy came up to us, barely able to contain himself.  He said, "Do you want to see a big wild boar? My friend shot one. He gored two of our dogs in the fight." We looked at each other, said okay and followed him out to an offroad pickup truck. Sure enough. There was a big, tusky boar. It was very dark out,  but we oohed and aahed appreciatively.  He beamed and said, "Well,  not everyone is okay with this kind of thing. But he is amazing,  isn't he?"

Also found out that Kihikihi (the name of a town we passed through) means cicada in Maori, as evidenced by local statuary.

I love you Sir Peter Jackson

Okay. Hobbiton is just plain adorable. The details are so lovingly maintained. Vegetables,  fruit and herbs growing around perfect little hobbit hole entryways. Little laundry hanging on clotheslines. Firewood cut to perfect little hobbit size. And the ale at the Green Dragon Tavern was perfect. We felt like we were really in the shire.

Our tour group snapped about a million pictures. "Look! Another darling little hobbit hole! Take 20 more pictures!" The cutest was a little 5 or 6 year old dutch girl. She ran to each new hobbit hole and waited for her parents to take her picture. When I told her mother how cute she was, the mom replied, "She doesn't know anything about the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. She just thinks a bunch of little people live here. And that they are all at work right now."

The trip to Hobbiton tops off a string of close encounters with Lord of the Rings. On Saturday we drove by the "Plains of Gorgoroth" on our way to do a 3 hour hike in the shadow of Mount Doom. And yesterday we watched the Aratiatia rapids flood and then ebb again where the great barrel escape in Hobbit 2 was filmed.

It's almost embarrassing to say how cool it feels to visit all these sites. Almost. Until you see how stunningly beautiful they all are. I mean, there's a lot of good material here in New Zealand. And Peter Jackson picked some of the best for his films.

Call me a dork. But I have loved all of it!