It has been too long since I have thought of my adventures in Australia and New Zealand but today I was browsing through some old travel stories and came across our trip to “Down Under”:
Five of us made the trip which was coordinated by my friend and dive buddy Lynn. There was Me, Lynn and Casie (the divers) then there was Lynn’s mother Ann and another lady named Erma. Now let me just say here Ann is the easiest going person to travel with. Nothing ever ruffled her feathers “Until Erma.” Erma was not an easy person to travel with and since she and Ann did not dive they had to be pushed together a bit and it was a very trying experience for Ann.
Lynn was traveling alone to take advantage of her frequent flyer miles and did a circuitous route. I will quote Lynn here describing her trip: “I left Tampa at 7am and flew to Houston, on to Honolulu, and on to my 1st stopover of 8 hours in Narita, Japan. Then I continued on to Guam where I over nighted and spent the day exploring the beautiful island. Late that evening I caught up with the rest of the group and on to Cairns, Australia and Bed.” The rest of us had a very uneventful trip through LA airport to Guam where we met Lynn.
Our adventures began in Cairns, Australia. We arrive about midnight; off to bed we go. In the early am we are headed to a rail station that would take us to Barron Waterfalls, and through the Kuranda Rainforest. What a beautiful ride, trees fauna and flowers that I have never seen before. This is a park with aboriginal people displaying skills, culture, dancing and boomerang throwing. I tried to throw one but it did not return. We got to pet and hold kangaroos and koalas bear. I thought the kangas were really neat. Koalas are too, but man do they smell horrible. They say it is the eucalyptus they eat and it is a sort of protection for them. The next morning we got up really early to go ballooning over the Tablelands. We arrived at the take off site to watch the huge balloons filling up with air, getting ready for our in air journey. What a thrill!! You cannot imagine how quiet it is, we watched the sun come up, the earth grow smaller, we could even see dozens of wild kangas hopping all over the place. Our flight ended in a cow pasture, the cows were quite curious about the balloons and us. One cow looked at us and ran off. Then as the balloon shifted she ran the other way, then the second balloon came down and poor cow she was now so frightened she just put her tail in the air and took off across the pasture. We helped get the air out and folded the balloon and loaded baskets on the trailers. We then headed off for a champagne breakfast. Later that evening we were in a state park seeking out opossums. There are several species in Aussie, and we got to see some rare ones called "relics". These opossums were once lived on part of a large land mass called Gondwanaland. check out links Gondwanaland Historical perspective [This Dynamic Earth, USGS]Several millions of years ago the continents split. The relic opossums went with the continent now known as Australia. This is the only place in the world these relics can be found. There are four species of these relics we were fortunate to see all four. We were also treated to seeing the rare platypus in the wild. We went when the sun was setting and had to sit very quietly to wait for them to come out. They were amazing to see.
The next morning after just 4 hours of sleep, found us headed for the Tully River where we were to white water rafting. My 1st experience, and what a thrill. I just thought she was going to die. Or at the least be thrown out of the raft and break a leg. Then I would not be able to dive. I had been diving like a maniac all year. My goal was to do my 100th dive on the Great Barrier Reef. A wild ride for 5 hours with lunch along the way. You have to learn to be part of the team to shoot the rapids safely. After we went over our first waterfall probably about 4 ft high I was having a ball. I kept screaming let’s do that again. HOW FUN! After we finished rafting we got back to our buses that were waiting for us at the end. The busses were brand new busses and the driver said WE COULD NOT GET ON HIS BUSSES WET. Ok fine with me. Where is the change house? I looked around and nothing but woods. I asked Lynn. Where do we change? Right here was the reply. I shrieked "I can’t change in front of all these people." She said look around. They are all doing the same thing. They are not interested in looking at us. So There I was faced with the plight of changing in front of 150 strangers or a very long walk home. I decided anybody who was desperate enough to look at a FAT OLD lady could just enjoy.
Now to the diving. We arrive at our live aboard boat the Spoilsport; she would take us out to the Great Barrier Reef and Lizard Island. We settled in, were briefed, and had lunch and now to our 1st dive site. Agincourt where we saw anemones, clown fish, lionfish, and fish I just can’t identify. Our next dive was called Flare Point (a bommie which is what we call a sea mount), we saw 2 lion fish, white tip sharks, turtles, a couple of huge napoleon wrasse, bumphead parrot fish, a frog fish, some true clown fish, a potato cod and some crabs. The water temp is about 76 deg. and our average depth is 40-70 feet. This was also my long awaited 100th Dive. Then a night dive on Flare Point.
The next day we dove on Steve’s Bommie and saw lionfish, crocodile fish, a flat head wombee shark, clowns and a stone fish. Then we dove Pixie Point, this dive is known for its macro stuff, I sighted more lion fish species, 5 different types of nudibraches, and mantis shrimp. Then we made 2 dives at Challenger Bay where we saw tons of giant clams, a chain eel, some other eels that I could not identify, some crabs, a small decorator crab and more nudibraches.
The other dives were Lighthouse Bommie where I took more pictures, saw the results and was instructed on how to improve. I saw 2 octopus, Casey and Cheryl got to see some cuddle fish. As always Lynn is in the wrong place at right time. I encountered some really neat pipefish, they are in the sea horse family, and they just dart in and out of the rocks, and have seen at least 4 different species of clown fish at this site. We dove Lighthouse Bommie the second time because of all the cool stuff to see. This was my 700th dive. I think that is too many to count. Our last dives were at a famed site called Cod Hole. Here they had these huge fish called Potato Cods. They were enormous at about 4 or 5 feet long. The current was so bad we had to anchor ourselves on the reef to keep from just washing away.
Our live aboard was a great experience; meeting people from all over the world, diving the incredible Great Barrier Reef. Traveling so far away you meet an amazing assortment of people from all over the world. We met two couples from Hong Kong, some Japanese, Christine from Germany, Cheryl from Canada, lots of Aussie, a Samoan and various other people. People traveling sharing their life and travel experiences are fascinating. Our chef was 400 lbs. +, a real estate agent and a great cook. The crew was mostly from Australia and made us feel like part of their family. They were friendly and very service oriented. On the last night we anchored off Lizard Island, an idyllic, romantic place in the Coral Sea. We had champagne at sunset, shrimp, toasts and pictures, followed by a gourmet dinner.
The next morning we went ashore to explore around and meet our flight back to Cairns. When we arrived at the airport a limo was waiting to take us to our airside. It was my 1st ride in a real limo.
We meet the rest of the group and off the Christchurch, New Zealand. We arrived late in the evening and rose early in the morning and took a tour of Mt. Cook, hiked around the area, counted the sheep (kind of like counting freckles), saw exceptionally beautiful countryside. Our next adventure was to ride the Trans Alpine Express Train through the Southern Alps of New Zealand to the West Coast to the town of Greymouth. A very British community. That afternoon we drove along the coast to visit an area call the Pancake Rocks. The shore has thousands of small smooth rocks along it. We saw only a smattering of New Zealand but would like to return one day and the good news is that Lee and I did indeed travel to Australia and New Zealand. But that is another story upcoming in Jeannie and Lee on the Go.
Five of us made the trip which was coordinated by my friend and dive buddy Lynn. There was Me, Lynn and Casie (the divers) then there was Lynn’s mother Ann and another lady named Erma. Now let me just say here Ann is the easiest going person to travel with. Nothing ever ruffled her feathers “Until Erma.” Erma was not an easy person to travel with and since she and Ann did not dive they had to be pushed together a bit and it was a very trying experience for Ann.
Lynn was traveling alone to take advantage of her frequent flyer miles and did a circuitous route. I will quote Lynn here describing her trip: “I left Tampa at 7am and flew to Houston, on to Honolulu, and on to my 1st stopover of 8 hours in Narita, Japan. Then I continued on to Guam where I over nighted and spent the day exploring the beautiful island. Late that evening I caught up with the rest of the group and on to Cairns, Australia and Bed.” The rest of us had a very uneventful trip through LA airport to Guam where we met Lynn.
Our adventures began in Cairns, Australia. We arrive about midnight; off to bed we go. In the early am we are headed to a rail station that would take us to Barron Waterfalls, and through the Kuranda Rainforest. What a beautiful ride, trees fauna and flowers that I have never seen before. This is a park with aboriginal people displaying skills, culture, dancing and boomerang throwing. I tried to throw one but it did not return. We got to pet and hold kangaroos and koalas bear. I thought the kangas were really neat. Koalas are too, but man do they smell horrible. They say it is the eucalyptus they eat and it is a sort of protection for them. The next morning we got up really early to go ballooning over the Tablelands. We arrived at the take off site to watch the huge balloons filling up with air, getting ready for our in air journey. What a thrill!! You cannot imagine how quiet it is, we watched the sun come up, the earth grow smaller, we could even see dozens of wild kangas hopping all over the place. Our flight ended in a cow pasture, the cows were quite curious about the balloons and us. One cow looked at us and ran off. Then as the balloon shifted she ran the other way, then the second balloon came down and poor cow she was now so frightened she just put her tail in the air and took off across the pasture. We helped get the air out and folded the balloon and loaded baskets on the trailers. We then headed off for a champagne breakfast. Later that evening we were in a state park seeking out opossums. There are several species in Aussie, and we got to see some rare ones called "relics". These opossums were once lived on part of a large land mass called Gondwanaland. check out links Gondwanaland Historical perspective [This Dynamic Earth, USGS]Several millions of years ago the continents split. The relic opossums went with the continent now known as Australia. This is the only place in the world these relics can be found. There are four species of these relics we were fortunate to see all four. We were also treated to seeing the rare platypus in the wild. We went when the sun was setting and had to sit very quietly to wait for them to come out. They were amazing to see.
The next morning after just 4 hours of sleep, found us headed for the Tully River where we were to white water rafting. My 1st experience, and what a thrill. I just thought she was going to die. Or at the least be thrown out of the raft and break a leg. Then I would not be able to dive. I had been diving like a maniac all year. My goal was to do my 100th dive on the Great Barrier Reef. A wild ride for 5 hours with lunch along the way. You have to learn to be part of the team to shoot the rapids safely. After we went over our first waterfall probably about 4 ft high I was having a ball. I kept screaming let’s do that again. HOW FUN! After we finished rafting we got back to our buses that were waiting for us at the end. The busses were brand new busses and the driver said WE COULD NOT GET ON HIS BUSSES WET. Ok fine with me. Where is the change house? I looked around and nothing but woods. I asked Lynn. Where do we change? Right here was the reply. I shrieked "I can’t change in front of all these people." She said look around. They are all doing the same thing. They are not interested in looking at us. So There I was faced with the plight of changing in front of 150 strangers or a very long walk home. I decided anybody who was desperate enough to look at a FAT OLD lady could just enjoy.
Now to the diving. We arrive at our live aboard boat the Spoilsport; she would take us out to the Great Barrier Reef and Lizard Island. We settled in, were briefed, and had lunch and now to our 1st dive site. Agincourt where we saw anemones, clown fish, lionfish, and fish I just can’t identify. Our next dive was called Flare Point (a bommie which is what we call a sea mount), we saw 2 lion fish, white tip sharks, turtles, a couple of huge napoleon wrasse, bumphead parrot fish, a frog fish, some true clown fish, a potato cod and some crabs. The water temp is about 76 deg. and our average depth is 40-70 feet. This was also my long awaited 100th Dive. Then a night dive on Flare Point.
The next day we dove on Steve’s Bommie and saw lionfish, crocodile fish, a flat head wombee shark, clowns and a stone fish. Then we dove Pixie Point, this dive is known for its macro stuff, I sighted more lion fish species, 5 different types of nudibraches, and mantis shrimp. Then we made 2 dives at Challenger Bay where we saw tons of giant clams, a chain eel, some other eels that I could not identify, some crabs, a small decorator crab and more nudibraches.
The other dives were Lighthouse Bommie where I took more pictures, saw the results and was instructed on how to improve. I saw 2 octopus, Casey and Cheryl got to see some cuddle fish. As always Lynn is in the wrong place at right time. I encountered some really neat pipefish, they are in the sea horse family, and they just dart in and out of the rocks, and have seen at least 4 different species of clown fish at this site. We dove Lighthouse Bommie the second time because of all the cool stuff to see. This was my 700th dive. I think that is too many to count. Our last dives were at a famed site called Cod Hole. Here they had these huge fish called Potato Cods. They were enormous at about 4 or 5 feet long. The current was so bad we had to anchor ourselves on the reef to keep from just washing away.
Our live aboard was a great experience; meeting people from all over the world, diving the incredible Great Barrier Reef. Traveling so far away you meet an amazing assortment of people from all over the world. We met two couples from Hong Kong, some Japanese, Christine from Germany, Cheryl from Canada, lots of Aussie, a Samoan and various other people. People traveling sharing their life and travel experiences are fascinating. Our chef was 400 lbs. +, a real estate agent and a great cook. The crew was mostly from Australia and made us feel like part of their family. They were friendly and very service oriented. On the last night we anchored off Lizard Island, an idyllic, romantic place in the Coral Sea. We had champagne at sunset, shrimp, toasts and pictures, followed by a gourmet dinner.
The next morning we went ashore to explore around and meet our flight back to Cairns. When we arrived at the airport a limo was waiting to take us to our airside. It was my 1st ride in a real limo.
We meet the rest of the group and off the Christchurch, New Zealand. We arrived late in the evening and rose early in the morning and took a tour of Mt. Cook, hiked around the area, counted the sheep (kind of like counting freckles), saw exceptionally beautiful countryside. Our next adventure was to ride the Trans Alpine Express Train through the Southern Alps of New Zealand to the West Coast to the town of Greymouth. A very British community. That afternoon we drove along the coast to visit an area call the Pancake Rocks. The shore has thousands of small smooth rocks along it. We saw only a smattering of New Zealand but would like to return one day and the good news is that Lee and I did indeed travel to Australia and New Zealand. But that is another story upcoming in Jeannie and Lee on the Go.
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