Greetings from Canberra! Sad to say this will be my last blog as we will be leaving here in 2 days to fly back to the States! I calculated that from the time we leave here to the time we get to our house we will have been traveling for 27 hrs.!! WOW!! We have been enjoying our stay here in Canberra. Very different city from Sydney and Melboune....very layed back. Canberra is the Capitol city of Australia so all of the Parliment offices are here and the majority of employment is with the Govt. We spent 2 days at a Villa near the Ocean at a city called Bateman's Bay....spectacular view and the weather was unbelievable!! A great 2 days of relaxation. These two photos I have included here are of some Kangaroos in the wild (very exciting for me to see)....and a Kookaburra that was on our deck!

I will post more pictures on Facebook as soon as I return. I hope you all enjoyed following us on our journey!!

Good day!!

Finally back on the blog…have not been able to get to an internet connection.

Sunday Nov. 14…. Cairns is very hot and humid today and it looks like rain, but considering we are gong to be doing water activities it doesn’t matter! We spent the day at the Great Barrier Reef. We took a 1 ½ hr. cruise out to a platoon on the Coral Sea where we took a glass bottom boat to the Reef and saw more of the reef and fish from a semi-submersible. Hadi spent time snorkeling and at the end of the day we took a brief Helicopter ride over the Reef. Despite the gloomy day, the reef was spectacular…..the water was crystal clear. Had to pinch myself more than once to remind me where I was!!

Monday we flew to Sydney…raining again. Up to this point we have had great weather. We were quite disappointed, but by mid-morning on Tuesday the sun was out again! After arriving at the Hotel, we had a brief tour of the city by monorail stopping at the Harbor for a quick dinner and then walked back to the Hotel.

Tuesday morning we took a Motor Coach tour of the city and got our first sight of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge…what a breathtaking sight to see!!! Although it was overcast, it was a fantastic sight. Once again I had to pinch myself!! We had a walking tour of the Opera House. One of the gentleman in our group enjoys singing, so we convinced him to sing a song in the Opera Hall…pretty special….the acoustics were amazing!! Took a water Taxi after dusk to view the Harbor at night! The Opera House was quite magnificent all lit up!!

On Wed. we enjoyed a narrated cruise on Sydney Harbor – can’t get enough of the Opera House and the Harbor Bridge!! We have done LOTS of walking in every city we have visited….makes for a good nights sleep!

Sad to say tonight is our last night as a group. We fly to Canberra in the morning to visit a childhood friend of Hadi’s for the next 8 days and the rest of the group flies back to the US. I am going to miss everyone. It was a great group and we had a fantastic trip of a life time!!
What better way to end a wonderful trip then to be sitting in the warm sun under a beautiful purple Jacaranda tree listening to music being played on a Didgeridoo with a view of the Opera House and Harbor Bridge in the forefront!! My last memories of Sydney!!

More later from Canberra……

Another busy day….and the hottest by far!! We are in northern Australia and much closer to the Equator. We took a train ride up to the Rainforestation Nature Park where we rode through the Rainforest via Army duck, attended an Aboriginal Dance and strolled through the Koala and Wildlife Park. Those Koalas are so damn cute!! We all took a turn throwing a boomerang…MUCH harder than it looks….I bombed! Our ride back down was by Skyrail – the world’s longest gondola cableway. It took us over the tree tops of the Rainforest!! What a sight! Just relaxing this evening - we have another busy day tomorrow as we are spending the day at the Great Barrier Reef!!

11-11-2010

We got a much later start today – 10:30 and took a city tour of Melbourne. Just happened to be at the Shrine of Remembrance on their day of remembrance for all the soldiers lost in wars past.

Our lunch was aboard a Tram Car Restaurant – a 2 hr. meal while seeing more sites of the business district of Melbourne. Excellent meal and bottomless drinks! We laughed a lot…had a great time and got a bit silly with all the drinks! Had my first taste of Kangaroo!! If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought it was beef! Very tender and quite good!

The rest of the day was on our own….hit up the Casino in the evening with two other gals…

Up early tomorrow again for we have a flight to Cairns where we will be for the next three days.

Melborne…11-10-2010

We started at 8:30 for an all day tour of Melbourne. First stop was at Ashcombe Maze and Lavender Gardens. We had a blast trying to figure out how to get out of the three mazes. The grounds were beautiful. Had a great lunch which included soup (pumpkin), salad and chips which are really fries. After lunch we went to sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm, one of Australia’s largest producers of strawberries, for dessert. Our dessert was a Strawberry Sundae …..strawberry ice cream, strawberries with strawberry sauce and whipped cream....yummo!!

Our next stop was at the Moonlit Sanctuary Wildlife Conservation Park where I was able to pet a Koala. We also fed the Walaby’s, saw Dingo’s, Kangaroos (one with a Joey), an Imu, and cockatoos.

Our next stop was on Phillip Island for the parade of Little Penguins. At dusk, and not a minute before, all the little penguins come back to shore from their long day at sea gathering fish for their young back home in their burrows. Some travel 60 miles at sea in search for food and travel a couple miles back on land back to the burrow. It was truly an amazing site to see. Thousands of penguins come to shore every night only to repeat the routine again early morning!! Those little penguins are so cute measuring only about a foot and a half.

We arrived back at our hotel about 11:30 that evening.

Sunday took us through the countryside on to Christchurch. There are pastures everywhere filled with sheep and this being spring, there are many little lambs following close by their mothers - so cute. We had to slow down crossing one bridge to let a herd of sheep cross the road ahead of us – just like the movies! Came across a couple of farms with Alpaca and Llama and over here they even raise deer!!

The New Zealand Alps nestled behind Lake Tekapo is magnificent with the beautiful turquoise color of the Lake contrasting the snow covered mountains. The highest peak, Mt. Cook, is 14,000 ft. high and is the tallest peak in NZ. We arrived in Chirstchurch about 5:00 and after a bit of a rest we joined others for dinner in a quaint Pub not far from hour Hotel. Shepherds pie, pumpkin soup and NZ beer with the locals!!

Today, Monday, we took a morning tour of Christchurch and then visited the International Antarctic Center which is the southern most spot send off spot for anyone going to Antarctica. Saw little penguins and dressed up for a chilling adventure to a below zero experience as if we were actually in Antarctica....it actually wasn't much different than shoveling the driveway in a snow storm in Minnesota!!! In a few minutes we are going "punting" which is a British term for a gondola ride down the Avon river.

Tonight is our last night in NZ...we have a VERY early flight to Melbourne so it's early to bed!!

See you in Australia!!

On Friday we took a cruise on Milford Sound which is one of the finest New Zealand fjords. It is enclosed by sheer rock walls climbing 3,900 feet from the sea. Magnificent scenery!!! A few stops along the way and an ice cream treat at the end of the day! The weather has been great…cool evenings and mornings, but sunny days!!
Today, Saturday, is on our own. We are in Queenstown and being that it is a tourist town, there are a lot of things to do. This morning we went on a Shotover Jetboat which is one of the most thrilling boat rides…it skims over thrashing rapids in mere inches of water through a canyon……we froze our face and I got drenched, but it was awesome!! Late afternoon we went on a Streamboat Cruise…can’t get enough of the beautiful water! Tonight will go on the gondola for a 360 degree view of the city! As you can see we are busy all the time!
On to Christchurch in the morning…another day trip before we get there with little stops along the way.
More from Christchurch!