Life of Caroline

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Croc Park (Day 5 Part 2)

From the bottom of the gondola we took another bus along Captain Cook Highway which drives right next to where the rainforest and the ocean meet. (that is really pretty but I have no picture of it). We ended up at a croc farm/zoo. They both raised crocs to eat/for skin and also for education about the salt water crocs. As they put it, its easy to keep the cute cuddly koalas safe and cared for, but harder to preserve evil man eating crocs... :)

We went on this pontoon boat through their croc river and the boat captain fed the crocs a chicken on a string to show us how the crocs would sneak up and then go for it. Below are two pictures:

But it was the cute koalas that everyone really loves! We even got to pet them, they were so soft. Koalas are really lazy animals but they were awake for awhile and actually running around.

We went back to the hotel and relaxed and then went to eat at a local sports bar (where rugby was on).

Rainforest Train + Gondola (Day 5 Part 1)

Friday we got picked up early on a bus (that we had to share no less) and went to the Kuranda scenic railway. We boarded a train and rode up onto the mountain/rainforest.

We went over lots of bridges, through lots of tunnels and past lots of waterfalls.

The train stopped once and we got out looked at the waterfalls/pools in the picture below.

There was a platform to stand on and Mom enjoyed being the tallest for once!

At the top there is the town of Kuranda. Because it was Anzac Day (like Memorial day) there were lots of soldiers marching around in some sort of ceremony. There were also a lot of gift shops and some of us got personal pot pies and ate at a picnic table. We loaded up onto the gondola and rode down over the rainforest, which was pretty cool.

On the way down you ride next to a cable ski park - where you can wakeboard holding onto a rope tied to a cable (no boats). Reminds me of Curly's video! They said the water is about 8' deep and they said they dug the hole and about a weeks worth of rain filled the thing up. I wasn't too impressed with the "rain" aspect of the forest, it looked just like a normal forest with tall trees to me, but that is a lot of rain so I guess I believe them.

Monday, May 5, 2008

Peppers Beach Club (Day 4)

Thursday morning Allison, Laura, Peter and I went kayaking before we took the return flight back to Cairns.

We then got picked up at the airport and went to Peppers Beach Club. It was on the beach...loaded with "DO NOT SWIM CROCS, SHARKS, STINGERS" signs haha.

We had rooms overlooking the lagoon pool - sand into a pool.

We walked to a resturaunt next door where they had a map on the wall. This is me pointing to where we were.

Here is a bunch of us testing out some appitizers before dinner.

This was the meal of choice...fish, croc, emu and kanga!! The kanga was the best (good thing we ate it BEFORE we saw them)

Hike + Aussie Burgers (Day 3)

Wednesday morning we all got up to go on a hike up to the top of the mountain. It was supposed to be an easy 45 minute hike...and after about 20 minutes we realized we weren't actually going up. We had taken a wrong turn and ended up at Muggy Muggy beach (appropriatly named).

So we turned around and I tried to come up with an excuse of why I couldn't continue on the correct path, but to no avail (its hard to hide from 17 other people). This is how Allison and I felt when we got to the "you're almost there" sign. Allison said the view was worth it...

We all love group pictures! The guy taking it happened to be up there too and was slightly confused who we all were and how we all knew each other. People just can't seem to get over the fact that we are all one family...

Obviously the best way to be rewarded for exercise is....FOOD! Aussie Burgers to be exact, delicious hamburgers 3x too big for your mouth. Here is Andrew so nicely showing off his for the camera. (the first and last picture on here were taking on the cell phone!)

This was also the day that we all spent water skiing (see other post for those pictures). It was a great time (another person confused on who we all were). We hung out at the beach the rest of the day and went to dinner and then fell asleep...at 9pm. It is harder than you think to adjust to 1. the time difference (and date for that matter) and 2. actually doing something all day instead of being alone in my apartment!

Dunk Island (Day 2 Part 2)

We landed at Dunk Island just in time for happy hour! How convenient... This is a slew of us sitting by the pool/ocean.

View from the bar looking out. The pool is right on the other side of the building and the ocean is on the other side of that.

The land in the background is Australia.

Dunk Island (Day 2 Part 1)

Tuesday Morning we flew from Sydney to Cairns and then two vans were waiting for us at the airport to take us to another terminal.

This was one of the two planes we flew from Cairnes to Dunk Island. They were 13 seaters.

Dad being excited about the flight while we waited in the "terminal" to board the flight.

This is a picture of the "terminal".

Tim and I excited to be on the plane!

Our luggage "secured" in the back.

View from the plane coming in for landing on Dunk Island

View of Dunk Island from the airplane. Description. Land, get off plane, check in. Just to the left of the airstrip is the chain of rooms and the club house. To the right of the airstrip on the point is where the dock was. We went skiing right out in front of the resort.