We ventured out for the best meal we'd had in Australia a short walk away from the hotel and spotted some Halloween festivities on the back to the hotel.
All packed - we lost a jar of Vegamite in security - I accidentally packed it in my carryon and it was over the security size limit for yummy spread. You win some, you lose some.
We had an easy van ride home and were greeted by Grandma and PopPop who got a quick hello before we heard the contents of Rubbermaid tubs dumped all over the boys' bedroom. Some people kiss the ground, some kiss their Legos. We're home.
Here's the Tin Shed, where we're regulars :-)
We started with a short ride on the semi-submersible and saw a few Nemos and three turtles and brightly colored fish everywhere.
Charlie spent most of his time riding Mike's back, but Molly was a snorkeler and Daniel went far and wide. Mike saw a shark, but we were assured they're not dangerous. 
we drove back up to the Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest. It was much more crowded at 10AM, compared to at 8AM and the water was too cold for me (how can that be in the tropics?), but the others went in and even tested out floating through some currents and rocks.
We had our last picnic lunch of bread and cheese in Australia near the parking lot of the Mossman Gorge area and changed out of our swim stuff (mine was dry, so it was easier). Mike went over to the car to drop off the things we didn't need for the afternoon hike and suddenly he was waving to us frantically. Who would have believed that a cassowary's path would include the edge of a crowded parking lot! What a weird looking flightless bird it is and there we stood, just a few yards away.
Here he/she? is headed for the Subaru! They're solitary animals, except when the male is raising the chicks, but they have habit paths that they follow for a few days at a time searching for food. Did he/she know the ice cream truck was parked there for the day? Oh, this was quite a find and made our day!
Molly and Charlie like to play tourguide on the hikes. Molly was definitely paying attention to yesterday's tour with the real guide. She told me that the small trees growing in the forest will sometimes wait millions of years for another large tree to fall so that they can get enough sunlight to grow. Well, some of the time references seem to have been confused, but it was the right sentiment.
We tried a cruise along the Daintree River, in search of crocodiles in the wild, but only managed an egret and a few sun bird spotting.
We checked out the beach and “town” of Cape Tribulation, which is where the sealed (paved) road ends on the east coast of Australia. You can go on pretty much forever on an unpaved road to somewhere, if you so desire. Apparently the hole in Captain Cook's boat was the genesis for all the depressing names of places along this part of Queensland. Charlie was not affected in the same way and wrote (EILRAHC heart YLLOM) perfectly backwards in the sand.
Lunch included tips for mixing Vegamite with butter (not our only option, thank goodness – 3/5 of us didn’t even bother to try the tip), tasting the backside of an ant (again, 3/5 of us didn’t bother), and a swim in a secluded spot.
These strangler trees (really a fig tree) drop offshoot roots down from high branches and they twist around the original tree, eventually strangling it, so you have a series of roots that are hollow on the inside. This one is on one of the hikes we went on, where our guide Chris got out of the car first to see if the resident venomous snake was out and about. He's a "snake relocater" in his spare time, which provides no reassurance at all.
We saw cassowary droppings/scat/poo, but, alas, no cassowaries. They're considered a keystone animal in the forest because they eat huge amounts of fruits with seed and deposit the seeds in other parts of the forest for cross pollination. Some of the seeds will never germinate unless they've passed through the digestive system of the bird.
We ended the day at the Daintree Icecream Store, where you get four flavors in each bowl, of whatever fruit is ripe on their property that day. The Jakfruit is the largest tree-borne fruit in the world, weighing up to 80+ pounds. It's not too pretty to look out, but was very yummy in the ice cream. Wattle seed is the seed from a tree also and it tasted a little like coffee ice cream. Blueberry and Mango, not as exotic!
We arrived back at our place 9 hours after leaving. We haven't really done too many guided tours on the trip, but I think this one was worth it. Because the tour company wasn't busy (love those box jellyfish!), we were our own group - although they can be up to 8 or 12 persons. The kids asked tons of questions and kept the sibling bickering to an all-time low.
We’re staying in Port Douglas, about 50 km north of Cairns on the Pacific Coast. The kids swam in the pool and we had dinner at a place called the Tin Shed, which we discovered has jugs (pitchers) of raspberry lemonade and view of the bay on the opposite side of the peninsula that Port Douglas sits on.
The low season in this area starts November 1 because that's when the box jellyfish may have come to town. While walking toward customs in the International Terminal of the Sydney airport, there is a huge mural that asks if you know Australia's deadliest animal and at the end of the mural, the cute little jellyfish is highlighted. It's late October now and none have been spotted, so the nets that they have in place at the beach to keep them out of a small swimming area are not up yet and the warning for Marine Stingers said "unlikely". Still, there is vinegar on hand, which supposedly provides a teeny tiny bit of relief. Have fun kids!
A day and a half of rain on a holiday can really bring you down AND make the sunshine seem spectacular. We quickly packed our bags for the trip to Christchurch (our flight out the next morning) and raced to the Franz Joseph Glacier walk in the sun!! It is one of the few glaciers that is advancing in the days of global warming. The walk out there is filled with waterfalls that we would pull off highways in the rain to hop out and view because they’re so beautiful, but they almost seemed ho hum because there were so many of them. Charlie impressed the other walkers by wading through the glacial runoff as if it were a hot tub – he got his picture taken with one family. Silly boy.
By a late lunchtime we were in the town of Hokitika, eating in Café de Paris. Hokitika has some industry and a big tourism trade in jade, or greenstone. I think we counted 8 jade outlets in town. We also happened upon the Sock Museum, which just begs a visit. The owner produces and sells hand-crank machines that knit socks. She has about 15 of the machines on display in one little room and sells the hand crank knit socks for $35 a pair. Strangely, the socks are not even made from New Zealand wool, despite the sheep population – the wool was from Germany. She told Mike that she sells 1000 of these machines a year for $2000 each, mostly to wealthy Americans. Her U.S. base is in Pinkney, MI – just down the road from East Lansing. While we’ve been in Australia, she was in Michigan. If you’ve ever read “Roadside America” – this would definitely belong in “Roadside New Zealand.”
We traveled through Arthur’s Pass on the way to Christchurch and eventually caught back up with the rain, just about the time we met these Kea – the only Alpine parrot in the world.
New Zealand isn’t really about the wildlife in the same way that Australia has been for us – I think I read that bats were the only wild native mammal. Possums and deer were introduced and their overpopulation lead to creative outlets: possums are a pest that get made into some sort of wool/possum material. If you ever order venison in the States, most likely it was imported from a deer farm in New Zealand.
We had a few minutes of dusk to check out the business district of New Zealand that was hit by the earthquake. Most of the central business district is inside a fence that is inaccessible - pretty eerie by night. We heard that all buildings over 4 stories will be demolished.
Remember our view of the mountains in Queenstown? This is our view from the Avalon Motel in Christchurch:
Now, right to bed because we have a 6:30 AM flight to Sydney in the morning!
