Other things we did in Cairns.

We found some other beautiful colourful things apart from fish and coral.....
in the botanic gardens.

We rode our bikes as the car was being serviced and Cairns has a great network of bike paths, some of then lead to the precinct which includes the Flecker botanic gardens, Tanks art centre, rainforest boardwalk and wetlands.

All these taken in the botanic gardens.
There are two cafes - we chose the Wild Bean cafe at the information centre between the gardens and the tanks as it had the most interesting non-meat food. There is also a cafe in the heart of the botanic gardens in a lovely setting.

On the road again - another winter trip

"Let's go snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef" he said.
Sounds good to me!
So off we go!
Caravan in tow.

Stopping at a couple of overnighters along the way -

Just off the road at Bauple. Actually there are two free place at Bauple - one is right in the village and the other closer to the highway.

A couple of nights in the low-cost camp at Agnes Waters -

Getting stuck in the sand at Carmila Beach, but finding a gorgeous spot next to the water and being helped by lovely fellow campers.

A free camp in the sugar mill town of Giru - next to the railway line with sugar trains rattling through.

Then a few days at Cairns from where we went on a day tour on the reef. It was fabulous.

We went with Seastar cruises.
It was pretty good. They supplied the wetsuits and snorkelling gear. Plus lunch and morning and afternoon tea.
It takes about an hour and a half to get out to the reef and then we visited two reefs. The first one is off a small cay which is home to...um, birds....lots of birds.
The cruise people took these photos of us.

Oh, yes, we saw fish!
We saw lots of brightly coloured parrot fish, you can hear them munching the coral when you snorkel.
The cruise people found us a cute little clown (Nemo) fish, they are a bit tricky as they hide in the coral.
Some people saw turtles. They were lucky.
Angel fish. spotty fish, Stripey fish. Big fish.
All sorts of fish that I can't even remember now.
And coral.
Yeah, it was cool

On the way back to port we saw some whales! How lucky.
Unfortunately we didn't managed to get to the camera in time.

In Cairns we stayed in the Lake Placid caravan park which is a bit squashy but is in a nice location.
Just a few metres up the road is Lake Placid itself which is at the bottom of the Barron gorge and there is a very nice Italian restaurant there.

It was a great place to eat after a long day out on the water.

The house is finished and we move in! Yay!

We actually managed to move in during the second week in June, a year to the day after we moved from the Mountains.
The incentive was to get our goodies out of storage so we didn't have to pay for another month!

There is still much to do -
1. Organise the studio. Mammoth task!
2. Cover the mud/dust with something.

Thanks to our lovely neighbour Dave for help with the heavy stuff.
And to Gav our wonderful builder for the loan of his super-sized trailer.

Lighthouse birthday treat

In which G takes T on a mystery tour for her birthday.

He said we were going away for 2 days.
He said it wasn't very far.
He said we would eat out!
And we would go walking.

So here is where we ended up -

Well, not actually in the lighthouse, 'cus that is in use, but in the lovely lighthouse keepers' cottage just a little bit down the hill, but still with spectacular views.

From the back of the cottage we could see this -
(which possibly also includes our house!)

and from the front we could see this -

The next day we were lucky enough to have a tour of the lighthouse with our breakfast chef extraordinaire and host Pat.

Then we walked.
There is a 10 km track through the bush to the gaol at Trial Bay but we just did part of it.
It is a lovely walk, a bit steep going down the track to Green Island lookout but well worth it.

You can see our house from here!

Food-wise it was a mixed bag.
Breakfasts in the B & B were amazing - Whisk and Pin muesli, huge fruit platter and yoghurt, followed by eggs, tomato and toast.
I thought I was going to explode!
We didn't need lunch, but we did manage to fit in late afternoon nibbles and champagne.
Dissappointingly the Boatshed at South West Rocks is closed and no-one knows why.
Being a Wednesday in off-season not much else was open, only the pub and that was, you know....pubby.

Anyway, it was the most special, wonderfully surprising couple of days and I think that G is the bestest person in the world for organising it.