July 7th

Here is one of the long awaited blogs about our two day tours we took while up at Port Douglas. This day was a full day trip out to the Outer Barrier Reef. We were aboard the vessel Aristocat, which was a large catamaran. Despite some rocky waves on the one hour trip out to our first snorkel site, Dad managed to keep his breakfast down and the first site was spectacular. The water was 25 degrees celsius, super warm and no need for wetsuits. We donned our snorkels, fins and jumped off the back of the boat into the warm waters over the reef. We saw so many types of colorful fish, various corals and towards the end of the hour long stop, a reef shark! Cass freaked out at this sighting, but the reef shark was more afraid of us and swam quickly away before we could capture a decent photo.

In between the first and second snorkel sites we were treated to a great buffet lunch aboard the boat, and then we hopped back into the water to swim around for another hour and a half at the second reef site. Here, we saw a huge Wrasse, an extremely large fish that was probably half my size and some massive coral structures. No new fish were seen besides the wrasse, so Cass and the rest of us took the opportunity to snap some candids underwater. We had great fun posing with the snorkels under the waves!

The third site was practically the same deal, lots of fish, coral and other unique features. We didn't see any turtles, and only that one shark, but overall it was a fantastic day. Our guides were great, the boat was a beauty and the sights were pretty amazing. The only bad thing that happened was that Quinn, Dad and I got SO burnt on our backs. The photos tell all, but we learnt pretty quickly that despite an overcast day, the Aussie sun is lethal!

July 12, 13, 14, 15

Hello Everyone!

I'm writing from my dads iPad so this will be a short blog update, but I'm mostly writing about the days in between those where we did cool stuff. I still haven't forgotten about the two tour days in PD and I will also be updating photos on here in the next couple days with ones that accompany this blog.

July 12: Today, we sat poolside at our resort in Mackay. We joined the Staines for a lunch at a local pub, then went out to dinner after more pool time.

July 13 and 14: This morning we started the day out with a tour of Georgie's and Jack's classrooms and school. It was so different to see the outdoor halls, school uniforms etc etc. I think the two highlights of the tour was seeing the detention center - the Responsible Thinking Center, and also when Quinn tried to convince Jack's class that he rode a polar bear to school everyday since it was too cold in Canada for buses to run properly. Too funny! After this trip, we drove a couple hours to outside of Rockhampton and stayed in a place called Yeppoon. Our resort was probably the most spectacular so far, and basically the next couple days we just took advantage of this awesome resort and soaked up the sun by the pool.

July 15: Today, we checked out of our hotel room and then took advantage of a cloudless sky and despite no longer technically being guests, we swam in the pool and sat in some great lounge chairs. The afternoon was spent driving to a small hamlet outside of Bundaberg called Bargara. It was here that we grabbed some groceries, made a homemade dinner for the first time in days and also did some laundry! Finally. Nothing much else happened, we stayed pretty much packed and made sure that we were ready for an early start with the rum factory tomorrow!!

July 7th and 8th...pending. July 9th, 10th and 11th

July 7th and 8th: Both days were epically spent in Port Douglas. The first day was a full day snorkel tour to 3 different sites on the reef and the 8th was a Daintree rainforest tour. I'll leave those until I get to decent internet in Brisbane, as those both have much to say about each day as well as tons of photos!

July 9th: A massive driving day. We were supposed to drive the 4 hours from PD to Townsville, but due to a car racing event in the city, we were unable to score accommodation anywhere and thus had to continue an extra 4 hours to Airlie Beach. We were planning on staying here anyway, so a full day of driving would just give us some extra time in a place we were already headed! Not much happened on the road except for Georgie introducing us to a new game - Dead Kangaroo. Basically, you count the number of dead roos you see on the side of the road. Morbid? Yes. Entertaining? Another yes. We settled into our fabulous accommodation about 7pm that night (it took us much longer than 8 hours to drive with all the stops and lunch breaks we took) and had a quick dinner of pizza before hitting the sack.

July 10th: Today was spent just bumming around Airlie Beach. We woke up early, went for a run up some massive hills and then spent the day lounging by the pool and shopping down their main street. Goergie's parents and brother also drove up this morning and we were able to catch up over some beers and meals. Unfortunately, I also came down with a massive headcold, and am still fighting a cough to this day (the 16th!!). The thing to note is the coolest invention EVER. A DRIVE-THROUGH BOTTLE SHOP. You don't even have to leave your car to buy booze....although the idea seems to support drinking and driving??

July 11th: Today we packed up our bags and said goodbye to the resort. We hung out by the lagoon in Airlie and made a quick BBQ brunch/lunch before hitting up some ice cream and then hopping back in the vehicle to drive another 2 hours to the hometown of Mackay. Georgie and family live here, and were starting school again within a couple days, so we decided to stay with them for a couple days before continuing down the coast. This was the last time I had internet, and apart from a nice home-cooked meal and some great laughs over dinner, nothing much else happened that was worth reporting.

The photos I've attached are from our resort in Airlie and the BBQ lunch that we made. I'll try to keep updating the blog over the next couple days, but we plan on being in Brissy in about 4 days and by then I will be able to finish up the rest of the entries!!

xoxo Danielle

July 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th

July 3rd: Kelsey and the family split ways this arvo - Kelsey headed back to Brissy while the family continued upward to Cairns. We arrived fairly late at night so instead of renting a car and driving to Port Douglas that evening, we chose to stay overnight at another fancy resort and pick up the car the next day.

July 4th: Today we picked up the rental vehicle from the Cairns airport and Dad has his first go at driving on the opposite side of the road. He did pretty well, except for always turning on the windscreen wipers instead of the signal light when he wants to turn, and then he also likes to hug the lefthand shoulder of the road, putting us onto the rumble strips. To this day (it's the 10th here!) he continues to do both things. Oh well, no accidents to report as of yet so I guess one can't complain too much!! Upon our arrival into Port Douglas, we had a brief orientation with the whereabouts of everything and a quick tour of some of the shops in town. We picked up some groceries, had a nice dinner out on the patio by the pool and played a game of tennis before hitting the sack!!

July 5th: Another lazy day in PD. We woke up this morning and Cass, Dad and I went for a run for the first time in weeks. Cass killed us all (she's been training like crazy for her volleyball!) but it was good to just get out and move the legs. After breakfast at the resort, we went into the city and shopped for the rest of the day, followed by another round of tennis (who knew Dad was a pro??) and then a BBQ dinner that we cooked back at our place.

July 6th: This morning, we woke up fairly early to drive back into Cairns to pick up a family friend of ours who flew into Cairns from Mackay. Her name is Georgie and she's one year older than Quinn. She spent the next couple days with us, and we are currently staying at their place in Mackay (which is why I am able to access internet and upload photos/update the blog!!). On the way back from the airport in Cairns, we stopped for lunch at a shopping center, picked up some much needed chocolate and tim tams and then hit up a beach for a nice afternoon stroll. That evening was spent catching up over another BBQ steak dinner, then an early bedtime since the next couple days were filled with exciting tours!!

Keep an eye out over the next few days with regards to the last 5 days worth of adventures! I've spent over 2 hours on internet today, and I'm a little tired so will sign out!
xoxo Danielle

Photos....

Hello Everyone!

Since it's been about 2 weeks since my last entry, and I have heaps to tell, these next sections are going to happen over the next couple days when we are in Mackay at the Staines house. I think the best way of doing this will be to report what happened on a day to day basis...

June 30th: My arrival day in to Sydney at about 10am. I caught the train into the city and met up with the family at their hotel. I was blown away by the height of Quinn and his voice - it was so deep! He's grown heaps and what a difference 6 months can make! After some quick shopping, and a quick lunch, the entire family went to the base of the Harbour Bridge for the Bridge climb. Having done this on my last trip to Sydney, I knew what I was in for and completely pumped, but the rest of the fam (mainly Dad) were a little nervous. After the hour briefing, getting suited up and all our test runs done, we head out onto the bridge. At first, Dad was really nervous, but managed to overcome his fear of heights and enjoy the scenic view from the top (at a height of 134m nonetheless!) and have fun with some photos. That evening, we enjoyed a fabulous italian meal at a restaurant recommended to us by one of Dad's work partners. We had great service the entire night after some easy name dropping!!

July 1st: Happy Canada Day! This was probably the most eventful and unique Canada Day I've spent ever. Kelsey, a friend of mine, met up with us at the Sydney Airport to fly directly into Uluru. Upon arrival into this little airport, we caught the shuttle bus into our resort area. Arriving into the airport was great fun - we managed to get seats all together in the exit row and tried our best not to scream when we saw Uluru from the sky. It's easily the largest geographical figure in sight. After a quick tour around our resort - a 5 star hotel complex with multiple sites, a shuttle bus in between and amazing viewpoints, we walked across the complex to hit up the supermarket for some much needed chocolate and the bottle shop for some beer. Along the way, we stopped at one of the lookouts to get a good view of the rock, and decided to visit another lookout onto Uluru during sunset that evening.

During sunset, we took some amazing photos of the family in front of the rock, as well as posing with the Canadian flag for good times' sake and then hiked back to the resort for dinner. The only downside to the day was realizing at supper that the rock had been open for climbing that day, and since this is a rare occurrence, we totally thought we had missed out on an amazing opportunity...

July 2nd: But we didn't. The next day after a scrumptious buffet breakfast, we managed to steal a bunch of food, pack it into packs and caught the shuttle bus to the base of Uluru. Today was one of only a handful of days which the rock was open. Of course, we couldn't pass up an opportunity to climb this iconic figure, so that's what we did. Start time: 10:45am. Summit reached: 12:30pm. Descent started at 1:00pm. End time: 1:30pm. The climb up the rock was spectacular. Everything from the views, the difficulties,the great weather, just knowing mum did the exact same thing years prior....it was awesome. Probably the highlight of my entire trip to Australia!! Of course, Kelsey and I lugged our lunch up this massive rock so we enjoyed a picnic lunch at the summit, followed by some great family shots!!

That evening, we ended off a great day with a sunset camel tour. Epic!!!

Party On!!

These past few days have been a blur. Not because they have gone by so quickly, but because I have had a party to attend every night, which means the following mornings can get to be quite rough. In fact, I think this is the first morning I've gotten out of bed before 10am, which is huge for me.

On Saturday night, Derek decided to be the host/cook/gentleman and cook Kelsey, Dave and I dinner. He made the famous Mexican recipe, and we all enjoyed the fresh guacamole, salsa and cheese tortillas. This, of course, was the pre-game meal, as Kelsey, Derek and I were headed out around 7pm to catch the Wallabies rugby game. For those of you who are unaware, the Wallabies are the National rugby team. On Saturday, they were playing Ireland.

                 Enjoying the dinner made for us....a la Derek!

Like the game I attended before, I had absolutely no clue what was happening most of the time, but the atmosphere alone was incredible. There was a huge mixture of fans for both teams, which made for a large feeling of rivalry. I just basically followed along, cheered whenever the people dressed in gold cheered and booed when the people in green were cheering. Easy enough!! It was even better that the end result was 22-15 for the Wallabies!

After the game, we went to Caxton Street, a street right outside the stadium that is literally filled with fans after each game. Here, we chose a bar to hit up some drinks and chill for a bit. I went up to the bar to get a water for one of my pals, along with two other friends who were ordering beers and we ended up snagging 3 free drinks each! How? Well, there were three glasses on the bartop that were just sitting there. It's obvious to us that someone has ordered and paid, but totally forgot about the drinks since after 3 rounds of people ordering, those drinks were still there. Discretely, I motion to Alexa to pick one, I grab the other, and Alexa's housemate Steph grabs the last. We figured if no one was picking them up in the time we were standing there (a good 10 minutes!) that they were not going to be used. So why waste a good drink? I think they were vodka, soda and lemons, but I couldn't tell for sure.

                    Us with our free drinks we scored at the bar!!

After some time at the bar, laughing at the Irish fans singing songs and the Aussie's poking jokes, we decided to head home and sleep. We were all pretty exhausted, even though it was only around 1am!

Sunday night was another party for me, this time out in a southern suburb called Holland Park. My friend, Mel, from anatomy class was hosting a party with her brother, a 4th year pharmacy student. It was a great night, and I ended up crashing overnight there because her brother, Ty, with his pharmacy knowledge brews his own spirits, beer and wine. Needless to say, a couple homemade rum's later, I was in no shape to catch a bus home. Luckily, Mel had plenty of room in the house for me to find a place to crash. Of course, this meant that all my plans for Monday morning were totally kiboshed and as a result, I've been up early this morning to do all the last minute things around the city. I still have more friends to see, errands to run and emails to send....

This will probably be my last post for a while until I can access internet again and update you all. I leave tomorrow morning early for Sydney, meet up with the family, spend a day with them and then we all fly to the Outback on Thursday. We spend 3 days in the Outback, then we fly to Cairns. From here we basically have no plans, a car and 2-3 weeks to make our way down the coast to Brisbane. I promise to try and write as often as I can....I can't promise many photos as I am not sure the internet connections will be strong enough to load them, but if I can, I will.

On that note, I am going to sign off so I can send those emails and get out of the library to finish up errands before enjoying some coffee with friends. It's too hard to say goodbye and I get this sick feeling in my stomach every time I have to do so.....

All my love as always!
xoxo Danielle