pb_and_j

I've always found trip reports so helpful so here is mine... sorry it's gotten so long and out of control!!
We (honeymooning couple in our late 20's) took 4 weeks: 4 nights in Fiji, 10 in New Zealand and 11 in Australia, mid-June through mid-July.

Day 1 - Flew Philly to LA with a 9 hour layover. We have a friend who lives in LA and spent the day hanging out and playing beach volleyball. Perfect stopover but then it was time for our long flight on Air NZ. They didn't give a good first impression as we arrived to check in and found a massive line (the people after us were out the door) and NO ONE at any of the counters! Apparently they were all at a meeting!! The flight left about an hour late.
(Crossed dateline)

Days 3-6 - NAVINI, FIJI
We arrived at Nadi, Fiji at 4AM. We weren't getting picked up until 6AM so we had our first "flat whites" and tried to figure out how they were different from cappuccinos… We met our rep for Navini who drove us to a Marina and then off we were by boat to our island! I chose Navini for a few reasons -- its size (only 10 bures), its closeness to the airport (just an hour away), its glowing reviews here, the good snorkeling.... When we arrived there was actually only ONE other couple (and they'd had the island to themselves for 2 days before!) and we had breakfast to ourselves. Another couple arrived after lunch and that was it for 2 days, the staff told us the day after we left it was going to be full, so it was just luck it was so quiet. The snorkeling around the island was great. One day we went on a guided snorkel tour all the way around the island. We also went by boat to a larger reef (fantastic!) and then fished on the way back. But it was great to just be able to just snorkel from the beach. My first impression immediately was "Wow, this is so much better than what I've seen in Hawaii!" (And I love Hawaii so it pains me to say it) but just in quality of coral and variety of fish it really blew me away.
All of the staff were so friendly and outgoing. No one would pass you without saying "Bula". They even made sure I got a good amount of hits in volleyball thought I was playing awful. I also enjoyed the casual nature of the island. We literally didn't wear shoes for days. For dinner everyone wore their sulus and t-shirts and after dinner was mostly playing vidi-vidi, drinking kava (not as bad as I imagined!) and listening to the staff sing. Aaaahh… It's just a special place and we really enjoyed it. Those first 2 couples we met had been there many, many times previously and we hope we'll be back too.

Day 7 - Our last morning in Fiji! At least we still got a relaxing brekkie, a final snorkel, and lunch before we had to go. Then we were whisked back to the airport and flew to Auckland (3 hrs). We stayed at a B&B in Parnell (Chalet Chevron, recommended) so we had plenty of restaurants within easy walking distance.

Day 8 - AUCKLAND, NZ
Our one full day in Auckland and I had so many options and ideas but it quickly started POURING so there went most plans. We walked around the city center during rain breaks, shopped (I developed a crush on Untouched World) and found a lovely Belgian pub for lunch (Occidental - great mussels!) We took the Link bus to at least get a glimpse of the city while it continued to rain on and off. As the day went on I started feeling sick and really felt like crap by the evening. This night also was the first test match between the Lions and the All Blacks and we wanted to watch it in a bar. We walked along Parnell again but while it has tons of restaurants, is really rather short on bars. The one Irish pub was packed and I didn't feel like I could stand the whole time to watch, so we got some Thai takeaway and planned to watch at the B&B. We didn't realize it would be delayed for regular TV and I fell asleep just before kickoff.

Day 9-11 - QUEENSTOWN, NZ
The day started very badly as I was feeling really sick and had a fever and all. We actually tried to completely rearrange out trip, but got frustrated and headed to airport for our early flight to Queenstown. My fever actually broke on the plane and by the time we arrived in Queenstown I was really glad we had continued with our original plans.
The flight to Queenstown was beautiful - a truly great scenic flight and we had clear weather around all the mountains. I have to say a few things about the Q'town airport... First, I thought it was really odd that there were no jet ways, since it was cold and doesn't it rain quite a bit there? Then I got inside and was really surprised to see my name on one of those signs people hold as you're entering the airport. First time ever! It was actually our Apex car rental rep, really sweet to meet us at the gate. We next all went to get our luggage, which was out in the parking lot, still all stacked up on the trolleys! Again, just odd. We filled out all the paperwork for the car rental and asked our rep how to get to our hotel (Copthorne, standard nice hotel, got a good rate on wotif) it's basically turn left and go straight and it'll be on your left, not hard. But instead she had us follow her there. Quite surprisingly good service! It was nice to have our first experience driving on the left so easy by having a car to follow. When we turned into the hotel's driveway we gave the classic American salute - wipers instead of turn signals.
After settling in we walking to town to have look, no real plans for the day. We both thought Q’town was a lovely town. Our timing meant that it was pretty quiet too – we were there before the Winter Festival, the ski fields had opened just a couple days before, and the Lions matches elsewhere probably drew a lot of the overseas visitors too. It was cold but once you had a coat on, it was nice – Auckland was actually the only rain we had on the entire trip!!
We did the TSS Earnslaw cruise, beautiful and relaxing (an easy way to sightsee while still taking it easy), though later I wished we had included the sheep farm too. We booked the Real Journey's bus to Milford Sound for the following day.

Day 10 - Bus to MILFORD SOUND - One advantage to staying at Copthorne is that it's one of the last stops to leave town one of the first on the way back in. I hate having to stop at a dozen places at the end of a long day. Our bus ride started before dawn but the snow-covered Remarkables were still visible. It's a LONG bus ride, over 5 hours there and I think we had 5 stops, only 2 with toilets. The stop in Te Aneu was long enough to get hot food at the cafe. Throughout the journey we saw beautiful scenery and had surprisingly good weather - cold but clear. As others have said, the actual Milford Sound cruise isn't that exciting. I wonder if it's because by then you've been somewhat jaded by all the spectacular views you've been seeing the last many hours? Two notes from our Milford Sound boat ride: first is that we realized that our camera hadn't been charging the batteries and now both were dead, and second is that buffet was THE WORST FOOD I'VE EVER HAD EVER. It was mall Chinese food taken down several notches. Ew. I really can't believe how much they normally charge for that (it was a free special when we booked). The sandwiches looked better. About the camera, I bought a disposable camera but fortunately it's all the same scenery on the way back so it wasn't too big a deal.
Our bus blew a tire about 10 minutes outside of Te Aneu but another bus company was right behind us so about half our bus piled onto that one. I have to say that our Real Journeys bus had been much nicer. Our windows had gone up all the way to the top of the bus, plus the ceiling windows. This really makes a difference (especially for the people sitting on the aisle) when the mountains are looming so large around you. But the new bus had an advantage: movies. The last half of the drive was in darkness so it was a welcome distraction. Just an FYI… The price of the helicopter back from Milford Sound was something like $540 p.p. SOOOO tempting but that would add up to a really expensive day!
Day 11: Our last day in the area we again had no plans. After leisurely brekkie at Vudu cafe, we went to an internet place to figure out what we were doing wrong with our camera. Apparently for our Kodak camera, it's the docking station not the A/C adaptor that can charge the battery. Oops, should have checked that more carefully, though it's kind of counter-intuitive. So we looked up what we needed to buy and looked at the 3 camera stores in town to see if they had it. Nope, but we were able to order one and have it sent overnight from Auckland. We crossed our fingers since we were planning to go to Dunedin the following day.
I'd done a lot of research about all the fun/crazy things to do in Queenstown (Dart River jetboat, hang gliding, bungy, etc.), but when we got there we were surprisingly uninterested. So we drove to ARROWTOWN. Cute mining town, I kept expecting to see a saloon with those swinging doors on the front… We had a lovely lunch at Café Mondo, then walked through the Chinese settlement.
On the way back to Q'town we were passing the airport so we decided to look into taking a scenic helicopter ride. We just walked in a few places and asked what was available. We ended up going with Glacier Southern Lakes. Since we were booking directly or were walk-ins, they gave us a discount and the normal $265 price was $199, pretty nice discount and they just offered it to us. The heli flight was fun, but more so since we'd never been in one before. Again, more great views of mountains, and a snow landing, but it was nice to have the aerial views of Queenstown, Arrowtown, the lakes and rivers.

Day 12 - Drive to DUNEDIN - picked up our new battery charger and the shopgirl even suggested she charge our battery for us while we had breakfast. So helpful! Finally we went got on the road. We were planning on stopping at a few vineyards along the way but since I was still on cold medication we limited ourselves to only one. We stopped at the bungy bridge where I tried to convince DH to do a jump. No go. Most of the drive was moderately scenic and interesting. I thought field after field of sheep was still interesting though!
We arrived in Dunedin just before dark and checked into Hulmes Court B&B. My only complaint is that our room was absolutely FREEZING when we got there. By the second day it had warmed up with the heater but that first night I pulled that heater right near the bed and piled on every blanket I could find. But first, dinner. Dunedin was absolutely freezing outside too, colder than we had in Queenstown so I was resolved to eat at the very first restaurant we came across. There was no one in it, normally not a good sign and normally I'd keep walking by, but I was abnormally chilled and needed hot food. Italian food, particularly good pizza, and some beer helped immensely. I think the name was Italian Café – perhaps a better name would bring in more folks?

Day 13 - DUNEDIN & OTAGO
For the first part of the day we wandered around Dunedin - Octagon, Railway station (beautiful!), booked a Penguin Place tour for that afternoon, and then did the Cadbury tour. Fun tour particularly if you like the smell of chocolate. Our enthusiastic guide reminded me of an Oompa-Loompa which added to the chocolate goodness. He kept saying "Fantastic!"
The drive on the Otago peninsula is quite a drive. Very scenic but incredible hairpin turns too. If you're going to get carsick, it'll probably be here. Of course I had to stop at the Happy Hens shop because I had read about them on here! We drove to the Albatross center and had a look around. The staff said there wouldn't be much be to see except for a few young birds. On to the Penguin Place. This really exceeded my expectations. I didn't think we'd see so many, so close, in the sea playing and walking all around. Definitely worthwhile.

Day 14 - Drive to CHRISTCHURCH - Not a very interesting drive. We stopped in Omaramu for lunch, and then the Moeraki boulders. Finally in Christchurch, we checked into another Copthorne, again through wotif, about a block north of Cathedral Square - nice location. Dinner at a great Indian place – sorry can’t find the name, but right off Cathedral Sq next to a backpacker’s - where we ate again the following night too.

Day 15 - CHRISTCHURCH
Spent most of the day just walking around Christchurch. No wizard in Cathedral Square but there was a little market and chess players to watch. I really enjoyed going to the Arts Center area. The buildings were very pretty and I thought the craft fair there had some fabulous things. I bought a little jewelry box carved out of wood that everyone back here has loved - I should have bought more! Second test match All Blacks v. Lions was tonight so we made sure to get to a pub to watch it. My favorite part was the Haka of course!

Day 16 - AKAROA
Another long drive on twisty roads (thought not quite as bad as on Otago I think). We both thought Akaroa town was incredibly boring. On the way back we had lunch at French Farm vineyards and that was really nice.

pb_and_j

Day 17 & 18 – SYDNEY
I’ll start by saying we intended to have 3 days in Sydney, but I goofed the dates when booking flights and we ended up with only two and an extra day up in Cairns. For us this worked out perfectly. We are city people (live in Philadelphia) and love visiting cities but we cover ground very quickly and prefer to stick with the things that differentiate one city from another. For core “cityness” we get that everyday.
Early flight to Sydney so we arrived around 8:30AM. We took a cab from the airport which cost about $40. I was annoyed by this since I asked the cab dispatcher how much it would cost and he said $30. We stayed at the Russell (fabulous location) and they had our room ready early which worked out perfectly. We walked over to BridgeClimb and booked a sunset tour for later that day. I didn't realize but they give you free passes to the Pylon tower with your booking so we headed over there next. It was nice to get a feel of the layout of the city and harbor and of course the spectacular views of the Opera House! It really is quite stunning, no matter how many times you've seen pictures of it before. We spent the rest of our afternoon wandering around the Rocks, walking over to the Opera House, and watching the birds fight for scraps in the Royal Botanical garden. Then it was time for the Bridgeclimb! I'll join the long list and recommend it thoroughly as well. One thing that was funny was that while we were all in our very sexy brown coveralls another group had slightly-better blue ones on. Turns out they were the model group for the new batch of pictures with the new outfits. We checked out many restaurant menus as we walked (dining in Sydney is expensive!) We ended up getting so-so but inexpensive pizzas in the Rocks and later stopping for enormous slices of pie/cake for dessert at a casual café.

The next day we did the Spit to Manly walk. First off this is a LONG walk! In retrospect, I'd also recommend going in the direction from the Spit Bridge to Manly instead of what we did. That way you'd have the easiest part of the walk as the finish. Also, when you get there you'd be at Manly so could go to the beach, or get food/drinks right away. We finished at a bridge, not very exciting except that we were finally finished! The bus ride to Manly was much shorter than back to Circular Quay so we went back to Manly by bus and took the ferry back. The ferry in the morning had been just about empty, really only about 20 people on the whole boat. I took tons of pictures from both open ends of the ferry - some really nice views! The afternoon ferry we took back was really full (same great views of course, just harder to get past the people to see them).
We still had a tiny bit of energy left so we headed off to get DH's Hard Rock Café glass. DH collects these so I unfortunately get dragged to them whenever we're near one while traveling. (Incidentally the only other one on our itinerary was in Queenstown and all that was left was the gift shop, the café had been closed. They'd also run out of the pilsner glasses a month ago!) We walked along the edge of the parks to get there and then through the "downtown" part of the city to get back so I ended up thinking it was a nice excuse to get us into another area of Sydney that we hadn't checked out. We had dinner at Philip’s Foote where you BBQ your own meat.

Days 19-27 CAIRNS AREA
Flew to Cairns in the morning (this time took the train from Circular Quay to the Sydney Airport - cheaper, faster, and easy.) Flew Virgin Blue this time… 3 hour flight, just food for purchase… just like being back in the states! Arrived in Cairns, picked up our rental car from Avis, and started the drive up the coast. For lunch we went to the Yorkey's Knob Boating Club and had a good lunch and beer, good price, and lovely outdoor setting. Back on the road, we stopped at the Cairns Tropical Zoo because DH had one thing he wanted to do in Australia, and that was to hold a koala. Unfortunately we had just missed the last cuddling/photo session so we continued on to Port Douglas. We walked around a bit, had ice cream and made reservations for a reef trip with Poseidon for the following day. Wavelength was booked up for a couple days and they said we got the last slot on Poseidon. Calypso still had a few open spaces left though. I just didn't want to take one of the really large boats.
Back on the road again, this time to find our B&B in MOSSMAN - the Mossman Gorge B&B. This was our very favorite place we stayed on the trip and we just loved our hosts Mandy and Chris. They've only got 3 rooms, so it's never crowded or loud, though the birds might wake you up. I really can't recommend this place highly enough! The rooms, the views, the breakfasts, and above all our hosts were all wonderful! Mandy did our laundry in exchange for a cheap bottle of Chardonnay. We started calling Mandy "Handy Dandy Mandy" after a while. As she was showing us around the place and talking about brekkie times and all, we said that we were going on a reef trip the following day. She looked very alarmed and said that we just can't go tomorrow! It was supposed to be very high winds and we'll get sick, hate it, not see much, and think the reef is a huge disappointment. She wants to change it to 2 days later which would have much better weather, but that's the day we were headed to the tablelands. So she says at least push it back one day and get less wind. But that's the day we're scheduled at the Daintree Eco Lodge spa that I'd booked months ago and was looking forward to very much. So she gets on the phone with the Spa and then Poseidon and totally rearranges our stay. We now have tomorrow free, Poseidon the following day, and the spa just before noon on the day we're leaving, still enough time to get to the tablelands before dark. Our reef trip should be calmer and now we have a full day to explore the Daintree River and rainforest. Since she's been so helpful we also follow her dinner recommendation and go to Mojo's in Mossman - very yummy, another good recommendation from Mandy!

Day 20 - Daintree and Cape Trib - self drive
Mandy had pointed out so many sights along the way to Cape Trib there was way more than a day's worth of activities but we couldn't resist a very leisurely yummy brekkie, talking to Mandy and Chris, and bird watching. There was a perfect dead branch sticking out above the tree canopy that birds would perch on, making it so easy to spot and point out different ones. Mandy kept a list of birds spotted each month and gets a fair amount of birders so she knows her stuff. We don't, and she could have told us anything but it was fun.
Our first real stop was to take a cruise on the Daintree to look for crocs. When the road splits and you can go towards the ferry or Daintree village, there are the boat tour companies along both forks. We headed towards the village and stopped at the first company and took their next cruise. It was a 1.5 hours wildlife tour and very good. Our guide owned land along the river and really knew a lot about not just the crocodiles, but the mangrove system and the river itself and how it's changed and is changing over the years. We saw about 5-6 crocs including 2 that were very young and small. In case you need more reason not to fall in the water, he said recently a bull shark had come up into the river.
Our next stop (well I guess technically the ferry was next) was the Discovery Center. We spent a TON of time here. Basically you walk through the rainforest on walkways and can walk up a tower for views above the top and along the way. Lots of signs with information, lots of info in the booklet they give you, and tons of info in the guided audio tours you should get. We didn't even make it all the way through the audio, there seemed to be no end but we learned so much that along with the river cruise my brain was overflowing and it was time for ice cream. So on to the Daintree ice cream company. No choice, you get a dish with their 4 flavors and that's that. I think ours were Wattleseed (like mocha), coconut, blueberry and mango. Yummy! They are open only 12-5 I believe.
It was getting late so we decided to just drive through to Cape Trib to see how much time we had afterwards. The Cape was just a beach, but it was interesting to see the rainforest grow right up to and into the beach sand. We did a short walk there and then I think we were all rainforested-out and drove back to Mossman.
For dinner we drove to Port Douglas. We tried Salsa and they told us that they didn't have any tables available until Saturday (and it was Thursday)! That's just crazy because the place was huge, had several empty tables and didn't even look like the type of place you'd need reservations at all. Oh well. We went down the block and ate at 2 Fish. Good fresh fish.
Day 21 - Reef trip with Poseidon.
Mandy made us an early brekkie and then we drove to the marina in PD for our trip. I had been waffling about trying Scuba so I went with the other intro Scuba folks while DH went off with the snorkelers. They give their whole talk about what to do and how and why and what not to do and then you get to decide if you want to give it a go. Also if you get underwater and freak out or have problems you don't get charged until you pass your 2 skills and let go of the rope. I wasn't convinced I'd be able to do it since I have consistent problems clearing my ears on flights, but I did try. I was able to do it and I’m glad I did, but I preferred the calmness of snorkeling. For the 2nd and 3rd sites I stuck with snorkeling, though for each I had the option to Scuba again. The snorkeling wasn't great, not nearly as good as I had in Fiji, but I did see some good things and enjoyed the trip. The lunch was pretty impressive and I think I had at least 6 pieces of cake. It was so good!
We had a nice early dinner and a lovely sunset at On the Inlet, right next door to the marina in Port Douglas.

Day 22 - Mossman Gorge, Daintree Spa and driving to the Tablelands
Yay our spa day was here! Boo we were leaving Mandy and Chris. I feel like we learned so much about living there from them. Chris helped clear up some of our total confusion about the sports there. On Rugby (Union? League? Sorry I never got that quite sorted out): "Aaahhh, that's the sport they play in heaven." Later, on Cricket: "Ah, that's the other sport they play in heaven, in the summer." We packed up sadly and drove to Mossman Gorge for some hiking. Then to the Daintree Eco Lodge for our spa appointments! Pure heaven, just go. We both got the signature Walbul-Walbul treatment with this rain shower… wow. I can’t find any spa here that does anything quite so amazing. Afterwards we had lunch at their restaurant. I had a salad with melon and chicken which I never would have thought would work together but it was just perfect after-spa food.
Then we had to drive to Lake Eachum near Yungaburra for our next accommodations. Our route was Mossman-Mt. Molloy-Mareeba-Atherton-Yungaburra. Around Mt. Molloy the landscape started changing and getting much drier. These red/tan/brown boulders were all over on the side of the road… something clicked and I finally remembered, Oh yeah those are termite mounds… but I didn't think we'd see those around here… maybe near Undara… Then a big kangaroo jumped in front of our car and scared the heck out of us. I'm yelling "Kangaroo!" and DH is slamming on the brakes and the roo calmly, finally, continues hopping across the road. We were really shaken but after we calmed down we couldn't stop laughing. What a perfect classically Australian moment! And trust me, it's forever etched in our memories.
We continued on towards Mareeba and the landscape turned into farmland again. I had been hoping to stop at the Mareeba wetlands or the Granite Gorge but we were running out of time. Our place was very near Lake Eachum so that part of the directions was quite simple. After that we had to pass the lake and then make a left onto a road. Check. The road turned into a tiny dirt path with 2 tire ruts. We were back in heavy rainforest so it was rather dark on the road even though it was still light out. Small creatures hopped in front of the car from time to time. DH starts looking at me like "Where have you taken me??" I had no idea it was a dirt path or that it'd be quite so remote. After an unfortunate wrong turn we finally made it: The Crater Lakes Rainforest Cottages. It turned out to be quite a nice place. Four spacious cabins, Jacuzzi baths, fireplace, full kitchen (brekkie supplies given to cook for yourself), BBQ and seating on your balcony, and TV and DVD player with a decent stock of DVDs at the owner's house. But the best part is the wallabies, birds and brush turkeys that you could feed. We'd throw them breakfast scraps from the balcony. Very fun to watch.
For dinner, we went back to Yungaburra and ate at Nick's Swiss-Italian restaurant. Unfortunately it was jazz night so there was no yodeling and it wasn't as kitschy as I hoped. Simple, hearty food, especially if you like spaetzle. I think I had crocodile.

Day 23 - TABLELANDS and night-spotting tour
There are lots of things to see and do on the tablelands, so we just picked a few and kept it an easy day. As we walked around historical Yungaburra we thought about how the town was about 80 years old… as is our house back in Philadelphia and it's not even particularly old for the area. One of our friends lives in a house built before Captain Cook said into Botany Bay and it's not a historical landmark. It's just such a difference from traveling in Europe where things have to be near-ancient to be considered "old".
For dinner we made use of our BBQ and then back into Yungaburra to meet for our nocturnal animal-spotting tour with Alan.
http://users.qldnet.com.au/~spotlighting/
Excellent tour and a good value ($60 per couple) so try to book in advance. We did indeed see the Lumholtz tree kangaroo as well as several cute green-ringed possums and coppery brush tailed possums.

Day 24 - UNDARA LAVA TUBES
We said goodbye to our furry wallaby friends and headed off to Undara. We stopped at Mt. Hypipamee to hike to the crater lake and a waterfall and stopped at Ravenshoe for gas, where we realized we were tighter for time than we would have liked. The road after Ravenshoe gets interesting. First, much of it is only single lane paved so when another car is approaching you, you both share the lane and kick up lots of dust. Second, road trains. The ones we saw were usually 3 trailers long though someone told us that in NT they go up to 7 trailers! When a road train is coming at you they get the lane and you go fully off the road into the dirt. The RT still covers you in dust as it goes by.
There were, for no apparent reason, some sections where it widened into one lane each way (how luxurious!) but this would happen usually for a short stretch and literally in between nothing and nothing. No roads, turnoffs, driveways, etc. on that stretch. Needless to say, we thought the journey was an experience. Saw a few more kangaroos, though many as roadkill. One big surprise was that we saw a pack of Emus walking next to the road! I had no idea we'd see them and was delighted.
One last note on the drive: Part of the last 7km to Undara is "all-weather gravel" and "can become corrugated" so we were told "drive carefully". This, to us, means relatively slowly. It was bumpy and jittery and rather uncomfortable. Our tour guide later told us to take that section at least 70kmh or you'll end up getting into to every bump. MUCH better on the way out.
We arrived at Undara literally 10 minutes before our pre-booked 1pm half-day tour. I went to check in, get the tour info/ticket, pay, etc. DH went to figure out where to park the dusty car. When I walked into to the Registration/gift shop/grocery shop there had been a decent group of people waiting around so I figured we were on the tour with them. Wrong! By luck, they were all on the 2-hour tour and we were the only ones on the half-day tour! Just us and our guide, Tracy.
The tour started by climbing up some boulders to have a look at the terrain and the cinder cones in the area. Then a 4wd bus to the lava tubes. I think we went in 4 tubes, including one that was pitch black and a bit challenging to get into. We only were able to see that one because our group was so small. Very nice tour. Billy tea and then we headed back to the Undara lodge.
Did I mention the kangaroos everywhere out here? And the birds? The whole Cairns region was my favorite part of the trip a lot due to all the amazing wildlife we saw in each area.
Dinner was pretty good - I had roo! DH had locally-made sausage which was GREAT. After dinner was a fireside chat. Ours was on termites and was actually very interesting and good. Then we were all read a bedtime story by Dr. Seuss.
We stayed in the railcar accommodations which are tight but hey, it’s a railcar and an experience.

Day 25 - Undara back to Cairns.
Started the day with a good bush brekkie. A walk out to the campsite, then a full breakfast including toast your own bread over the open fire. Fortunately they took care of cooking the eggs and bacon and other good things.
Checked out and back on the road. This time we had the bad luck to get stuck behind a road train. There's really NO way to get around them ever. We also found out what happens when 2 road trains pass - they each share the single lane and kick up so much dust you can't see for several seconds. We would just pull over and wait for it to settle down a bit.
We made a few stops including the "Waterfall Circuit" near Milla Milla. We were driving via Gordonvale and had a few other stops planned when we decided to drive straight through to Cairns and see if we could make a koala-cuddling session at the Cairns Tropical Zoo. Unfortunately a pack of us got stuck behind a very frustratingly slow driver with no overtaking lanes, too much opposing traffic and the slow driver having no sense to pull over. Every several kilometers one car had a window to pass, but that would be all. Sigh. So we didn't make it, again, and instead checked into our B&B in Cairns. Since we still had the car we drove out to Stratford (near the airport) to the Garden Room for dinner. It's been recommended on these boards before and I'll add our positive recommendation as well.

Day 26 - DAY TRIP TO LIZARD ISLAND

Today was our much anticipated day trip to Lizard with Greg and Daintree Air. There were 8 of us plus Greg. The flights both there and back were wonderfully scenic. The "airport" at Lizard is a hut where people come to collect fees and then disappear. On our way back the men had to push the plane back onto the runway and I have a great picture of DH literally holding the plane so it didn't roll away while the other guys got rocks to put behind the wheels.
Our group spent the entire day at Watson's Bay. A cruise ship was actually also there but they were restricted to the one reef. Greg said not to bother with that one, the other 2 (including the clam garden) were the ones to see. The snorkeling there was fabulous, just narrowly beating out Fiji. The coral and clams were amazing to see. Lunch was very nice as was the beach and the peacefulness of the area.

Back in Cairns for dinner, we just wandered around until I found a good place to satisfy my pasta craving. The following night we followed a local recommendation and ate at Mondo – good food, great views.

Day 27 - KURANDA and RAINFORESTATION
Final full day!
We still had a few things left to cross off out list including DH's big one - cuddling that koala. We also had been thwarted in a few attempts to get exposed to some aboriginal culture (due to our Mossman schedule rearrangement we were at Mossman Gorge on a day the Kulaki Yulangi walks weren't available. A walk with an aboriginal elder on the tablelands we missed after our guidebook had the wrong times and days listed…) so I wanted to see something of aboriginal culture, even if it was showy or touristy. We also had given up our car the day before. Going through the brochures, I decided Rainforestation near Kuranda would fit. The bus trip would give us some time in Kuranda for souvenir shopping too.
We're not the types who like being herded around in big groups, but it was actually a really fun day. Since we weren't going by train or Skyrail we left in the late morning and it was MUCH cheaper.
We found the Rainforestation zoo area particularly to be great fun. We made sure to avoid any and all groups passing through and managed to have lots of time in the Koala area, chatting with the keepers as they changed the Eucalyptus branches. This was the first time I’d ever seen koalas do anything besides sleep in real life! They were running around, fighting, climbing. The keepers showed us how several of the females had babies in their pouches. The roaming kangaroos there are very tame and you can pet and feed them (they are very soft!) I also FINALLY got to see that elusive Cassowary. After seeing so many signs in the rainforest areas warning not to run them over and reading and hearing so much about them I had a nice sense of closure getting to see what it actually looked like in the flesh. It was much bigger than I thought!
And we also got DH's prize - a picture with him cuddling a koala.

Bokhara

That's a super JBR, pb & j. I'm filing it for my next trip to FNQ.
Thanks very much

pat_woolford

Terric report pb and j, did that trip out to Undara the other day, in fact the dust is still on the car. Had the same meal and breakfast as you - stayed in the Swags tents, with real beds, fridge and mini kitchen, and I think another AU$7 for the bed linen. Didn't see emus but there were some plains bustards, another large bird, same colour as an emu but not as tall. Also an echidna waddling in middle of the road just past Undara turnoff, fortunately where road trains don't pass.

pat_woolford

Whoops, AU$15 pp per night in Swags tents and an extra AU$7 for the bed linen - tents have raised timber floors, so few ants.

SnRSeattle

Thanks for the trip report, pb&j, especially the notes on Fiji. We gave up trying to go there after I couldn't get any real information on what the snorkeling was like. Good that you had such a glowing report, saying Lizard just beat out Fiji says a lot since I know how awesome Lizard is! What did you pay for the bure on Fiji and could you post the URL for the place you stayed? Would you say June/July was the best time to go weather-wise? Any other details or info you can pass along would be greatly appreciated. I also appreciated the info on the Atherton tablelands, since that is a destination of choice for our next trip to FNQ (after the one planned for Oct. 2006 to elsewhere in QLD--but may be moved up after your great description!)
Sally in Seattle

pb_and_j

Here's the webiste for Navini:
http://www.navinifiji.com.fj/
From what I hear winter is a good time to go to Fiji, but there really isn't much of a bad time either! Navini is in the Mamanucas which are just clusters of small islands, no mountains to catch rain so it's pretty dry over there year-round.


I didn't include a lot of details on things to do on the Atherton Tablelands or what we specifically did, but once you get there, stop at a visitor center and you'll be flooded with info. Tons of nice walks around lakes, waterfalls, huge ancient trees... We just made it up as we went.
Here's the place we stayed near Lake Eachum:
http://www.craterlakes.com.au/

Tim_and_Liz

Thanks for posting, pb_and_j!
What type (and how many pieces) of luggage did you bring? We are having a difficult time figuring out how to pack for all types of weather, from NZ to Fiji, and keep our bags under 20kg each.
Anything you packed that you didn't use, or something you wish you had brought?
Thanks!

pb_and_j

Ah, packing... I feel like I have a system down with so many little tricks...
We brought one suitcase each (I think we had a 26" and a 29&quot, plus a regular day backpack each for our carryon.
Deciding what to take was tricky, having to pack for heat in Fiji and Cairns, winter in NZ and all temps in between.
The BEST thing we bought for the trip were Columbia interchange coats. A waterproof windbreaker shell, with a good fleece lining. For NZ we used both layers together, for other areas a windbreaker or a fleece jacket was perfect.

Shoes are a big space-taker. I think we each had one pair sneakers, one pair of boots (like black boots that would also look OK with black pants) and a pair of sandals. We didn't plan on going to any really nice/fancy places.

There really wasn't anything I wished I had brought (except that darn camera base - now I have a charger with NZ prongs). As always I think I could have packed a couple fewer shirts, since it's nice to buy a few as go too.

margo_oz

Great report, pb&j

I'm amazed you did so many wonderful things. Makes me feel quite sluggish! (or is that guilty?)

dave_261

Great report.

Did you have any troubles w/ the 29" suitcase? We'll be in OZ next month and flying Qantas and Jetstar, and both sites show that no bag can have dimensions larger than 54" around. Our 28" comes to about 60", so we basically ruled out bringing it.