Melbourne...or Melbin for the locals - Day 1.

The first thing to know about Melbourne, AU is not to pronounce it Mel-born. It's properly pronounced Melbin. Since this city reminded me quite a bit of New York, you don't want to sound like a tourist - because there are people who will take advantage of you, and well - that's not cool. So say it right.

When we landed in Melbourne, we made our way to the hotel (probably via the longest route we could have chosen, which Derek tried to convince me it was a "Free" tour of the city), got settled in and of course headed to a pub for fish and chips (ok and a pint - ok two pints, sheesh). We had good reason for needing the pints. After 2 weeks of international traveling I unfortunately hit my limit of rude people. When we were waiting in line for the bus to take us to the hotel, a lady came up and budged in front of everyone. I let that one slide. Then, once the bus actually got there and parked in front of the rest of the group and not her, she budged again in front of us. Finally, when the bus driver got out and told people to bring their suitcases to the back she literally pushed Derek out of the way to rush her suitcase back and be the first one on the bus. Sadly every single annoying person/thing that had taken place during our vacation came to head and I had an "oh no you didn't just push my husband" moment. I got on the bus and the crazy broad already knew I was annoyed with her because she looked, smirked and said to her friend "blondie doesn't like me". This is the part where I should have just shut my blond face but instead I went with "No, actually it's not that I don't like you - I don't like you pushing my husband!" She of course claimed she did nothing of the sort and I then explained to her she was the last person to that bus stop - the rest of us had been waiting at least 15 minutes and somehow she had found herself on the bus first. I asked her how she could possibly explain being last there and first on without being pushy - apparently she didn't know because she only flipped me off. Yes - she literally flipped me off on a tourist shuttle. Then I said "As I can see you're Australian, I only hope somebody is as nice to you when you visit the US as you have been to us" She just flipped me off again, and by this point Derek was begging me to be over it. Ugh. (mind you Australia is FILLED with Asian tourists - who are about the most difficult people to travel around, they are VERY pushy (literally) and totally rude. Rude as in I saw two different ones spit loogies on the carpet at the airport. Gross and totally rude. It was after all that I had my "oh no you didn't moment". I'm not sorry - and if I ever see that scruffy old broad again, I'll tell her the 20 other things I thought of after I was no longer with her.

On a much more relaxed note (thank goodness) - we had a "Little Penguin Tour" scheduled at 4:00pm so we made our way there next. The penguins live on Phillip Island. This was one of the tours I was the most excited about before we left for our trip - I had no idea though the level of crazy awesome this was going to be. Little Penguins is actually their name, not just something I call them because they are adorable (even though they are!) and tiny. They weigh around 2.5 pounds. Every night just after dusk the Little Penguins come up in "rafts" from the water. Their groups are called "rafts" because before dusk, if you can spot them hanging out further in the water - they get so close to each other it looks like a big raft. The Little Penguins are coming in to go to their burrow's for a night or two before they have to go back to the water and fish. The coolest thing to me about this whole event was the way this part of nature has been preserved by humans. The visitors center and everything in it is 100% non-profit/volunteer. Every penny goes back into keeping these penguins in their natural habitat, living the way they were born to. LOVE it! The first great thing we had a chance to see were all of the penguin burrows up in the woods. Who knew penguins would come in at night and climb a pretty steep hill, and go to their burrow. Penguins are apparently very sensitive about their space and do not share burrows - unless it's with their partner. Hanging out by the burrows in the daytime though when we were there was a lot of Wallaby's! These ones were pretty large too which was cool.

 Mac (our tour guide) explained to us since all native animals in Australia are "soft footed" (as the Wallaby is) they are harmless to the Penguins burrows. Also, they are not a predator to the Little Penguins. Seagulls and hawks are their biggest predators. This is why they do not come up out of the water until dusk. It helps them feel safer. We went down the boardwalk which was again surrounded by burrows, to the benches we could sit on to watch the show. The penguins can literally go anywhere they want - it's 100% natural for them, so you have to check under your car before you leave:

We waited about 10 minutes and since we were less than 50 yards and up higher from the water, we had a chance to see these little black floating things surfing the waves in. Suddenly then as the wave pulls back into the sea- you can instantly see this entire raft of penguins standing up in unison and coming all the way out of the water. It was nature at it's absolute best and I couldn't believe it. Then the Little Penguin's start walking towards their own burrows. Some went up the path they have made on the hill, some went the other direction, but some went down the patch RIGHT next to us. If we would have reached our hand just an inch out of the barriers we could have touched them all. All in all about 2500 are living there, so through out the next our or so rafts of Little Penguins kept surfacing and the all kept dispersing. When they came out of the water was my favorite. They come up in their groups because they feel there is safety in numbers. Once they are out they do some grooming too. After about a half an hour we heard the sounds they were starting to make. The ranger told us they are calls to their friends to let them know they got to their burrow safely. We did hear one fighting with another one - over a burrow apparently. We weren't allowed to take any pictures - even without flash. The rangers are super sensitive that the penguins stay as natural as possible, and they do not want camera flash's or noises effecting them. I did purchase some pictures though which was good. Phillips Island is absolutely beautiful too - here's a pre-sunset picture we took. 

This experience was an absolute favorite of mine on this trip!!

Cairns Day 1

Scheww - I knew it was going to be a whirlwind travel week, but I've officially started recognizing flight attendants. We left Sydney for Brisbane. We were lucky enough to get a room in Brisbane that had a washer and dryer (which I was actually excited to see) so I spent the next day and half getting us re-organized. Derek flew out the very next morning to Roma for his last work trip. We had one hitch with our first domestic flight, in they wouldn't let Derek's carry-on rolling bag on the plane, so we had to check it with our two main bags. This of course put us over our allotted Kilo's (pounds) which would have been $150, luckily the lady assisting us felt bad for us so she knocked it down to $30. We knew we wouldn't be this lucky on our next 6 domestic flights so we decided to ship it home. The Australian post office looks like a freakin spaceship. It was beautiful, extremely modern looking and all of the women had on matching red polka dotted ruffly shirts! After waiting in line, of course nothing can be easy, the guy told me the suitcase must have a padlock on it. Next stop - Australian Wal-Mart. (better known as big W) With padlock in hand I sent our suitcase off and another package for the bargain price of $250. (still cheaper than paying $150 each time!) 

After that I went to a park and called it a day. 

The next morning I flew early to Carins (pronounced Cans). Derek was still in Roma and had a flight to Carins late that evening. When I arrived in Carins you could definitely feel it's tropical weather, plus it was the first time I saw rain since we've been here. I arrived at our hotel and 30 minutes later the tour busI had booked to the world famous SkyRail was picking me up. First stop on the tour apparently was a large tree around the corner in front of the grocery store which the driver pointed out the (at least) football sized BATS hanging from it. There were probably at least 50 in there and they were huge - yikes. I was definitely in the rainforest now.

The SkyRail Rainforest Cableway is a gondola that rides right above the tree-tops of the rainforest. It is just a little over 5 miles, and at it's highest it's 1,788 miles above sea level, or 133 miles up. It was awesome! I saw my first wild kangaroo (I think it was a Wallaby). I rode up with another guy that was on his own and we decided it sounded like the sound machines you buy that make "rainforest sounds" - this place sounded exactly like that, only naturally. I loved it!

 There were a few stops during the ride, the first stop had a great boardwalk where you could actually experience the rainforest from the ground. During the first stop I saw a spider that was larger than if I put my middle finger's touching and my thumbs touching. It was GIANT! There were also a ton of beautiful colored butterflies. The second stop though was by far the best. We had our first close-up's of Barron Falls. This waterfall has to put a good fight with Niagara Falls - I've seen both and I think they are both mind boggling - I always wonder how ALL that water just continues to come down. They even use this falls to generate power for our next stop.

 The next stop was a little village called Kuranda. It was a town at the very top of the rainforests, with the population around the same size as Algona, IA! It was really cute, with lots of shopping, some Koala experiences and some serious locals. I spent about an hour and a half there and then it was time to head back. I had the option of taking the SkyRail back down the mountain or taking their train down. I went for the train option (why not?). Mining (coal) is the main reason Australia's economy is so strong. 

 They've been mining forever, so often it seems like a lot of their attractions somehow came to fruition because of mining. The train was no different - the railway was originated to get the miners up to the mines of course - then during WWI it was used for medical services. 

Now though of course, it's for tourists. It was such a fantastic ride down the mountain, and even a little scary. The rail basically goes on the edge of the cliffs the entire way down - you could look straight down out of the windows. We did have the chance to get an even better view of the Barron Falls though! 

 After I got back to the hotel and checked in, I decided to take a walk on their harbor. Everywhere here has such a beautiful harbor and every night I keep thinking I've seen the greatest sunset ever. I had dinner and then found the boat we would be boarding the next morning for our trip to the Great Barrier Reef!!

Derek arrived at the hotel around midnight which officially made him finished with "work" for the rest of the trip!