Helicopter over the Great Barrier Reef

The weather was perfect yesterday for a great heli ride over the Whitsunday Island group and the Great Barrier Reef.  Susan and I spent a great two hours with our pilot as he gave us a private tour of these places.  There is not much in my vocabulary to describe the beauty.  You will have to see for yourselves in these few pictures on the net and the ones we bring home.  Also shown are a few pictures of Qualia from the air.  The super white beach is known as Whitehaven and is the most photographed beach in the world.  From the air, we say schools of rays, turtles and one big shark. Enjoy the photos, we will see all of you in a few days.  We are sad our trip is coming to an end, but are thrilled to be able to see our home and friends.  See you in Seattle or at Silver Star!

Good Morning Whitsundays

I just could not resist taking a few shots of the glorious sunrise this morning.  This shot is taken from our front balcony and is looking at the hillock on the east end of the island.  It is really quite striking and fills one with a real sense of wonder at the beauty of the world.

The Whitsundays are located off the east coast of Australia.  If you want to find us on a map, go to Google Maps, find Mackay on the east coast (north of Brisbane) and zoom into the island group until you find us.  Most of the big reefs are named.  The Whitsundays are the most sought after destinations for Aussies to sail to.

Qualia Resort

Today is our first full day at Hamilton Island.  We are kicking back and enjoying the amenities of our windward pavilion room.  Our stay here is all inclusive and includes the use of an electric golf cart to carouse around the resort and in fact all over the island.  Everyone here uses the electric carts to travel into town and to head into the national forest areas.  The resorts here occupy a small percentage of the island.  The balance is in a national forest reserve.  We were rudely awakened last night by screaming wild cockatoos and parrots fighting each other for roosting space.  Enjoy the pictures of our lovely room, there will be more for you to see when we come home at the end of this week.  I will post another blog toward the end of the week so you can see the beautiful scenery from our morning walks through the national preserve and beaches.  See you soon!

Pictures of Port Douglas and Daintree

A few more shots of Port Douglas, the Daintree Forest and a couple of new Aussies!

Port Douglas and Beyond

We arrived north of Brisbane at the Cairns Airport.  Enter Dick & Susan into the hot, steamy tropical town of Cairns.  We stayed a bit further north at Port Douglas, a sleepy little town that is the center of all the rainforest and great barrier reef activity in the area. It is a quaint area filled with palm trees, white sand beaches, azure water and the (and I mean the) biggest fruit bats you have ever seen.  These bats (for Andrea Nelson's sake) are over 16 inches long when hanging from their little feet's!  They are nocturnal, so when dawn comes, they are found by the thousands hanging from certain trees.  Night time comes and off they go to eat fruit and bugs.  When they fly, it appears as if thousands of eagles are flying off into the dusk.  They are quite harmless and only eat fruit of which there is a ready supply.  We did not experience any lack of fruit but did notice a significant lack of mosquitoes.  The Peninsula hotel was right on the beach where we were able to enjoy the walk down 4 mile beach.  The pictures with this post show the beach, the rain forest and  the view from our rear balcony.  You will notice the "stinger" net surrounding the water that is open to swimming.  The first of December is the start of the stinger jelly fish season.  The Box Jelly Fish can send you to two places if you get stung.  One is the hospital and the other is the grave!  The local officials have to cruise the stinger net at the end of the season in March.  They are required to have two consecutive weeks of daily checking that shows absolutely no sign of the jelly fish before they will open the beach for total swimming  this usually happens in March.  We did not have any problems in the net nor did I have any encounters when I took a dive boat to the reef for a day of underwater fun.  I was required to wear a "rashie"suit just in case.  For those of you who know Susan's temperature standards for getting into the water will then know how warm the water was in Port Douglas.  Kristie and Ted will know for sure!  The rain forest is so very hard to describe so I will let our pictures do the talking when we return.  Ditto for the reef and the diving adventure.  We are now on Hamilton Island at the Qualia Resort.  It is beyond description but I will try in a future blog.  Right now it is time to wrap this up.  I will give another post or two while we are on Hamilton and then wrap it all up at the end of the week when we head for Sydney and the final leg back to all our friends and loved ones in Seattle.  So much more later!

Brisbane down under

Susan and I had a great day yesterday touring the hinterland and the Sunshine Coast near the capital city of Brisbane.  Our tour guide, Keith was a fount of information about the area.  We drove north from Brisbane to the town of Mooloolaba.  This town is right on the coast and very touristy.  It is quite pretty, but very busy with people on a Sunday outing.  Remember that yesterday was Sunday for us and Saturday for you.  I am including a few pictures of the Mooloolaba area for your viewing pleasure!  Our next stop for lunch was a very interesting little town called Montville.  Montville is known as the creative heart of Queensland.  We toured many galleries and artists shops.  I found a couple of wonderful Christmas presents for someone and even (as our boys will know) presents that Santa thought would be great for Dad.  Our last stop was at the subtropical rain forest.  We walked through the forest to see lots of indigenous flora and fauna.  I am including several photos of the rain forest, surrounding area and the beaches at Mooloolaba.  Our arrival back at Brisbane was heralded by the worst thunderstorm in a decade.  We watched the lightning, rain and wind that by morning had devestated many homes and farms in the area.  Today is partly cloudy but calm.  Our next stop is Cairns.  We are moving north into the heat and to our final stop on Hamilton Island.  Oh yes, the lovely lady with Susan is Barbara, a friend of our own lovely Erica.  Yes Erica, I did deliver the gift and got one from Barbara for you.  She is a special person that we would love to visit us in Seattle.

High on Sydney

We made the fabulous bridge climb today.  The whole operation was fun from start to finish.  The BC people have a very professional and fun organization. Sus was right up there with me as you can see from the pictures.  We just had a fun and very tiring day today.  Hamilton Island and a relaxing week is seeming better and better for the way to end this first trip to the land down under.  More from Brisbane.  Good on ya mates and have a ripper of a day!