G'day mate, let's put another shrimp on the barbie!!!

Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants to see us happy. -Benjamin Franklin[i]

A plane has transported us from New Zealand and Lord of the Rings to the massive country of kangaroos, every animal in the world that will kill you immediately, and where everyone adds "[i]ie" to the end of every word. "How about some brekkie this morning? Ah crockie! There isn't any bread left!"

Our time here in Cairns, Australia has one definitive characteristic that is different from New Zealand, it's warm!!! I really do enjoy a little warm weather and I can be in 70 degree solidarity with everyone back in Texas and the rest of the States suffering from the heat wave. I feel your pain, on the beach.

This also marks the point where we are not returning back to school, teenagers, psychological tests, papers to be graded, yet we are continuing our responsibility to travel around the world for another 7 months. We will be thinking of y'all as we sit on a beach reading a good or bad book. Someone has to do it. Crockie, we've been traveling for 2 months already. Time, she is passing by quickly. Alright, enough about the fact we aren't "working," what have we been doing?

There is one thing every person that visits Northern Queensland must do, and that is to visit the Great Barrier Reef! After a few days relaxing, we boarded our sea going vessel, the Super Cat, to transport us to "The Reef". We climbed on the boat that was jam packed with 110 other enthusiastic snorkellers and divers. The ride out to the reef took a little over an hour and the combination of wind, waves, and a rolling Super Cat, sea sickness came to those not able to focus on the horizon. Neither one of us succombed to sea sickness, because we were to busy talking to Deb and Krista on the deck of our super feline. Deb and Krista are two Canadian kindergarten teachers we've run into three times now. So we chatted about the wind, the need of a wetsuit, waves, and the probability of actually running into a great white shark.

Upon reaching the reef, we gladly jumped into the water with a massive, and I do mean massive set of coral under our fins. Nadine and I proceeded to search, discover, and take in this incredible mass of coral reef along with a few of its buddies swimming around. Unfortunately, we never did find Nemo. He must have been busy with interviews for a sequel. We only spent 30 minutes in the water. As we were snorkelling, we were being cooled by cool water and wind passing below and over us. In addition to that, clouds hanging over our dive spot (I really think they began following us as soon as we left the wharf), and Cyclone Larry caused the water to be cloudy. When the sun actually hit the water, it lit up the entire reef full of thousands of colors. Quite impressive.

After our dive, we enjoyed a little gastronomical delight prepared by "Frenchie," the onboard chef for an hour with a Belgian couple, before we continued on to our second sight. At the second sight, we were accompangied by clouds and few of their closest friends. As a result, the colors of the reef and fish weren't as bright. The waves were quite a bit larger and threw us around like New Mexicans at a rodeo. From there we rode back to shore, and as you might have guessed, as soon as we were a decent distance from the reef, the sun revealed itself. Stupid sun! We really don't need the sun. The experience was great, and we were both really felt fortunate to see such an amazing natural wonder.

After the dive, we both decided to visit the tropical Tablelands on a 2 day tour. Bart, our tour guide, picked us up nice and early and ready to take on the day. The beginning of the first day, we visited the Cathedral Fig Tree, which is over 500 years old. What's unique about the tree is that a fig tree has an unique story. When a bird injests a fig and later poops it out on top of a leaf on another tree. What happens is that the fig tree starts growing on top of the tree that it landed on. Over years, the tree grows up and its roots grow down, covering the original host tree, looking for the ground and water. Seeing one of the trees makes you want to climb it and swing around like a kid.

After the fig tree, we passed by a few volcanic crater lakes and made our way to the Millaa Millaa Falls. As the most photographed falls in Australia, according to Bart, it was a nice little place to photograph AND swim. Swimming in this little pond with the falls pounding on top of rocks is only for those who have a carpe diem spirit. Nadine and I were the only ones to partake and we had to psych ourselves up to swim in the ice cold water. Once again, carpe diemish. We swam around for a good 5 minutes to the waterfall, under the waterfall, and back to shore feeling quite rejuvenated and awake. We also saw a platypus in a creek close to town of Yungaburra....tiny little bugger.

Next day, we enjoyed the country side with some mountain biking and an afternoon of canoeing on Lake Tinaroo. Lake Tinaroo is located over a former town, and people dive to search the houses laying at the bottom of the lake. We continued up a tributary where we did a little face painting with the red ochre rock. Simply wet it, rub it against another rock, and you have a red paint. We reverted back to our time in preschool. On our way out, we were lucky enough to see the timid and shy tree kangaroo. He didn't feel like leaving his tree branches to socialize, but we did see him.

One thing that we have discovered here in Australia is, FOOD! Cadbury chocolate is made here, delicious. There is a type of cookie, or biscuit for non-Americans, called Tim-Tam. Every flavor is awesome. Best cookie I have tried, other than Tracy's chocolate chip cookies of course. The third food I have come to enjoy are hamburgers with the lot. Now what is the lot? Here ya go. In addition to your regular meat, there is a toasted bun, lettuce, tomatoe, onion, the Ozzies add carrot, fried egg, bacon, some type of "special" sauce, pineapple, and for those of you who like beets, they add beets. I have passed on the beets.

Our time here in Cairns, Northern Queensland, is coming to an end, and tomorrow we are flying across the country to Adelaide and the wine country. We are not going to drink and drive, we promise. Instead, we are going to drink and ride a bike. Much safer.

Boots and Hailey, I hope you have a great first day of school.

Congrats to the older Pepper twin for correctly stating the title of this blog before I had even written to it.

It's not a contest to see who can put the most comments on the blog, all it shows us is the person that is our best friend. Nothing big. No pressure. Enjoy the blog, share it with others, but read in moderation please.

Two questions for everyone if you have made it this far in the blog.

Question #1 - What is the difference between a cyclone and a hurricane? Also, why are they called the Iowa State Cyclones?

Question #2 - What is special about the amethystine python?

Answers will be revealed next week. Oh the anticipation.

Peace
John and Nadine

Caterpillar: and who are you?
Alice: I hardly know, sir, just as present at least. I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then.
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland