Aug 22^nd

After travelling non-stop for almost 24 hours Leila spends 12 hours in Sydney before flying on to New Zealand. In that time she managed to go see the opera house, the harbour, the harbour bridge and the botanic gardens. She also got in some serious shopping. Jet lag? What jet lag.

Aug 23^rd

Leila reaches Christchurch. There she attends a conference for the next week and a bit. She also fits in hiking around Hamner Springs (and then a soaking at the springs), a flight to Mt Cook for some hiking around the glaciers there, a day of snowboard frenzy at Mt Hutt and dodging anti-vivisectionist protesters.

Sep 2^nd

I arrived in hot and sunny Brisbane and was picked up by Dad and Uncle Keith, then immediately whisked off to Uncle Steve's place where a medium-sized Hoek-fest ensued. Aunty Julie forced me to drink a Budweiser, I still don't understand why this was necessary. Nevertheless she had cooked up a veritable feast.

After lunch Mum, Dad and I head off to the airport to meet Leila flying in from Christchurch. Jason and his daughter-in-waiting Lelani also meet us there. For a guy about to tie-the-knot Jason's looking pretty cool. After Leila arrives we say goodbye to Jason and Lelani and drive an hour north to Ninderry where Mum and Dad live. Relaxing in the late afternoon light we drink some of Dad's homebrew beer, look at the kangaroos and catch up.

Sep 3^rd

A dazzlingly cloudless day, very warm. Leila and I walk up to the top of Mt Ninderry (~320 m) and look east to the shining sea and west over rolling hills. Another fantastic day in paradise. We drive into town and Mum extracts my tax money (deposited almost two years earlier) for us.

Leila and I then go and check out the nearby Ginger Factory (largest ginger factory in the southern hemisphere), here Leila enjoys a kangaroo salad (believe it) while I wolf down a steak-n-bacon pie with tomato sauce (awesome, haven't had a real pie in years), we are also drinking ginger beer … REAL ginger beer and it's damn damn good too. We wander around a bit, checking out the gardens, the factory and the little shops.

We then drive down to Maroochydore to turn the tax money into travellers checks and maybe find a travel agent. We find a bank, get the checks and then almost immediately find a travel agent. We want to fly to the tropical north and maybe visit the Great Barrier Reef, and then maybe - just maybe - go to Ayers Rock. The agent gives us some figures (whew, expensive) and we wander off to chew it over … we find a second travel agency and they also give us some nicer-sounding quotes with Ansett (local carrier). We go and do some food shopping at the local supermarket to give ourselves some time to chew it over. After we put the groceries in the car we go back to the second travel agency and want to accept their quote (Ansett, Brisbane to Cairns, then Cairns to Ayers Rock, then Ayers Rock to Brisbane via Sydney … just over A$1000 each) but there was some sort of technical hitch and she had made a mistake, the offer was withdrawn … so after some haggling we were given a second option (QANTAS, Brisbane to Cairns to Ayers Rock return for a little more than A$1200 each) which we decided to sleep on.

Under instructions from Mum and Dad we drove southward to pick up the wedding cake. At the address we meet one of the bridesmaids (Kristie, who had made the cake) and accept custody of the confectionary creation before zooming back to Ninderry.

Leila is dismayed to find that much of the populated Sunshine Coast looks exactly like a Florida strip-mall.

Sep 4^th

Have a really great cooked breakfast … with black pudding and everything (congealed pigs-blood sausage, mmm, delicious!).

Everyone is heading to Mt Tamborine (3 hours driving south), Dad loans Leila and I his Toyota so that we can travel independently from he and Mum … which is good because we have to hit Maroochydore first and buy the QANTAS flight package. So we head down there, realize we forgot the travellers checks and have to get back to Ninderry, and eventually pay for the tickets (ack … goodbye travellers checks!). We promise to return in a couple of days to pick them up.

Driving south past Brisbane and then south west of the Gold Coast Leila and I reach Mt Tamborine (slightly cooler climate) with little trouble. We find both Hoek and Mitchell families keeping the staff of Bungunyah Manor busier than blue-bum flies. Our room is beautiful. I spend a long time catching up with many family members (some of whom I haven't seen since I first came to the US) and introducing Leila to them all.

The wedding starts a bit late, and there is much dashing about on my part (as best man) while I tried to cover as many of the minor details as I could to speed things up a little. Jason was nervous, Skye was nervous … everybody else was having a great time. Skye got a little worked up during the pre-nup photo shoot, but eventually is calm enough for the ceremony. It finally started under the diffuse light and high clouds of an autumnal afternoon and the ceremony proceded fairly seamlessly. Beautiful service … even if it became very chilly towards the end. Speeches were read and tears were shed, but there were smiles all round.

After the obligatory mass family photos everyone was ushered into the reception room where there was further merriment, drinking, eating and speeches. Wonderful night.

Sep 5^th

Leila and I had breakfast with the rest in the Manor's dining-room. After a short excursion to a nearby nursery we returned to watch Jason and Skye unwrap the remainder of their presents (we bought them what looked to be tin's of baked beans, it was perfume actually) before bidding goodbye to the Hoeks and other families present. On our way down to the Gold Coast we stopped for avocados (possibly the finest and most perfect avocados I have ever seen) and a sausage roll (mmm, gods I missed that stuff).

We got to Surfers Paradise and walked about reminiscing upon those first highly formative days that she and I partly spent wandering around there two years ago. We sat on the beach eating those marvelous avocados and watched big storms sweep over the southern beaches and out to sea. It was starting to cloud up a little so we wandered around Surfers some more and window-shopped before deciding to head back up north to Ninderry again. The rains came and followed us on and off all the way up.

That evening we had dinner at the Spirit House restaurant (top marks for ambience, but they drowned a perfectly good Barramundi in too much sauce). That evening the sky puts on a real light show as electrical storms pass silently by some distance away. Because it is very cool we decide to light Mum and Dad's little fireplace, very nice, very romantic.

Sept 6^th

Having slept in the loungeroom on an under-inflated inflatable mattress we woke to find the morning decidedly chilly. I struggled for about an hour to get the fireplace going again, but had no luck. We drove down to Maroochydore and picked up the tickets before buying some viddles and hitting the beach. It was pretty windy but I managed to set up a good screen (using no more than a blanket and a dead tree) and we were very comfortable sizzling under the bright sun. I got warm enough to hit the water (which was pretty cold actually) and do a spot of body surfing (again, something I haven't had the opportunity to do in years).

As the afternoon was waning we decided to try and get to the Crocodile Hunter's zoo (Australia Zoo in Buderim), but the girl at the front desk said that we wouldn't have enough time to see everything satisfactorily and suggested that we come back in the morning. Leila was crestfallen, because the next day we would be flying out to Cairns. So I promised her that we would try again after our reef-n-rock trip.

At home we found Mum and Dad returned from Mt Tamborine. With them were Uncle Rolf and Aunty Marg and Granny. Dad and Rolf cooked up a huge batch of real Aussie, German and Dutch sausages for dinner. This was because I had let slip of the poor quality snags that we get in the US … fantastic! Americans have absolutely no idea what a mystery bag should really be. We drink more of Dad's homebrew, some bought brews, wine and Dad even cracks open a single malt.

Sep 7^th

In the morning Leila and I pack up and say our goodbyes to everyone before driving back south to Brisbane. From there we flew to hot and humid Cairns. On arrival we were picked up by the shuttle and driven to the Parkview backpackers where we were booked in for the night. It was an old place, once it was just a couple of fibreboard homes but now it's a ramshackle collection of rooms and dorms. We dump everything in our room and go for a walk. Unfortunately we find that Cairns is just one big tourist-trap, like a slightly grungier piece of the Gold Coast. We go to the pier complex and organize for ourselves a trip out to Green Island for the following day and then retire to the terrace of a pub which overlooks some tidal mudflats. There we sup on some glorious VB (Victoria Bitter, a very nice beer) and watch the sun drop behind the western hills. Dinner that evening takes place at an outdoor café where we can listen to live music in the town center.

Sep 8^th

We catch the "Big Cat" out to Green Island. The weather is fantastic, a slight breeze taking the sting out of the sun. We hire some flipper gear and Leila learns how to snorkel for the first time in her life. She's a natural. We (eventually) see some beautiful corals and dozens of different fish species (some quite large too!). After lunch back on the boat, from which vantage point I look down into the water and see the unmistakable form of a small shark swimming lazily by, we walk into the island interior to visit it's small zoo. There we find, among turtles and fish, the largest salt water crocodile in captivity. "Cassius", as he is known, is over 18 feet long and is approximately 100 years old. He doesn't move very much, so we only got to see his massive head. There were plenty of other crocs to look at too. After one last long (and rewarding) snorkel session in the afternoon we got back on the boat and headed back to Cairns, on the way we drank more VB and wrote some postcards. Back at the backpackers we showered and rested a little before heading into town for another wander. Leila got a haircut and we stopped at a bar (Johno's) for further VBs.

Sep 9^th

We hire a car and check out of the backpackers before driving up to Kuranda (up in the "mountains" northwest of Cairns), the weather was overcast and cool. From time to time a very light rain would fall but it was never for very long. After we checked into the local backpackers (nice little room) we wandered the markets, bought some fruit and a bag of prawns and also visited one of the towns two large aviaries. Many many bright and beautiful birds of all shapes and sizes. A friendly galah tried to bite off my head. After an extremely expensive beer at the Monkey Café, and after all the daytripper crowds had melted away, we took a walk along some trails beside the Barron River and then hunted (fruitlessly) for platypus in Jumrun Creek. That evening Leila and I play a bitterly contested match of table tennis.

Sep 10^th

In the morning we check out and drive west to Mareeba looking for a mango "winery". The day was hot and dry. Leila's navigation was strong so we found the place easily. Row upon row of mango trees, all of them full of tiny little proto-mangos just waiting for summer to really get a move on. We tasted a few different varieties of mango wine (stong mango aroma and flavoured like chardonnay variants) before picking up a bottle for my parents. We also bought a packet of dried mango slices (from the previous harvest) which were absolutely delicious. The find of the day was a nearby wetlands reserve which we visited not long after the mango place. We canoed on a lake under the blazing sun (I bought a hat for the occasion) and took photographs of the birds, it was again quite breezy and therefor didn't feel as hot as it could have been. Fantastic place. We drove on south, passing Atherton (a largish town which gives its name to the tablelands region) and stopping at Yungaburrah where we checked into the Lake Eacham Hotel. It had exactly the sort of old-world charm that Leila had hoped we would find. A late lunch (burger with the lot, which included egg, pineapple and beetroot … oh god why cant I get this stuff in yankee-land?) was had and then we wandered about the sleepy little village for a bit. This was followed by a pub meal (small steak my foot, it threatened to overhang the plate all the way around!), more VBs (I kept buying other beers for Leila to try, but she always preferred VB … bless her) and then to sleep.

Sep 11^th

We breakfasted on the terrace just outside our room among hanging gardens in the cool morning. After checking out we drove to Lake Eacham (an ancient crater, about 500 m across and filled with rainwater to a depth of 60 m) and spent a long time sunbathing and occasionally taking a dip (cold water!). Perfect day again. We drove to Tinaroo Falls Dam where we found a nice restaurant and good food (I ate kangaroo while Leila tried barramundi again … and again they had drowned the fish in sauce). We wandered about looking over the dam and then lay down in a shady spot on the sand beside Tinaroo Lake for a while. From there we drove the slow and dusty forest track around the lake (35 km), stopping only to view the great Cathedral Fig, before rejoining the Gillies Highway and driving back down the range to Cairns. We tried to visit the Botanical Gardens in Cairns but it was late. We stayed at the Bellview backpackers on the esplanade.

Sep 12^th

Woke to news of massive terrorist attacks in the US. My first hint of something terribly wrong was seeing the front page of the local news rag, but being unfamiliar with that particular publication I wondered if it was some sort of joke newspaper. But I was left in no doubt when I looked in at the backpackers TV room … where people were silently staring at the CNN news coverage. Bloody awful stuff, it really put everyone into a state of numb shock.

Four planes hijacked, two from Boston, one from New Jersey, one from Baltimore. Two strike and destroy the world trade center towers in New York City, a third hits the pentagon in Washington DC and a fourth is driven into the ground somewhere in Pennsylvania. We are told that over 6000 people are killed.

We packed up and checked out, leaving a suitcase in storage at the Bellview. After walking about 3 km to Trinity warf we boarded a catamaran for Fitzroy Island. On the way we listened to further radio reports of the devastation in the US. On Fitzroy we checked into our bunkhouse room and then walked to Nudey beach for a look. After this we returned to the resort and had a buffet lunch which was pretty good. There was a large group of people crowded around a nearby TV which would (throughout our stay) be constantly tuned in to CNN. Everyone is still pretty quiet and disturbed by the events overseas.

We learn that all US airports are closed down, no international (in or out) or domestic flights are allowed. Leila and I are due to return there on Sep 20th.

Leila and I walk back to Nudey beach to swim and sunbath. As the name suggests it’s a clothing-optional beach … but nobody is being particularly brave. The day is hot and sunny, and the water is beautiful. Perhaps the only untoward thing is the beach itself, consisting of broken up coral and very little actual sand. But we are very comfortable anyway. In the afternoon we went back to the resort and swam in the pool to wash off some of the salt and then returned to our rooms to change. We went to the resorts nightclub/restaurant to eat and drink ourselves into near poverty … it wasn't particularly expensive, we just went a little overboard. We met the older couple with whom we are sharing our bunkhouse room (Rob and Marg from Tasmania). So we talked with them over dinner. At the last I introduced Leila to some top-shelf Bundaberg Rum (neat on the rocks). Slept pretty well.

Sep 13^th

After breakfast and watching the horror-movie news we went snorkelling in Welcome Bay. Beautiful little corals, fish everywhere, spent hours floating around just a dozen or so metres off shore. After lunch we went back to Nudey beach and enjoyed the sights both above and below the waterline for the rest of the afternoon … and yes, Leila took advantage of Nudey beach’s special status too. Lovely. We caught the last cat back to the mainland, sharing a VB and enjoying the falling gold of a Queensland summer sunset. We checked back into the Bellview again and then wandered around town a little before having some sushi (surprisingly ordinary) late in the evening.

Sep 14^th

We were woken at 6.30am by a sudden hammering on the door. After a moment of annoyed bafflement we remembered that this had been arranged by us last night. Today was going to be particularly special. By 7.15am we were on the pier again and boarding a creaky old boat with about a score of others. For about 1.5 hours we chugged lazily out towards the outer reef. Under a blazing blue sky the sea was almost dead calm and the air was very still … members of the crew remarked that it had been a very long time since they had seen conditions as perfect as this. On the way some of the crew collected together all those wanting to go scuba diving – including us! We were given a fairly brief introduction and simple instruction about hand signals and such. They also divided us up into two separate groups. One large group of nervous nellies was formed (Leila put herself in this one, needlessly I thought) and a smaller group of insanely overconfident nutcases (me, a yank, a brit and an old serbian dude). Clearly the nuts needed special attention so we would be kept separate from the others.

As we arrived at our first stop, a sand island called Michaelmas Cay, the boat glided by some terrific bomboras (large coral outcrops). So clear and pristine was the sea that underwater visibility this morning extended out to 35 metrs. Leila’s group of scuba-wannabes went out first and the four stooges had to content ourselves with some snorkelling. Most people, including us, had purchased disposable underwater cameras so me and some old german dude exchanged photographs while diving as deeply as we could stand the pressure.

I tried to take a few shots of Leila learning how to scuba but she wasn’t being cooperative, so I only got one decent photo of her at the surface. When it was my group’s turn to have a go the instructor basically suited us up, adjusted our buoyancy vests and tossed us in. Excellent. After a couple of years careful mollycoddling and waiver-signing in the US it was refreshing to be left at the mercy of chance. I enjoyed the sensation hugely and I experienced feelings of outerspace weightlessness and unparalleled access to the deeps (ok, it was only about 5 meters deep at most). The corals, the fish, the big blue, it was all awesome and ended far too soon.

Leila told me that of her group she was the shining star, the only one who didn’t have difficulties and didn’t require some sort of minor rescue (one dude forgot how to breathe and a few seemed to be unable to equalize against the pressure underwater). Leila’s instructor was pretty disappointed that she didn’t seem to have any further interest in having a second go later in the day. For my part I couldn’t wait for another crack at it.

Everyone got back on the boat and had lunch while we chugged on out to Hastings reef. This is right at the edge of the Great Barrier and marks the line at which the sea bed plunges into the great abyssal plains under the Pacific. At Hastings reef the few remaining scuba-enthusiasts (about 5 out of an original dozen or so) jumped in from the boat wearing full kit. The water was a little deeper (I got down to 11 metres), the corals were bigger and the fish were more numerous and larger. There was also a very friendly fish called Wally that we played with. Wally is a giant maori wrasse measuring about 1.5 metres. Pretty slimey skin and it was tricky holding him in place, even though he never tried very hard to get away from us. Of course it was the free food he got from the instructors that kept him near, and the attentions of the curiously bubbly humans didn’t bother him too much. After the scuba diving was over, and again it was over much too soon for me, we stayed at Hastings for several more hours. People either sunned themselves on deck or snorkelled around the corals. The day was just deleriously perfect.

The ride back was slow (this was probably the slowest boat on the reef) but very nice, and we got back to the pier just as darkness fell. After showers we went and ate pizza before collapsing, exhausted, in our room.

Sep 15^th

We woke, packed our bags for today’s flight and checked out of the Bellview. We were headed for Australia’s red center. A small airbus landed us in Yulara about noon, and as we flew in we could already see the magnificently imposing form of Uluru about 20 km away. Uluru, once named Ayer’s Rock, is a national icon in Australia. However, I have found that very few people I have spoken to here in CT can identify it from a photograph, and not many have even heard of it before! We checked into our backpacker accommodation at the Resort (the Outback Lodge is only one of about 5 different accommodation options offered by the Resort) … most expensive backpackers I have ever been to - $40 a bed per night in a tiny 4 bunk room. After this we walked up a nearby lookout atop a low dune. The day was heavily overcast.

What desert? The place was greened up beautifully, flowers abloom, birds chirping madly. We learned later that it had rained a few weeks previous. Off in the distance Uluru sat on the western horizon, to the north we could make out the even more distant outlines of the Olgas.

We walked to the Resort’s little market and bought some breakfast stuff. We organized a shuttle to the Rock for the following morning and sat in the shade eating terrific icecream. Late that day the horizon cleared enough for a last brilliant flash of red on the Rock just before sunset. That evening Leila and I cook our own BBQ dinners, I eat barramundi and Leila tucks into some roo, some croc and some emu. Great fun.

Sep 16^th

After breakfast we catch the shuttle out to Uluru and start our walk amid dozens of package-tour Italians. It is a beautifully cloudless day, the sun is very warm and the air is drier than dust. The Rock itself is imposing, a stark red against the deep blue of the sky. There are a large number of different features, waterholes, overhangs, caves and aboriginal art. We spend about 4.5 hours slowly circling the Uluru, stopping at many places to rest in the shade, drink and eat something (I brought my backpack along) or nose around some interesting places. It became very hot under the sun and very dry.

We watched people climbing Uluru from the main car-park. We didn’t climb because it goes against the wishes of the aboriginal caretakers who view Uluru as a myriad of sacred sites. By the time we walked into the cultural center (about 1.5 km from Uluru) we had covered less than a dozen kilometres, but I had developed a very painful headache – almost certainly due to dehydration. So Leila looked around the center by herself while I lay dying in the shade. At 4pm we returned to the Resort in the shuttle and I lay (near death) in our room while Leila went for a swim in the pool.

By some miracle I survived and recovered enough to walk with Leila to a lookout from which we observed the dying light of day splashed against a distant Uluru. Over dinner we met a family of three from Sydney and spent a long while with them just chatting and supping on much VB.

Sep 17^th

We ditched plans for a whirlwind visit to the Olgas – too much stress – and just lazed by the pool until our flight back to Brisbane (via Cairns, strangely there are no direct flights between Brisbane and Uluru). Once we were back in South-East Queensland we were picked up by Aunty Julie (who had dropped us off and looked after the car Dad had loaned us) at the airport. After dropping her off at her home in Sandgate (and saying hi to Bree and Alexander) we drove back up to Ninderry. Mum was happy to see us again and Dad was on the phone (his flight was late so he missed his connection to Samoa from Aukland) and so I was able to have a word with him.

Sep 18^th

We went to Australia Zoo (home of the Crocodile Hunter, but he wasn’t in). It was pretty good, but not as good as it is hyped to be.

Sep 19^th

Called up QANTAS and tried to confirm our flights back the US. Our connection from LAX to JFK had been cancelled, but we were moved to a later one that would take us to Newark, NJ. This necessitated a drive down to the QANTAS office in Brisbane so our tickets could be revalidated.

After our tickets were sorted we went to Toowong for fast and good sushi and then on to Lone Pine Sanctuary where we found the place overflowing with kangaroos and koalas. That night we took Mum to dinner at a very posh restaurant in Buderim (Harry’s).

Sep 20^th

Caught the plane from Brisbane – Leila was sad to be leaving. Me too.