Oz II: From Adelaide to Really Great Barrier Reef

In Beautiful Adelaide

Helen at her front door

Next day’s trip was the one which brought us into Adelaide and Helen’s incredibly beautiful home. But before that, we drove through miles and miles and miles of Australian wine vineyards. In all of our earlier blogs mentioning vineyards, we had no idea we would see vineyards like this in Australia! (Haven’t yet reached New Zealand!) Truly we traveled for 10 miles at a time with nothing but vineyards on both sides of the road. And since we’re in the southern hemisphere, entering spring, they were just beginning to bud. Seeing the new growth was just an impressive and pretty sight. We also recognized some of the producers which was fun – and thought Ah ha! You little bud! In the future you may well be in a glass in our home in the U.S.A.

Indoor/outdoor dining at its best!

Helen’s house! WOW! What a neat old home built of stone. Adelaide itself is a very green city with more of a “town” atmosphere. Helen’s house is on a quiet street just across from a big park, but a 15 minute walk from the center of the city. We entered through a rose filled courtyard into this wonderful house filled with warmth, really nice artwork, and …………….did we mention? A real wine cellar. Years ago, before Helen’s husband, Nick, died (much too early), they needed to have some restoration work done. In doing so, the builder discovered a small cellar below their bedroom, approachable from the outside patio. Like any good friend of ours would, they immediately had it dug out and made into a small (not much more than 4-500 bottles J) wine cellar. Besides being beautiful, Helen’s house is quaint. She has made a sort of indoor/outdoor dining room from what was a patio and it was there and the back garden where she entertained 32 of our new best friends. Aussies are really fun folks! We’ve invited all 32 to Phoenix and promised that if we didn’t have room in our house, our friends would!

Helen's Backyard before the party - with the Queen herself!

One picture missing is one where Helen’s hairdresser and nail techs took pity on me and sat me in a chair and the stylist started cutting my six-week-too-long hair while two nail techs started the manicure process – one on each hand. I REALLY felt like someone important at that juncture. I’m sure they felt I was someone in desperate need! After my clean-up, Helen had arranged for us to have a city tour. Adelaide is really a very small (in the sense of getting around) big city, and we could walk to all the neat sites, mainly centered on the University. All recognized and celebrated the creation of the city around 160 years ago and its rapid but orderly growth. Unlike most other Aussie cities, there were no convicts imported here, but willing immigrants who wanted to make good in this world and succeeded magnificently – particularly after gold and copper were discovered nearby. These early settlers gave back to their city in schools, parks and museums and they are all worth visiting and in easy walking distance.

Feral Kangaroos

Later we visited some beautiful wineries and a wildlife petting zoo where we could get up close and personal with the kangaroos, wallabies, and koalas. And to stock up on some more wine for the party (as if she needed it!!). The wine is, as you would expect, great here with Shiraz the favored but by no means the only outstanding grape. I was forced to drag up about 15 bottles from Helen’s cellar to re-circulate some of the old ones for her party, and of course had to taste them to ensure they were “palatable”. I tried to steer her guests away from my favorites, but I’m afraid they caught on to me.

It was hard to leave, but alas! We had to go to Queensland for the Great Barrier Reef and Rain Forest. It was about a two ½ hour flight across the country – southwest to northeast – over………………..pretty much nothing! The middle of Australia is truly just various colors of desert sand. All the population is located from the far northeast along the coast over to Adelaide which is just starting up the west coast. Perth is in Western Australia and Darwin on the very northern shore, but there’s “bugger all” in-between.

Sunrise on beach in front of our hotel

Landed in Cairns and were transported to Palm Cove, a delightful, quiet, tourist area further up the coast. Our small hotel was just across the street from the beach but the street was more like a lane, upon which very few people traveled. We loved it, even though Rance had to endure the sight of nubile young maidens with a healthy contempt for unnecessary bathing tops, ...but alas. Our time was all too short! Next morning we had to leave for our reef encounter. We left everything except bathing suits, tooth brushes and clean underwear at our hotel to which we would return later, and were off for two wonderful days of new adventures and perfect weather. One boat took us out from the Cairns Harbor to another boat called the Reef Encounter. The Reef Encounter was a small boat with only 20 staterooms which generally stays out among the reefs and accepts eager tourists like us.
Getting ready for the plunge

After lunch and before the 60 minutes our mothers always said we had to wait before swimming, we were off on a snorkeling venture like we couldn’t imagine. The first few seconds with face in the water we both thought we must be inside the most incredible aquarium in the world. In fact, all these multi-colored, multi-sized fish were real! As was the coral --- different shapes, different sizes, so many colors! Unfortunately, even as long as this blog is becoming, there is not enough space to describe how dazzled we were by what we saw. You didn’t even have to move – new incredibly colorful fish would swim beneath you, in front of the most amazing coral you can imagine. It was truly an unforgettable experience, but one we would repeat many times over the next few days.

Life is Good!!

Later in the day we both took an “introductory” scuba dive. That meant we were given a brief class but then after loading up all the gear, we had an instructor with us at all times. I (Susan) was happy for that. Not only was I a bit nervous about going 20 ft. below the surface with oxygen coming in through a tube, I got to hold this cute, French, young man’s hand most of the time. We were down about 30 minutes and enjoyed it, but both felt we enjoyed the snorkeling just as much, and quite honestly, when the sun is shining one sees the colors of fish and coral better along the top of the reef. In any case, we wanted to try that – and did! The next day our first snorkeling was at 6:30 a.m. There really are different fish to view at different times of the day. After that our boat moved to another site and Rance snorkeled 3 more times. I passed on one session and sat top deck reading, but joined him at the next session and the one on the boat going home where we saw more turtles. What a great experience! Recommended for all!!!

Back to our nifty hotel, the Sebel Reef. That evening, a couple we had made friends with on the Reef Encounter drove up from Cairns to Palm Cove and the 4 of us had a nice dinner together. We’ve met so many nice people on this trip – the Valentine’s Day (possibly becoming the St. Patrick’s Day) card list is increasing! Next day was 10 hours in the rain forest and although we enjoyed seeing it and the many views of the ocean along the way, it was probably one of our milder experiences. Did see some flying foxes (oversized bats!) and a frog jumped into the boat on our trip down the Daintree River, but that less exciting than it was startling to the tourist onto which it jumped. No crocs; no cassowary! (look that last one up) J

The Sebel Reef House was another place we didn’t want to leave. Such great atmosphere; such nice pampering. But oh dear! We had to leave for New Zealand. Still no place like the home of the free and the brave!