Just a quickie

What do these 4 pictures have in common? They were all things we did (and just a few of the things we did) this last weekend in Cairns and Port Douglas. I have literally hundreds of pictures to go through, and stories to tell. We just got back to Hope Island last night (Monday) around 7PM, and besides the fact that we were all completely exhausted we had no internet coverage, so I could not go online. The internet problem has been resolved, and we are now going to be "home" for several days, so look for some posts from me in the upcoming days.

Johanna has a crowd of children and "Mums" coming over this afternoon for a Christmas play and swim in their backyard, so this post will be brief. Just wanted to give a quick update on some of what we had been doing.

If you want to see a VERY HAPPY 10-year old, just come to the Rainforest Habitat in Cairns, where you can not only see the most amazing local creatures, but hold them or pet them as well! Clive is good friends with the owner Michael, and we had a beautiful "breakfast with the lorikeets" before touring the facility. The topper of course was the kids getting to hold a koala to have their pictures taken. She was SO sweet and very soft, and I think we would have stayed there all day if we could. They also got to feed and pet kangaroos, and several other "local" animals. The birds in this facility were amazing...in every color and variety.

Yes, this is me, snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Easily in the top 10 of most amazing experiences of my life, the beautiful fish and coral were a sight to behold! Rob got adventurous with Clive's encouragement and actually went scuba diving here, the first time in his life he had gone scuba diving. Many, many more pictures to come on this!

We took the Skyrail through the rainforest with a few stops to walk around and hear about the area from rangers stationed there. Trees that are hundreds of years old, amazing plant and bird and wildlife, and spectacular views. I know I've said AMAZING about a hundred times...but God's beauty in these locations is almost beyond description.

We took the train from Kuranda back down out of the rainforest, back to Cairns. This train was actually built over 130 years ago, and is quite an AMAZING engineering feat. Travelled right next to a waterfall, and heard the history of this train. Just beautiful.

We also had some incredible meals, went to a butterfly sanctuary, and more...all in really 2 days! I'll update again later today and go into a little more detail...as the pictures literally are worth 1000 words.

Till then...Good Day Mates!