A familiar face beams a favorite smile at me as
we exit the customs area at the Cairns Airport in Australia. It has been four
months since Rob left home to begin his year of study at the James Cook
University in Townsville. We are greeted with “G’day” by his friend and her
father who have brought Rob to the airport to meet us.
It was
ten hours in the air on leaving Hawaii June 30 to arriving in Cairns. It is now 5 AM Australian time
on July 2. July 1 lasted about two hours for us before we crossed the
International Dateline. Time will be confusing for a while.
We
await our shuttle van to the resort area and watch a glorious red sunrise. Even though
this is the winter season, the air is warm and fragrant. We are in the northern
area of Australia called Queensland. Opposite of the United States which is in
the northern hemisphere, Australia, in the southern hemisphere, gets warmer the farther north you go.
Arriving
at the resort area, we check our luggage with the concierge since our rooms
will not be ready until 2 PM. The lobby area is bustling with tour groups being
organized. Safari wagons and buses to the rain forest
and to large catamarans that take groups out to the Great Barrier Reef line up
for the tourists who are on a holiday (vacation). This is a time for school
holidays which is why Rob will be free to travel with us for the next two
weeks.
We
decide to eat breakfast and find a delightful buffet of fruits (some
recognizable others that look like a new experience for us), cereals including
rice bubbles (Rice Krispies), coffee, toast and Vegemite.
Vegemite
is the Australian answer to peanut butter. Rob has warned us about it but we
need to try it for ourselves. It says on the label “a yeast extract”. I don’t
know what they extracted but it is brown, slightly gooey, strangely smelling
(not like yeast), and has a semi-bitter taste that makes you want to shiver.
Well, we tried it.
A
resort bus takes us to downtown Cairns, a quaint, tropical looking town. One
and two story buildings mostly except for the large hotels. The colors are all
white, buff or pastel. Palm trees and tropical foliage abound. There is a
harbor area where large catamarans, cruising boats and sailboats are leaving to
spend the day at the reef. We watch excitedly knowing we will be doing the same
in a few days.
We
find a small cruising boat that offers an afternoon cruise of the river and
creeks in Cairns and provides lunch. The Terry Too takes us past the shipping
area of Cairns and begins hunting the creeks for crocs (crocodiles). Our
captain assures us that once the tide goes down, the creatures will come out to
sun themselves on the mudbanks. In the meantime, we enjoy a lunch of chicken
and prawns.
Sure
enough, on our way back to the harbor, we find a medium sized crocodile sunning
himself on a mudbank. He even lifts his head a moment reassuring us that he is
real.
The
Colonial Club resort is made up of strips of single rooms which surround two
pools and lush tropical gardens. We decide to dine at their new restaurant,
Jardine’s. “A bit too fancy for me,” one Aussie told us. But we enjoy the
leisure dining and the opportunity to catch up with Rob’s life.
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