Great Barrier Reef & the Australian Rainforest

G'day Mates!

We traveled 2 hours by train to the Blue

Mountains for our final day in Sydney. On the train ride, I saw a lot of cricket, rugby, and Australian rules football playing fields. At the Blue Mountains, we hiked around and enjoyed the beautiful view of the mountains surrounded by a valley of trees. It was surprisingly chilly in the mountain town, so we bundled up (Trevor won with 6 layers of clothes).

The next day, we caught a flight to Cairns in Northeast Australia. When we arrived we booked all of our days with tours ranging from the Great Barrier Reef to an overnight trip in the world's oldest Rainforest. The Great Barrier Reef was stunning! There were more fish than I could imagine. We saw 3-foot long parrotfish, clownfish (yay Nemo!), giant clams, pipe fish, morish idols, and more (underwater photos will be posted at a later date). We spent 2 days snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef and even though it was cold and we dealt with some seasickness, it was totally worth it!

Then, we got a personal tour of the Atherton Tablelands - which includes 3 different forests - near Cairns. We got to feed rock wallabies, watch a bird show and hold owls, spot platypuses, and trek through the rainforest at night time. Our tour guide was fantastic and we learned a lot about the Australian culture.

We spent a day in Karanda (a small rainforest village near Cairns). We were the first to arrive at the Koala Gardens. We got to feed kangaroos, wallabies, and pademelons. Since no one was around and we were the first to arrive, we were swarmed by the animals. Then we got to cuddle with koalas!

On our last two days in Cairns, we took an overnight tour to the Daintree Rainforest - the oldest rainforest in the world and second largest (the first largest is the Amazon). We got to see a Cassowary - the third largest bird in the world - in the forest. We stayed in a dorm-room cabin where we found the largest spider I've ever seen (hand-sized). Kim kindly picked it up on a piece of paper at took it outside (we caught this, and all of the screaming that went with it, on video). Our cabin was a short walk away from the beach where the rainforest met the ocean. It poured rain all night long - there's nothing like the sound of raindrops in the rainforest to lull you to sleep :)

Tomorrow we fly to New Zealand for the last leg of our trip where we will explore Auckland and Rotorua and test out zorbing, luging, and many more adventure sports!