Becky's Week

After Eliza and Andrew left, we had a full week of Becky ahead of us. Because she had just spent the week driving along the coast of Queensland, she was perfectly happy to hang out around the apartment while Roxy napped. We didn't spend every day at home, though.

We drove down to visit the Daisy Hill Koala Centre and Conservation Park. I went there with Eliza and Andrew and loved it, so I took Becky there. We also wanted to spot a koala in the wild and figured it was a pretty good place to do it. It's over 400 hectares of eucaplyt bushland just south of Brisbane. The Koala Centre is one of the best free educational nature centres I've seen, and I've seen a lot in my time. We've been back a couple of times since Becky went home and I will take all of our future guests there.

Mama wallaby and her joey in the picnic area.

We struck out on seeing koalas in the bush and settled to gawk at the guys living in the educational center.

It's true! There are eucalyptus trees in Australia!

That night we took the train into town for a tour of the Castlemaine-Perkins Brewery, better known as the XXXX (Four X) Brewery. I've toured a couple of breweries and my sister has toured a few. Nate's never been on a brewery tour, and we all agreed that the Four X brewery tour is extremely bizarre. You start off in a weird room with televisions all around, and then you're ushered into a theatre in the round where illuminated statues tell the history of the brewery. Then it gets weirder... we weren't allowed to take pictures, but trust me. It was weird.

The joke is that it's called XXXX because the Queensland rubes didn't know how to spell beer. Har har.

XXXX...X

Each tour participant is entitled to four beers in the alehouse after the tour. I wasn't drinking as much as my compadres and the BBQ dinner included in our ticket was shamefully meager, so we didn't drink all 12 schooners. I think we maybe only drank 10.

The next day, Becky and I struck out for North Stradbroke Island. When I was there about three weeks earlier with Eliza and Andrew, we had a mediocre whale watching experience. This time, the waters were thick with whales! The guidebook didn't lie when it told us that Straddie is one of the best land-based whale watching sites around.

That's the splash from a breeching whale. We couldn't look out to sea without seeing a breech or tail slap or whitewater. It was awesome!

There were also plenty of body surfing dolphins.

Waiting for the waves.

We were also surprised by a big kangaroo who hopped across our path and through the playground. He gave both of us quite a start - we whipped out our cameras just in time to snap a few photos.

Well, here's something you don't see every day.

Beautiful blue waters of Straddie behind beautiful blue-eyed Becky.

The next day, we headed out to D'Aguilar National Park. We got a late start to the day (Roxy decided to take an epic nap), so we didn't get to do a lot of exploring. It was kind of a disappointment, but there are lots of other trails to investigate and we shall have to explore it further before writing it off.

The next two days were the weekend, so with Nate joining us, we decided to head south and explore more of the Gold Coast Hinterland. We had already visiting this beautiful area for my birthday back in May, so we picked a couple of different spots for day trips.

On Saturday, we stopped first at the Brisbane Markets on our way out of town to check out the produce. It wasn't nearly as good as the Cairns Market, but there were plenty of stalls full of cheap, fresh produce and we will be making it a regular weekend trip.

Aussie-grown produce. Yum!

We continued south toward Tamborine Mountain. The guidebook describes it as, "A mountaintop rainforest community." Tamborine Mountain National Park is split up into 13 sections of land scattered around the community.

Roxy telling Nate what she thinks of the new baby backpack. In case you can't tell, she wasn't a fan.

Bek and me overlooking Witches' Falls

After Witches' Falls, we visited another section of the park. Nate and Becky went hiking while I stayed behind to feed Roxy. We sat in a little picnic area with a great view of the Gold Coast. It wasn't too long before we started being circled by a brush turkey. With each circle, he got a little bit closer. It wasn't until he got a little too close for comfort that I shooshed him away and discovered that he had only one eye! It didn't win him any sympathy points - we kept our rice cakes to ourselves.

Clockwise stalking.

On Sunday, we struck out again for more of the Gold Coast hinterland. This time we went to Springbrook National Park. It's about 3500 hectares of subtropical warm and cool rainforest and eucalypt forest. Our first stop the Natural Bridge section of the park. We had a lovely picnic and hiked to a cave full of glow-worms. Too bad for us - the glow worms are best seen at night and we were there around noon. The waterfall and cave was very cool, even without the glow worms.

This used to be a swimming hole and is now fenced off. It would have been an awesome swimming hole!

"See...here's where the glow-worms are supposed to be..."

Family portrait. We reverted to the front carrier for the day to appease the bubba. She seems much happier.

Lovely Springbrook Plateau. The scenery as we drove around the park.

Before heading home, we drove up to the Best of All Lookout. The trail to the lookout goes past a stand of Nothofagus trees, so, of course, Nate stopped to have a look for some scale insects. He found some at the lookout and spent most of his time there looking closely at the leaves instead of admiring the view.

New South Wales just over that ridge.

Nate's insects in the galls on the leaves!

After an exciting weekend, Becky had just one more day in Australia. I had a mummy group meeting that morning, so I dropped Becky off at a nearby park to do some bushwalking while Roxy played with her friends. The park surrounds Mt. Gravatt, a hill that the aboriginal people called kaggur-mabul, or 'place of the echidna,' or 'the echidna rests here.' The echidnas must not have gotten the message, because she didn't see any.

It was the first day of a mini heatwave in Southeast Queensland, so we decided to beat the heat by taking a ferry ride up and down the river. We got back to our stop just as the sun was setting. It was a lovely end to the day and her visit.

Now, it's time that I address a picture of Becky making its rounds on the Internet. Lindsay snapped it when we were on the boat on the Reef:

Yes, Becky is changing Roxy's diaper. Everybody knows that Becky Does Not Change Diapers. Everybody also knows that Roxy Fills Her Diaper When Becky is Nearby. I started to change the stinky nappy, but had to abandon the task to throw up overboard. Becky stepped in like a champion and finished up the job. I know that this will never, ever happen again, so it's going on the front page of the baby book.

Straddie and Cans

Nate's sister and brother-in-law, Eliza and Andrew, showed up about a week and a half ago from Philadelphia. After a day or so of acclimating, we took advantage of the perfect Brisbane winter weather and went on a few adventures.

View of the Pacific from Straddie.

We took the ferry out to North Stradbroke Island, also called "Straddie" by the locals. The island is about a half hour away by ferry and a prime location to watch the migrating whales. Lucky us, we spotted some while eating lunch. We also watched a pod of dolphins surfing and playing in the waves for about half an hour. We would have joined them if the water was just a tad warmer.

Eliza and Andrew on Frenchman's Beach.

We forgot the baby carrier and had to fashion a sling from a blanket. Here's Nate carrying a sleeping Roxy down the epic staircase to Frenchman's Beach.

The next day we drove over to Mt. Coot-tha and hiked up to the summit for a great view of Brisbane. I didn't have my camera (but I remembed the baby carrier!), but I have no doubt we will head up to Mt. Coot-tha again in the future.

My sister Becky and her travel buddy Linsday arrived a week ago. The next day we all boarded a (delayed) flight to Cairns. Cairns (pronounced Cans), is the most popular place for tourists to depart the mainland and visit to the Great Barrier Reef and Far North Queensland.

Waiting at the airport for our delayed flight.

Cairns is full of hostels, tourists, backpackers, rental campervans and tour companies. We stayed at the Bellview Hotel, a family-run hostel across the street from the marina. It was clean, cheap and had a night guard imposing quiet hours from 10 pm - 6 am. The staff was very friendly and helped us book our tours and car rental. I think we will definitely stay there again if we go back to Cairns.

Perfect weather for our trip in Far North Queensland.

Sidewalk just outside of our hotel reception.

The Bellview from the street.

We had two full days in Cairns. On the first day, we took a day trip out to Green Island, which was about a 50-minute boat ride from the mainland and we snorkeled in the Reef right off of the beach.

Nate and Roxy enjoying the beach on Green Island.

Lindsay on the beach at low tide.

One of the pesty "ducks" that steal chips right out of your hands! (Duck is our nickname for this bird. When we arrived on the island, a little girl was pointing at one and calling it a duck. We didn't figure out what it actually was, so for the rest of the trip, any pest bird was called a duck.)

Walking out to the boat at the end of the day.

Becky brought everyone underwater cameras, so you'll have to wait until those get developed to see anything under water. Nate, Linds and Becky swam out the furthest and spotted a sea turtle, giant clam amongst all of the colorful fish.

It was Eliza's first time snorkeling and was her last for the rest of our trip. After the choppy boat ride and fear of the open ocean, Eliza and Andrew decided to stay on land for Day 2.

Our friends Eddie and Lisa flew down from Papua New Guinea and met up with us after we returned from Green Island. They get plenty of snorkeling where they are, so they decided to accompany Eliza and Andrew in the hills for Day 2 while Becky, Linds, Nate, Roxy and I booked a snorkeling trip to the Outer Reef.

I get quite seasick, but decided that I could tough it out for a day if it meant seeing more of The Great Barrier Reef. Our tour departed at 9 and returned at 4:30, with 1.5 hour boat rides there and back.

Becky and Lindsay had no problems with seasickness. Roxy threw up her breakfast about an hour into the ride, but was just fine after that. I took ginger pills (dramamine and breastfeeding don't mix), and threw them up just as we arrived at our first snorkel spot. I felt queasy for the rest of the trip and threw up again on the way home. I felt great once I got into the water and would have just as soon swim 60 kms back to Cairns than get on the boat again.

Becky and Roxy

Sadly, Nate fared the worst on the boat and getting into the water didn't help at all. He spent about half an hour snorkeling around, but the rest of the time he was hunched over a puke bag aboard the boat. If you ask him about it, he will tell you that the half hour of snorkel time was worth all of the suffering!!

Poor Nate!

Roxy enjoying the boat ride more than either of her parents. She didn't go into the water, but we got her dressed in her swimsuit so she would fit in with everyone else.

The other half of our party spent the day in the hippie rainforest village of Kuranda. They took a skyrail up and the scenic railway back down. They wish they would have taken the skyrail both ways.

Coming up: Daintree River, Cape Tribulation, Coral Sea, Crocodiles and much more!!