A few days in Cairns.

G'day from Cairns, Australia! Since arriving in Australia last Friday (it's now Wednesday morning) we have had one person say G'day to us.... maybe because he could tell we were tourists and would get a kick out of it..... still fun nonetheless.

So we've been a bit lazy the last few days, hence the lack of postings. We are in Cairns (pronounced cans) now, and have enjoyed being in the same place for more than a night. We've been staying at "Tropic Days"hostel- it's been great- they have lots of hammocks to relax in, which we've definitely taken advantage of.

To catch you up, since the posting last week we have been up to the following:
1) Finally went skiing on Mt. Hutt (after being closed for 2 days due to wind/snow, the conditions on the 3rd day were amazing- 29 cm of fresh REAL powder.) The visibility was pretty hit or miss- but the fact that the snow was so good made up for it! At one point, a cloud came over the slope and it felt like being in a blizzard- you couldn't see the horizon, let alone 20 feet in front of you (don't worry- we were on the beginner slope)- I actually got such bad vertigo that I fell- completely unprovoked- 3 times in about 20 feet, on a completely flat slope..... Steve managed to stop laughing long enough to help me up. It was ridiculous, but still fun!

2) Hopped a ride with our new friends from Sydney, AUS- Jared and Lauren- from Methven to Christchurch- much better than traveling on a bus! We spent the next day exploring Christchurch, and finally, FINALLY, saw two kiwi birds. We had to admit that they were much cooler than we expected- a lot bigger than we'd expected, and interesting to watch them run around. But still, we weren't allowed to talk at all when we were in the kiwi sanctuary (not evena whisper), and the kiwis basically hid in the darkest corner of the area (the whole room was really dark already), coming out for just a couple of minutes.

3) Flew from Christchurch to Sydney- where the APEC summit was going on, inc. Pres. Bush, but fortunately didn't run into many issues getting through security crowds, etc, then caught a connection the same day to Cairns, where we've been since Friday.

We haven't JUST lazed around in hammocks for the last few days- we actually looked at buying a car or campervan, then after looking at a VERY crappy station wagon (it made the Taurus look like a true luxury vehicle) and making several other calls only to find out the cars had been sold we decided it was too much of a stress to worry about, so instead we've decided to rent a car for the next couple of weeks to make our way south to Brisbane then do buses after that.

We're still working out our plans for Australia- how long it will take to drive south, what we want to do along the way, etc., but we do know that today we drive north to Cape Tribulation to spend a few days there to go snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef and do a trek through the rainforest, and maybe some camping too. I'm guessing the next post will have a lot more "tales of adventure" than this one.... so stay tuned!

G'day,
Anna