Lose Weight and Gain Health

Friday was our last full day in Port Douglas.  We all agreed we could have happily spent 2 weeks here as there is so much to see and do in the area.  Plus Port Douglas itself is gorgeous.

So how did we spend our last day together?

We spent the morning in Wildlife Habitat which was about a 5 minute drive from our holiday villa.  It was fantastic.  You walk through 3 different environments and can get very close to some of the animals.  It is one of the best and most interesting wildlife places I have been to as it gives you a real sense of the animal/bird and their environment.

A Cassowary. A Black Headed Stork. I will spare you most of the many photos I took of the birds and animals there but this one is very charming.  Many of the birds and animals are comfortable enough around people to let you get really close which is fantastic.  Don’t get too close though as Harvey discovered.  My animal and bird loving son was pecked by this Curlew when he tried to touch it. Kookaburra! We had several beside our villa who laughed merrily for us. In my time I have seen hundreds of kangaroos but never a Joey before.  Here’s one! No dear, you can’t come out, you are practically still a foetus! The Emu was not in the mood for playing. There were plenty of kangaroos who were very happy to be fed and touched. I can never resist a picture of a Pelican. Another Joey, or bits of it at least.

To all you Mothers out there, if you think child-rearing can be hard, spare a thought for a kangaroo.  It is not uncommon for them to have a young kangaroo (less than a year old) by their side, one in the pouch and an embryo in the uterus!  I think this Mother is thinking it is time to turf the Joey out as he is rather large. Lara found this Praying Mantis.  She is superb at spotting insects, animals and birds.  Often reluctant or nervous about getting too close but quite happy to hold this one.   Harvey wanted a turn and it ran up his arm and in to his hair which he was not very keen on but he did manage to stay still so it was unharmed. We spent the afternoon in town and at the pool.  This pool was shared with 8 other villas, half of which were unoccupied so it was never too busy but was quite sociable.  The children loved it. Late afternoon Lara and I set off to walk to the other end of 4 mile beach.  Our villa is about 3 miles from Port Douglas and we have walked from town to “home” several times but never to the end.  So we set off in the late afternoon sun. The water was 23 ° so it was incredibly pleasant to walk along it, on the soft sand. There is the view round the corner – a bit more sand and bush and a restaurant at the end.  All very lovely. Back at the ranch everyone showered, the girlies dressed up for our final supper and BJ cooked us all a fabulous dinner.  Chicken kebabs and fillet steak cooked on the BBQ and served with mushrooms, onions and red peppers in a cream sauce.  It was a fabulous end to a truly wonderful holiday.I really didn’t want this holiday to ever end.  The company has obviously been wonderful and as well as visiting some extraordinary places we have really enjoyed being in the villa together, by the pool and on the beach.  Card and dice games have amused us in the evenings as have the Bundaberg rum, gin, wine and beer consumption.  I have drunk and eaten to excess as my currently expanding girth can prove so I have a rather larger task ahead of me when I get home than before I left.

Port Douglas is a superb place to go and if you are ever tempted by Australia, if you like beaches and snorkelling – get over there!

Yesterday was one of the best days of my life.  I could relive that day over and over, many times and then some.

It began peacefully.  I was up first and slipped out for a stroll along the beach. This is the beach looking towards Port Douglas.  Behind the palm trees are sprawling resorts which you can’t see from the beach so on the beach you have a great view, unspoilt by developments.  Plus a few people to keep you company.  This is the beach at about 7:30 am. I strolled back from the beach, past the little playground the children enjoy and back to our beach house and its pool which is shared with several of our neighbours. Fruit, yogurt and coffee. Then back to the docks for another day on the Great Barrier Reef. This is Wavedancer, the 30 metre luxury sailing catamaran we went on to the Low Isles. Coffee and biscuits on board. Farewell beautiful Port Douglas. This is the view inside the catamaran. This is sitting on the front deck where we listened to the safety talk given by the lifeguards. That perfect little desert island is our destination for the day. The views from the island were spectacular.  The green mountains appeared blue.  It was so beautiful and enchanting I could have cried with happiness. The catamaran moors offshore and little shuttle boats delivered us to the island where we snorkelled from the beach.

This is one of 2 shuttle boats.

Back to the catamaran for lunch,

which was eaten on the back deck of the boat. We then hopped on to the glass bottomed boat for a short tour and saw fish and turtles.  The coral was better here than on the outer reef; more varieties including soft corals which wave around in the water.  This photo was taken from the side of the boat looking down, not through the glass bottom.  Such clear water 🙂 We could see Helen, Henrietta and Lara relaxing on the beach. A huge shoal of fish has been in the Low Isles for a week or so. These attract Lemon Sharks which we were assured are perfectly safe to swim with as they have small teeth and feed on small fish. Back on the island I decided to walk across it which took about 10 minutes.  There is a light house in the centre. I then walked all the way round which took about 25 minutes.  I watched the Pelicans for ages – they are one of my favourite birds. The island is mainly sandy with some wonderfully weathered iron and bleached driftwood. They are watching the sharks swim in the large shoal of fish.   Harvey was straight in to the sea to snorkle amongst the sharks which he remains completely excited about.This is the large shoal.

Happy smiling faces – testament to such an amazing day. Back on the catamaran a small shoal of Bat Fish entertained us until departure.More sharks 🙂
We were so sad to leave the low Isles.  It was the most perfect day for snorkelling; sunny and bright and with calm seas so visibility was excellent.  The large shoal of fish attracted bigger fish so there was plenty to see.  We could all have happily stayed here overnight but you get counted on and off the boat so no chance of a Robinson Crusoe evening. Cheese and biscuits with fresh fruit and tea before we sailed back to Port Douglas. Farewell Low Isles. We settled on to the Catamaran to enjoy the sail back to shore but then came the cry from the top deck. Dolphins.  A large pod of playful dolphins escorted us for a while, adding the cherry to the icing of the most perfect day. I am so lucky to have spent such an amazing day in the Coral Sea and with such delightful company.  I certainly felt very blessed.

North of Port Douglas are miles of beautiful rainforest.  This area is known as the Daintree and we got out to see what it was like.

We stopped at Mossman Gorge and did the loop walk which was 2-3 km so not a huge distance but long enough to appreciate the rainforest and gorge. The river has enormous boulders in it and we returned to this spot for a swim.

The tree were extraordinary.  Trees in a rainforest grow so tall that they develop buttress roots to support themselves.

It is hard to photograph the trees to give you a clear idea of how tall they are.  You may just have to take my word for it. The walk was a good distance for a mixed group of people (age and fitness) and quite easy but slightly challenging in places so it was interesting all the way. This is quite possibly one of the most perfect swimming holes I have seen as it was small, safe for little people and completely surrounded by beautiful lush greenery. See what I mean about lush greenery?  Helen and BJ are sitting on this tree looking at the little swimming hole. Come on then kids, time to get going again. More amazing trees. Back at the main river it was time for  some boulder jumping  and swimming. After leaving the gorge we continued to drive North and came to the Daintree River which has a ferry to cross it.  This is a simple drive on ferry which is winched across the river on steel cables. We found an ice-cream shop 🙂  Any guesses who the unusual looking cassowary is? I had the coffee wattleseed and it was very good.   This ice-cream shop and cafe area is for sale if you fancy relocating to FNQ! After a bit more driving we arrived at Cape Tribulation. Cape Trib’ comprises a wide arc of very fine white sandy beach. It was really beautiful and very peaceful but I was unable to relax because i was too scared of crocs. This is what grows in to the sea – mangroves which are a favourite of the large toothed snappy creatures so I was happy when it was time to move on. We took the short walk round to the lookout. On the way home we stopped off for a pizza at Sandpiper, a pizzeria on a campsite in the Daintree.Another lovely day in this beautiful country.

I have been without internet or phone signal for 4 days.  It has been very liberating and I highly recommend it.  I am currently in an internet cafe, wishing I was one of the backpackers I am here with.  Here is a quick recap of some of the things we did on the way from Cairns to Port Douglas.

Our last morning in Cairns began with another swim. I took the little fella thinking he would be happy pottering in the little pool but no, he came and swam lanes alongside me.  It was a perfect start to the day, swimming in the Aussie sunshine. Back to our apartment to pack up. ha ha – not the one above, this one 🙂 Breakfast of avocado mashed on to toast with tomato. And off we went to Port Douglas.  We couldn’t resist a quick stop at Hartley’s crocodile place again as our tickets gave us 3 days access. I am fascinated by crocodiles. They terrify me but I feel compelled to keep looking at them. This guy was feeding the crocs.  He is in with the little freshies – you wouldn’t go in with a saltwater croc as they are VERY dangerous.  He has worked here since 1989 which is when I met my husband, BJ, Guy in New Zealand and Billy.  Amazing to think of all the things I have done since then but he has just worked here. Move little heron or you will be croc dinner.

That was my lunch on day 1 at Port Douglas – a cheese toastie with chips and salad.  Delicious but enough for 2 people. We are now staying in a beach house in Port Douglas with BJ, Helen, James and the very gorgeous Henrietta, my beautiful God-Daughter. We decided to spend our first full day together on the beach. I spent about 2 hours in the sea.  It was gorgeous.  So warm and wavey enough to be exciting but not dangerous. Then. having spent AUD 20 on a sunbed I decided to make the most of it. After a fun day on the beach we walked back along the beach to our beach house which backs this beautiful 4 mile long beach.  It is stunning here. The perfect location for a holiday with supersonic lovely friends.

On Sunday I had the wonderful experience of seeing the Great Barrier Reef for the first time.  It was an amazing day.

Quick breaky at the beach house.

We headed off to the marina at Port Douglas and waited to board our boat. That is the one we are going on and it will take us to the Outer Reef.  We are going to a platform which is anchored on the Aquitane Reef and is apparently much easier to hop on and off than a boat.  So excited !!!!! We chose seats on the top deck and admired the views. See you later Port Douglas. Someone special loves her Daddy very much.Oh no, the marine stingers are out!!!  Just joking, it’s only BJ’s shorts 🙂
Love these Aussie life guards, they are everywhere.  We had 2 on our trip and they watched us constantly from the diving platform.And they were off!

The reef was not as colourful as I was expecting but there were far more fish than I expected. They were the most incredible colours. Some were rather large and came very close! We have no complaints about the quantity or quality of food we were served. Lots of king prawns and chicken, hams, salads plus hot courses and soup. Scoff scoff.  Is someone meant to be on a diet?  Not on this holiday 🙂 Back to the reef.

Unfortunately my pictures do not do it justice.  Apparently it is to do with being underwater and the reds are completely muted.  The surface pictures have come out well but not the deeper ones.  You will have to get out there and see it for yourself.

This is a lettuce coral as seen from the semi submersible we did a trip in from the diving platform. After 3.5 hours snorkelling it was time to get back on the boat and we sped back to Port Douglas.  It took 1.5 hours to get back and on the way we saw a pod of dolphins and a humpback whale.  The perfect end to an amazing day.Gliding back in to the marina.
Hello again gorgeous Port Douglas. Thanks for a truly special day.

Crocodile kebab anyone?  Am I joking?  Read on and you will see 🙂

Breakfast on our tiny balcony; natural yogurt, banana, papaya and passionfruit.  I don’t really like papaya much I have decided, which is a shame as I have rather a lot to get through!  I dislike the taste and consistency but is is manageable mashed in to yogurt with fruit I do like. We discovered this fabulous shop today.  It was expensive but it had so many amazing goodies for sale.  I wish we had a quality shop like this at home.  Maybe I will open one in the future, with a fabulous cafe attached to it.  I would love to do that.

We bought some provisions for lunch (crackers, humous and fruit) and to take home (raw Manuka honey and macadamia nut butter for example) in here.  I could have bought practically the entire shop! Harvey chose this morning’s activity – a visit to Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures.  This is not a crocodile you may be thinking. You would be correct.  It is a Cassowary.  They are found in the wild in this part of Queensland but this was at Hartley’s which had a good variety of Australian animals, reptiles and birds in addition to the crocodiles. Cassowaries are part of the same family as Ostriches, Emus, Rheas and Kiwis.  The latter  surprised us as Kiwis are little and cute but the others are large.  And not really very cute. Sorry Mr (or Ms) Cassowary but you is ugly! This is what the little fella wanted to see – crocodiles.  This baby (16 months old) has its mouth taped as despite its small size (that is Harvey’s hand on it) it is strong enough to bite through to the bone and if it chose to try a death roll, it could dislocate your finger. This is one of the Estuarine crocs, usually referred to as “Salties” or “Saltwater Crocodiles”.  As we learned today, they can also be found in freshwater so it is more accurate to call them “Estuarine Crocodiles”.  My blog is so educational 🙂 We went on the boat ride which was compared by a Fair Dinkum Aussie who was very entertaining, in a stereotypically Aussie male way.  Amusing in small doses and all part of the Hartley’s experience. He dangled some meat over the side of the boat to encourage the crocs to jump up. Did you know they can jump right out of the water?  I did but it still made me jump, hence the fuzzy image.  So apologies for poor picture quality but it was the best one I had. These big beasts terrify me.Hartley’s has a zoo where they conserve (they have taken in several large crocs from the wild which were being a nuisance) the crocs and educate the masses. They also have a farm where they breed crocs for their skin and meat. So all the crocs in these photo are safe but their cousins next door in the farm are not. It may seem contradictory to have a conservation project next to a farm.  As Mr Fair Dinkum explained, when humans put a dollar value on an animal, its conservation is guaranteed.  As long as we want to buy crocodile products, they will be bred and thus prevented from extinction. So that’s one justification for farming animals. We had a light snack before leaving Hartley’s.  One bowl of chips shared between 4. With 2 portions of crocodile kebabs to share.  This is one portion so we each had one kebab. I shared mine with Harvey so I got most of the salad too.  Crocodile is the same colour as chicken but has more of the consistency of pork.  It was quite a mild and pleasant flavour. I don’t think I would eat it again but I enjoyed sampling it today. Lara chose this afternoon’s activity – a trip to a beach.  We went to Yorky’s Knob which is just outside Cairns, to the north.

I love this beach report you can read as you walk on to the beach.  It gives you information about the temperature of the air (27 °C), the sea (22 ° C), wind direction, tide times, beach rules and when the beach is patrolled. The Australian lifeguard service is a fantastic service.  I assume it is all paid for in taxes in some way but for us visitors, we get the benefit of a lifeguard on a beach we have not paid for and there was no car parking charge either.

This beach has the additional benefit of a net which is quite controversial.  The nets do not guarantee to stop all sharks and in fact many have been trapped on the beach side of the net.  They also trap other marine life such as whales, dugongs, dolphins and turtles.  However, the number of shark attacks has been reduced since the nets were introduced so I felt slightly happier knowing there was a net out there.

Will it be a bit crowded for us? I think we will just manage to squeeze in here. You have to have an Esky in Australia, it is practically a law.  We picked this one up quite cheaply in a K-Mart and now use it to transport food and chilled drinks around during the day. A very simple lunch today of crispbread with humous and taramasalata followed by an apple actually, rather then this mandarin. By about 4 pm the beach was quite deserted – was it something I said?

I was worried about a shark attack ( I wish I had never seen ‘Jaws’) so I spent most of the time we were here in the water with Harvey.  I think I spent about 2 hours in the sea.  It was beautiful – quite warm and rough enough to be interesting but not so rough it was frightening.  The only thing beneath my toes was soft sand.  No pebbles or shells or anything other than lovely sand.  Bobbing about in the sea, beneath a bright blue sky surrounded by beautiful scenery was a great pleasure.  I do love being on a beach. Yesterday I noticed a large open air swimming pool near our hotel and popped in to find out opening times etc.  I was determined to go.  I have been intending to go swimming for a few weeks now as I used to love it and go regularly.  I do not think I have been for many years.  I can not even remember when I last went lane swimming.

So despite my 2 hours in the sea, I arrived, paid my money, bought some new goggles and went inside the Tobruk Memorial Pool.  It is all rather dated but I found it very charming and thoroughly enjoyed visiting.

The changing rooms were rather spartan.  They are open air too. It was just like the pool in ‘Neighbours’.  Lane swimming with a coach barking orders at the trainees and writing times up on a board, I took these when I had finished so it looks a little dreary but only because the sun was setting.  It was really pleasant swimming with the sun above.

This 50 m pool is unheated so it is quite cool but perfect for serious swimmers.  And it was OK for wannabe swimmers too.  I managed 20 lengths which I was delighted about.  I am sure I will feel it in the morning but for now I am pleased with my efforts. Next to the 50 m pool is this 25 m pool which is heated to 31 °C !  It was lovely and if I have time, I will come here again tomorrow and bring Harvey.  There is also a paddling pool and a huge lawned area with BBQs.  How I wish we had a facility like this at home.

Next to the pool is a large tennis centre which had at least 6 courts, a hockey and rugby stadium.  The Australian’s provision of sporting facilities seriously puts ours to shame.
Back at the ranch we had supper in.  We are moving on tomorrow so I wanted to use up some of our food.  We had some of these lovely eggs left over. I made ham and cheese omelettes with a salad (lettuce, cucumber, tomato and red pepper).

I felt hungry while I wrote this post and had a slice of toast with peanut butter, an Oreo Cookie, 5 Jaffa chocolates and a can of VB.  Apart from that snacking, which I think I deserved actually after all that swimming, I ate very lightly and healthily today.  So I feel pleased with todays eating and exercising efforts.

Dear blog readers,

I apologise in advance for the cheesey touristy photos you are about to be subjected to.  In my defence, when I asked Harvey on the plane to Australia what he most wanted to do, the answer was to cuddle a koala.  So today this Mama made her little boy’s wish a reality.  And her little girl’s.  But don’t panic, there are some fab scenery pics and lots of interesting food related tales and pictures too.

Our day started early (up at 6:30 – lots to see today) at a World and National Heritage site.

Australia enables you to enjoy the beauty of the land so well.  Sites are well sign posted from the road, car parking and entry to everything we have been to is free of charge and access up to or down to sites is very well maintained.

We were headed down to Barron Falls.  We had no idea what to expect as we are just following brown signs and enjoying the surprise when we get there.  The walkways were very solid so even though they were high up, I was quite brave. Jeepers Creepers! In the distance, about a third of the way down in this photo, you can just make out James and Harvey coming behind us on the walkway.  It helps provide a scale as these rainforests contain trees which are incredibly tall, something I had not appreciated before. My photos absolutely do not do Barron Waterfall and gorge justice.  The sunny parts are really bright but as the gorge was sooo far down, it is very dark. This waterfall is IMMENSE!  Absolutely massive and you can hear the water thundering down from a great distance. The advantage of being so early is that we were the only ones there 🙂  A while later, a train arrived and it was packed which was not so much fun so I am very happy we managed to appreciate this spectacular and special place alone.I used my telephoto lens to get some close up shots of sections of this waterfall and pools.  I wish you could have been there too to appreciate how big and beautiful it was.
This is the top of the falls.

Our next stop was the mountain village of Kuranda which is very touristy.  It was settled by a group of arty hippies in the 1960’s and still has that vibe to it.

Luckily for us, it also has Kuranda Koala Gardens.  No prizes for guessing what the main attraction is! The enclosures were very visitor friendly.  These cute koalas were in an open enclosure with just a waist high fence so it was really easy to see the koalas properly. Photo time.  One very happy boy. And one very happy girl. Then we all muscled in.  I do usually abhor such things as these but I confess I really enjoyed being so close to a koala.

According to Lara and Harvey they are very heavy!  I can confirm they are very soft. Next was the wallaby and kangaroo enclosure and Lara and Harvey fed the wallabies. Then lounged around with the chilled out ‘roos.  It was such a bonus being so early that we could enjoy these amazing animals without it being too crowded.

This is a tiny little zoo but we also saw wombats, freshwater crocodiles and a variety of snakes and reptiles.

Our next stop was to learn more about something I consume every day but know very little about.  Any idea what these plants are?

These are the berries, which are known as “cherries”.  These are coffee plants and inside each cherry are 2 coffee beans.

We visited Jaques Coffee plantation near Mareeba.  It was very interesting.  We watched a video about the family who set up and still own and run the plantation and then went on a tour of the plantation.  It was all quite low key and very friendly.  We all really enjoyed it.

We picked a cherry and ate it from the plant.  The cherry is quite tough and requires some chewing but has a mild and pleasant flavour.  The actual raw coffee beans are really tough and don’t taste of much at all. This is the part of the process that washes the beans.

Our tour finished with a complimentary coffee of our choice and then, because I was so interested, we had a personal tour of the family’s garden.

I admit I was very envious at the beautiful flowers and plants that can grow in this humid and hot land with fertile soil.  I took way too many pictures today to post any of them though.

I am not sure exactly what these are but they are something like a mandarin and they also had oranges. Lemons – we were given some to take away 🙂 Mango flowers.  One of my favourite fruits and I have never seen them growing in the wild.  There are huge mango orchards in this part of Queensland but this coffee plantation just had about 4 trees. Limes. Macadamia blossom!  These long flowers produce clusters of nuts along the stem. We really enjoyed our visit to Jaques Coffee and are looking forward to grinding up the beans we bought when we get home.

This is nothing to do with coffee – it’s a termite mound.  There are loads of them in this area. This is James standing in front of a field of sugar cane.  The foreground has been recently cropped.  Presumably it will be ploughed and then resown with new plants which is what we see as we drive along.  These are such tall plants. We drove along tarmac roads and dirt roads, through rainforest, beside crops and orchards and also through the bush where eucalyptus trees abound.  Every turn of the road brings another beautiful view. Here is a real animals in their natural environment shot.  Driving home we saw a field full of Wallabies.  James wins wildlife spotter of the day as he noticed them first.

I know, this is supposed to be a blog about what Zoe ate today and her attempts to lose weight and become healthy.  A bit of a mixed bag again today.

I started well with some fresh papaya, banana and yogurt – all from the provisions we had bought at source yesterday so everything was very fresh and superb quality.Eaten with great pleasure with passionfruit.
We had egg mayo sandwiches at Barron Falls which we made before we left our apartment.  Those Bio Dynamic eggs we bought yesterday were lovely. In Kuranda we had coffee and a snack.  I had some macadamia nut cookies which were lovely with my latte. Late afternoon we snacked on some chocolate biscuits and a handful of these mixed nuts.While I have been blogging I ate my supper which was a huge salad of lettuce, cucumber, tomato and snow pea shoots with some Cheddar cheese and Caesar dressing.  It was really good.

As well as walking around during the day, we went out this evening and walked and exercised for an hour and a half.  The temperature in the evenings here is perfect for exercising in, as is the sea front location.  So not a brilliant day but slightly redeemed by a light supper and lots of exercise.

You know you are in Australia when ………. you see a Kookaburra and a Kangaroo.  We saw several Kookaburras today and 2 kangaroos.  One kangaroo was hard to spot but the other one was conveniently close to the side of the road and then bounced away so we had a fantastic view of it.

Guess what?  It was sunny again today 🙂

I went down to the beach with Lara and Harvey at about 7:30 am and we did some really enjoyable exercise which I was going to blog about.  But we did so many other amazing things today, I will save that piece of info for another time or this post will be too long.

Having finished exercising, we had a drink in this cafe. We sat outside and I enjoyed a latte.  I can not think of a more perfect start to the day, than a coffee beside a beautiful beach on a sunny day with my favourite people. James had been busy collecting our hire car 🙂  We have wheels – yippee 🙂 Road trip, road trip!

I had a quick plate of fresh fruit and we set off to the Tablelands, which are South and West of Cairns. We were visiting the Southern Tablelands today and it was quite a long drive so we stopped for something to eat in a town called Babinda.  We went in to the bakery.  This is a typical Australian bakery in a fairly typical town. Australians love their pies and they are nearly always filled with beef.  They are known as “mystery bags” as you can never be quite sure what is inside.  I am not a huge pie fan but there was very little choice.  It was a pie or baked white carbs.

Actually the lady behind the counter, who was incredibly friendly and helpful, believed she did have a huge choice of pies.  We could have had beef pie, or beef and pea pie or beef and mushroom pie or beef curry pie or beef chilli pie or beef with a potato topping.  There were probably about 20 varieties of beef pie.

Humph!  What can I have?  I spotted the “breaky pie” which was more like a mini flan with egg and bacon. Guess what it had inside?  Yes, you’ve guessed it – beef!  Tucked away at the bottom of the pie was minced beef.  It actually tasted OK but was much richer than I was hoping for. Babinda had a Post Office. We could finally post the cards I bought nearly a week ago!  Apologies to all my family with August birthdays as all the cards are late 😦

We were heading for the waterfall trail which takes you to about 8 different waterfalls, some of which you can swim in.  We saw a brown sign for “The Boulders” and decided to have a look.  We are so glad we did as it was the best thing we saw all day and a complete  surprise as we had not read about this beautiful place so it was totally unexpected.

We later realised we could have swum here but there were so many warning signs around, and no one else was swimming we didn’t want to risk it.

We walked along an easy trail in to the rainforest. See what I mean about the warning signs! It is the dry season here now so the river creek is very calm.  But judging by the size of the debris creating a virtual dam, it must get very lively here during the wet. The water drops down and crashes on to the huge boulders below.  The water sounds incredibly loud here. The land drops away suddenly and there is a huge pool below you.  Definitely NOT one to swim in. We continued walking, following the creek, getting deeper in to the rainforest.  It was so beautiful.  I love all the varied shapes of the foliage and all the different shades of green. This was the third of the lookouts and the view was stunning. Over many hundreds/thousands of years the water has smoothed the granite and cut channels through it. All around you and in the distance is the rainforest, which is teeming with life.  You can hear the birds and insects against the roar of the water.It was quite spectacular.
Hard to tear ourselves away. Back on the road and we drove along past miles of sugar cane fields and banana plantations.  We stopped at this roadside stall selling local produce. We saw lots of this bright pink plant which was in contrast to all the lush green vegetation. Australia is very expensive and we are having to watch what we spend so I was delighted to find this very reasonably priced stall.  We bought papayas, mangoes, rambutans, limes, bananas and avocadoes. Over the road was a carob tree.  It is so wonderful to see all these exotic plants growing  and so handy to have a husband who can identify them all for you 🙂 The pods look ready for picking to me. After many miles of sugar cane and bananas the land opened up and became more undulating. We had to make a detour to a Bio-Dynamic dairy and tea house.  We just had to! Oh, so that’s what a Bio-Dynamic cow looks like 🙂 It was early afternoon and so we stopped for lunch.  Lara and I could not decide what to have so we shared.  We had half each of this delicious spanakopita (Ricotta cheese and spinach in filo pastry) with salad. We sat on the deck, looking across the land where happy cows grazed and chickens pecked and scratched. We shared our main so we could indulge in a shared passion for a cream tea served with rainforest jam.  It was great. We bought yogurt, cheese and eggs to take away and left with an ice-cream.  Mine was Macadamia nut and it was quite superb. More beautiful scenery.  The day was racing by too fast and we hadn’t got to any of the waterfalls we wanted to see yet so we got a wriggle on. Millaa Millaa Falls.  Made famous by the Quantas Ad.  By the time we got here the sun was already dipping away and so it was not as bright as it could have been or as warm. I had wanted to swim here but it was too cold for me but not for the little fella!

The sun sets quickly here and we had a long journey back so rather then rush visiting the other water falls, we decided to head back to our hotel and come back another day. For BJ, Guy and Billy.  We wish you could be here with us to share this slab of VBs.  We got through a few of these didn’t we, back in the day? And to Abi as I know you were partial to them too.  We are thinking of you all.

Cheers!

Sunday was a sad day but also a bit exciting.  We had to say good-bye to our dear friends and New Zealand and fly to Australia for a holiday with James and Lara who were meeting us in Cairns.

My last meal at Guy and Bex’s was toast and pikelets which Guy made – they were good. We had shared these beers the previous evening which are made by their neighbour – so that is in keeping with one of my main objectives of supporting local producers 🙂 . I will miss sitting in this room with these lovely people.   Thank you for such an amazing visit – we both loved it and will miss you all heaps.

Guy drove us down to Wellington airport.  When you look at the map, New Zealand looks really close to Australia which it is relatively I suppose.  Our trip from Masterton to Cairns via Brisbane took 14 hours door to door – a long and tiring day.

Harvey and I were very surprised to see this enormous statue of Gollum at Wellington airport.  Surprised by the scale of it, rather than the existence of it. It is really well done. Look at how huge it is by comparing Gollum to the people waitng for their flights! This was my view from my bed this morning – rather warmer and more tropical than New Zealand.  We arrived when it was dark and I was looking forward to seeing outside in daylight. I ate too many naughty things in New Zealand.  Kiwis seem to be a nation of bakers and round every corner is a delicious and irresistible coffee shop with cakes, muffins, cookies and pies.  So I want to do better in Australia. We have a hotel room with a small kitchen so we can prepare some of our meals which makes it easier to eat healthily.

I started well with melon, watermelon, pineapple and a boiled egg. We had a very lazy day which started beside the pool at our hotel.  Harvey swam, Lara sunbathed, James photographed birds and I swam a bit and relaxed in the heat and read.  Lovely 🙂 We walked in to the centre of Cairns for a late lunch and went to a large place popular with backpackers – Rattle N Hum.  We enjoyed an ice cold Victoria Bitter (VB) which always brings back happy memories. I had the Nachos which was good but not very healthy due to all the cheese on them!  I did have some help with it but I definitely ate too much. We spent the rest of the afternoon at The Lagoon. There are Saltwater Crocodiles in the sea here so you can’t swim in it so this lovely lagoon has been created.  There is soft white sand to sit on and lifeguards to watch over you. We lazed around all afternoon which was very pleasant. Apart from an ice-cream, I had nothing else to eat today and no more beer either.  Just the one.  G’Day Australia – looking forward to exploring you.

To visit New  Zealand is a wonderful thing and I defy anyone to dislike this beautiful country.  I feel very lucky to be here and lucky that I have visited twice before too.

What I have particularly enjoyed this time is staying with friends.  It has enabled us to live with New Zealand families and experience New Zealand as the locals do.  Today was very much a day in the life of a Kiwi family.

I knew a lot of food would be consumed today so I had a very light breakfast of a mashed banana and a chopped up fresh orange. We all went to watch Ruby play netball in the morning (they won – woo hoo) and then we went to the Masterton Farmer’s Market.  This is the band! It was really cold here and we all sympathised with the stall holders so we bought what we could; cheese, bread and pate.
This was a delicious blue cheese made with Ewe’s milk and we also bought a cow’s milk Brie.We spent lunch time at Bex’s parents, Ann and Bob’s.  They have created an extraordinary garden.  They are blessed to have a natural spring running through their garden which they have made water features from but also, they use it as a source of all their drinking water.
There are numerous waterfalls in their garden which helps cool the air (not so important in winter but it must be wonderful in the summer), adds to the beauty and they sound enchanting. Everywhere you look are lovely plants, some in pots.

Others growing in the earth.

Bob has many different types of native New Zealand fern growing. I love the patterns and colour of the ferns.

Tucked away or in prominent positions are all manner of lovely statues and sculptures. Here are Bob and Ann, reading my blog 🙂We had a fantastic arrangement of Sushi for lunch.

Bex bought the Sushi after netball from a takeaway place where the Sushi is all displayed and you can choose what you want and you pay for what you choose.  Served with bread, crackers, pate and cheese.  What a feast – it was really good. Bex and Ruby with Rosie and Ted. After lunch we took Harvey and Ruby horse riding. Harvey has never had a riding lesson before and he really enjoyed it.  I thought he would because he loves being with animals so much.Horses terrify me but they don’t seem to bother the little fella.

Ruby is very proficient in the saddle.

As he was a beginner, Harvey needed a grown up with him and luckily for me, Guy stepped in to the riding school. Melissa demonstrated ‘hoof ball’.Harvey liked all the ponies, even the naughty one called Ruby.
Harvey really enjoyed the games, such as Simon Says, Round The World and Egg and Spoon race. He did really well for a complete beginner. Thank you Guy for all that running around with Harvey, he really enjoyed it. Ruby and Ruby !

In the evening Guy cooked blue cod, roast yams, fried potatoes and green beans for us.  It was excellent and I really enjoyed it.

There was (and will be) some naughty snacking of chocolates, nuts and ice-cream.  Well, it is our last night here.

I will really miss sitting at this kitchen counter with these 2 lovely people.  Since I have been here we have never actually sat in the living room.  We have sat here, talking, laughing, drinking, eating, blogging and as in this picture, spreading latex on to plastic!

In this charming house, in the land of the long white cloud, we have had a blast.  Thank you so much.Aotearoa.