We had a few last minute things to do, including retrieving a missing Koala from fellow ski-lodge members - having left him in the lounge on our last day. Alex missed him sorely but managed to acquire a replacement "baby" when visiting Grandma and Grandad. Koala was a tightly held friend from then on!
We have several family friends who have been posted to Papua New Guinea for work and they had planned to meet at Port Douglas for some R&R so we decided this would be a nice way to catch up with them - several of whom we hadn't seen for a couple of years. We had an early flight to Port Douglas and Uncle Craig and Aunty Chelle kindly helped us out with returning the car and carseats to their rightful owners.
Most kids would love to travel on an airplane - I still remember the first time I travelled on an airplane by myself (ok, my younger sister was with me) on the way back from Newcastle to Armidale - terrific! Well our kids are definitely spoilt for domestic travel as the first question Alex asked was where her personal in-seat entertainment was...um...they don't have it on domestic flights...and then proceeded to enquire as to the menu.
Thank goodness they've never travelled business or first class!!Our flight was a relatively short four hours and then there was a mad scramble for the bus from Cairns airport to Port Douglas. We are yet to experience the delights of travelling with motion-sick children (I believe all of my siblings and I suffered from this) but this was definitely a gut-clencher of a ride. The highway hugs the coastline and you are warned by the driver to sit close to the front if you do suffer from motion sickness. Alex, of course, wanted to sit at the back. Surprisingly it was Daddy who felt the ill effects (though not until after we'd arrived at our destination). and neither child managed to fall asleep. Sebastien was too excited to be in a big-person seatbelt, and then really peeved when we wouldn't let him out of it to check out the surroundings.
We met up with our friends and their families and then headed downtown to grab some groceries. We eventually worked out our dinner arrangements and headed to bed late. People were staying different durations so plans were made for the next few days to see the Great Barrier Reef and the Daintree Rainforest. Although tempting to try to cram in seeing as much as possible, we resigned ourselves to our new mode of tourism "travel with children".The following morning we jumped on a shuttle bus and headed for the Rainforest Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary for the morning followed by lunch with the birds. We had a great time wandering along the boardwalks, Sebastien especially was happy to be let go and wander around unfettered by an adult hand.
There were many different birds to see around. The biggest draws were the cassowaries
and the nesting storks 
- oh and the koalas. 
I convinced Alex to venture closer to a python - though not too close.
Then we moved onto the mammals and reptiles. Alex was convinced Salty was asleep
- until he opened his mouth and she saw his teeth!
However if there was one thing that was enjoyed by Alex and Sebastien most it would have to be feeding the wallabies. We bought some special food mix and they took great delight in hand feeding them - and giving them pats on their soft fur. We had to prevent Sebastien from squishing them!
Once we'd been through most of the site we stopped for lunch with the lorikeets. Unfortunately it was not the experience Mummy'd hoped for (having visited both O'Reillys and Binna Burra as a child) with two lorikeets doing the rounds on a guide's shoulder being the extent of the contact with them. There were some other birds visiting the tables who were interested in what we were eating, but Alex soon told them to go away.
Sebastien struck up some interactions with other kids 
but soon was asking to move on. So we saw the rest of the site, went back and fed some more wallabies (the kangaroos were lazing in the shade and weren't interested) before heading for home. It was nice to find out that we were able to return for free for the next two days if we decided to, and we would have taken them up on this had we been staying there for longer.We spent the afternoon swimming (Alex and Daddy) and relaxing in front of the television before joining our friends and their families for a poolside BBQ. Sebastien had a mudcake with a train on it - seeing as his birthday would be in China in a month and there'd likely be no-one other than us to celebrate with. Both he and Alex had a wonderful time playing with the other kids.
1 comment:
Lys I think the reason all of us nevin kids got carsick was because our parents know flat out and stop - no middle ground - we always cornered like we were on two wheels, and I know I often said a little thankyou prayer whenever we got somewhere in one piece!
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