The Adventures of Lorie and Brian Groth

26 hours in an airport?

We landed around 11pm, checked into an airport hotel, and didn’t need to check out until 8pm the following day. The reason is because our flight home wasn’t until almost 1am the following day.

We could have gone back into Singapore, but it was warm, humid, and we had seen most of what we wanted to see just 2 weeks ago. So, we slept in, watched airplanes and checked out all that the airport has to offer.

The airport is a destination unto itself and includes a massive shopping mall between the terminals called The Jewel, which includes the world’s tallest indoor waterfall. The top floor includes an indoor park full of plants and things to do, all surrounding the waterfall.

There are a few odd things too, such as the vending machines.

We started with a train ride up to Kuranda to see koalas, wombats, birds and butterflies. The birds were very impressive, but a highlight there was when I squatted down next to a window to see a wombat and it waddled over to check me out. Keep in mind that they usually just lay around. But this one came over to me and we bonded through the window. Later, I learned that they would happily chew my shoes off, regardless if my feet were in them or not.

The views from the train were amazing as were the views on the way down via a gondola. I’m used to riding chairlifts and gondolas, but wow, these are really high off the ground, which helped provide those great views.

Later in the week, one early morning, we boarded a catamaran and headed to the Great Barrier Reef. It was a windy and bouncy ride out there, which turned into pretty rough waves for snorkeling. But, despite a bit murky water due to the weather, the fish and coral still impressed.

A highlight was snorkeling above a couple hundred fish, a dozen different types, all swimming above a mix of coral. I especially like the coral with blue tips and the tiny intense blue fish. Then I spotted a 4-5 foot long white tipped reef shark, which I followed around for a bit. It was a great experience even though waves were cresting over me and filling the snorkel with water.

The return trip was quite the ride as the bow of the boat would break the waves, causing the wave to wash over the boat. The boat had 2 levels of covered seating, but very few seats were dry with all of the spray and wind.

We also visited Hartley’s Crocs where we got into a pen with a wombat and were thankful not to have our shoes chewed off. There, we were able to feed alligators (not crocodiles), kangaroos, emu, and a cassowary. The kangaroos were curious and happy to eat from my hand and be scratched behind the ears. The emus are aggressive eaters and really liked the cabbage we fed them, without losing a finger. The cassowary is like feeding some prehistoric creature, who gently ate grapes from our fingers and even gently pinched our fingers in the process. In the wild though, they would use a claw to slice us open without any effort. We saw crocodiles get fed, but I fed a chicken head to an alligator by using a very long stick.

Since it is winter here, the venomous jellyfish weren’t plentiful enough to be a problem, we avoided areas with wild crocodiles whose population has boomed in the last 20-30 years, and nobody was bitten by a spider. We even avoided dirt, due to a new problem in the area: Melioidosis, which is a serious bacterial infection caused a microorganism commonly found in the soil. Yep, even the dirt can kill you in Cairns! It’s still worth visiting though.

We’ve had a variety of experiences in just a few short days, such as:

Attending a concert at the Sydney Opera House to hear The Signature Choir & The Sydney Symphony: Man Moana – Spirit of The Ocean. The music was good and audience participation made it fun, although I didn’t understand the songs, which were in Samoan, Tongan, and other Pacific island languages.

Plus seeing the opera house from many viewpoints, including the Salesforce tower and a ferry that we took to & from the Taronga zoo.

At the zoo, we saw a variety of Australian animals that we’ve been looking forward to seeing. We might see more next week while up north.

And of course, walking to, around, and across the bridge offers good views too.

All that walking earned us a good local beer from Tooheys while at Sydney’s oldest pub, the Fortune of War.

We saw quite a bit:

Glow worms in a cave, along with stalagmites and stalactites.

Lots of countryside with cows, sheep and deer (we saw more cows than anything).

A bird sanctuary.

Mitai Māori Cultural Experience & Dinner Buffet.

A redwood tree forest, which I wasn’t expecting.

The Agrodome, where we saw sheep shearing, cow milking, and working dogs round up some ducks.

Hobbiton which was a beautiful location.

We had a sunny day walking around Auckland, which included the Maritime Museum and the Sky Tower.

It was 33 Celsius all day, but no rain, just a lot of sweat. We spent most of the day at the Marina Bay area or within sight of it. we even saw a rooster in the wild and a dinosaur. The architecture in the city, and especially the Marina Bay area, is pretty impressive.

A few sights while out walking on a rainy Sunday.

We met up with friends Steve and Brendan in Paris and, as usual, walked and walked and walked. This time, we discovered La Coulée Verte Paris, also known as the Promenade Plantée, which is an elevated walkway & park that used to be an elevated train track.

We saw a pizza vending machine, but didn’t try it., but we did try a cool little wine bar. And, we walked past the renovated Notre Dame, which is still under construction but looking good.

We also got to experience the city erupting with excitement Saturday night as Paris beat Milan for the Champions League. People were celebrating and streets started getting closed off, along with the Metro stops we needed to get back to our hotel. The Metro itself was shaking from people celebrating and even the driver was honking with excitement at each station.