Day 11 - China Town, Darling Harbor, Arrival into Cairns

Today we are flying to Cairns (pronounced CANS) for a 3 day diving cruise on the Great Barrier Reef. Prior to our departure, Carolyn, Julia and Anthony took us back into Sydney to China Town and Darling Harbor for some more sight seeing and lunch. We road on the Monorail which Carolyn says was basically built for the “terrorists” as there is really no reason for it.  It was fun to see the city from that view point though! Well we have officially logged 8 days in Sydney. Based on several responses from local Aussies, we have done an amazing amount of sight seeing during our time here. We can not thank Julia, Carolyn and Peter enough for their gracious hospitality and expertise.

We flew Virgin Blue Airlines to Cairns (a domestic flight obviously) but b/c of this they had different rules about luggage – specifically the weight of our luggage. We flew over here with two rolling pieces and two duffel bags – the duffel bags had our dive gear as well as gifts – the rolling pieces were for our clothes and stuff. We kind of knew about the weight restriction so Nathan and I shed as much as we could part with into the duffel that had the gifts in it (now empty) and left it at Carolyn’s as we are flying back threw Sydney before going home. (Yes we were able to fill the extra duffel bag completely and still I was worried all morning that the other bags would be too heavy – I swear our stuff has multiplied!) I was worried b/c I heard they were very strict on weight – and rightfully so – when we got to the check-in and find out that the limit was 20 kilos per person (not bag as we had thought) – we were OVER by 21 kilos!!!! Thank god the two people behind the counter were women and Nathan was able to use his amazing southern charm and wit to talk the women into letting it pass (jokes about his wife’s shoe addiction, all her shopping, and inability to pack lightly, blah, blah, blah) actually worked and we didn’t have to pay a dime!!! I don’t know how he did it - but boy were we lucky! (Sidenote – I just want to say to defend myself that the 21 kilos over was basically the dive equipment and had nothing to do with my luggage or shoes thank you very much!) We arrived into Cairns on Monday evening whereby we took a taxi to the hotel.

Views from our hotel room in Cairns, Australia





We will spend the night in the hotel prior to our Tuesday AM departure on our 3 day cruise. Since we will be out in the middle of the ocean for the next 3 days, we will not be able to post our next blog until Friday, but I promise to tell you all about it when we have our first internet connection! Definitely check back – we have been told there might be “killer jellyfish” on the reef and Nathan hopes we see some big sharks! (Last note for the day – we would have had pictures for you from our adventures today BUT Nathan DELETED them all as well as most of the beautiful pictures I took from the wedding last night!@%@&! Needless to say he is not allowed to touch my camera ANY MORE!!!!!)