Back in Sydney

I'm done. I'm ready to go home but not looking forward to the cold and snow.

Staying the evening at the Rydges Hotel at the airport.  It's not disgusting but I wouldn't want to stay here too long.

I definitely recommend visiting Australia. The country is beautiful.  The people were friendly to me but it might be because I'm white.  I would not go so far as to call the people here racist but the bankers made uncomfortable comments about the Asians who have moved here. There were also some weird comments about hispanics. 

And then there was this sign in the bathroom at the Cairns Airport

Flying home tomorrow. See you soon.

Another bucket list item checked off

Today, I snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef.

The reef is breathtaking. All the fish... big ones, small ones, blue ones, rainbow ones.  And the coral...  like trees, like brains, stiff or waving, red or blue or yellow.

It looks like something off the page of a Dr. Seuss book.

I wore a stinger suit since I did not want a repeat of the Barbados jellyfish incident.

Tomorrow, I have a relaxing day before I return to Sydney.

Tuesday I make the 10,000 mile journey home.  

Do one thing every day that scares you

There are 2 ways to get out to the Great Barrier Reef: by boat and by helicopter.

The boat takes 2 hours to get to the snorkeling platform.

The helicopter takes a 1/2 hour and flies over the reef before dropping you off at the snorkeling platform.  

I'm ok with heights but over water... not so much.  This is a small helicopter too.

But the boring boat ride.  Not looking forward to that either.

I picked the helicopter and I have to admit that I was a bit nervous about the flight.

I'm not sure that Eleanor Roosevelt had adventure travel in mind when she encouraged us to challenge ourselves everyday.

Scary helicopter

The helicopter ride was a little on the scary side but I survived. The overhead views of the reef definitely made it worth it.

In a corollary to Eleanor's rule, if you survive the scary thing then do it again the same day.  I hired the helicopter to take me back from the reef too.

Licking Ant Butts and Curvy Roads

Had a wonderful rainforest tour yesterday.  At 100 million years old, this is the oldest rainforest in the world.

On our way, we stopped to see wallabies which are like our deer at home. They are everywhere including lounging around people's yards.  My pictures are not great because we did not get that close but with the binoculars I could see the head of a baby sticking out from the pouch of one of the moms.

The road to the rainforest is the curvy Gillies Highway.  By curves, I mean 263 of them. It was more like a slalom than driving.

We also saw creepy bats (is there another kind of bat?), turtles, butterflies, birds, lizards, tiny kangaroos and the Cathedral Fig tree.

We also saw a platypus.  This was so cool.  You walk along the river looking for bubbles and then wait for the platypus to surface.  They surface quickly so I was never able to get a picture.

After a stop for dinner, we went back into the rainforest with powerful flashlights to look for the nocturnal creatures.  We saw more bats and 3 different kinds of possums. The possums here are cute. The guide asked me if it was true that American possums are ugly creatures.  It occurs to me that I don't know the difference between opossum and possum.

Sorry that I don't have very good pictures. My new underwater camera is not great at out of water pictures.

Are you wondering about "licking ant butts?"  They have these green ants that taste like lemon.  Really. I licked the ant. I have no regrets.

Today, I go snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef.

Cairns

I have arrived in Cairns.

I hate to rub it into to all my readers at home but the weather is perfect. Warm and sunny with a nice breeze off the water.

I have booked a rainforest tour for today.  The tour includes both a day time tour and a night time tour.

Staying at the Hilton.   So excited to see that they have a real Italian restaurant.  My Google friends on the Sydney trip are great company but they do like their steakhouses.

View from the restaurant

View of Queensland from the airplane

Bondi Beach

I finally made it over to the famous Bondi Beach.

The weather was not great but the beach is tremendous. I could easily spend days here and be happy.

The water was not as warm as Barbados but it was definitely swimmable.

Funny story about my ride over to the beach.  Since I was rushing over to the beach in between meetings, I hired a taxi from my hotel.  The driver did not speak English.  I don't care what country you are in but the odds of getting an English speaking driver are slim to none.  The trip to the beach went through a neighborhood of small boutique shops so I said to the driver -- "What is the name of this neighborhood since the shops look great?"  He went on to explain that these were not the "Greek" shops and he gave me elaborate directions to the Greek shops and hotels.  He was being so helpful that I did not have the heart to correct him.  He then asked if I was from Greek.  The only correct answer in this situation was "Yes."

We had our last team dinner at a Korean BBQ place. More meat. We hit a bunch of bars on our way to the restaurant.  Sydney takes Valentine's Day very seriously as evidenced from these girls at one of the bars.

Tomorrow morning I fly to Cairns. I have a rain forest tour tomorrow afternoon and snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef on Sunday.  I will miss Sydney. I've only been here a short time but it is now one of my favorite cities.

Bankers

For those wondering what I've been doing here in Sydney, I've been meeting with a lot of bankers. I can say with complete confidence that bankers are really boring. I have never seen so many cufflinks in my life.

Nothing else to report today. I had a full slate of meetings and then we went to dinner at yet another steakhouse. I cannot wait to get home to detox.

I promise that tomorrow I will go to the beach.