Chapter Six: Down Under and Back
Trinity Beach |
Trinity Beach, Queensland, Australia, just north of Cairns and opposite the Great Barrier Reef, became our home for six
days. Trinity is beautiful—palm
trees (with the coconuts thoughtfully removed) line a half-mile strip of sand
beach between two rocky points.
The Coral Sea lapped at the beach less than 50 yards from our balcony and
windows. Restaurants and bars sat at the corner of the next intersection, a block or so down the beach, along
with a convenience store and car rental place. And I was the youngest guy in town---like Phoenix with a
beach and a rain forest.
Trinity Beach and Tablelands |
We drove the coast road—the Captain Cook Highway, with lots
of curves and hills along the sea north toward Port Douglas and Cape
Tribulation. (Captain Cook had
some trouble here.) The “tablelands” meet the sea in stunning cliffs, and we
stopped at one scenic lookout place to watch parasail guys take off from the
cliff.
Road Side Wallabies |
The only cloudy, rainy day was the day we booked an all day
snorkel/SCUBA trip. On the way to
their dive moorings on the reef, the girls filled out medical forms, and Abby
made the mistake of mentioning that she had had childhood asthma. That disqualified her from SCUBA, but
she and Gail snorkeled while Millie dived. It was too rough for my seasickness and me to enjoy. The clouds cleared as we returned to
Cairns, and it was beautiful again.
So we got some gelato before the night market opened.
Our next-to-last day, we drove up into the tablelands and
saw yet another waterfall, then spent the balance of our Trinity Beach time laying on the sand and packing for Sydney. The
flight was sort of eventful (Don’t fly Jet Star if you can help it.) with our
bags being just overweight enough to get expensive for us and a bother for the
check-in person we dealt with. She
left and the bags were okayed by the next check in person. The flight was full of screaming
children, tall Asians with pointy knees—at least the guy behind me—but brief enough
that we all survived.
We scooped up our bags, caught a big taxi and landed in
downtown to find that the Meriton Service Apartment on Kent Street near Darling
Harbor had overbooked two bedroom apartments, so they gave us a three bedroom, split
level, 56th floor, sub-penthouse apartment. For the first time in six weeks, the
girls did not share a room or a bed and Gail had a Jacuzzi bathtub. And we had an incredible view from the
balcony.
From the Penthouse |
Sydney was beautiful—mostly sunny and cool with lots to see. We wandered around late that first
afternoon until we came to the Circular Quay, the ferry terminal between the two
main landmarks, the Harbor Bridge and the Opera House. The next day we rode the hop on/hop off
buses around the city, then spent the evening walking around the shops next to
Darling Harbor before we caught the latest Batman movie at the world’s largest
IMAX theater.
China Garden near Darling Harbor |
The next morning we took the Opera House tour, then after a Quay-side lunch, caught the ferry to the Zoo.
The Opera House is a monster—like the Taj Mahal, Notre Dame or the Lincoln Memorial,
bigger than you expect, and really a fantastic piece of architecture. At the gift shop, I could have bought a T-shirt that read: "The sun did not know how beautiful it's light could be until it saw it reflected off this building." But, we got Christmas tree ornaments instead.
The Opera House |
The Zoo is pretty cool as well. We finally got to see the kangaroos, emus, platypus
and exotic birds. Eventually we
caught the ferry back to the city and packed up for the next day’s flight back
to Dhaka.
At the Zoo |
We spent the last of the kids’ inheritance at the Sydney airport duty free shops on single malt
Scotch, t-shirts, ties and perfume...important stuff. Eight hours later we were in the Kuala Lumpur's airport, Abby was still working on her last
class assignment and charging her computer when we were called to board the
last flight—Kuala Lumpur to Dhaka—of the summer.
Sydney from the Zoo |
In the end, Gail and I decided we were blessed to have
daughters that turned out to be such good travel buddies. And, this was the trip of a
lifetime—Milford Sound to the Coral Coast to Return to Paradise Beach to the
Sydney Opera House.