Return to Paradise, Or How We Spent the Kids' Inheritance: Final Chapter

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. 

 The other thing we saw that day was Mossman Gorge, a national park around a rushing mountain stream and rain forest preserve.  A red headed turkey-like bird followed the tourists down the path to the stream; on the way we saw a tree snake, but that was about it for wildlife.  Wallabies, small kangaroo-like mammals, could be seen along the road near Trinity Beach, as well. 

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, 56^th 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.