We just got back from three weeks in Australia and New Zealand, so we picked five photos from each day.  Enjoy the photo album!

 

The flight over was 22 hours counting connections, airports, and the flights themselves.  Strangely enough, the jet lag wasn’t bad at all.  Not sure why.

We finally got to Cairns in the Queensland region around noon after losing a day on the flight over from Los Angeles.  On the north coast of Australia and its most tropical, the city is pronounced Cans.

After a quick lunch we took a flight out to the Great Barrier Reef to see it from the air.  We knew it would be important to stay awake for the rest of the day, and we thought the flight out and back might help.  In two days we will go snorkeling on the reef.

Coming back we saw the sugar cane fields, but there are now so few of them.  Malaysia seems to have taken away their sugar cane market.

That night we had dinner with our tour director who will be with us during the entire three weeks both in Australia and New Zealand.  An Aussie himself he gave a brief presentation on what is unique about Australia, its people, its economy, and its culture.

Most interesting was his warning about swimming at the beach or even walking along the shoreline anywhere.  It seems that the salt water crocodiles are frighteningly deadly as is a certain box jelly fish.  In short, absolutely no walking anywhere near the water, even on the road by the mangroves; and absolutely no swimming except in the daytime in a designated area.