Wednesday, March 3, 2010 Cairns, Australia
Last night in the night, we had a beautiful lightening display but no one was up to watch it with me so I only stayed on the balcony about ½ hour before returning to bed. This morning I was awake around 5:30 and went on the balcony to enjoy my morning ritual of coffee as we began our entry in Cairns Harbour. Cairns is located in northern Queensland and is referred to as the tropical capital. One of the main industries is sugar plantations. After docking at Trinity wharf which is right in the heart of town, it didn’t take the crew long to have the gangway ready for us to depart for the day. We got off the ship and began walking for about ¼ mile to pick up a taxi to go to the train station. It is a pretty city, with wide streets, delicate ferns and tropical shrubs at every turn. Originally, this was supposed to be a tender port so the train tickets I had purchased on line were for a different train station but the ticket agent had no problem changing them for us. While waiting in line we met a couple from Berwick, NS and a couple from Miramichi. The 1 ½ hour train ride up to Karaunda village was absolutely breathtaking with waterfalls, and lush tropical plants. Once we arrived to the village high in the mountains, we strolled around and visited the shops and even purchased a few items. The weather was so hot, that I thought I was going to collapse. It was well over 95 degrees, sunny with humidity levels over 80. I think sweat was pouring out of every pore of my body. No man would ever want to pick me up because I’m sure I didn’t smell very good. I drank more water today than I have in the past year. Around 2 pm we left the village and began the cable car ride back to Cairns. I think the ride down was more beautiful than the ride to the top. We then purchased tickets for a bus ride back to the ship. By now I was really hot and getting cranky. There were several passengers on the bus and there was this really obnoxious fellow that kept making comments about the Canadian fans at the Olympic gold hockey game. And then he started in about “Sid the Kid” After about 10 minutes of this crap, I was cranky enough that I loudly said....Yeah Canada...I’m Canadian and proud of it and everyone started clapping. The obnoxious fellow never said another word. This evening we had to fill out our immigration papers for Papua New Guinea, take our passports and meet with Immigration officials. This will expedite the process and we will be able to get off the boat immediately upon docking the day after tomorrow. Enough for tonight. Tomorrow is a Sea Day and I plan to spend a good part of it in the pool.