nature travel, wildlife tours, adventure travel and general travel to Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific

Australia/New Zealand tour for Richard & Margaret Atmar

continues......

Day 19– Sunday, May 1: Canberra / Orange
Spend this morning looking around Canberra, then continue on to Orange, about four hours north, down of the high country and in the rolling wheat and sheep fields of central New South Wales. Along the way you'll see typical country towns - make sure you stop in at a pub for a beer, a meat pie and a bit of a chat - birds such as brown falcons, kookaburras and perhaps eagles, and other scenes of Australian rural life.

Days 20 - 21 – Monday & Tuesday, May 2 & 3: Orange
Spend these days with your relatives at Orange.

Day 22– Wednesday, May 4: Orange / Sydney
Leave for Sydney today, heading towards the coast and Australia’s largest and most bustling city, a contrast to the slower and calmer-paced Melbourne. Gloriously situated on Sydney Harbour, there are few cities better located anywhere in the world. Overnight next two nights at the wonderfully located and historic Harbour Rocks Hotel.

Day 23 – Thursday, May 5: Sydney
Today is free to explore this vibrant and friendly city. At 10.30am meet your small group for a 1 1/2 hour guided walk of the historic district. There is no better way to see the old, often convict-built buildings of Sydney, and learn of their past. Cadman's Cottage, for example, is one of the oldest buildings in Australia. In addition to great shops to buy the needed souvenirs and gifts, just a short walk is the Botanic Gardens and the Domain, which has good views of the harbor, an abundant bird life, and a colony of huge Grey-headed Fruit-bats, whose wingspans are approximately three feet. The Australian Museum, with its impressive collection of Aboriginal artifacts and art, is also close by. The Taronga Zoo is a ferry ride across the harbor, and a lunch or dinner cruise is a good way to truly appreciate this water-side city.

Day 24 - Friday, May 6: Sydney / Cairns
Most of the day is free for Sydney. The best way to really see Sydney Harbour is on a ferry. While there are tours that utilize the ferries, usually with lunch or morning tea, the cheapest way to do this is to simply buy a return ticket to one of the up-harbor places such as Homebush (where the Olympics were held). You’ll see a map of all the places they go at Circular Quay. The ferries have a snack/meal bar, and you can just get an easy lunch or snack there, sit back, and enjoy the ride. The ferry to Manly goes in the other direction, and as it passes the Entrance, where the harbor enters the Pacific, can get interestingly rough at times. This ferry will pass the Opera House and various other landmarks, and is also a good run. Later this afternoon taxi to the airport for your flight to Cairns, in Australia's tropical north, where you are met and transferred to your your waterfront hotel, the Tradewinds Esplanade. The hotel is located on Cairns Esplanade, and directly opposite the best shorebird viewing site. At any time of the day the exposed muddy areas are prime feeding for hundreds of shorebirds, from large pelicans to medium curlews to tiny, busy Terek Sandpipers. To help you out, there are posters in shelters dotted about identifying some of the birds, but it's a rare time of the day when there's not some friendly local birder also present, willing to lend a hand. As well as your hotel restaurants there are many others nearby.

Day 25 - Saturday, May 7: Great Barrier Reef
Today you are introduced to one of the natural wonders of the world—Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, a series of reefs extending for about 1,250 miles along the coast of Queensland, nearly to Papua New Guinea. On your trip today you experience two important features—a coral inner-shelf reef, and the sandy vegetated cay formed on one end. Michaelmas Reef lies about 22 miles off the coast just north of Cairns, with Michaelmas Cay on its southern tip. It is an important seabird rookery, which becomes apparent as you approach the mass of birds swirling constantly above the cay. The four primary species are Crested, Lesser-crested and Sooty Terns, and Common Noddy. Lesser Frigatebirds are usually present, as are Silver Gulls, Brown Boobies and Ruddy Turnstones. The cay, most of which is off limits, is a National Park within the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. However, the birds are very tolerant of visitors and stand thickly along the beach, allowing us to approach them within a few yards. Immediately offshore in waist-deep water, the first of the corals can be seen. For those not used to snorkelling, there is no easier introduction—just walk up to your waist, and bend over. Brilliantly colored fish, giant clams, beche de mer and coral outcrops can all be seen. Easy swimming in shallow water brings us over coral “bombies,” heads of coral with their assortment of fishes, and hard and soft corals. Parrot fish glean algae from the coral, and small and medium predators search for food. Schools of fish twist and flash between the outcrops. An occasional sea turtle may be seen. You glide around the coral in a semi-submersible submarine, dry and with your ordinary cameras, while a marine biologist describes the species seen and some of the processes at work. If you are interested, there are guided snorkel tours led by a marine biologist at additional cost. On your trip out, one of the marine biologists explains the development of this and other reef systems and gives us an introduction to many of the animal species that you see. Lunch is a tropical smorgasbord. In the afternoon you return to Cairns, under sail if the winds are right. Your transport to the reef is a 105 foot luxury, motor-sailing catamaran. There is time after your return this evening to visit Cairns, or you may wish to relax poolside at the hotel. L

Day 26 – Sunday, May 8: Cairns / Kuranda / Cairns
This morning take the Kuranda Scenic Rail up the mountain range behind Cairns to Kuranda. This 1 1/2 hour trip passes waterfalls, and offers superb views of the Coral Sea. At the top you may want to spend a little time in Kuranda, which although very touristy has a wonderful butterfly Sanctuary. Return to Cairns via the Skyrail, stopping at a couple of the waystations for short boardwalks through the rainforest. Skyrail skims the top of the forest on its journey down, giving a view rarely seen. At the bottom visit the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park. Although designed in part as a tourist venture, the 16 year old concept began and remains today a means of introducing non-aboriginal people to the world’s oldest living culture, while at the same time showing by example to the Aboriginal people themselves that their culture, often ignored and looked down upon by its own people, is of great value and interest to others throughout Australia and the world. Activities here include the Aboriginal History Theatre, the Creation Theatre, the original Tjapukai Dance Theatre, a didgeridoo demonstration, spear and boomerang throwing, and descriptions of traditional foods and medicines. Although the park is a little hard to describe, I know you will enjoy it and learn a lot about Aboriginal life.

Day 27 – Monday, May 9: Cairns / Atherton Tablelands
You are picked up this morning for a full and long day out birding and wildlife searching. The details of your itinerary will be worked out with your guide in advance, taking into consideration your other activities in the region, and elswhere in Australia. Parrots such as the large King Parrots and tiny Double-eyed Fig Parrots may be seen, as well as Green Catbirds, honeyeaters, waterfowl and hopefully Cassowary. Included will be a variety of habitats, including the rainforests of the Atherton Tablelands. These World Heritage listed rainforests, at an elevation of about 2,500 ft, are home to some of Australia’s rarest and most unusual animals, including four kinds of very restricted possums, gliders, and the definitely weird tree kangaroo, a kangaroo which has adapted to a life in the trees, rather than on the ground. Your guide will take you to a small stream to wait for platypus, the egg-laying mammal unique to Australia, all the time describing the plants and dynamics of the surrounding rainforest. A variety of rainforest birds and other animals, perhaps including the leaf-tailed gecko - eight inches long and colored and shaped like a piece of bark - will be found and seen. After dinner out, a couple of hours will be spent spotlighting for nocturnal animals, always a highlight of the day. The return to Cairns will be late, around midnight, but the long day will remain in your memory for years to come. D

Day 28 – Tuesday May 10: Cairns
Sadly, Your last full day in Australia. During your stay in Cairns you may wish to visit the Outback Opal Mine, where as well as buying opals you can learn from an educational film and display how and where they are mined. A call to this interesting store and museum will have them coming to collect you, and drop you off later, at no obligation. Cairns has many interesting things to do and see, such as the Royal Flying Doctor Service base and visitor centre, but you will also need part of today to prepare for your trip home.

Day 29 – Wednesday, May 11: Cairns / Sydney / Los Angeles / Houston
Sadly, your last day in Australia. This morning take an early flight south to connect with your return flight to Los Angeles. Due to the International Dateline, you arrive in Los Angeles at 12.40pm today, in plenty of time for your flight to Houston. *L,*D,*B

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