Great Barrier Reef cruise pt 1

Hello all!  Sorry for the big gap in posts, I'm sure you've been missing them desperately.  Lance and I are going to try and crank them out over the next couple days because we need to get ready for our last several weeks in New Zealand.  We will have plenty of sad, sappy posts for the end of it all.

Over Easter we did a cruise up the Australian coast along the Great Barrier Reef.  The Great Barrier was on my bucket list when we moved over here, but I wasn't sure if that would have to be saved for a different vacation later in life.  New Zealand has plenty of offer to fill up two years without throwing in another huge country as well.

I just spent the last two hours typing up a clever post with pictures, then BAM!  The browser and I had a disagreement and all the work is gone.  Now I'm annoyed and lazy so you are just getting the basics and pictures.

We flew into Brisbane for the first two days before our cruise departed.  We went with P&O's Great Barrier Discovery route.
Day 1: at sea
Day 2: Airlie Beach
Day 3: Cairns (pronounced like an Aussie hybrid of 'keens' and 'kens')
Day 4: Port Douglas
Day 5: Willis Island (just a drive by basically)
Day 6: at sea
Day 7: arrive Brisbane

In Brisbane we went to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, which was awesome.  We got to pet kangaroos, wallabies, and koalas!  Then we saw his wife and children in the crocodile show.  The crocodiles were impressive, although we were even more thrilled by the exotic birds they had fly in and around the audience, timed to music.  We had broad smiles on all our faces the whole time.  Think the Blue Angels on the 4th of July, but with birds.

Two points if you can name this bird.  Hint- there's a song about it.  Lance did not get two points.

Hi, Matty.

Searching for lemurs

We could have watched this tiger pace back and forth in front of us all day.  He finally plopped down in front of James who was thrilled.

  

In the evenings we went to South Bank, which is a recently redone neighborhood on the river.  The city is working hard to make it an appealing area and in my opinion they succeeded.  We really enjoyed Brisbane.  Very family friendly and chill.  South Bank had restaurants, parks, playgrounds, a night craft market, street performers, and a huge swimming area with fountains, a faux beach, and pools.  We definitely did not intend to go swimming in our dinner clothes, but James had other plans.  He had a change of clothes.  I did not.

PS Australia has 'fake Target'.  Somehow not associated with USA Target in any way but same design, font, and logo.  How is this legal?  I bought my first new item of clothing in a year and it was glorious.  NZ is expensive!

America's Cup Sailing Tour

Maggie here.  Our friends Megan and Rob had volunteered to watch James a couple times so Lance and I could do the Tongariro Crossing together.  It didn't work out as planned (see future post by Lance...not me :-( ) but for their flexibility and willingness to watch James we took them on the America's Cup Tour around the harbor in mid-March.  The New Zealand America's Cup team almost won a couple years ago but then the USA pulled a win out of nowhere.  It left the kiwis a little bitter.  Their maritime museum has the boat on display.  The NZ team also purchased an incomplete boat from another team (they didn't need it anymore) to try to gain insight into their strategy.  Now that boat is used for tours around the harbor.

The speed around the harbor was incredible and the angle of the deck when we got underway was thrilling!  We had to turn the grinders to get the various sails up and down and even got to take the wheel at one point.  I was surprised at how sensitive the wheel was.  Even a millimeter or two changed the heading noticeably.  It was a fun afternoon and we are lucky to have friends like Megan and Rob!

Port Waikato & Raglan (mostly Raglan)

More Black Sand Beaches & Fun in the water

Lance here.
We visited Port Waikato and Raglan during the summer and took in some great beach time activities on the black sand.  We did what we do best over here and played in the sand and rode some fun waves in the sunshine.  Raglan is know as the ultimate surfing beach here in NZ so of course I had to give it a shot.  Luckily the trip to the beach was well timed around James' nap, so while he and Maggie hung out on the beach I rented a surfboard and headed out into the waves and totally killed it, bro.  Just kidding, there was a bit of challenges and I definitely had some epic spills, but managed decently well and caught my fair share of waves.  (Maggie:  When did my husband start talking like a surfer dude?)

After a day at the beach with a nice hike mixed in we headed to Bridal Veil Falls.  These falls are hidden deep in farm country within the Waikato region, which is the dairy capital of the world.  In the midst of all the farms and forest were some enormous and beautiful waterfalls.  We were very glad that we headed off the beaten path to take in these beautiful falls that appear as a large crater in the middle of the forest.