Today was a travel day - we are heading to the Great Barrier Reef!!! Can you tell I'm excited? Like I mentioned in my last post, we got up very early in order to check in for our flights to Australia by 5am.
We also had to return our rental car, which wasn't as easy as it sounded. We had to drop the car at the lot, which was not next to the terminal, so we dropped Mom & Dad with all the luggage at the international terminal and then Brian and I drove the car to the rental agency and walked back. Since we had left our sweatshirts in one of our prior hotels, I was really glad it was a warm morning!
We got checked in - although Mom & Dad's luggage is starting to look pretty sad due to it getting a little broken during their first flights to New Zealand. I couldn't believe it, but there were stores open that early. This was a good thing because Mom & Dad were finally able to find a t-shirt they liked for Parker. He was the only one they hadn't purchased a t-shirt for in New Zealand and this was their last chance. Good job grandparents!
We first flew to Sydney, which wasn't too bad since Air New Zealand served us breakfast. We watched some movies and were there in no time. A short layover later we were headed up to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef! This flight was okay, but Virgin Australia didn't have free inflight services since on this particular domestic flight.
We were welcomed to an absolutely sweltering heat. Finally! I was really happy about this until we checked into our hotel room. Okay, I booked Best Western because it was a brand I recognized at a reasonable price. I was completely shocked that they did not have a lift (elevator) so we got to carry our luggage up three flights of stairs. Ugh. Then, an overpowering heat wave emanated through the room as we walked in. The room offered a wall mounted air conditioner, only it obviously hadn't been turned on in a while. It really didn't cool down until the following morning.
Needless to say, we couldn't possibly think about doing anything else in that heat. We all got on the internet and took care of some personal things. Then Mom & Dad got lost walking to a Domino's Pizza for some dinner. I say lost, because they didn't tell us they were walking there and we didn't hear from them for about 1.5 hours. We actually gave up looking for them and started walking to the dive shop to make sure they would have scuba gear in Brian's size for tomorrow. Luckily we all hooked back up and no one was "lost".
Bats anyone?
I didn't realize it would get dark so much earlier here than in New Zealand (think 7pm rather than 9:30pm), so we were unexpectedly caught out in the dark. We started hearing these weird bird calls in the air. We looked up to see several winged creatures flying over our heads. I told Brian I thought they were bats. Of course, he didn't believe me at first. But I pointed out that they were they shape of the Batman symbol in the air and he came around. (I know, I know, I am a nerd to use Batman as support for my theory that they were bats).
Then there were thousands of them! We had taken a route to the dive shop that had huge trees lining the streets and there were literally thousands of bats completely over-filling the trees and flying through the air. You may think I'm exaggerating, but I am not. We were so freaked out that we only took streets that had businesses with awnings to walk under on the way back. I was just waiting for one to attack my head our drop some guano on me. Yuck! Luckily I think we made it guano free.
Brian did a little research later that night and found out these bats are called flying foxes and there are approximately 20,000-30,000 in the area. I told you I wasn't exaggerating the numbers! We took some pictures of the bats camping out in a tree the next day after our dive, but I thought the pictures were more appropriate here.
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| In this picture, you can see how densely populated the trees are with the Flying Foxes. |
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| And a little bit closer now... |
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| And a little bit closer now! I'm scared all over again just looking at these pictures! |
Flying Foxes Fact Sheet
Unfortunately, Brian also wore flip-flops (called jandals over here in NZ - weird, huh?) to the dive shop and developed some terrible blisters on the bottom of his feet. So by the time we were back from our scary night out, he was basically an invalid. Poor guy - lucky we will be in the water or on a boat all day tomorrow. Hooray!
And that was our interesting travel day.
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