The Great Barrier Reef - Day 1

Back in October we discussed the upcoming holidays and how we wanted to spend them. Of course, our first choice would be to fly home to TX/VA and spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families and friends...but since that is not an option, we decided on choice #2...travel! So we picked our destinations, planned accordingly and anxiously awaited our first big holiday trip.  At 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving eve we boarded our flight to tropical North Queensland in Australia and set off to visit the kangaroos and koalas! First, let me say that flying ALL night and starting your vacation at full speed on one hour of sleep is not exactly ideal...but, with the help of lots of Diet Coke (yep, they don't have that awful Coke Light in Australia) we got enough caffeine in our systems to fully enjoy our day! The first thing we did is rent a CAR...yep that's right, we drove for the first time in 6 months! We were thankful that we both remembered how to drive :) The only adjustment was learning to drive on the opposite side of the road while sitting on the right side of the car, but I'm happy to report that we both mastered it in no time! As we drove away from Cairns and up the coast to Port Douglas (the town that we stayed in), we couldn't help but think of our time spent living in Hawaii because the scenery was SO similar! It was a great chance for us to think back on our very first year of marriage and our first Thanksgiving away from our families. Hard to believe that was 5 years ago! Our first stop of the day was the Cairns Tropical Zoo - we wanted our chance to cuddle koalas and feed the kangaroos and we got to do both (plus Matt cuddled a crocodile too). After we left the zoo, we stopped by Hartley's Crocodile Adventure to get up close and personal with the crocs! When we had our fill of all the Aussie animals we continued up the coast and finally made it to Port Douglas! We freshened up and found a delicious plac to have our Thanksgiving dinner. We spent our dinner discussing everything we're thankful for and while there are too many to count, the things that we feel most blessed with are our amazing families and wonderful friends! Day 1 was a fantastic success and we couldn't wait for Day 2 to start...

Matt conquers driving on the opposite side!

First stop, the Cairns Tropical Zoo!

Matt was immediately greeted by  friendly, little wallaby :)

Next was one of the things I'd been waiting for since we booked our trip...

...my chance to cuddle a koala!!

Matt cuddled a croc too...my own crocodile hunter!

Did you know that koalas sleep for 18-20 hours a day? They can only "work" for a total of 30 minutes each day, work meaning being held or pet.

This massive crocodile came right up out of the water and right next to the deck we were standing on. We were just slightly nervous!

Then I got right up next to it and took this picture of its teeth...

Just kidding! Thank goodness for a zoom lens :)

When we had enough of the huge croc, we set off to spend some time with something a bit less scary...

I don't know if you can see Matt's face in this picture, but I just adore it because he's making the same face the kangaroos do when they want food!

A joey in his mom's pouch!

This little guy watched our stuff for us :)

So Matt fed him as a way of saying thank you.

Once we left the zoo we went over to Hartley's Crocodile adventure...

First we took a tour of the crocodile farm. They breed them for skin and meat. It does sound mean, but doing this has actually helped remove crocodiles from the list of endangered species. People no longer have to hunt them from their natural habitat for these purposes.

Black swans at the farm.

We took a boat ride through the crocs natural habitat. They hang chicken off poles and the crocs jump out of the water to get them! (Check out the video at the bottom of the page!)

Next was the Crocodile Attack Show where we got to see a crocodile do a death roll.

Then this guy hand fed the croc. Talk about scary!

A beautiful lookout point halfway between Cairns and Port Douglas.

Our Thanksgiving dinner out in Port Douglas. No turkey, but we enjoyed it just the same!

Here are a few more pictures to enjoy!

The crocodile death roll!