Cairns. A little north Queensland town that has only three things: hotels, bars/restaurants and tours. We did all of these things over the course of two days. Here's how it went:

Day 1: Wake at 4:30 am. Fly into Cairns at 8:30 am. Check into hostel. Book Skyrail tickets. Take Skyrail up through the rainforest to the small tourist market town of Kuranda. Wander. Take historic rail back to Cairns. Eat at Mexican restaurant. Go to bed.

Day 2: Board catamaran at 8:30am. Zoom out to Great Barrier Reef for 1.5 hours. Get to first reef, snorkel around, become seasick. (no barfing, though. We were medicated.) Feel queasy for next 4 hours or so. Finally at third reef site, I feel better. Zoom back to Cairns. Discover that I'm sunburnt. Get grumpy. Search for chemist for soothing gels. Eat sushi. Go to bed.

An exhausing, expensive, whirlwind tour.

It's been a lovely, steamy, week here. I've spent a few days exploring the city (thanks, CityCat!) while Sarah is at work.

The colourful buildings are home to the Brsbane City Library; the building with the big red room in the middle is the State Library of Queensland and the various boats were spied from the Botanic Gardens

However, these sights were not the highlight of the week, because we spent the weekend up on the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane. Staying with Sarah's cousins, we were shown a grand tour of the area, driving up to the incredibly beautiful Noosa National Park and the surfer town of Noosa Heads. We swam in Tea Tree Bay and walked to Hells Gates. We saw a wild Koala, and a Gold Orb spider (below). We were treated to a dinner of Kangaroo, Prawns and Snapper Fish - all Australian specialities. (the Kanga was very tasty, in case you were wondering). I got a bit too much sun, which is really easy to do if you're not really careful about reapplying sunscreen. It really was an amazing weekend.

Some of these photos can been viewed larger.

Coupled with the the sporadic rain that comes down hard from time to time, there is a verdant lushness that you can see and hear everywhere. From the bamboo, palms and ferns in just the backyard, to the incredible numbers of ants, birds and bats, this is a place teeming with life. It reminds me of Central America.

Outside of the climate, there's a few other things that will strike you pretty immediately. Despite the weaker dollar, Australia is expensive. It's the same kind of expensive that you feel when you visit Great Britain. There, you price doubling thing to get a handle on what things cost in CDN. Here, though, you don't have to. Our dollar is slightly stronger, so you can take a bit off the AUS price. But even so, coffee at $3.50? Fast food meal for $10? Try this one: a video game that would retail for $60 new in Canada, goes for $100 in Australia. No currency exchange is going to fix that.

The other thing you'll notice is the dedication to all things Australian. Back home, there is a small push to eat local, buy local. Here, though, you almost cannot help it: most of the food in the grocery store is made in Australia, and many other things as well, like cleaning products, etc. It is really nice to pick up something and see in big letters: Made In Australia. It just seems right. (PS, their Coke is made with cane sugar, not HFCS).

One of the best things about Brisbane City, for me, is the river. Because they use it. From where I am, in St. Lucia, you can catch the city catamaran (aka the City Cat), which just like a bus, will take you about the city. It's fast, easy, and just darn practical.

Oh, and you should see the libraries!

In two days, I will be boarding a jet plane that will first cut across the North American continent diagonally, and then hop over the great Pacific Ocean to its final destination, Brisbane. While I have flown overseas, it has never been of this magnitude - here's hoping my veins are up to the challenge. I *did* exercise yesterday.

My plan is to document this trip, visually, as thoroughly as I can, and post the results here for you to see. So, add breakablecrate to your RSS readers so you don't miss a thing. Get yourself onto twitter so we can fling sweet witty nothings to each other from great distances.

And if it turns out that I don't melt in the sub-tropical wet heat, we can meet again on the other side.

Bon Voyage to me, crate busters!

Look for me somewhere in this vicinity.

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