Our time in Australia was brief, but lots of fun. According to Frances, we found “the best playground ever” along the Esplanade that runs along the beach in Cairns. Most of our time was spent on Green Island, a national park complete with a rainforest on a 30 acre coral cay right on the Great Barrier Reef. It’s located 45 minutes from Cairns by boat. We toured the reef in a glass bottom boat (but the battery for the GoPro died so no pictures of that), snorkeled on the reef, fed fish, walked around the island (a couple of times since it only takes 45 minutes if you’re walking slow), swam, stargazed and relaxed. We saw sea turtles, lots of fish, manta rays and one shark. In the morning we head for New Zealand and we’re looking forward to a couple of much cooler weeks there. We can finally break out the jackets we’ve carried half-way around the world. We will be driving the length of New Zealand, from north to south. It should be exciting, especially since they drive on the left side of the road.