One of the highlights of our round-the-world adventure has been spending time with my parents, first in Israel/Palestine in October and second in Sydney in April.  We planned our travel to coincide with my parents’ trip to Sydney, and we had a great time together.  We spent many hours laughing and making jokes as we always do, and oh yeah, we also saw some great sites.

We met Mom and Dad at Sydney Airport after their long flight from the United States, and they were amazingly awake and cheerful. Rather than resting for a couple of hours as we had anticipated, they were ready to tour the city. We had a great introduction to Sydney thanks to I’m Free Tours.  The idea is that you take the free tour, in our case a two-and-a-half hour overview of the city, without paying.  Then, you tip the guide at the end. It was great, and I recommend it to anyone in Sydney.

On Sunday, Mom and Dad were up early (just like at home), and we joined St. Stephen’s Uniting Church for Palm Sunday worship. On Sunday afternoon, we headed to Bondi Beach for the beautiful walk from Bondi to Coogee Beach.

On Monday, we headed west to the Blue Mountains where we saw the Three Sisters rock formation. I learned that the blue in the Blue Mountains comes from oils released by eucalyptus trees.

We visited Featherdale Wildlife Park so Mom and Dad could see koalas and kangaroos.

We learned about Aboriginal culture on a Sydney Harbor cruise with the Tribal Warrior Association, which provides education for indigenous and non-indigenous people. We listened to a didgeridoo, practiced indigenous dances, and learned about Aboriginal peoples in Sydney and beyond.

We enjoyed Sydney Harbor and shared a picnic in the Royal Botanic Garden.

 

The highlight of our time came from two performances at the Sydney Opera House. The first was J. S. Bach’s St. John Passion inside the opera house, and the second was Verdi’s Aida on the harbor with the opera house as the backdrop.

Jesus’ words sung in Bach’s St. John Passion were deeply moving:  “Es ist vollbracht!”  “It is accomplished!”  And the chorus’ words, “Ruht wohl” (“Rest well”), shaped my experience of Holy Week.

Aida was on a grand scale. The head of  Nefertiti, which towers over the stage, is eighteen meters (nearly sixty feet) tall.  The show was outside in the elements, and the pouring rain, whose arrival coincided with the Triumphal March, only made our experience more memorable. We donned ponchos and stayed until the end when Aida and Radames died as the orchestra’a music faded away.

Our time ended in Circular Quay when we took Mom and Dad to their cruise ship.  Happily aboard, they can rest, and we will too!  But we will have wonderful memories of our time Down Under.

The Great Barrier Reef was at the top of our list of things to do in Australia, and our time there exceeded our expectations. We decided to stay in Cairns, Queensland. Despite being chased by Cyclone Nathan (see my earlier blog post), we loved our time in Cairns with its warm weather, delicious tropical fruit, and friendly people.

From Cairns, we traveled by large catamaran to Green Island to spend three wonderful days at the Green Island Resort (one of the few splurges during our round-the-world adventure). Green Island is about 27 kilometers (nearly 17 miles) off the coast of Cairns. While at the resort, we enjoyed snorkeling, glass-bottom boat rides, wind surfing, nature walks, star gazing, and sea kayaking.  We saw many beautiful fish such as groupers and reef sharks and many Green Sea Turtles.

During one of our days at Green Island, we traveled to Norman Reef, which is farther offshore and has greater visibility in the water. The highlight of our time there was snorkeling.  All four of us donned stinger suits, which protect you from jelly fish.  The suits are skin tight and keep no secrets. Someone said that they are effective because jelly fish are too busy laughing at you to sting you.

While trying to get into my stinger suit, I nearly pulled a muscle and eventually laughed so hard that I cried.  My wife, son, and daughter heard me grunting and groaning while trying to get into my suit.  After much effort, I finally had both legs covered, but I could only fit one arm in the suit.  And, the suit was so tight that I could not stand up straight.  Finally, I came out of the bathroom bent over and pleading for help.  My wife tried to pull the suit over my shoulder to insert my second arm, but it would not budge.  At that point, I looked at my ten-year-old daughter, Rachel, standing quite comfortably beside me in a very baggy stinger suit.  Then, I realized that we had switched suits.  By this point, I was doubled over laughing with tears streaming down my face.  After much effort to get out of Rachel’s suit (I’m not sure if it was harder to get into the tiny suit or to get our of it…), I put on my adult-size suit and was ready to snorkel.

It was glorious!  I have been snorkeling in a number of places, and I enjoy it very much.  But, this was spectacular!  The colors were vibrant, the varieties of coral amazing, and the fish plentiful.  I loved floating at the surface, silently watching fish and looking at the beautiful coral.  Just then, I experienced the highlight of snorkeling — and indeed of my time at the Great Barrier Reef.

I was all alone when I spotted a Green Sea Turtle feeding about two meters (six feet) below me in the water.  I spent a long time watching the turtle feed below the surface and come up for air.  I thought, “I wish Lisa, Jonathan, and Rachel could see this.”  I looked around and, thankfully, spotted them.  They swam over, and together, all four of us spent a long time watching this amazing creature.

For me, the highlight was not only being so close to such a beautiful animal but also sharing this experience with my wife, son, and daughter.  I thought, “This experience — and these moments together — have been worth all the effort to get here.”

As we prepared to travel to Cairns, Australia, for our visit to the Great Barrier Reef, a news item caught our attention. Almost in passing, the television news anchor said, “A tropical cyclone is off the coast of northern Queensland.”  We paid close attention and learned about Tropical Cyclone Nathan, which would become our companion and nemesis for several days. 

Because we are veterans of hurricanes on Florida’s Gulf Coast, we know to keep an eye on the storm forecast while making our plans. And we know that such plans are subject to change if a storm changes direction. 

As we arrived at Trinity Beach, just north of Cairns, Nathan was offshore churning west toward the coast. The waves were higher than normal with plenty of rain, but Nathan then veered north and started heading away from land. 

  

As planned, we travelled to Green Island and Norman Reef (more on our time on the Great Barrier Reef in a future blog post).  While at Green Island with its beautiful weather, I saw the newspaper headline, “Second Coming,” warning of Nathan’s u-turn and return toward land. 

 

Our time at Green Island was excellent, but the twenty-seven kilometer catamaran ride back to Cairns was rocky and windy. The crew was helpful and kindly provided seasickness bags to many passengers. Thankfully, we did not need them!

We returned to Trinity Beach and waited. We regularly checked the Australian Bureau of Meteorology’s website for updates. After heading away a few days before, Nathan was coming back even stronger.  The storm was expected to intensify to a Category 3 or 4 Cyclone. 

 

We joined heaps of Australians at the market buying bottled water and canned food. It reminded me of empty shelves of milk and bread when snow is forecast in the American South.  Our host graciously said that we could come to her hillside home should the storm bear down on us. 

What happened?  

Tropical Cyclone Nathan eventually turned north and came ashore far away from us. We had periods of rain and higher than usual tides, but these gave us a great chance to catch up on reading as we enjoyed canned food and delicious bottles of water.  After a couple of days, the skies cleared, the waves settled down, and beautiful weather returned. 

All was well!