Yesterday, we had our long-awaited visit to the Wildlife Sanctuary and met some really charming koalas. These animals are fascinating - they spend only 1% of their day actually moving, and more than 20 hours a day sleeping. If stress shortens your life, I seriously cannot imagine why they do not live to be 200 years old. They are amazingly cute - they manage to sleep in the most amazing positions you have ever seen. One of them appeared to be asleep balancing on two twigs, and was well and truly out of it. You have to admire that kind of dedication to relaxation. But Liam and Siobhan were the most impressed yesterday, as they got to cuddle their koalas like a wee little baby - a baby with big claws and no diaper. The rest of the sanctuary was quite small, but we did get a glimpse of kangaroos, wallabies, and wombats. The crocodiles were unfortunately off limits, but we did see the world's deadliest bird - the cassowary. Apparently, they kill more people in a year than any other bird. I find that hard to believe, given the number of unfortunate "death by turkey" incidents which seem to be reported around American Thanksgiving.
After the koalas, I went off to my long-awaited experience on Hamilton Island - a trip to the spa, courtesy of my wonderful husband. I can honestly say that I was so relaxed at the end of my treatment that I could have slept in a tree balanced on two twigs. The kids went swimming in the outdoor pools and had a marvelous time. After that, we decided to join the masses and rented a golf cart to travel around the island. It seems that unless you are involved in the construction and delivery industries, you are limited to a golf cart as your vehicle on the island, even if you are a resident. This proved to be a great move, as we went out for an evening drive around parts of the island we would probably have not seen otherwise. It was a fantastic drive in the moonlight. We found some great lookout spots, and we came back today to take some photos. We stopped at the marina for some ice cream to complete the experience.
This morning, Pete and Liam headed off to the pool again and I headed off for a hike through the forest to a scenic overview of the island. It was a great hike but I have to say that I have never been more aware of my intolerance for humidity than I was on that hike. I am such a prairie girl that it is not even funny. Liam and I headed off to the beach after lunch to do some more snorkeling in the reef areas while the tide was out. Unfortunately, it is pretty windy today and the water was a bit cloudy, so we opted to head back to another pool in the area. Liam decided to snorkel there and reported seeing some equally interesting things on the pool floor that I do not want to consider.
My family reminded me today that I neglected to mention one of the more interesting incidents from our trip the day before yesterday when we went to Whitehaven Beach. If I had to title it, I would call it "When a Large Group of Strangers Gathers Around Your Belongings and Starts to Take Pictures, It Probably Isn't Good". We were all in the ocean, practicing our sensory deprivation, when we noticed a bunch of people pointing at and then taking pictures of our stuff, which we had left in a shady area. Eventually, we thought this might be more than someone amusing themselves at our sartorial sense and we went to take a look ourselves. It turns out that a rather large Lace Monitor Lizard was rooting around in our lunch coolers (all fortunately sealed up) looking for leftovers. This thing was absolutely huge. I was just able to get a glimpse of him as he waddled away but he was quite an intimidating sight. Apparently, they eat anything that is not nailed down and can get fairly aggressive. And you thought the ants at your last picnic were bad.
We have now had to return our golf cart, sadly, but are planning to pursue some mini-golf options tonight. We are off again tomorrow to Cairns for some more snorkeling around the Great Barrier Reef, but we will miss Hamilton Island. We have really enjoyed our beach vacation, and I think that I may have to investigate that melanin transplant option more seriously.....
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