Thinking Allowed: Showers

The kids were happy to be pulled out of school for a week to go to northern Queensland. Unfortunately we weren't the only ones excited to visit Northern Queensland last week and cyclone Trevor also scheduled an impromptu holiday. This meant that we finally got some good use out of our rain jackets which tend to gather dust in our closets in Canberra. Between endless rain, oceans, humidity, and swimming pools within two days all our our clothes seemed to be damp and our fingers permanently wrinkled. We didn't let the weather stop us from having a good time at Fitzroy island, where we got to go for numerous hikes and swims in downpours and still fit in snorkeling in the patches of fair weather. I had the foresight to wake up very early the morning of our boat ride and purchase about 10 kilos of tropical fruit which made us pretty good humoured about any hiccups to our plans.

We were all excited to go to Daintree but cancelled our two nights there on the suggestion of our accommodation as Trevor was having a teary tantrum nearby. Jakob was relieved for the change in plans as his back wasn’t keen on the extra six hours of driving. The kids really didn’t care either way and were quite pleased about the nine pools at our Cairns accomodation and the hours they got to spend at Rusty’s playground. So I was pretty much the only one who felt the loss but then I had a great evening out on the town with Aurora and Zadie, a great family Zumba session in the waterside lagoon at dusk, and an intense solo speed hike up the worlds largest freestanding natural pyramid in the pouring rain so it all worked out quite well. Plus, on my way down the steep river of a hike I found a plastic bag in a puddle which turned out to be the plastic bag that contained my rental car key and chunk of emergency brie. Given that I had no idea my key fell out of my pocket I am feeling like a very lucky person indeed. Also the cheese was good after the tiring hike.

Our last day up north the two older girls and I got to boat out to the Great Barrier Reef and snorkel. Lucky us again that the sun started shining on the boat ride out and only clouded over as we came back to the coast. We three enjoyed doing the dead mans float as we oohed and aahed over parrotfish and turtles. Sophia favorite part was all the things in the ocean. Aurora liked this one particular piece of corral. I liked the turtles and the fact that the only thing keeping male clownfish male is the stress caused to them by their female partners and if their partners disappear they inevitably turn female.

We thought of intentionally missing our flight home as everyone was in favor of that plan but here we are back in Canberra likely a few centimeters taller after all our watering and tropical fruit grazing.