Friday, July 17, 2009

Farewell Australia

Well, we're home now (WOOO HOOOOO!!), but let me backtrack a bit...

If you like coffee and chocolate, you'd LOOOOOOOVE this place.

On our second last day in Oz, we visited COFFEE WORKS!! Around Cairns is the biggest coffee producing area in Australia.

For $19 each, we had all day access to the world's biggest coffee museum, and unlimited sampling of 21 flavours of coffee, 4 rare teas, 3 liqueurs, & 12 types of chocolate, as well as a $5 voucher for the gift shop. A pregnant woman's dream (well, the chocolate anyway...).

Did someone say UNLIMITED?!

Bring it on.

We took a short break from our sampling to wander through the museum. They had some seriously old school things there. Can you imagine having one of these bad boys grace your counter?

The museum had some low beams, and we were warned to "mind our heads".

We also walked through the garden and sampled a fresh coffee bean.

Before long, we returned to the sampling area and hopped ourselves up on sugar and caffeine.

(I wonder how many other people actually sucked on the rim like I did...)

Let's just say that my bowels were NOT happy with me. Grossness was coursing through my veins as I put 3 of the 4 WORST THINGS POSSIBLE in my poor tummy: sugar, caffeine & dairy.

It was still worth it though.

After making ourselves sick at Coffee Works, we went to the rain forest and saw some pretty falls after a short hike (to try to make ourselves feel human again).

We didn't last very long because our brains were fuzzy and our bowels were in turmoil- thank you Coffee Works- but they were pretty for the short time that we saw them.

On our last day in Oz, we returned Lucy and made use of the legs/feet God gave us. While on foot, I finally remembered to snap a picture of the Australian pedestrian signs. They're amusing to me.

We had a strong urge to go bowling, so we walked 10km to a bowling alley. We paid for two games, but the Canadian worker was so happy to see fellow Canadians that he let us play two extra games for free. After our hardcore bowling expedition, we walked 10kms to the airport.

We were elated when we finally saw the airport lights in the distance as our feet were THROBBING.

(No, apparently we do NOT have energy sense. Fueled by only an ice cream cone, we walked 25kms in jandals.)

After 25kms (total) of walking IN OUR FLIP FLOPS (or thongs for you Aussies out there), we finally arrived at the Cairns airport where we slept on the floor beside the luggage conveyor belt.

It was a very cold/uncomfortable sleep, and it was a tad awkward when a flight arrived at 1am and people gathered 'round us to collect their bags, but hey... it was free!

In the morning, we woke up at 4am to begin our exciting journey home...

6 comments :

Katie, Bakersfield, CA said...

Hi Lowell and Julie!

I am glad you are home and thanks for your email. I did go to LA airport to pick up my mom on July 15th and it was crazy!!!

Take care.

Bloggy Mama said...

Welcome home, guys. I look forward to reading about what kind of adventures you have on Cdn soil!

Janice said...

um here is a thought... maybe just have coffee with no sugar or dairy... then you would have eliminated 2 of the 3... just saying...

Lowell & Julie said...

But the CHOCOLATE! Surely we couldn't avoid the CHOCOLATE! Plus, coffee is fairly gross without milk & sugar, so the experience wouldn't have been nearly as delicious;)

Anonymous said...

Welcome home!!!

Kevan said...

Welcome back guys - great to see you this weekend! btw - that is a long walk in sandals. Good for you!