Queensland, Australia

This morning we had several options for touring….we opted to go visit the Robert Louis Stevenson home and museum, Vailima. It was interesting to see where the Scottish author lived and wrote several of his books. Lots of personal photos and memorabilia. Need to check and see if this is where he wrote Treasure Island or the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. On our route, we drove by a huge Mormon temple, a 7th Day Adventist church and a large Methodist school. Lots of outside religious influences here. We also drove by a large new modern hospital built by the Chinese. Samoan men are very large! Samoan people are lovely…very humorous and warm. They like to joke around. Our tour guide was a hoot. Samoan men are like big cuddly teddy bears. Rugby is their main sport. Main island population is about 180,000. Samoa has 4 main islands and 10 uninhabited islands. The island is flush with beautiful foliage: golden Aruba, banana plants, Palm trees, mango groves. Unfortunately, torrential tropical rain began this morning while we were enroute to RLS house. Fortunately, we were inside for this tour. We’ve been very lucky with weather so far this trip. We enjoyed a FiaFia, (a celebratory performance of stories told in song dance), during our lunch today. Beautiful singing by the women, drumming and very high energy dancing by the native Samoan men. After lunch at the hotel we returned to our big blue plane for the flight to northern Australia. 2:40pm We just flew over Fiji…got a nice photo shot from the plane window. Perfect timing as Jay Dickman, our NG photographer just finished a great lecture about photography tips and guidelines. Our pilot got clearance for us to do a flyover across the Great Barrier Reef as we approached Cairns. It is unbelievable how massive it is. Absolutely stunning views from the plane. Tomorrow we’ll be snorkeling there. 4:00pm. Arrived in Australia….another 4 hour time change. Long drive on narrow winding coastal roads from the airport to Port Douglas. We spotted several Wallabies in a field as we were driving to the hotel. We got a surprise at our cocktail reception tonight…an adorable little Koala came to visit with us. We got to pet and photograph him. He was very cuddly. His fur was much thicker and coarser than I expected. Omg…it is hot, hot, hot and humid, humid, humid here! Not much air conditioning either.