Day 44 - February 28, 2011 – Cairns, Australia

The day dawned cloudy and humid and hot with scattered showers.  Jan had arranged a private helicopter tour and called the tour company to see it was still on – it was.  They picked us up at the cruise pier and drove about 5 minutes over to the tourist pier area.  After a short safety briefing we were taken out to the small platform over the water where the helicopter picked us up.  It was really a private tour as it was just Fred, Jan and the pilot. 

First we flew over the outskirts of Cairns along the waterway and then turned towards the mountains north of Cairns.  The clouds were low over the ridge and he said he was going to try and find a way over them to show us the large reservoir that is the city’s water supply.  He found a way and we say the rain forest that surrounds the lake and the mountains around Cairns.  The next was over the next ridge into the valley where the train line from Cairns to Kuranda runs which is not operating because of all the rain, wind and storms the past several months.  We saw a couple of small waterfalls along the train.   Then just around a corner and we were over the Barron Gorge and looking at the Barron Waterfall that was roaring!  With all the rains the rivers and lakes and full and the river over the waterfall was running very high.  There were low clouds around but the falls was making its own clouds.  The pilot circled directly over the falls twice to give us a good view.

Our next stop was along the coastal mountains to a place where the air traffic controllers allowed our pilot to turn east towards the reef.  The water close to shore is very, very discolored.  As we got closer to the reef, the color did change to a darker green, but because there were heavy clouds and no sun, we really didn’t get to see the beautiful colors of the water and coral that makes up the reef.  We flew pretty low over several bits of land including landing on one small bit of sand disturbing the sea birds in the morning nap.   Finally, we circled Green Island, but could really not see too much without the sun.

Hugging the low hills on a peninsula east and south of Cairns we saw a small aborigine village, two ship wrecks and a great view of the Voyager docked alongside the cruise terminal.  We landed back on the pier after about a one hour flight.  The flight was very nice and we enjoyed…only wish we had sun so we could have seen the colors of the reef.

Fred went back to the ship and Jan walked into town which was about 2 minutes from the ship..no shuttle bus needed today.   Jan walked through the central shopping street and to the large indoor mall.   It was a very cloudy, humid hot day so the mall was the place to shop.  She needed some low cut socks so went to Target and found them.  On the way out she found a little shop that was all blouses and tops.  Two of them could not be left behind so now she has two new tops for the cruise, one for evening and one for day time.  Jan also found a gift for Susan, our only granddaughter.

Walking back to the ship didn’t take long, but Jan was dripping wet when she got back.  Fred was up on the pool deck and so she joined him for a light lunch.  A quiet afternoon of reading – Fred his book and Jan more bridge books – occupied the rest of the day.

Cocktails again at the Observation Lounge and dinner at La Veranda on our own finished out our day.