Saturday was devoted to taking the Kuranda Scenic Railway to Kuranda. It's a train with classic, original cars, either restored or very well maintained, with wood doors and panels and leather seats. There are, according to Wikipedia, 15 tunnels and 37 bridges along the way. It's a two-hour trip, a few hours in town, and a two-hour trip back. It's definitely scenic. There are deep gorges and very high bridges, with the kind of depth that I've never been able to capture in still photos. I'll post a few, but they won't do it justice. Kuranda itself, at least the part of it we saw, is entirely a tourist town. We found a nice little Japanese restaurant and had okonomiyaki. Following Paula up the ramp Train interior Some town way down there A view of the ocean Ocean and mountains Train on a bridge In Kuranda We made it! Okonomiyaki Some kind of hanging growth ...
Last day in New Zealand! Our plane is at 6:45pm, and we had to check out of the hotel by 10am, so we had quite a few hours to kill. We went to Kelly Tarleton's Aquarium, which was quite different from the previous aquarium. For one thing, they had a very large penguin enclosure with (I'd estimate) over a hundred penguins. Before that, they had a large display of just what the huts used by the early Antarctic explorers were like. Just to make very certain that we had plenty of time at the airport, we had Steve drop us off about 2:00, while he and Isaac went off to explore a bit more. Explorer's hut A fast swimmer Taking a breath? Penguin on egg I don't know. What do you want to do? Tuatura, a kind of lizard born with a third eye Porkupine fish Paula and turtle Spiny sea dragons I really don't need another stuffy, but Oscar was irresistible. At the airport
We had arranged for a shuttle to the airport. When it came to leave, the elevator was closed for maintenance. I went to the desk to complain, but then we just took the freight elevator that Paula had noticed earlier. After we got to the airport and Paula told them everything that is (presumably) in her records about the scooter. From the plane flying to Darwin, I noticed two things: First, heavily forested areas give way to barren mud-colored areas, with a sharp dividing line--no gradual transition. Second, looking down from the plane, every house seems to have a white roof. Possibly corrugated metal, but definitely looked white. They wouldn't gate check the scooter, so Paula used a wheelchair to get to the plane, and again to get off the plane. There wasn't the usual covered walkway for getting off the plane, but stairs; and they brought a lift over for her to get down to ground level. From there, a young woman pushed Paula in a wheelcha...
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