Carte Blanche

Since this is my first post of 2016, HAPPY NEW YEAR friends && family!

It has been a marvelous start to 2016.
After my beautiful visit to Gold Coast I caught a flight to Sydney to celebrate Christmas with my cousin Maggie.  It was fun to wrap her presents with my Virgin Australia in-flight magazine pages and surprise her with a few "Australia" things. It was nice to catch up & be with family for Christmas. We made a fantastic meal, but nothing that compares to some of the cooking my Greek/Italian families whip up.  A few short days after her arrival our mothers joined us of an epic adventure of a lifetime.

Their very first day in Australia we made our way to the neighboring city of Wollongong where we were signed up for a tandem skydiving experience. AND LET ME TELL YOU.. I am so proud of my mom!! She actually did it! Jumped out of a plane from 14,000 ft in the air! [We have pictures and gopro video to prove this]. I was the first out of the plane. The 45 second free fall made my stomach tie into knots and as we were falling I kept thinking to myself -- scratch that; there wasn't a thought in my mind for 45 seconds. As the cold moisture from the clouds hit my face like a train I couldn't stop smiling. At one point in my video I close my eyes and had trouble opening them again because I was literally falling 9.8 m/sec. Just an incredible feeling. I had carte blanche in those moments. I felt so ALIVE, so free, and so I don't even know how to explain it!!!! After an eventful day of skydiving we took it easy the rest of the day.
Oh and did I mention both mothers got terribly motion sick in the process of skydiving, proud of them nonetheless.

After skydiving nothing seemed as exciting, until new years eve where we watched the infamous Sydney firework show from the Royal Botanic Gardens, from what I consider the best seat in the house, because I got to ring in the new year with my best friend. New Years Day we were up early to catch the first flight to Cairns.
As some of you may know I had driven on the wrong side of the road during my weeks in Victoria, and well when we landed in Cairns it was moms turn to drive on the wrong side of the road. I had never been so... (she might read this), but I was so scared she would turn down the wrong side of the street and head for a straight head on collision.. but we are still alive :)
She did well. We had a fabulous New Years Day meal at a nice Italian place right on the corner of the main road and I got to speak a bit of Italian during the evening!

Our first full day we traveled to the small village of Kuranda via the skyrail. And let me just share with you my feelings about a birds eye view. I'm not sure why or how, but a birds eye view is unlike any other view of nature. With skydiving I saw it, and then a repeat of it on the skyrail. Tree tops tower over fields and valleys, birds fly with complete ease, waterfalls rush down from slow traveling streams, mountain tops kiss the clouds. It wouldn't be the last time I admired a birds eye view on this trip. Something humbling happens when you see the world from the sky, you see it from God's eyes almost.
From Kuranda we drove past Port Douglas to visit Mossmon Gorge and on the following day our 8 hour drive to Airlie Beach consisted of bathroom breaks at the most beautiful waterfalls and scenic outlooks on the East Coast of Australia. (Including Josephine Falls where mom and I went on a little hike that turned out to be a long one and when it gets dark in the rainforest .. IT GETS REALLY DARK!) Luckily we made it out safe after a few minutes of panic & passed paths that were completely blocked from what looked like a minor land slide.
We arrived at Peppers Airlie Beach hotel (which I will never stay at again & I will probably write a poor review of them on Trip Advisor) late in the evening and had to prepare for our next epic adventure, which was a night of sleeping on the Great Barrier Reef...


To be continued...

-Kali