Fast Forward Oz - next is Japan

***News Flash***
I have made it to Japan!!!
After spending one night in Tokyo in a delightful tatami-matted room, we tore ourselves away from the city of our dreams (leave the best for last - and hope the awaited earthquake wont hit the city til after we leave (they have one every 100 yrs or so and apparently it is overdue by 10 yrs already. Parents: breathe!).

09:03 Tuesday morning saw us boarding the shinkansen (bullet train, think TGV but faster) for Fukuoka/Hakata. The plan is to go as far away from Tokyo as possible and work our way back.

Just standing on the platform waiting for the train was an experience. They have waiting lines on the ground for every car and before you enter, an army (well, a mean looking team) of pink-clad cleaners shot into the train and mopped, scrubbed and changed the white cloth on the head piece of every seat. When they were finished, hand-signs were given, shouts were exchanged and then we could board. A very comfortable 6h ride.
The Japanese are very proper: whenever either the conductor or the woman pushing the food cart entered or left a waggon, they bowed and said a few words. Got quite a shock the first time as the guy looked at me and I thought he was talking directly to me! (Luckily I did not have time to reply.. saved myself an embarrassing moment there!)

But I first need to tell you about Oz... just noticed that my last post was about Melbourne!
Has to be quick, as M wants to leave... the irony is, that we are now in one of these super Internet cafes where u can sleep and shower etc. and he wants to go! Oh well, guess it really is just the game he loves and not the Internet (unlike me...!).

We flew up to Cairns from Melbourne, thankful to flee the cold at last (but v. sorry to leave certain people behind... sniff).
It was nice and warm up there, but with a biting wind, so managed to buy two pairs of ugg boots on the first night (and believe me, they came in very handy for the rest of the trip!)!

As we opted not to go to Darwin, we decided to spend the money on a helicopter flight out over the Great Barrier Reef. Was absolutely amazing! Saw whales, dolphins and turtles, unfortunately the sharks hid themselves from view. The flight itself was a fantastic experience, got the poor pilot to explain every little dial to me. Must have been glad to get rid of us!

The next day we took a boat tour out to the reef, to see it from up close. That was also utterly amazing. Did some snorkeling and saw turtles besides a multitude of colourful fish in every shape and size. The most beautiful thing I saw was this huge clam, shimmering pink and purple at the bottom of the ocean. On the way back we were accompanied by 3 humpback whales, pretending to be rabbits. They kept jumping up and around us and gave us quite a show! The crew were also absolutely awed (there is something magical about a whale rising out of the water just next to you) and said they had never seen such a performance before.

We went out in the evening and missed the next days tour up to the tablelands. But luckily we could change it to the next Monday.
That was a bit of a anti-climax after the other two excursions. First of all we found ourselves surrounded by oldies but goldies. It was actually really nice, we saw some snakes and tortoises as well as a huge tree beset by a strangling fig. Quite impressive. A waterfall later we had lunch on a ranch out in the outback. It was really interesting to talk to the kids living up there. They go to boarding school in Brisbane and have to go back to the city to learn a trade afterwards, but yearn to work out in the middle of nowhere (literally!). The steaks they served up for lunch were funnily enough not from their own cattle but bought from the local shop. They can only serve food that has an official butchers seal on it.

After Cairns we flew down to Sydney and there we met our first "long-lost" cousin, Sherry. It was amazing to meet up with her and she kindly enough put us up (and put up with us!) for four nights.
We were quite shattered from travelling (woke up at 4am for the flight), but wanted to see Sydney so dragged our protesting bodies out to Manly for lunch. From there we took the ferry over to Sydney and was that sea choppy! Mark quite enjoyed it, but I felt seasickness looming! In Sydney we did the main sights (opera house, tower bridge, darling harbour, chinatown, markets, etc.) before crashing into a pub to flee a sudden torrential downpour.
Sherry and Matt were great tourist guides, taking us out to bars/cafes/restaurants and dropping us here and there, making sure we saw all the good sights and even got tickets to an AFL football game (Australia Rules football, similar to rugby)... a huge THANK YOU to you two!

We flew on to Perth, to meet up with the more "obscure" relatives (well, besides Jerry & Julia, we hadn't seen the rest for over 10 years!). As our trip had been kicked into fast forward, we didn't give the poor family much time to prepare. But they rose to the occasion marvelously and we had a great time.
Uncle David picked us up from the airport and it was quite bizarre to meet someone who bears such a strong resemblance to Mum. He drove us up to Jerry and Julia`s place where we would be spending the next two nights. It was great to see them again. Jerry is a fantastic cook and we first subtly then not so subtly tried to get him to cook instead of us going out to restaurants... so mean, I know! But his food is soo good! (M is complaining that he wants to go, so I have to fast forward this bit):

We hired a car for two days and drove down to Albany, making for the Valley of Giants. Its a wood of huge Tingle trees (eucalyptus trees - no, no koalas this time), some over 400 years old where you can walk on a sky walk amongst the tops of the trees. Was really impressive. Drove back and spent the night in Fremantle, a town just about 20km down from Perth. Was a really nice drive, all that lovely scenery. Had a very weird pizza for dinner though. Imagine a thick pizza base with green pesto on it. Then dump a mixed salad on top (yes, lettuce, olives, huge chunks of feta and some slivers of tomatoes). Interesting yet tasty. Didn't see why they called it a pizza though.

Went back to Perth the next day and met up with David. Went down to Jenny and Anthony`s place this time. They had just been down south too and we were lucky to catch them. Had a great time with them and especially their daughter Glenda. We unfortunately missed their other two daughters (one in Melbourne and the other just left for Melbourne one day before we arrived). At dinner we met Auntie Irene and Uncle Eugene, what a family reunion! The next day Jerry and Julia came down and David brought his daughter Jackie and her boyfriend. The food was delicious, Jerry brought a curry and Anthony showed his prowess at the bbq.

A huge THANK YOU to all of you too, for making us feel so welcome, putting us up, feeding us and showing us around (especially David for that point). We really appreciate it and hope to reciprocate when you come to Switzerland.