Cairns and Ayers Rock

We left Adelaide and flew to Cairns. It is a beautiful costal city and we had an amazing apartment that overlooked the walking path along the bay. From there we watched the fireworks on New Years Eve. We went high above the city by train the next day to see the rainforest. The aboriginal people have a presence there as compared to the other areas we've been. Most tribes are extinct in the places we had been up until that point. We spent the afternoon at the cultural "park" or center and then went to the Great Barrier Reef the next day. We've seen very few American's on the trip. I can count the number of groups on one hand. However, one little boy got motion sickness on the boat ride to the reef and he rested in the seats across from us. The family was from San Francisco and they were also spending their school and Christmas holiday in Australia. Several days later when we arrived Sydney we saw them again by chance while waiting for one of our tour buses. Small world.
After Cairns we went to Ayers Rock. It really isn't a town. It is simply the resort that supports the tourist population that comes to see Ayers Rock (or Uluru as the aboriginals call it). One company owns the resort and each hotel in it. The tour companies then contract with the resort. We did a sunset viewing (with champagne of course!) of Uluru and had a steak, chicken, and kangaroo BBQ outside at the base of the rock. Both kids have tried Kangaroo but Zach likes it the best and has ordered it off the menu more than once. We then turned out the lights at the BBQ and did some star gazing with some direction from our tour guide. It is the wrong time of year and there was a bright moon so we could not see the Southern Cross. Bummer. However, the next evening we had the most amazing experience at Mt. Connor. Mt. Connor is described as Uluru's "baby brother" but we had the entire mountain to ourselves. Most tourists do not go out there but I had found a small company that has the sole right to tour Mt. Connor. It is on a cattle station that is over 1 million acres (which is the size of most cattle stations here). We toured the area around Mt. Connor with Paige, our tour guide. It was such a special trip. Just the four of us and Paige at Mt. Connor. Nobody around for miles. Again, sunset viewing with champagne and stories on the history of the cattle station and Mt. Connor. The outback is often called the Red Center and when you travel through it becomes clear how it got the name. The sand and the rock are a very deep red color - Mick said it looks like softball dirt. :) We had dinner at the cattle station which consisted of soup, steak, salad, and chips/fries. Desert was a choice of sticky date pudding with ice cream, bread pudding with ice cream, or jelly with fruit (which I later found out is fruit jello). We had to share out hotel room with ants and beetles but we laughed and had so much fun over the course of our two days there that I don't think it mattered too much to any of us.