tours - Curious Karibella

2023-02-092023-02-21

Cairns Australia

Okay, Australia has a reputation for having dangerous animals, but after Africa, I am now not super scared of Australia. Our first place to stay in Australia was Cairns in Queensland. They call Queensland The Sunshine State! So that makes Queensland the Florida of Australia. It was so stressful getting into Australia! You can’t have any food going through biosecurity, especially meat and vegetables, and fruit. I had a chicken sandwich in my bag (I thought it was fine) and some peppers (I honestly thought I had thrown them out). Thankfully, the very lovely Bio Security lady only gave me a warning and did not fine us. The long Bio Screening wait and the Chicken Sandwich caused us to miss the small bag drop window for our flight, which meant we could not get on it. FYI, that flight was canceled later, so it is good I had that chicken sandwich. The lady at the Qantas desk said she could re-book us on a Jet Star flight. She gave us Taxi coupons and told us where to go.

Jetstar was way better than Qantas. I know this because I have taken a Qantas flight, and it was okay. FYI, if you are on a flight and love funny movies, Ticket to Paradise is hilarious! On the flight, I got three complimentary snacks because we had to move flights, and I enjoyed my time as much as you can on an airplane. When we got to Carins, it was So Hot! I was wearing pants, and it felt like it was 100 degrees. It was probably only 93, but it was still so hot. We got the rental car out, and it was literally as hot as an oven. We went to our Airbnb inside a hotel. We love Airbnb’s because you have your own kitchen, and you can have a lot more room! The rest of the day we spent in the pool and eating dinner.

Cairns Exploration

We did not do a lot inside cairns, we spent two of our days Scuba Diving, but I will tell you about that in a post probably called Great Barrier Reef Diving. What we did outside of cairns is more important. On Tuesday, after we had done all of our diving, we went to have breakfast with the koalas. We went to Hartleys Crocodile Adventure and ate breakfast. It was more like koalas as a dessert for breakfast. Not to be eaten but to pet and look at. The Koala was adorable, and its fur was velvety. Koalas, in my opinion, would be an okay pet, but they sleep most of the day and eat so much! They sleep for up to 20 hours a day and eat 500 grams of eucalyptus daily! Sadly for the koalas, they were not my favorite thing. After the Koalas, we went on a Crocodile cruise. The tour guide got the crocodiles to jump out of the water to get meat chunks off a stick. It really was amazing to see just how stealthy the crocs can be, I saw one surface and swim word the boat, but it went under and appeared at the front of the boat, and it surprised the guide. The crocodile sanctuary (I don’t know if it was an actual sanctuary, but they kept the crocodiles and fed them and took care of them) had once held the world’s second oldest crocodile! You might have noticed from my writing that crocodiles were not my favorite.

The Black-Headed Python and Inland Taipan

The Snakes were my favorite. While I wouldn’t say I like snakes that are threatening me, I Love Snakes that I can hold or touch and look at. I got to hold a Black-Headed Python! It felt so muscly and thick, but the skin felt so thin. I could really feel its muscles moving, and it was really cool to feel it wrap around my hand. The Black-Headed Python can grow up to 6.6ft and is found in the upper coastal part of Australia. It is one of the only types of Snake that can eat other venomous snakes! The Python is not venomous. It is a constrictor which means it squeezes its prey to death. We had to go to the snake show, so I had to leave the Python. At the snake show, a man held a very short, fat python. It was a short-tailed python because it had a short tail. Next, he brought out an Inland Taipan. The deadliest Snake in the world. Deadly means the most fatal venom, not that it has killed the most humans. The handler was holding it; if it wanted to, it could have bit him and me and gotten away. Thankfully this one was specially bred to be handled and okay with the show. It was not a trained snake, but that would be cool to see. People rarely see an Inland Taipan because they like to hide. They mainly eat rodents and small prey.

Babina Boulders

After the Crocodiles we went to Babina Boulders, an area with a river and boulders. We drove for a while, and when we got there, I seriously doubted this would be any fun. It was fun; I sat in the freezing water, reading my Agatha Christie. The boys jumped off a massive tree into the river, and I was the only one not to get fully in the water. My book was exciting, and spoiler alert, somebody dies. Many people do, and I think what makes Agatha Christie so interesting to read is her colossal plot twists. The entire day was fun but quite exhausting.

2023-01-292023-02-11

A Day Zip Lining on Waiheke

Bright Orange Fungus Growing on on the side of a tree on waiheke

When I woke up this morning, I did not know what we would do or if we would do anything. I went downstairs, and Mom and Dad were talking about some place we could go. I soon figured out that we could go zip lining on an island that Mom really wanted to visit. I remember our last zip-lining experience in Mexico with some very good friends. Me Zeb, B, Mom, and Dad were in the car and off to Waiheke! Dad said we had to leave in fifteen minutes, and I was still eating breakfast! Fifteen minutes is plenty of time to get out the door if you are not going slow.

The Ferry

You usually take a ferry to get to an island by a car. Thankfully our car could transform init a boat, so we did not have to deal with the annoying discomforts of a ferry. I’m completely joking! I don’t think any machine can transform the way I was talking about. We did take the ferry, and it was very comfortable sitting in our car for forty-five minutes. 🙂

Batch vineyard and Restaurant

For lunch, we went to Batch Restaurant. It was also a vineyard, but we did not taste wine. The Venue was super pretty, and the service and food were terrific. It was a restaurant where you ordered a couple of shared plates. We got Duck and short ribs. In my opinion, the Duck leg was way better, and it tasted like a holiday. We had a Gluten Free red velvet doughnut and Hokey Pokey Ice Cream. Hokey Pokey Ice Cream is Vanilla Ice Cream with honeycomb toffee in it. It is so good, and I would highly recommend it! We went to the Zipline after lunch and waited for a little before the adventure.

Eco Zip Zip Lining

Hills of Jungle and vineyards surrounded Eco Zip, there were only three Zip-lines, but they were still really fun. The first line was called Vineyard cruise. It was a very creative name, given that you cruised over a vineyard. The second line was called Jungle Cruise because you were cruising over Jungle. These people were very creative with names. The third one was the biggest and longest, so it was named shorty. I’m joking, it was called…. I don’t remember, but from now on, it is named Shorty.

After we flew through thick air ( I don’t know why people call air thin if you are not at high altitude, it is rather thick near sea level) we took a long walk through the Jungle. We saw 400-year-old trees and a one thousand and something-year-old tree. Near the end of the hike, we came to a tree about two feet wide and fifty or so feet tall. Our guide told us it was a tree that the Maori used to build canoes, and at its oldest, it grew to eight meters wide and so tall that I can’t remember the number! After we saw the big tree, we came across a large pile of rocks. We all thought it was a grave marker of somebody who had died while ziplining, but it was just a pile of stones that people had made. It was not very interesting. The exciting thing was a palm tree. I am not pulling your leg here; these palm trees were OLD. A baby one that had not even formed an actual trunk was TEN years old and only to my knees. About two and a half feet tall. There were lots of these palm trees, and they were all so old. Older than cars and even the united states. It’s a little funny when you think about it, one of the trees was about six hundred feet tall. When it was about 200 just trying to stay alive and grow, meanwhile some hotheaded blokes got a crazy idea to start their own country.

“All alone, across the sea, when your people say they hate you, don’t come crawling back to me.”
-King George, Hamilton Broadway play

After ziplining, we took a rocket to the moon (we took the ferry back home). Zip lining was fun, the ferry was excellent, and New Zealand was Rainy! It was fun, but my other adventures that you can read about in New Zealand Update were totally tubular! For all who love Zip Lining, the BEST zip lining is in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It is called Vallarta Adventures, and it is a once (or 100) in a lifetime experience; every person should do it.

Mom and dad coming off of Shorty the zip line

2023-01-162023-01-29

The Dive in Bora Bora

I have to admit Scuba Diving was not my favorite activity. My Scuba training was not a good experience, Thankfully my wonderful Mom Scuba dives and makes sure I have a good time and go slow. The first dive I ever did outside of training was amazing thanks to Mom. The dives this time around were both pretty awsome too!

I always wake up nervous before a dive so I did not eat much. When the dive boat came to our boat to pick us up I was ready.

Our first dive site was pretty close to our boat and it was called Anau. A-na-oo. The dive was roughly 40 minutes long and we went to 32 ft or roughly 12 meters. The coral was beautiful and my favorite part was the fish.

There were so many bright fish and things. Most people don’t know this but colors disappear underwater. They don’t actually disappear you just cant see them without special lights. Red is the first to disappear at around 20 ft then orang at a little over 50. Since we were only at 30ft I could see orange and all the other colors of the rainbow (except red and pink). One interesting thing that happened with colors is, I had hot pink nail polish on and it looked purple underwater.

Back to the actual dive. Have you ever seen a Giant Manta Ray? They can have a wingspan of up to 30ft wide! Note: Manta Rays are Not birds They are fish, they look like a sting ray. Sadly the rays we swam with were not that big, only 7-8 ft wide (roughly 2.5 meters) Manta Rays have big “ horns” on the front of their heads. They are not actual horns but fins. Reef manta rays have curved horns also know as devil horns. Manta Rays predators are large shark and Orcas (killer whales). A great show on Disney plus is called Secrets of the Whales. It has a very interesting episode on Orcas that I would highly recommend.

All in all the dive went really well, I saw a Barracuda (oooooooo Baracooda). that looked like it should be in finding Nemo, i saw lots of zebra looking fish and bright orange fish. I even cracked a joke about Deforestation because parts of the coral were all knocked over. I have to say, I was a little disappointed on my first dive when the coral was not all bright colors and the water wasn’t absolutely clear (Thanks a-lot Nemo 😒 tricking kids into thinking that the sea life talks 🙁 :). It is true that Disney movies don’t depict the real world to a T.

The Second Dive

Teavaniu was our second dive site and, you wont believe, We Went Beyond The Reef! Dun😦 Dun 😲 Dun! 😱 If you don’t know, I’m referencing to the movie Moana. A girl surprisingly named, Moana, goes beyond the barrier reef of her Island to explore the ocean and find Maui, demigod of the wind and Sea. Great movie for All ages and if you have not seen it and you love pineapple 🍍 you have to watch it!

Back to the dive, I can really get sidetracked with just a little bit of humor! 😏 No more Jokes (for now) this dive was deeper by ten ft and seince we were right next to the reef and there was huge swells above us going to crash the party on the reef ( crash onto the reef) we had lots of fun swaying in the swells forty ft below the surface. The sea floor looked like it had roads running through it big enough to fit a car. All I had to imagine was some power lines and you get an underwater dessert. There was a shark and the usual bright fish. I kept seeing fish with weird patterns and crazy colors! Fish no matter how small are very fascinating!

Great Dive Site

I think diving in Bora Bora was the best diving I ever did. You don’t have to go deep and you can see some pretty awesome fish and sea life! We used Bora Bora dive Center but one of our instructors was not nice at all. One key thing for divers is you Can Not rent gear, you have to dive with an instructor even if your certified.😒 I can also now say that I dived at Bora Bora witch is a famous dive place. If you Scuba Dive, Bora Bora is a must visit. 😁

2022-09-202022-09-22

South African Penguins

The Scenery and the Drive

The scenery was amazing! The drive to the penguins was along the coast and through towns. We learned about the history of each town. At one point there was a tunnel that had one side open. I really enjoyed the drive and one thing I learned was, there was 14 mountains that were called the 11 apostles. If you are into awsome landscape photos I would highly recommend this drive!

Puppy the Seal

Puppy, in my opinion, is a funny name for a seal. It makes me think of a cute fat animal, wich is what Puppy is. When we saw him he was being hand fed by a man and he seemed to know what to do. We were told that he came up on the docks to get snacks and that he was very friendly. The friendly part might not be true. He was more exited about the food then anything. I think he did not mind us touching him and maybe he liked it but he was super exited about the food. While we were with Puppy I bought a really cute elephant satchel! We then moved on so we could see the penguins.

The Penguins

The penguins were awesome! We had to climb over some rocks witch was super fun. Then we had to wade through freezing water to get to the penguins. When I got to the place where the penguins were I saw what looked like a dead shark! I asked our guide and he confirmed it was a dead shark; and just to clarify, the shark was a baby so only a foot and a half long. The penguins were sitting on a rock and they would waddle into the water. I was surprised at how fast they could move under water. They were little bullets! We went to a second place with penguins but it had lots of people in it and it was less special.

2022-09-202023-10-01

Table Mountain South Africa

We went up Table Mountain in a Cable car! I could not say we climbed it because we did not. It is a must do if you visit Cape Town because the views are awesome. We had to get a uber to take us up to the tram. After that it was all waiting. We had to get tickets and then go up an elevator to get to the tram. The floor of the tram rotated as we went up the cliff. I found this a little un-fair because you chose the spot you wanted only to go round in circles. The ride up was pretty scary and I was relieved to finally be on solid ground. We did a small walk around the top and there was a small sign that was very interesting to me. It had a map of table mountain and the city below. Around the rim there were arrows pointing North, South, East, and West. I found one pointing to New York, Washington state, Paris, Oslo and many more! I enjoyed looking at it but I had to go for a family photo. We took photos of everyone and me and Bardez climbed over the fun rocks. When it was near sunset we were contemplating weather not not to stay for sunset when we heard a message: “ To our guests at Table Mountain the last cable car will leave at 7:00pm exactly”. They were saying if you did not get on this cable car, you would have to hike down. In the dark! This was outrageous! How could they say they were going to leave you on the mountain if there were too many people! We were saying well we can stay a little longer but a wave of people were surging to the cable car. We decided going down was better than being left behind so we got on the tram.

The ride down was way less scary than I thought. I had been very nervous about it but we arrived safely. The overall experience was very pleasant and positive. I would totally recommend it to anyone!