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Green Island, Queensland

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 When my mother and I visited Cairns, Queensland,  we decided to take a day trip by ferry to Green Island.  Green Island is a coral cay, 27km offshore from Cairns.  As we disembarked from the boat, the scene at the top of this post greeted us.  I am sure you can agree that it is very beautiful. This beautiful island is a great spot to go swimming, snorkelling or scuba diving, and there is plentiful marine life to see. Here is the jetty leading from the ferry to Green Island: My Mum and I aren't much for adventure activities, so we took a ride on the glass bottomed boat instead to see the marine life.  Here are some shots of the fish and coral that we saw on the boat: This is a fish feeding frenzy created by the boat captain for the benefit of tourists: This is a school group snorkelling off Green Island: Back onshore, there were plenty of these cheeky birds ready to pounce on any food that became available: One of these birds jumped up and took my mother's sandwich out of her h
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Wellington, New Zealand

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From Napier, we wisely skipped the Intercity bus and flew to Wellington, primarily because we could not have got there in time if we took the bus.  However, given our hairy trip from Rotorua to Napier, this was a good option, regardless. When I went to Wellington by myself 10 years before, I had an amazing time, as I did a city tour, visited two fancy restaurants ( Martin Bosley's Yacht Club Restaurant , now closed and The French Cafe , still open), checked out Cuba Street, shopped in the famous but now closed Kircaldie and Stains department store , visited the Maori museum, Te Papa , and went to   a Split Enz concert.  Fast forward to the trip with my family, well - they were not very adventurous and we hardly went past the doors of our downtown hotel.  I did get them to take the Wellington Cable Car to the Wellington Botanic Gardens: Wellington, as well as being windy, is quite hilly, so you get magnificent views of the city from the botanic gardens: The botanic gardens has a sm
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Mission Estate Winery, Napier

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As part of our Art Deco tour in Napier, we were taken to Mission Estate Winery, just outside Napier.  Mission Estate Winery was established in a grand property established by French missionaries in 1851. We didn't buy any wines but I enjoyed looking around this grand estate:  Mission Estate Winery 198 Church Road Napier NZ Ph: +64 6845 9353
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Art Deco Napier, New Zealand

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Our next stop in New Zealand after Rotorua was Napier, a town which is famous for having been rebuilt in Art Deco style in the 1930s following the destruction of many of its buildings in an earthquake.  Our trip via Intercity bus to Napier was rather eventful.  Hawkes Bay, where Napier is located, suffered torrential rain at the time, and there were landslides across the mountainous roads that blocked all traffic.  We just made it before the road became impassable due to a landslide.   When we arrived in Napier, I expected our accommodation to be in town, walking distance from the bus stop.  Unfortunately, it seemed that our travel agent had lost the plot, and booked us at a motor inn miles out of town on the freeway. It gets even better - when we arrived at said accommodation, we were told that we did not have a booking.  It appears that between us booking the holiday and taking it, the business that ran the motor inn had been sold, and the sellers neglected to pass on the existing bo
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