Tjapukai

The next day was still drizzley so we got the local bus onto Cairns. It took us on the scenic route so it was quite late in the morning when we arrived. We went and organised our trip to Green Island which is the nearest part of the Great Barrier. We decided to take this shorter trip because of the weather. the nice young man from Christchurch on the information desk did advise us that the trips to the outer reef had been a bit disappointing because of the weather. The Green Island trip was quite heavily booked so we made our mind up to go the next day. After an early lunch we set out to track down a rental car. This was proving quite difficult as Cairns was very heavily booked with the Coral Reef Symposium and also some states still on holiday. We managed to track one down at the third place but would have to pick it up at 5.00 so I suggested we go to the Aboriginal display village Tjapukai, say Jab - u - kai. We got the bus out there. Our first activity was in the Theatre with Didgeridoo and dancing.

They showed us how they made fire - this proved a little more difficult than usual because of the wet weather, but they took turns at the rubbing sticks and eventually the smoke became fire. They also did so dancing which tells story - the central performer here was the rainbow - which was quite hypnotic.

after a talk on the foods and medicine they used we went out to the field to try our hand at the boomerang throwing. And lets just say we would not have killed an enemy, or a kangaroo with our throws. some of the young kids were suprisingly good. Obviously it was a knack, not brute force and ignorance.

We then went to a very informative video. There are over 500 tribes in Australia and all speak different dialects and/or languages, and unlike the white inhabitants they are spread all over the country, not just on the coastal areas. We had a browse in the gift shop before a multimedia production combining people with video visual effects about the dreamtime - the beginning - as all of the tribes throughout the land have very similar legends regarding this.

We then went out to catch the bus into town.
And now we see the flip side of the aborigine story. The poor behaviour of the children with their families, and we drop them all off at a big liquor outlet.

We have a rental car to pick up. And the bus winds through the suburbs, caught in rush hour traffic. We ring the rental car and tell them of our progress. Cut and paste that sentence again. Duncan is so worried that we will miss out.

Eventually we make it and to our great relief we pile into the squashed tomato. We are squashed and it is red. However Duncan masters the gears quicker than the indicators, so we are continually having the windscreen wipers turned on.

Tonight we go to the Lime Tree, a wonderful restaurant were we end the poshest of tapas - washed down with decent kiwi wine!!