We flew from Orlando to Los Angeles, laid over 8 hours, and then flew 14 hours to Brisbane, laid over another 2 hours and then flew 3 hours to Cairns to start our tour of Australia and New Zealand.

We had a day and a half in Cairns before we met our tour group for a welcome dinner.  Our friends Gary and Judy from Texas joined us on the trip.   We got to explore the city a little bit, but more importantly we had a little time to adapt to the time change. They are 16 hours ahead of the east coast. It was from here that we snorkeled the great barrier reef and went into the mountains by cable car to Kuranda to interact with Koala’s.