It is a laid-back rustic touristy town a little rough around the edges.  Our B&B is just at the edge.  It is in a small apartment house.  An argument woke us up at midnight but stopped when one party threatened to call police.  At three a.m. we woke and could not go to sleep because it was mid-day U.S. time.  Bummer.  We rested and rose early to observe our first flying cockatoos.  Yes, believe that.  Mountains to the west.  Town is jammed in on flat ground along the sea.

After the 15 hour flight we are zombies but continue our travel now north to Cairns in the Australian tropics.  We arrive during the Cairns Festival and will try to join in, if we can stay awake.  It is 3 p.m. and we are still in the air.  In San Francisco it is 10 p.m. and my body seems to think something is amiss.  Oh well.  The question is, can we stay up tonight and wake early in the morning?  Perhaps, but we will still be zombies.

We fly tonight and received notice this afternoon that our flight had been cancelled and that we had been rescheduled on another airline.  Seemed no problem,but it looked like our new seats were on coach.  We had splurged for economy plus seats and were sorely disappointed.  We called Air New Zealand who said they could do noting about that.  My sister called Qantas, the airline to which we had been sent to see about an upgrade.

I had some problem in completing last blog and will continue here.

To cool the apartment, I open a window.  It is like an air conditioner.  Open a little is the low setting.  Open a lot is super max.  You freeze.  The mornings begin calm, but by afternoon when it may be warm there is always wind.  It rustles the trees and shapes them over time.