Rush Hour on the East Cape .... 9am ish 
This was for sale .... If I just thought I could make a living from it .......
Just cause I like it ......
It was very green in the hills and farmland 
A lot of rain all the way to Gisborne 
The forestry industry should me made to clean this up .... Interesting to fossick around in though ....The locals were to the left of the picture collecting firewood by the car loads 
The bridge in the last entry was for a train line between Napier and Gisborne ....
McD told me I should mention that the previous pictures and these below were taken from the car as we travelled around .... hence the quality isn't as good ........
We ate the first lot of baby beetroot fron the garden this evening ....Boootiful :O) going against the moon gardening we planted more beetroot, carrot, green beans, silverbeet, okra ........ potatoes have finally started to grow well....too late for xmas though i reckon....
Market Gardens at Napier NZ.. 
Disappearing Housing on Napiers waterfront.
The day after visiting the tablelands was our last day at the Silky Oaks resort and also our last day in Queensland.
The plan was to head towards Cairns and spend the day around there before going to the airport and catching our flight to Sydney.
We had our breakfast as usual at the resort in the open air restaurant and in typical fashion the sun emerged for us
The Silky Oaks restaurant
The swimming hole where fish and turtle reside
The swimming pool at the lodge
Well fed and bags packed we loaded up the car and set off... Just outside of the lodge along the road through the rainforest we saw a kookaburra on a telegraph post... We stopped (of course) to try and get a last chance shot. We pulled over to the side of the road and McD jumped out camera in hand ....I stayed in the car. . Having taken a few shots McD decided she needed a bigger lens and walked back to the open car door ... AS she went past the back of the car I saw in the rear view mirror a sudden look of horror on her face and then she was gone momentarily as she shot into the air ..... Then down she came landing shouting "Snake !!!! " ....
McD had managed to literally step over a large brown snake to get the pictures she wanted ... then returning saw the snake as it moved amongst the grass and bushes.....
"Well get a picture !" I said
And She Did !!! - can you see it beating a hasty retreat .... Nothing takes McD on :O)
Curtesy of McDinzie
Of course we joked and laughed about it ...But it was a real reminder that we are closer to nature than we often think ....... A reminder that this could have been a serious event ....I was glad we were not too far from assistance ....Also glad that the snake looks to be a python (We don't know for sure)..And probably sunning itself first thing in the morning ...... Who knows .... Pythons in Ozz can get up to around 6 metres by the way ......
And on we went ... Next stop was to drive towards cairns and turn off into the Great Divide to a small township called kuranda...Here was a crafts market and a Butterfly sanctuary. We spent quite a while at the butterfly place ...Eventually giving up on getting the 'perfect shot' and heading off to grab a pie and a drink at the market...It was getting hot .......
McDs new hat accessory 
We tired easily ...The heat of the day hit us hard (mid 30s) and so we drove back down into Cairns itself to have a look around ....
Looking down on the plains around Cairns
Well not really a lot to look at .. .We asked at the tourist information but they had no real suggestions for a few hours sightseeing... We hit the mall for some supplies and coffee... Then we drove along the beach esplanade...Well the beach was a river estuary !! Hundreds of sun seekers lay side to side on a grass strip between the road and the sands .... I was quite surprised by this as advertising always seemed to show the white sand beaches and palms ... Nope ..... We continued our drive around ... The espanade was ok ... not special .. .the rest of the town was just that - a sprawling town....
So having drove through their botanical gardens stopping for a drink, we gave up and headed for the airport .... Next stop Sydney - our last in Ozz
