Cairns, Australia part 2

The bride prize was one of the highlights while we were in Cairns. The groom’s family had invited the whole family and all of us from Norway to spend the evening with them in traditional PNG (Papa New Guinea) style. The whole concept of the bride price was that the groom’s family gave the brides family gifts so they would accept the marriage.  When the bride’s family accepted the gifts, she would be “owned” by the groom and his family after the marriage.  So for this ritual people had dressed up in traditional PNG style and the bride was the center of attention with all this traditional clothing and accessories on her. They walked from one of the houses where they had dressed up and made the bride ready and into the garden of the house where we all were sitting and waiting, singing and dancing on their way………..

The gifts were presented to the bride’s family and all of it was handmade stuff, made by the groom’s family. It was a very generous gift and of course the bride’s family accepted them. Even we got a nice Aussie/PNG handbag, very very thankful for that.

Of course parties like this have a lot of food! To make this evening special a whole pig was put on the bbq and we were served all types of fish, meat, potatoes, salads, bread, pasta etc etc, PNG style. It was delicious!!!!!!  And do not forget all the good drinks we had………….

One of the things we also had to do was going to the zoo. Cairns tropical zoo is not very big, but they have all the animals you want to see in Australia.  We first went to see the Lemur as they were about to be fed when we arrived there.  They are so cute and very clever animals.

Next it was the Kangaroos, and there we could go all the way up to the kangaroos and feed them if we wanted. Of course the kangaroos have their little resting place where we were not allowed to enter, and with our luck almost all the kangaroos were there. And the food we could give them………………………….. They didn’t want it ??????????? Talk about picky animals!!!!!!! Anyway, they were great, and if we had been patient enough and just sat down with them for a while they would have come up to us. Actually there was one little male kangaroo that I managed to flirt a little with so he ate the food from my hand (too bad there is no pictures of it).

Can not miss the crocodiles, some of them are huge! All of the crocodiles have been captured somewhere in the Queensland area around Cairns, and there is always a reason why they are being captured and put into the zoo. One of them had taken 30 kettles, no wonder he has to spend his life in the zoo!  Another one had eaten the Sherrif's dog............................ you know you're in trouble when you do that;) The small crocks on the other hand, have been born in the zoo. Quite cute I must admit.

I am terrified of snakes but had to go and look at them. Well, not going to write about all the different types of snakes they had there, but it was many, and they are butt ugly, just look at the pictures!

Cairs zoo is not very big, but it is worth going to if you are in Cairns. You will go through the plae in a few hours, and then you are using your time. There is a few other animals we saw as well, of course there was koala bears there too, and a wallaby and a wombat, and some birds. I want a kuala, it is very lazy and it likes to sleep, it is the perfect pet and I think Roxy(my dog) would just love it! When I get to Sydney  I am going to the zoo again, this time I am going to hold a koala or maybe pet a tiger...... ha ha, just joking:)

We went to Cairns zoo on the 31st of December and you all know what day that is! We had the perfect new years eve party. We all, 40 Norwegians, went to Salt house at Cairns marina for a three course dinner and it was amazing. The fireworks was great. First at 21.00 it was a fantasic firework show for the kids and at 24.00 for the grow ups, or who ever was awake. Too bad I did not have my camera at 9 when I watched it at the pier, at 12 I was back at the hotel :(

And you guessed right, it was a white theme that night!

ATTENTION!!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS SOME VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT QUEENSLAND!

1. No drinking in public places, be in the park and do you bbq, but no alcohol, 75 aud fine if you get caught!

2. No smoking indoors (but we are used to that so no problem), however, no smoking outside either if you are seated at at restaurant or a bar! That one i do not understand????????

3. Be avare of extremely frizzy hair, humidity about 97%.

4. Always get a hotel with swimmingpool if you are in the area at summertime.

As i have mentioned earlier, Great Barrier Reef is a must do thing if you are in Cairns. But also go to Green Island is something everybody should go and see (you can find different trip to diferent places at the GBR, green island is one of them). We were very unlucky when we went as the weather was not good. We got about 1-1,5 hours on the beach but then it started to rain..............

So finally, the big day, the wedding. As I have said before the weather in Cairns was not the best, had sunny days but the rain was heavy when it started, and the day before the wedding was really, really bad. The ceremony was going to be at the beach and now we were all wondering if that was going to happen (they did hav a plan B if the weather was bad though). We were so lucky, no rain at the beach! The ceremony was beautiful, the bride and grom was stunning. The perfect ceremony for the perfect couple. I have som great pictures, see for yourself.

After the ceremony is was back to the hotel to great the arrival of the new mr and mrs Mellor. Let's get the party started:)!!!!!!

I just have to say something about the food, it was amazing. It was a big, big buffet with all types of fish, meat, potatoes, pasta, salad and a lot more. i think we all ate way to much. Bt how can you help that when the food is so great? Of course there was a lot of speaches and entertainment. I did not get many pictures of all the speaches as I was too busy to ball my eyes out.......happy tears:)

 After the lovely dinner we had it was time for the cake, or as many would say THE CAKE!

 And don't forget the rest of the speaches and entertainment.............

After all the guest had done their part of the entertainment, including all the 40 Norwegians (the English, Irish and Swedish is included in that) had done the glow dance (no pictures of it as I was perticipating), it was the bride and groom's turn to entertain us a little bit.

And this was the end of my pictures from the wedding, go figure why................... Let's just say it was a great party! Can we do it next year as well?