We woke up with the alarm but got going slowly, as it was our last full day in Australia and we didn't have much planned. We looked at our pictures and Jess updated this journal as we ate our breakfast of tea, yogurt, blueberry muffins and spicy Thai ramen (Jer made Jess have some ramen, as he asserted that spicy food is good for a cold). Finally, we managed to motivate ourselves to get ready and pack, as we needed to vacate our room. As we were packing, though, we realized that it was pouring outside - October is the start of the wet season, it seems! The shower passed as quickly as it had come, and by the time we went outside it was sunny again.
After checking out of the Bellview and leaving our bags in the luggage room, we headed to the newsagent to buy our last stamp, then went to Perrotta's, an outdoor restaurant on a wonderful covered deck that's apparently very popular with locals for brunch. (The guidebook said it was modern Australian, but it was actually Italian, albeit using some local ingredients.) Jer got paw paw, strawberry and lime salad with buffalo labne (Greek yogurt), honey and sugared pistachios. Jess got french toast with caramelized pears, raspberry sauce and vanilla yogurt. Both were excellent.
After brunch, we headed over to the Reef Hotel and Casino, atop which is the Cairns Wildlife Dome. It's a very tiny zoo and we wouldn't have paid to visit it, but with our 4 Park Pass it was free. It has a small selection of Australian animals, including pademelons, koalas, turtles, three freshwater crocodiles, a 4-meter saltwater croc named Goliath, various lizards and tons of free-flying birds (like cockatoos, parrots, emerald doves and metallic starlings (the only native starling species) and free-wandering birds (like curlews, herons and buff-banded rails with chicks). It didn't take us long to explore, which was good because Jess got pooped on by a bird and insisted on leaving to go wash up.
We left the Cairns Wildlife Dome and headed to the marina (which is basically right next to the Reef Hotel and Casino). We walked along, checking out the various tour boats and ogling the private vessels. We stopped to admire Duyfken, a replica of a 17th c. Dutch jacht like the one aboard which they discovered Australia (albeit somewhat after the Aborigines did); it's a museum, but they sail it once a week, on Saturday afternoons - too bad we missed it! We wished we had another day or two to take a daytrip to Green Island, which isn't far from Cairns and has swimming, snorkeling, sea kayaking, etc. We also wished we had a lot more money, so we could hire a private vessel for some seafaring. Oh well.
We headed back to the Cairns Wildlife Dome in time for the 1:30pm feeding tour. One of the keepers, Sae, took us around and told us about some of the animals (and let us touch a few of them) as she gave them a snack. We met the blue tongue skinks, the turtles, the cockatoos, the frogmouths and the laughing kookaburras (both of which got dead mice as a treat) and Harvey the koala, who we got to pat. It was neat, though it was a bit hard to understand Sae's Chinese-Australian accent.
Our feeding tour wrapped up around 2:40 pm, so he headed back to the Esplanade to get lunch. We had lunch at the Good Times Cafe, as they had a fish 'n chips special and that's what appealed to us. It wasn't fancy (or handmade, as at the Tin Shed in Port Douglas), but it hit the spot. After hanging out, watching the world go by, for a bit, it was time to head back to the Bellview to pick up our bags, then Jer hailed us a cab to the airport. It was a quick trip and (for two passengers) cost the same as a shared van, so we soon found ourselves navigating the Cairns airport maze. We had to go to one building to check in for Virgin Blue, then walk to another building for security and the departure lounge. Happily, everything was simple and there were no lines, but this gave us an hour in the departure hall. We wandered around looking at the books, clothes and souvenirs, but didn't find anything irresistable (though Jess was tempted by a red lamb leather jacket).
Our flight to Sydney was uneventful, and after wandering confusedly around the Arrivals area for a bit, we located the shuttle buses that would take us to our hotel, the Stamford Plaza Sydney Airport. We arrived and the desk clerk couldn't find our reservation, but he made a copy of our confirmation and sent us to a top floor Deluxe room. Our room was really nice and super-close to the airport - you could see the Qantas hangar and jets from our window! We tried to check in for our Delta flight but got an error messgae, so we decided to deal with it at the airport the next morning. We crawled into the big, comfy bed and fell asleep quickly.
We both slept well, if too briefly, then got up with the alarm and got ready to go. We had tea and Jess's remaining muffins to tide us over, got showered and packed, and headed downstairs to get a shuttle back to the airport. We checked out, the shuttle came and picked us up and took us to Sydney Airport, where we eventually boarded our Delta flight home, wishing we could stay longer.