Day 10 On Our Way Home to Kansas

We all met down in the lobby of our motel at 3:45am, our box breakfast was waiting for us before barding our bus. Everyone was very prompt...even got away 5 minutes early! After checking in, we all boarded and some of us were out like a light!

We had a FABULOUS time in Australia and we hope you enjoyed following us on blogger. The group of students that we took were WONDERFUL ...we couldn't have asked for a better group of K-State students...very respectful, helpful, caring and attentive at each stop. This trip was a great life time experience that we will all cherish.

Good Day Mates....No Worries!:)

Day 9 Cairns Adventure

This morning we woke to another rainy day. It was a bit nippy out (as the natives call it) we are all in our shorts walking to the pier. The pier is where we boarded the boat that took us to Green Island/Great Barrier Reef. Before departing, we all took some motion sickness pills....well for Shilo and Kandi, it helped a little, we had to ride at the back and/or on the outside deck. There were other students that had a rough ride as well.

We finally made it to the Reef after stopping at Green Island for a briefing on things to do at the reef. Some chose scuba diving, snorkeling and scuba doo rides.

We ended our evening with the best meal of the trip.....a Brazilian BBQ! This was our farewell dinner with our tour guide, Graeme Mitchel whom was very helpful throughout our adventures in Australia. He actually flew with us to Brisbane and left us at the international airport to head to LA.

As we write this, we are in the air flying to the LA,we should be there in 13 short hours! What a long day ....we are celebrating our 27th anniversary in the air...how romantic!

Good day mate!

Day 8 Arriving in Cairns

After arriving in Cairns, we visited a park and learned about the native culture. It was interesting but could of done without it...took all day. After the tour, we headed to our hotel, dropped off our luggage and went power shopping for only an hour. Dinner included a trip to "Tha Fish'....this was a very expensive restaurant . For us flat landers, this was a new and different experience . Our family typically likes our sea food without the heads left on it. We ended our meal with a birthday cake for Hailey. She turned 20!

Day 8 Flying to Cairns

We all got checked in very quickly and had a few minutes wait at the terminal before boarding. Of course, no free Wifi. :(

We are all anxious to adventure this part of our trip.

Day 7 Wagga Wagga Uni. (Australians call Universities....Uni's)/Sydney

We started our day off with some yummy breakfast at the City Park Motel.....some of us passed on the hot breakfast!We then met up with Dr. Peter Chenoweth, a former K-Stater whom moved down under to Wagga -Charles Stuart Uni six years ago (he joined us for dinner last night). He is in charge of the vet school. Speaking of the vet school...wow do they have some nice facilities! We met a couple of vet students whom were in their 5th year that had just completed a c-section....We like that hands on learning! The vet program is a 6 year program.O

On our bus ride to Sydney, we stopped for lunch....had a choice of KFC or McDonalds. Some of us are seeing some beautiful scenery and some others have seen their eyelids...lol!

We will post more later tonight or early tomorrow about our short adventure in Sydney....that's all for now mate!

We are back....we arrived in Sydney around 4:00pm, had only about an hour to hour and a half to quickly do some shopping. We then met back up and walked to the harbor for our dinner cruise. ...it was fabulous...we just all wish we could stay longer to enjoy the sights of Sydney.

What a great evening and nice room to stay in....finally!

Now we are headed to Caines which we hear it is 70's and rain...we are hoping not! We are all ready for warm weather!

No worries.....Good Day!

Day 5 and 6

Day 5...Trigger Vale White Suffolks and Poll Merinos/ Spry Shorthorn

Well, today we will be writing two blogs. We stayed in a very old motel in Wagga Wagga that was just lovely..ha ha....like Mary Ann and Ellen said the 3of us were staying in a "cottage" that didn't have free internet like the other rooms, leaky toilet, very little heat, smells like a wet dog lives in here, etc..needless to say it was very nasty and we are there for 2 nights!

Now that you know our nice accommodations, I will continue on with our blog....

It was a very foggy morning traveling to Trigger Vale Suffolks. They are the leaders in performance testing sheep in Australia. They were a great family and had very good sheep. For lunch we traveled to the "rock" and visited an emu farm. They are very aggressive at this time of this time of the year because it is mating season. You may see the females more aggressive than the males. Their beaks are not harmful but you oughta watch out for their web feet. We tried feeding them bread and some got close but some students freaked out and pulled back.

We then continued north to Spry families shorthorn stud. They are the premier shorthorn breeder in Australia. We were able to witness there top selling bull at$48,000 and he was very impressive.We finished the visit with a barby (BBQ). It was great to finish the day with a home cooked meal!


Day 6

We start the day with a quick shower because there is not enough hot water to go around and we wade through water because the toilet leaked all night. What a great start!

Our first visit started with a trip to the Wagga sale yards. The auctioneer did not have the typical chant us Americans are used to. Each commission company was allowed to sell 500 head in a hour. Today's sale included 2850 head and can't wait to show our friend Garren Walrod what the auctioneers and buyers look like here at the down under. We were able to visit the Cargill plant in Wagga and was surely more Americanized than the plant we visited a couple days ago(JBS). We finished the day off with the Cargill feedlot that currently feed 15,000 and a ration that was made up of 85% steamed flaked wheat.

Day 4...Lawson Angus/ Bonnie Doon Club / Lima Park

Today we visited two beef cattle operations who differed in their approach to raising cattle. The Lawson ranch is one of the largest and most forward thinking angus breeders in Australia. They focus on carcass traits, moderate cow size and raising cattle in a total forage environment. They work closely with the Gardner ranch of Ashland, Kansas and share many of the same breeding philosophy . The Lima park Hereford ranch bred cattle based on visual traits with little emphasis on EPD selection. The mature cows averaged close to 1600-1800 pounds. The manager said they recently sold a cow that weighed nearly 2400 pounds. That is a big beast! They also ran 3000 ewes in a terminal cross. We enjoyed touring the shearing barn because most of us have not seen a sheep operation of that size. Like always we have eaten too much today. Most people lose weight on international trips, not the case on this trip!!!!!