Cairns, Day 2

Tuesday, February 5

I awake (again) at 4:30 a.m. local time, but this morning there’s a reason to get up. Just after 5:00 a.m., I do a ten-minute, morning drive-time interview with Radio Rhema, New Zealand’s premiere Christian radio station broadcasting live from Auckland where it’s just after 8:00 a.m. The morning DJ, Aaron Ironside, is engaging and informed. We discuss the segregated nature and coming integration of the local church, and he plugs the Mosaix Global Network Seminar I’ll be conducting the following Saturday in Christchurch. Too energized to return to bed, I spend the next few hours blogging.

Jean awakes more tired than the day before and encourages us to head for Port Douglas for the next few hours. About 40 km north of Cairns, Port Douglas is a quaint little town favored, Bob tells me, by former President, Bill Clinton. The winding coastal highway, scenic views and still pristine beaches are reminiscent of southern California in the 1960s before commercialization. Well take in the marina and enjoy a light lunch at an outdoor pub before heading back to Cairns. The return drive will be marked by our stop at an award winning animal sanctuary where we walk among crocs, koalas and kangaroos, the latter of which we feed by hand. Even the many exotic birds are used to human interaction and approach without fear. I take lots of pictures wishing that my children could be here, too.

We get home mid-afternoon and in time to take Jean to a couple of doctor’s appointments in before dinner. While she’s with the doctor, Bob and I head into the city’s center and we get some ice cream along the waterfront. Later, Jean will feel good enough to return here with us and enjoy some ice cream, herself. She even lets me take a couple of pictures with her and Bob; and for a brief moment, the three of us are free of the disease and its concerns. As we stroll through the souvenir market on the way back to the car, I can’t help wonder if this is the last such time we will ever enjoy.