The following day, we were excited to finally meet up with Matt's sister, Katie, and her fiance' Alex. They joined us for a day outing to the Atherton Tablelands. We drove up the hill past Kuranda, and on to Mareeba. This is where MAF has a hangar, about 60km from Cairns, and where Matt worked last year for a month. It is a peaceful area. We got a tour from the boss, and met some of his co-workers, which was special. Right next door, there is a place called Warbirds. It is a museum where they have restored some old WWII fighter planes, that you can actually fly in (for a big price). Instead, we were able to view them up close, and even go inside a few. It was very interesting, and I know especially that Matt and his dad, Steve, enjoyed it. Following that, we headed a little further inland and went to another small museum. Then we found the Memorial park for the different Australia battalions that had trained/served in WWII. Matt's grandfather was here, and we found his battalion's memorial. It was quite emotional thinking about their service and sacrifice both in Australia and in PNG. Later in the afternoon we found where his battalion had based. It was really a lovely farm area, and I was grateful we could go there for Matt's family's sake. Then we accidently took the long way back home, on the super windy road, but oh well, we enjoyed the scenery and eventually got back to Tree Tops. That night we enjoyed Thai food take out-yum!
