This post about our Hospitality Exchange experiences in Australia was originally published in 2008. It has since been updated for accuracy of links and content.
For more information about Hospitality Exchanges, check out The Ultimate Guide to Free or Cheap Accommodation
Our first week in Australia has been an amazing one, due in no small part to the kindness of others we have received.
Cairns: Our First Hospitality Exchange Experience
Through our Hospitality Club membership, we met Anne and family.
Anne and her husband Kerry (who was sadly out of town while we were visiting) have four grown-and-growing-up kids, and a history of fostering many other children. And when they haven’t fostered kids, they have fostered great relationships with travelers to whom they have offered up their home. We were lucky enough to be two of those travelers.
Right from the airport pick up, to the warm welcome and armloads of fruit from the trees in the backyard, we were immediately made to feel welcome. Conversation flowed, and we had trouble finding any silence in the flow.
In fact, we were invited to accompany Anne and her daughter on a three-day road trip to visit Kerry in the outback. But sadly we had to decline as we had a plane to catch out of beautiful Cairns too soon for our liking.
We were amazed with not only Anne’s kindness towards us, but also towards the world in general. “If everyone gave what they have the capacity to give, and stopped taking as much as they can take, we could improve the world substantially,” was one of the many poignant things Anne said to us on the subject of humanitarian work in light of our recent Burma relief project. She cites her own way of giving what she can as fostering kids; a responsibility she almost shrugs off as being minimal, but which most people would have trouble even imagining.
We truly hope to be able to return to Cairns, to explore this beautiful tropical area of Australia, and also to explore a deeper relationship with this family that leaves us speechless.
Thank you Anne and family, for your kindness.
To find out who else lent us amazing kindness and a cultural exchange that left us speechless, click here to link to the whole story at World Nomads!
I found your post below pretty funny. Carins is nice but you have to go to cape trib. less crowded.