http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/GoughyandJoey/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from GoughyandJoey en-us Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:08:07 +0000 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:08:07 +0000 And so we reached our final stop on our 5 month World tour Singapore where we stayed for 4 nights before flying back home. We hadn't thought much about Singapore in advance as it was the very last place we were visiting and we didn't have a guidebook so we weren't really sure what to expect. Once we did eventually get a guidebook at Cairns airport it mentioned that Singapore had previously http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/Little-India/blog-445101.html Arriving back from our Whitsunday tour we had 2 weeks left in Australia in which to travel up the remainder of the East Coast of Queensland to Cairns. We visited Magnetic Island Mission Beach Cairns Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation so this blog is just a little about what we saw and got up to in these places.Our first stop was Magnetic Island just off the coast opposite a place called Townsv http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/blog-443687.html Upon arriving back from Fraser Island we jumped on an overnight bus for the gruelling 13 hour trip up to Airlie pronounced early Beach for our departure point to the Whitsundays. There are many boats sailing from Airlie Beach so we had decided to wing it and try and get a good standby rate for a boat or one of the island resorts when we got there. We didn't have our heart set on sailing partly http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Whitsundays/blog-443436.html Following the excitement of whale watching we departed the next morning on a short ferry ride to Fraser Island to start our 3 day 2 night tour of this unique island. Fraser Island is an island made entirely of sand just off the coast of Southern Queensland. It is thought that every grain of sand on the East Coast will eventually end up here brought up by ocean currents from South to North until http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Fraser-Island/blog-443425.html Our next stop up the coast was Noosa. It is about halfway between Brisbane and Hervey Bay and so a convenient stopping point but our main reason for being here was to visit Australia Zoo. Australia Zoo was the home of the late and great Steve Irwin and is now run by his wife. It is famed for its spectacular croc shows.... CrikeyOn arrival into Noosa we hit the beach but soon left as it was pr http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Noosa/blog-440063.html From Noosa we travelled further north to Hervey Bay. This is principally the gateway for Fraser Island but it is also the whale watching capital of the world so we could hardly refuse the opportunity to go meet some friendly whales. It is a wellknown whale watching spot in July to October as Hervey Bay is en route of the humpback whales southern migration down to the Antartic waters in the so http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Hervey-Bay/blog-440067.html So we left Sydney and headed north up the coast first stop Port Macquarie. Port is a fairly small town but has become known for its Koala hospital which is the only Koala dedicated animal hospital in the world. Naturally this was to be one of our stops while in Port but first we decided to hit the beach. We did not fancy a dip in the sea as it was still a bit cold but on our walk to the be http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Byron-Bay/blog-437552.html A short hop on the plane from Melbourne and we landed in Sydney. Unfortunately it seemed like we had taken the rubbish weather with us but after a bit of rain on day one we got glorious blue skies and sunshine for the rest of our time in Sydney.It was an actioned packed 4 days in Sydney starting off with a good old walk around the main sights in the city centre taking in the botanic gardens An http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/blog-437553.html We waved a fond farewell to New Zealand after a few last days in Christchurch attempting to sell the car not sold yet but with a car market to deal with it for us and got on the plane for Australia first stop Melbourne.The main reason to call in for a few days at Melbourne was to visit Sarah's uni friend Em who has been living out here since 2006 with her Australian boyfriend now fiance Jim http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/blog-434520.html Whilst in the adventure capital of the world we thought it would be ridiculous not to participate in some extreme activities so I Joe decided to book in on a bungy jump and a skydive with Steve whilst Sarah and Hannah booked themselves in for some spa treatments Originally we were booked to do the bungy and skydive on the Saturday but unfortunately as mentioned in previous posts whilst boa http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/blog-430039.html Everyone we spoke to about New Zealand before we came told us Milford Sound was a must see so we dully obliged and we can see why everyone raves about the place it is truly amazing. As the weather had been so rubbish for our trip to Mt Cook we watched the weather forecast so that we could get to Milford Sound on a good day and thankfully our luck was in. The captain of our boat told us it rain http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/blog-430058.html Whilst Steve and Hannah were with us with did a bit of a road trip to see the main South Island sights see separate blogs and we also spent some time in and around Queenstown sampling the toursit activities on offer here.As Steve and Hannah were keen to hit the slopes we spent 4 days on the snow. Day one saw us heading back up to Cardrona as we had liked it so much when we went on the way up t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/blog-430057.html Part two of the road trip saw us heading up to Mount Cook National Park via Wanaka. On the way up to Wanaka we met with policeman number 3 in the space of just 5 days we were beginning to feel liked marked men So police pullovers 3 tickets 2 Joey not so good at sweet talking the police We should like to say in our defence that all three misdemeanors should not have been ticketable http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/blog-430052.html So after 5 weeks in New Zealand we thought we'd better get out and see some of this famously beautiful country and what better opportunity than a 2 week visit from our friends Steve and Hannah. As they were arriving at Christchurch airport we decided to take a couple of days to drive the 500km back up to Christchurch calling at two of the other South Island ski fields on the way. Firstly we sp http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/blog-430048.html Well it has been an interesting 10 days since we last blogged with some highs and lows. We've had some excellent days on the snow see videospics on the Snowboarding blog including night skiing where the main pistes are floodlit and you can skiboard until 9pm and a lesson each to hone our skills on the slopes. But we have also had a few forced days off after a couple of near disasters wi http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Queenstown/blog-420875.html This blog entry has been set up to document our amazing and disastrous snowboarding efforts. To be updated with regular videos and photos. http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Otago/Queenstown/blog-419311.html We arrived in NZ early on Sunday morning after 14 hours flying. We had arranged to fly into Christchurch so that we could pick up our snowboard bag more on that later and buy a car. The car bit was a lot easier than we had anticipated it would be and we promptly became the proud owners of a 1993 Subaru Legacy focus on the Subaru part and not the fact that it is an old estate car. Anyway w http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Queenstown/blog-417295.html So from the searing heat of Rio we headed to Santiago in Chile which lived up to its name by being pretty cold wearing only shorts and a Tshirt on the plane was certainly not a great idea. We were essentially only in Chile en route to New Zealand but our itinerary meant that we had two days to experience Santiago. We thought it would be an excellent opportunity to visit one of the many vine http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Chile/Santiago-Region/Santiago/blog-414875.html Sad to leave the tranquility of Parati we hopped on yet another bus to head to Rio. The bus drove along the coast road so there were some pretty spectacular views shame about the kid puking two rows behind We arrived at Rio bus station and after a brief domestic about whether we were on the right bus we were we scrambled off to find ourselves in the world famous Copacabana district cue m http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Rio-de-Janeiro/Copacabana/blog-414870.html From Iguazu we decided to take a bus to Sao Paulo and from there directly on to a little coastal town called Paraty pronounced Parachi. This was a pretty gruelling journey totalling over 24 hours but we decided not to stop in Sao Paulo as the guidebook suggested the main sites were museums so not really our kind of place i.e too cultural so we decided to spend our time in Brazil in and arou http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Rio-de-Janeiro/Paraty/blog-412233.html