Kev and Hill

Kevin and Hillary

Kev and Hill

Hi everyone!

This is Kevin and Hillary, and this will be our Blog (Online Travel Journal) to and during our working holiday in Australia! We'll do our best to keep friends and family (or anyone curious about our travels) informed during our time abroad, and be sure to share all of our new experiences while away. Enjoy!

By the way, we totally appreciate any comments or anything like that for our entries or pics! Especially ratings for our pictures! So if you've got a chance, please be sure to write us what you're thinking! ^_^



Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney November 27th 2009

Friday November 27, 2010 was the last day of our Australian tour. To think that the only thing that stood between us and home at this point would be 37 hours of flights and and airports. What a strange feeling. 10 months had zipped by. Less than a year ago we had flown the 8 hours from Toronto to London. As pointed out on several occasions, this was the long way around the world to Sydney. But getting to Australia was just part of the fun. We enjoyed a full 12 hours on the ground in London, and were soon off again for another 12 hours of flying to Thailand. We had a great time enjoying the warm weather in Bangkok and Phuket, instead of our typical Canadian weather. Once the week was over, we were ... read more
Airport
Plane
Entertainment

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Sydney November 25th 2009

These would be our last few days in Australia. What an amazing time we had seeing the country. That afternoon (Wednesday November 25) we took the train back from the Blue Mountains. Weeks earlier we had picked up some coupons to stay at one of the newest hostels in Sydney, the Sydney Harbour YHA. We only had two more nights in Australia, so we figured we’d go out in style. Turns out we made the right choice when we picked this brand new YHA. It was right down by the water, with fantastic views of both the Opera House and the Habour Bridge. It was so new and clean, it felt like staying in a hotel! After checking in, Hillary and I were treated to a tour of the city courtesy of some distant relatives, Janet ... read more
YHA - 2
YHA - 3
YHA - 4

Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Blue Mountains November 23rd 2009

After that morning’s little incident, Hillary and I went out in search of a dry cleaner. We found one pretty quickly, and we were lucky because it was right next door to a walk in clinic. The thing was that my foot had been hurting for a few days, and we were worried my toe had an infection. Turns out we were right. After a quick visit, I got a prescription for some antibiotics, and we were off to the races (with a bit of a limp)! That afternoon we looked a bit around the city, but kept it fairly low key. This was now Hillary’s third time to Sydney, and we had both logged a decent amount of time trekking around the downtown core so we weren’t too concerned about missing anything. We spent the ... read more
Katoomba
Hostel
Hostel - 2

Oceania » Australia » Australian Capital Territory » Canberra November 21st 2009

Saturday November 21st was our second day in Canberra. Since we had gotten quite a bit done the day before, we decided to check out the city’s main shopping center. You know, not one of the biggest attractions, but a good time to relax. We grabbed a bite to eat, and then walked over to the National Museum of Australia. A very cool museum with tons of info spanning the history of the country. Plenty about sports, the wars, major achievements and the evolution of a nation. We spent the majority of the afternoon in there, before heading out for a long walk back to the hostel. Actually, we walked through the Australian National University on the way back, and got to see some campus life outside of Charles Darwin University. That night we popped over ... read more
Statues
Parliament House
National Museum of Australia

Oceania » Australia » Australian Capital Territory » Canberra November 19th 2009

Thursday, November 19th, we were back in Melbourne. After such a great time in Tasmania, we weren’t going to spend much time again in Melbourne. That morning Hillary and I checked out of our room, and set up camp in the common area, since we’d be taking the overnight bus to Canberra. I sat around and tried to catch up on blogs, while Hillary went out to check out the Melbourne Museum. She had a great afternoon, and saw tons of animal related info and even caught an Imax movie! By the evening, Hill had returned and it was time to head out. We tried our best to do the cheap thing and walk to the bus station. But from the Melbourne Oasis hostel, it was just too far to the Southern Cross station. So we ... read more
Fossils
Big Computer
Melbourne

Oceania » Australia » Tasmania » Hobart November 16th 2009

Monday was the last day of our tour. We drove to Nelson Falls, and checked out the scenery. Unfortunately, we had some really windy roads that day. When it comes to being a passenger, I have a tendency to get a little motion sick. Being on the smaller buses usually helps but the constant swaying was tough. All it meant though was that I’d get the privilege to sit up in the front, which meant a better view out the front window! We had lunch at Lake St Clair. There were tons of other backpackers there, but these guys were serious. In fact, the majority of them were just completing a several day long trek from Cradle Mountain! Talk about a journey. Afterwards we saw some more waterfalls and walked through some great rainforests. In fact, ... read more
Sign
Nelson Falls
Map

Oceania » Australia » Tasmania » Cradle Mountain November 14th 2009

Sorry it’s taken so long to get back to the blog! Don’t worry though, just a few more blog entries to the thrilling conclusion of our Australia trip! Saturday, November 14 was the 4th day of our Tasmania tour. But it was like beginning a whole new tour because we were now following the lead of a new tour guide! Unfortunately things started a bit behind, our new tour guide showed up a bit late. When he finally made it though, things got rolling. First we found ourselves in Sheffield. This was a tiny tour, but its main attraction was an annual mural contest. The town also had tons of permanent murals on many of the local buildings, which were really cool to see. That afternoon we arrived at Cradle Mountain. We checked in our stuff ... read more
Bus
Sheffield
Sheffield - 2

Oceania » Australia » Tasmania » Bicheno November 12th 2009

Day 2 of our Tasmania tour started, as usual, with a bit of driving. We stopped in a small town called Ross, where much like our first day we got to see an old bridge. This one had an interesting story though. As with the majority of Tasmania’s infrastructure at the time, the bridge was built with convict labour. However, the people who commissioned the bridge were supposedly so pleased with the bridge’s detailing, that the convicts were able to have their sentences shortened! How about that for a reward. We then made our way to Wineglass Bay. This involved a bit of a hike between two mountains to get over to the sheltered bay. Halfway there was the lookout, where we got a great view of the bay. After the lookout, we climbed down towards ... read more
Bridge
Bridge - 2
Bridge - 3

Oceania » Australia » Tasmania » Port Arthur November 10th 2009

Tuesday the 10th was the day we flew out to Tasmania. We spent the day packing our stuff, and weighing it to make sure we didn’t go over the 15kg limit for the plane. We were flying Tiger Airways, a discount Australian airline, and wanted to make sure everything would go according to plan. We’d heard some horror stories about flights being cancelled as late as boarding time, but that’d be out of our control (so no point worrying about it). Hillary and I made it to the airport plenty early, and our flight was even on time! After a short one-hour flight, we were finally in Hobart! Wednesday was the first day of our tour. We booked with a local company called Under Down Under. They had several options for exploring Tasmania, so we signed ... read more
Tiger Airways
Sky
Terminal

Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne November 3rd 2009

On Tuesday the 3rd, it was time for a bit of planning. If we wanted to go to Tasmania, we definitely needed to start booking things. We spent a bit of the day looking at tours, and then spent a good amount of time at the mall. After some shopping, we saw the movie “This is it”, the Michael Jackson film. It was great hearing the classics, but we were hoping it would be a bit more in depth in regards to his dancing. Wednesday was a big day, we booked our tours! After getting a pair of haircuts in the morning, we went to another travel centre for some more information and options. We narrowed it down to two, and finally chose Under Down Under as our Tassie tour! So keep a look out because ... read more
Melbourne Metro
City
Leaving




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