I was relieved to be leaving Chong’s Place. Stu had been kind in his description. It was a state, there was clearly a lack of female presence for some time, I don’t think the house had been cleaned for 2 years, and there was a very dark atmosphere about it - and I won’t even mention the kitchen! I am happy to experience basic living and have embraced it many times on this journey so far, but this was just plain dirty and unkempt. So we were off to find a more traditional form of accommodation, the problem being that Fiji [View Full Entry]

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As we left the world’s happiest nation, the sense of dread overcame our thoughts; the question was ‘How could we find another country that carries as much love for life?’ With heavy hearts we read our in flight magazine and collected last minute research on a nation that is regularly mentioned when people speak of paradise, but as both of us knew exactly what you see on a postcard we wanted to delve a bit deeper. Not that was going to come from the Air Pacific guide to garlands or the handy tips on how to drink Kava and see an [View Full Entry]

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Relief, it is a wonderful feeling isn’t. The nervous tension that builds up, controlling your senses until that moment when it disappears. It may be sitting on the loo because you have been busting the 'drop off Les Enfants' or when your boss tells you that you don’t have to do a presentation. It appears in many forms; well our relief was when we got back to the Blue Pango. A mediocre style accommodation before we left but the very picture of opulence when we returned. The walls were concrete, the toilet did not talk to you, and the bugs were [View Full Entry]

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EPI Epi is an island lying north of Efate almost equal in size, but much less developed. It has a population of about 5000. There is one Australian couple living full time on Epi, otherwise the only visitors it has are youth aid project workers, missionaries, the odd backpacker (rarely) and occasional visitors off yachts that moor in the bays. There are a number of traditional villages dotted all along the coastline, living a simple life based on traditional Kastoms. There are no TVs, a few villages have a telephone, one of the schools has some computers, and only very few [View Full Entry]

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‘The happiest place on earth’. That is how Vanuatu is officially known, whether it is because it has friendly smiling faces and warm personalities, year round sunshine and crystal blue waters, or because it is a tax haven remains to be seen. Even arriving off our plane late at night was pleasurable, as we were welcomed by a local band in grass skirt playing happy island music, while we waited in the queue for immigration, which followed up with beaming smiles. Nothing like Heathrow eh? It was all with a sense of relief that we were even in Vanuatu as we [View Full Entry]

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We settled ourselves into the Pandanus camp site, and used it as a base to sort ourselves out for our remaining time in Australia. The weather had taken a turn for the worse, which was typical as we had wanted to take a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef, but with 30knot winds the visibility would be rubbish and chop would make it unpleasant and the risk of vomiting great. So we decided to wait a while and take a trip up to Cape Tribulation instead. Cape Tribulation is one of Queensland most visited tourist destinations as the landscape provides [View Full Entry]

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After leaving Noosa for the last time we had to make some miles, so it was just an afternoon of driving, but through stunning scenery. We headed for Rainbow Beach, and it was dark by the time we arrived, but we had read that there was a great NP camping area (therefore cheap) right on Inskip Point in the sand dunes. It was the closet mainland point to Fraser Island, and the closet Stu would go to the Fraser Island experience. It was really secluded, and we were able to pull the van right up to the dunes and be just [View Full Entry]

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Did you ever get that feeling when you were in school? It may have been at the end of term or school year and the exams would come around, your teachers had the expectation that you would indeed pick up your school books and start revising. Well my plan was to do everything else that I should do except that, so I would clean my room, wash, and listen to Dunc perform some of his poetry. Have you not heard it before? Ask him about it, really emotional stuff. So my education has flown by and that same feeling has returned, [View Full Entry]

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With our new found freedom (hip, hip hooray) we headed for Coochin Creek again, looking for that seclusion and wildlife adventure and also a bit of cheap camping. But this time it was raining and it was getting dark, we had just dropped them off at Brisbane airport and it was rush hour traffic again. Our hangovers from the debauchery of the night before still hung heavily over us. We were just too tired, so at the first rest area just 20km north of the city, which turned out to be a truck stop at the back of a Caltex garage, [View Full Entry]

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Everyone has to believe in folklore or legends. It makes the history of an event or destination seem interesting, maybe personal or relevant. Well Noosa Heads is that place in surfing for me. It has been seen in surf movies, magazines since the late 70’s, so it has had time to change and develop over the years. But in my mind it had air of decadence and standard, something that would hopefully stand the test of time, not giving in to commercial pressures. The only problem was that I had decided to make my trip to surfing Mecca with the ‘terrible [View Full Entry]

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