Rising early we set forth for our first official wine tour. Clover and I grew up working from time to time as wine pickers in Southern Oregon and figured it would be nice to pass through wine country viewing it from a different angle. Thus we set out to see what the entire hubbub around the Barossa Valley Shiraz was all about. Barossa Valley starts a little over an hour from Adelaide and has come to be one of Australia's most internationally recognized wine regions. This is where you’ll find Jacob’s Creek, Wolf Blass, and even Cockatoo Ridge (widely known for its Yellow Tail label). At the current moment there is approximately a 100 wine cellars (wineries that have their own label) within the Barossa Valley. In the early days this region was first offered to ... read more

(Clover) Where Sydney had lovely parks Melbourne had lovely old buildlings. The odd part was the juxtaposition of the old against the new. I would walk around a corner to see a grand old chruch and then right next to the would be "modern" monstrousity. Every street large and small had something going on. The streets were crawling with people. The area of town where we were staying was called Chapel street. We were a little worried that we were going to end up in a suburb far away from downtown but it ended up being a pretty neat little area. The buildings were not so grand but the street was lined with little cafes, restuarants, hip little bars and tattoo parlors. What we found on Chapel street was actually more of what I was ... read more

When Scott first told me about wanting to go to Frazer Island I was a little turned off by the presentation. Simply put, it's the largest sand Island in the world. Some say it contains more sand than the Sahara desert. As well as that, because of the lay out of the ocean's geography around the island (close to the deep ocean trench) it is a prime breeding ground for bull sharks and tiger sharks. Which are known for being very aggressive. Not to mention an over abundance of sting rays (Steve Irwin Killers as we've heard them called down here). Everyone that ventures to the island is told never to swim in the ocean, period. So why in God's name must we trudge out to the world's largest sand Island when we can't even ... read more

Okay, So far Scott has held the reins of our travel blog. I'm thinking I might give it a crack. Especially since he keeps giving me the evil eye :) Hmm...Tablelands. The hobbit Haggus and his reluctant companion venture timidly into thier odd carriage... The journey started out with us renting a car from Cairns. We picked our huge white Ford four door car(it looked like a massive undercover cop car) and with white knuckles and sweaty palms gripped the steering wheel and steered into traffic. Scott was the lucky one to have a go at driving on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car. On the passenger side of the car there was a huge sticker reminding drivers to stay on the left side of the road. I ... read more

The pressure of so much rain and cloudy days has begun to drive us a bit batty. So all in all we did our fair share of dancing on tables and lounging about at the hostel clubs. Of coarse our hobbit coach was challenged to a drinking contest with some locals. All that matters was that 8 of us stood against many as we held our rum and yeager. And yes, table dancin did insue. After learning the native haka earlier in our voyage I discovered a new found strength when it came time for the fellas to dance in their undwear. You'll notice some fashionable pictures of us in costumes and plastic bags. Long story short, it was heavy with rain and so we stopped off in Barrytown where the local bar has a long ... read more