Blogs from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, North America - page 17

G'Day mates: After saying goodbye to our Aussie friends we took the high speed catamaran ferry from Hamilton Island to the mainland, where we picked up our rental and headed north to Townsville. Enroute we drove past miles and miles of sugar cane, and I tried my hand at driving on the right side of the road. Here we parked the car and boarded our second CAT ferry for the day which took us to Magnetic Island for the night. WOW! a real bed after 9 days!! The morning had us participating in a 2 hour wildlife experience in Koala Village where we received an educational presentation on the island's wild inhabitants, plus we were able to hold crocodiles; black cockatoos; snakes; lizards; plus the highlight was holding a Koalo Bear. After a bus tour of ... read more

G'Day mates: We are offically in Australia ... After a three and half hour flight from Auckland, we landed in Sydney where we met up with our Canadian/Aussie friends Don and Hilary and boarded our two hour flight to Hamilton Island to start our Whitsundays adventure. Waiting for us was a 36 ft sailboat , Jasambri II. The first afternoon/evening we spent buying groceries and getting everything in place so we could set sail the next morning. By the way the temperatures are between 24-28 and this is without sun... Day one: Gilligan emerged, ask Fred. We set sail from Hamilton Island at 10:30 for Nara Inlet on Hook Island. We both had a turn at the helm and despite grey skies and rain it was a great time. We anchored for the night as we ... read more

G'day Mates: Our stay in Rotorua, New Zealand has been a very exciting experience, with the following three highlites: First was Te Puia, New Zealand's premier Maori cultural centre and the home to the world famous Pohutu geyser. They also train Maori students to carve and weave with local material. The tour took us through the park and explained the Maori cultural. We also saw two Kiwi behind glass in a nighttime environment as the birds are notural. The geyser - which erupts twice every hour for about 30 minutes - is surrounded by a large pool of boiling mud. Wednesday evening was the Tamaki Maori Village where we stepped into a tradiational Maori village deep in the Tawa Forest. There we experienced an evening of ceremonial ritual and performances followed by an hangi feast (all ... read more

G'Day mates Well we had two fantasic days in Tairua, North Island, New Zealand... our first day was hot, humid and sunny, and even with jetlag we managed to do a lot. First place we walked was to the Gazebo, 10 minutes from our B&B, where we found a gazebo overlooking a great view of the harbours - Tairura stands for two harbours, two tides. We continued checking out the local area for at least an hour walk where we found New Zealanders' to be very friendly especially when you're misplaced. After scouting our the town we took a short ferry ride to Pauanui a place with a beautiful beach and huge summer homes - they also surf on this beach. On our second day we had rain, but that didn't stop us. We travelled by ... read more

G'day mates...Saturday, March 19 Well we finally arrived in Australia, safe and sound and yes with luggage -which had been sent straight through from Ottawa - we've only seen the Sydney airport looking out at the rain. But on the upside it's 24C. I knew the flight was long from Vancouver to Sydney but didn't realize just how looong it was going to feel. It was extremely rough for several hours then it settled down and got rough when they we were suppose to feed us breakfast which was delayed by an hour... oh well! Our first purchase in Australia was an important one...Duty Free Aussie red wine...before we boarded our flight to New Zealand ha! We arrived in Auckalnd on time picked up our rental and headed to Tairua... the drive here was beautiful lush ... read more