Down under........

---

Heh there,

At the moment we're kinda stuck in Airlie Beach due to the really bad flooding up North between here and Cairns. Seemingly it's been raining up here since New Years-bit of a nightmare as it's something like 95% humidity so it's just so sticky. Decided to give the Whitsunday islands a skip as the weather is just so bad that we reckon we wouldnt be able to see much-might regret it though later as it's supposed to be fab.

Arived into Sydney about 2 weeks ago. Stayed in Bondi with Enda and Angela (pals of Pearse's from college) for 2 nights in Bondi and then with Susan (a pal from my PwC days) for 4 nights in Darling harbour (city). Sydney is great- a really lively happening city. We spent some time on Bondi beach and went for coastal walks/runs around there. All the beautiful people really do hang out there -bronzed and tone! Darling harbour is a really nice area too-lots of restaurants, bars etc. We saw Glen Hansard in Sydney opera hse and he was class-pretty cool building too. Headed out in The Rocks area with Jim (PwC) Angela and Enda. Lots of Irish hanging around-had a great laugh! Visited the Sydney museum to find out about the history, the Botanic gardens and the groups of flying foxes in the trees. Headed out to Manly on a boat to get a view of the Harbour bridge and Opera hse from the water-pretty nice!Met up with my cousin Noel for a bit of a catch up and met some other old PwC dudes (Carol, denise) for lunch. Had a lovely time in Sydney catching up with pals-pretty cool!

Flew to brisbane. Really liked it there-the locals appeared to be more friendly and chilled out than in Sydney even though it's still quite a big city. the highlight was definitely our visit to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. A good lot of the Aussi native animals, reptile and birds were on show. The koalas were fabulous and even got to cuddle one. the kangaroos and snakes were pretty cool too. They gave information talks about the various animals too which was really good. Stayed in a class hostel too "The Kookaburra Inn."

From there caught the Premier Motors bus to Hervey Bay. Took about 7 hours-must so Aus is a lot greener around the East coast than I thought. It was no Argentine bus (seats that adjusted the entire way back, dvds, food service, blankets, ac)-back to the old Bus Eireanns (Have to stop comparing!!!!). hervey Bay is a lovely quite area with a beautiful long beach-used to be a small fishing village until tourism took off on Fraser Island which is only a half hour off the coast. Spent a day on fraser Island-fantastic place-sand island with forest down the entire centre, beautiful lakes, lots of wildlife, nice beaches, sand dunes...we visited Lake McKenzie, coloured sands, the shipwreck, Eli Creek and a dingo came right up to us on the bus. Seemingly, it's one of the last places in Aus wth pure bred dingos as dogs ae not allowed on the Island.

From there took a 12 hour overnight bus to Airlie Beach where we are now.from here we are hoping to get to Townsville tomorrow and from there somehow Cairns........will keep you posted.

---

Comments

[Noel]

Bummer
very unlucky with the weather up there guys but at least ye got a good look at Fraser - top spot - keep an eye out for displaced crocs! :-)