Blogs from Airlie Beach, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

Had an 11 hour journey to Airlie Beach and Wednesday! We stopped in Sarina and did lawn bowling which was pretty random and I got perved on by some of the old men there! I'm even worse at lawn bowling than I am at 10 pin bowling and I came to the conclusion that I pretty much suck at all activities! I keep trying and hey its the taking part that counts! :P Arrive in Airlie quite late in the evening and feeling pretty stressed! Had a lot to sort out this evening to get ready for our Whitsundays trip tomorrow. Had to do laundry as I have run out of clean clothes, as well as meet our bus group for food. Had an amazing pizza at the Downunder bar, possibly the best pizza I have ... read more

Hello again! Well I arrived safely in Cairns early on Tuesday morning and got a transfer to my hostel, Gilligans. I was sharing a room with 7 other people but this was more than made up for by the fact that the hostel was right in the centre of town, had it's own swimming pool, bar and club and the people in my room were really friendly. I went out for lunch with Andy, someone I met on the Cambodia tour and then sunbathed for most of the afternoon (fortunately I managed not to burn this time which was rather nice). I had dinner in the hostel and then went out for the night. On the Wednesday, I had booked myself on a boat trip out to the Barrier Reef to do some snorkelling which was ... read more

Da har vi allerede vært i Australia i over to uker. Livet her “Down Under” er bare herlig, og da går tida dessverre så sykt fort også. Vi har opplevd så mye, og truffet mange hyggelige folk fra all verdens land. PEACE! Siden sist har vi vært i Brisbane, Noosa, Fraser Island og Airlie Beach, hvor vi nå befinner oss. I Brisbane reiste vi til en dyrepark for å hilse på yndlingsdyrene våre; koalaene. Og de veeeldig sjarmerende kenguruene. Og besøket svarte til forventingene. Vi fikk holde og kose med en liten koalajente som het Sandy. Koalaene sover i gjennomsnitt 18 timer hvert døgn. Og det meste av tiden de er våkne består av å spise eucalyptusblader. De lever med andre ord et ganske avslappende liv. Nesten sånn som oss J Kenguruene var det litt mer ... read more

So last time we wrote we were off to meet Dominik at the lagoon... we actually bumped into him on the street which was handy and headed there together, it was a lovely hot day and the water was refreshing, after a catch up we left him to visit the museum (thought we might as well do something that was free and cultural) and headed back for a night in. We had to get the bus in the morning, and when we woke up all our room mates had checked out... and taken our ipod wall charger and lead (which charged everything we had) as well as our moisturiser... we started off the day in a very bad mood! We headed up to Noosa which had a nice beach (a bit of a walk away) but ... read more

Sat 10 Mar ----------- Another day at sea today. A bigger boat going to the Great Barrier Reef. An all day job so up again at 6:30am to be picked up at the front of the caravan park. 3.5hr sail to a specially constructed pontoon at a place called Knuckle Reef, right out in the Pacific Ocean, well past the Whitsunday Islands. They moor up the boat and everyone gets on to the pontoon where you can swim, snorkle, scuba dive, go in the semi-submersible, water slide, underwater observatory, or just plain sunbathe (which Sylvia went for). But Iain did a scuba dive which he enjoyed loads. They had excellent tuition for first time divers and went down in groups of 3, one instructor to 2 first time divers. Iain even got up close and was ... read more

Thu 8 Mar ---------- So, due to clouds, we changed our minds about staying at Blacks Beach near Mackay and decided to go to the next stop, Airlie Beach. We already had 3 nights booked so now a day early so will be here 4 nights. Very good camp site and lovely pool so that's OK. Arrived about lunch time as usual so we got settled in and thought we'd catch a bus into town. Bus stop is right outside the park so no bother. There is a lovely lagoon (similar to Brisbane city centre pool) by the beach but weather is cloudy although not raining so we didn't stay too long. In the evening we went to see a hypnotist show - a guy called Mark Anthony - at a hotel not far from the ... read more

18.2.2012 Airlie Beach Arrived in Airlie Beach at 7.00, feeling rough and ragged after spending the whole night on an overnight bus. It was not a pleasant journey as we were seated next to the toilet, so when anyone went to spend a penny we were awoken by the awful stench which wafted through the door. It got better, half way through the night the toilet broke, not sure what happened but the smell was horrific and we were stuck with it all the way to Airle Beach. We checked into our accommodation, Beaches, which was ok (being generous) but we had to stay there as it was cheaper with the package we bought for sailing the Whitsundays. We paid for a double but there was none left so they gave us an 8 bedded dorm ... read more