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Published: June 12th 2011
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Sydney
Tropical Sydney? In August Andy's sister Kerry, and husband Scott visited us as the second part of their honeymoon. We commenced the feeding of Scott with a belated Christmas In July dinner, accompanied by a Christmas tree and a splattering of fake snow in the winter sun.
No first time trip to Oz is complete without a tour of Sydney, so we headed south and met up with the jetsetters, already buzzing from their recent experience of Uluru. Even on our fourth visit, we thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Taking in the harbour, the Manly ferry, a bracing Bondi beach, and a stroll around The Rocks whilst Kerry and Scott braved the bridge climb made for a fantastic few days. All this whilst still making sure that Scott was topped up with ice cream, and attempting to buy the entire contents of every single surf shop.
As soon as we returned from Sydney, we set off for Fraser Island. This was delayed slightly by a need to re repair the car, which started to smoke on the way back from the airport. As requested, the wildlife turned out in force (yep, we really are that good as tour guides). Before we had
Sydney
Wrapped up in The Rocks. even left the ferry, we saw a small pod of humpback porpoise playing just off shore. Then, as we made our way up Seventy Five Mile Beach, dingoes emerged from the dunes or simply played in the sand, seemingly more dog-like than ever. Finally, after bumping and jolting our way across the island to our hotel we saw our first ever glider. A glider is like a flying squirrel, and boy can they glide, this one travelling maybe 60m between tree tops. We all had a go at driving on the sand, watching out for the 'wash-outs' on the beach where many a vehicle has come a cropper. Fortunately, no such fate awaited us. However, just as we were leaving, and Laura was driving, we encountered an unusal phenomenon on the beach. Disguised by the horizon, an area of what could only be described as sand moguls emerged far too late for any evasive manoeuvres. Laura, following Andy's instructions from earlier that day to keep her speed up (through the soft sand!) , ploughed on. We can only imagine that the car looked something like a bucking bronco as it repeatedly surged up the sand mounds before dropping down into
Sydney
Kerry & Scott pretending it's not cold! the sea-filled hollows. Several screams were heard from the back of the car, but all survived, most surprisingly the car (good car).
Our last trip with Kerry and Scott was to Byron Bay, where Scott was due to cash in his wedding present from Kerry and throw himself out of a plane. The conditions could not have been better, with a beatifully clear blue sky and glorious sunshine. After a slightly prolonged nervous wait, we were watching Scott getting his training and getting his gear on before he was crammed into the plane and on his way. Keen to get front row seats next to the landing strip we hadn't considered the implications of the plane turning towards the airstrip and the jets showering us in dirt. With hindsight this was why no-one else was sitting there. We waved the plane off and waited for it to return. Eventually, the plane re-appeared high in the skies above us before several tiny specs could be seen tumbling through the sky. A 60 second freefall from 14,000ft to be exact, which was rather unsurprisingly accompanied by a few adrenalin-fuelled screams, which got louder as the specs got bigger and circled their
Sydney
Too...many...jokes... way back down to earth. Time for a celebratory beer.
In October we set off for 2 weeks in Vanuatu, a group of islands a couple of hours flight to the north-east of Brisbane. We were staying on the island of Efate, firstly in the capital Port Vila, and secondly further round the coast in a more isolated resort. Now, the Lonely Planet isn't often wrong, but to describe Port Vila as 'one of the South Pacific's most attractive towns' is a very optimistic statement to say the least, and presumably doing rather a disservice to a number of other towns in the entirety of the South Pacific area. That said, it does have a certain charm. In fact, after you've been there for a few days and wandered the streets you become rather accustomed to the way things are. For instance, on first arrival as we were leaving the airport in the traditional lets-rip-off-the-newly-arrived-tourists-in-their-first-taxi-ride, we passed several trucks with groups of young men stood up in the back with an appearance that wouldn't look out of place in war-torn Africa. Still keen to explore we asked for directions into town from our hotel...."so you need to find the
Sydney
Happy pommie tourists. hospital gates, then short-cut through the hospital, look for the old gates at the start of the path, then across the park, where you'll find some steps..." Just getting into the town was an adventure in itself, not least when the hospital grounds that we had to negotiate looked like a cold war prison. Best not get ill then. This route was doubly adventurous at night with no lights, but people still lurking around the grounds, although we were instantly heartened to find the local football team still practising in the park, even dribbling round cones, lit only by the headlights of a couple of cars.
The native language of Vanuatu is Bislama, a form of pidgin English, with statements such as "mi wantem bia" pretty easy to understand. We also got accustomed to catching the main (non rip-off) form of public transport - the bus. Essentially a minivan in the guise of a shared taxi that will eventually take you to your destination. The standard of bus was a bit of a lottery with some pristene and others erring on the side of death-traps. Good fun nonetheless.
For our second week, we left behind the relative hustle
Sydney
Harbour tranquility. and bustle of Port Vila, for our resort adjacent to the village of Eratap. A beautiful resort with villas fronting the beach. We quickly settled in and headed for the water. Now, we've done quite alot of snorkelling before in a number of different places, and heard the term 'coral garden' but never really considered it until we saw the coral here. Both in terms of colour, and type, we have never seen such a variety that really did look like a garden covering the ocean floor. As we arrived, our driver told us that he had been swimming in the sea at Eratap ever since he was a child and had never seen a shark, so if we were to see one we would be considered very lucky. Fortunately our luck didn't extend that far, so we settled for the usual suspects plus a few new ones, more starfish that you can shake a stick at, and the occasional circling shoal. We interrupted our general lounging on a couple of days, taking out one of the hotel's double kayaks, pounding the waves over to the two uninhabited islands just offshore. Andy may have done a tad more pounding than
Fraser Island
Humpback porpoise. Laura, who was rather enjoying being chauffer driven across the water to the tropical desert island.
November saw the arrival of Laura's parents for their first visit down under. We ventured up to Bargara with the hope of seeing a turtle lay its eggs. Nature obliged and we saw a loggerhead lay her eggs before hauling her heavy shell back to the safety of the sea in the moonlight. Once again we helped the ranger move the freshly laid eggs to a new nest on higher ground to enhance their chances of survival. We even got to see some phosphorescence as the ranger rubbed an area of algae on her shell. The next weekend we travelled up into Lamington National Park to a villa high up in the rainforest. We went on the hunt for pademelons and birds, finding both, and discovering that parrots have a taste for cream after they tucked into the remains of Laura's afternoon tea. The villa had a hot tub on its deck so, thinking it would be rude not to, we filled it up and jumped in, relaxing to the sights and sounds of the rainforest. The sights being slightly obscured after Andy
Fraser Island
Who's the cutest dingo on the island...yes you are added 'a bit' of shower gel to the filling up process and the deck and surrounding trees were covered in a blanket of white bubbles.
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