Blogs from Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 6

Well we finally decided city life was not for us and we left the big smoke to travel north to see what the Whitsunday Coast would hold for us. We firstly put an advert on the web site Gumtree to see if anybody wanted a ride north in dear "Elvie" then when Chiara from Italy joined us we left Brisbane with not much in the way of a plan. Though we all knew we needed to head north for maybe some farm work or any other work as due to our workin holiday visas we were only allowed to work for any one job for a maximum of 6 months and as this was almost up we were on the move. On the way up to The Whitsunday Coast we decided to pop in to Noosa ... read more

We've had our camper van since Saturday Morning, so Friday night home time. We are exactly 14hours ahead. So far, we've been to Noosa, Rainbow Beach, Fraser Island, Gin Gin and now Rockhampton. We are hoping to get to Airlie Beach in the next few days. Noosa was beautiful. We spent the first part of the day on the beach, second part driving the BEAST of a van around. DID I MENTION it is LEOPARD PRINT bright orange, and pink! After a night in the van, we hit up the national park on some advice from fellow travellers. TEA TREE BAY was amazing. We saw our first Koala. Rainbow Beach is the gateway to Fraser Island, and the only reason we went there. Fraser Island was also amazing. We saw rainforests, dunes, stunning freshwater lakes! Lake ... read more

The Dreamtime Aboriginal Cultural Centre is just north of Rockhampton. As soon as we entered the centre, we saw some aboriginal artifacts. A hooked boomerang, a heating stone for heating resin, and a hammer tool. The guide showed us stencil art. It is made it by grinding ochre, mixing it with water and blowing it from their mouths around an item to be stenciled. They used 3 colours: Red, white and yellow. This type of painting was used because it lasts much longer than brush painting on the sandstone rock. One group of Aborigines that were explained at the centre were the Tores Strait Aborigines. They lived on the islands between Australia and Papau New Guinea (PNG). They traded with the mainland tribes of Australia and PNG. One of the things that they traded were shells. ... read more

Monday we headed to Rockhampton. We took some time in the morning to check out the town of Hervey Bay before heading out, and afterwards we waited at the bus stop for the Greyhound. This trip was about 6 hours, and got us into town after dark. With autumn in full swing by March 1st, it was starting to get darker earlier and earlier. Luckily when we arrived in town, the hostel was kind enough to pick us all up. Keith had taken the same bus as we did to arrive in Rockhampton and since all the supermarkets had already closed up for the night, we (Mike from Ottawa as well) all headed out for some KFC. Nothing like bonding over dinner. The next day it was suggested that while in Rockhampton, we should check out ... read more

Hello you lucky people! Thanks to my lovely mummy I have a new gadget enabling me to put photos up here! Since there are so many, and this computer is rather slow, I have put my favourites from so far up here.... enjoy! xxx... read more