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Published: January 8th 2010
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So 2010 is here already and I haven’t sent a blog on 6 months…oooops!
So this is how Oz has been so far, since we arrived at the end of June 2009..
We arrived in Cairns at about 10pm, on the same weekend that a worldwide doctors conference was being held. Because of the thousands of doctors landing and the number of flights coming in, there was a massive queue outside this tiny airport for taxis! We waited about 45mins before we were told we could have a limo ordered for us for the same price…SWEEEEET! We took it! It was so cool arriving at our hostel in style…what a way to begin our Australian adventure!! So Cairns was great. We had just come from 0-5 degrees in New Zealand, and it was mid 20’s-30degrees here, we loved it! We spent 10days here just chilling at the lagoon, (not much of a beach there), and going out every night! It was full of Irish, I felt like I was out in town at home!! We got all our plans together and decided to travel down the coast with the greyhound bus to Brisbane stopping off at a few places on
Adam cooking dinner
BBQ Cairns Esplenade the way.
From Cairns we stopped off at Mission Beach, Townsville, and from Townsville we got a ferry over to Magnetic Island. This was a tiny island with not much to do. There were a few hostels and a few people actually lived there, but it was mainly just for walking, which we did a lot of, and going to the beach. It was July at this stage and Winter here. Madness cos it was soooo hot…more like a summer in Spain! Hot but nice and bearable! We then headed on down the coast to Airlie Beach which I think is like a very miniature version of Cairns (and Cairns is not big at all!), not much of a beach here either just a lagoon, but the main reason people stop here is to board a boat and head on a trip of the famous Whitsunday Islands for a few days. We stayed on a tall ship for 3 days and 3 nights which was so amazing! We sailed around a few of the island, the main one being Whitehaven beach…AMAZING! Unbelievable, the sand was like flour…so soft and thin and it squeaked to walk across. Really was a
Pitt Stop!
Stopped off for some snacks travelling on the coach down the coast! spectacular sight. We spent the days snorkelling in the corals of the Great Barrier Reef and checking out some of the amazing islands. We watched the incredible sunsets from the ship with a glass of champagne too!!! Live it up while we can eh!! Was a great trip, one of the best yet!
Next stops down the coast were Hervey Bay, Maloolooba (the names of places here are crazy!!), and then Australia Zoo. This was so cool. We got feed the elephants fruit and veg which we kept going to the end of the queue like kids to do again. Got to walk around the fields where the kangaroos were chilling out in the shade, hold a koala, see a croc show! It was a really cool zoo! The koalas are such cute lazy little animals. They really do nothing at all except chew on their leaves and sleep!!
That was our last stop before hitting Brisbane where it was time to find a job and get some money together if we were to travel anymore!!! So we’ve been in Brisbane since end July til today (our last day here!). We got jobs in a pizza place straight
Me in our cabin on Solway Lass!
Solway Lass Sailing Whitsundays away which was easy and ok fun actually!! We’ve been living with an English couple the same ages as us so they are pretty sound. Then we both found fulltime jobs in a call centre so we kept up the pizza job too parttime for 2 months working both to get money saved., We cycled to work for 3 months (I am NEVER EVER cycling again!), until we bought a car at the the end of Oct. Made some friends here, mostly Irish, surprise surprise! Had our fun nights out, seen the Riverfire fireworks over the Brisbane River, explored the city, had day trips to Surfers Paradise, went quad biking, karting, hiking..it was great, we really enjoyed Brisbane and will prob miss it when we leave. it’s a really nice city and so easy to get around. Met some friends and family from home here too and had some fun times!
We finished work on Dec 18th..YAY!!!!..and flew to Perth on the 22nd Dec to meet up with Elaine and Dave from home and their friends Darragh and Helen. It was so great to see them and we had 13 days there to make the most of the festive
season in the hottest weather in Australia for Christmas…36degrees for Xmas day and every other day was between 40-43 degrees! That’s definitely a different Christmas, especially this year with the minus 10 weather you have been having at home! We went all out for xmas day with all the food, the xmas tree, kris kindle, and obviously the beach and a part bbq xmas dinner…may aswell try It the ozzie way while we’re here!! Did the 12 pubs of Christmas on Christmas eve which gave is our bearings for the tiny city (smaller than Brisbane even!). We did lots of exploring of the coast while on that side of the continent. Rottnest Island was a favourite, really is like being in the Caribbean on the West coast, beaches are way nicer than the east coast of Oz for sure! We drove down to Margaret River, 4 hours south of Perth and had a look at the lighthouse and caves aswell as more beaches! Spent a day at Fremantle and did a night tour of the old prison which scared the crap out of us with all their surprises of prisoners jumping out at us!! Funny! New Years Eve we headed
Amazing scenery
Sailing the Whitsundays into the city and into a club for the countdown, was a good night out! New Years Day is the big thing in Perth as everyone goes to the Perth Cup Races (horses), so we all headed in their for the day…40degrees again all day, hungover, but more drink and winning our bets made it fun! Great fun to start the year!!
Here we are now back in Brisbane and ready to start our road trip in our car tomorrow! Our first stop we are going north to do Fraser Island, and then we’ll be going back down the coast to Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Ayres Rock, Adelaide and finishing in Perth at beginning of March to fly to Singapore! So definitely a lot more to happen in Oz over the next two months..CANT WAIT!
Next blog will be before we leave Oz!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! xxx
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