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Published: February 22nd 2011
Hello again. I feel I should start this entry by reassuring you all that although I am in New Zealand I am not in Christchurch yet which experienced a devasting earthquake today - so far there are 65 confirmed dead and there has been significant structural damage to buildings. I cannot believe how many natural disasters there have been during my trip but so far I have avoided them all by a matter of days - someone must be looking out for me. Anyway back to happier topics, my tour of the east coast of Australia.....
We had breakfast at Billabong animal sanctuary one day. It wasn't actually open to the public due to the damage that the cyclone had done - they thought it would be a few months before everything was fixed and all the animals accounted for! Thankfully there were bright blue skies when I woke up that morning - the first sunny morning since I left Sydney! We had a limited tour of the sanctuary but managed to get introduced to dingos, crocs, a snake, cassowaries (native rainforest birds) and of course the koalas. Funnily enough I only wanted to have my photo taken with the
Wombat
I never realised wombats were so big!koala - but you can't cuddle a koala because they have no rib cage and you would squash their internal organs if you cuddled them like your instinct wants to. So they kind of just let the koala hang off you and you support it's bottom with your hands. I was at the back of the queue and she was gettng tired and grumpy so the best shot is of the koala - not me and the koala. You will have to wait for more photos as I can't find anywhere to upload them just now. The rest of the day was uneventful as we travelled down south to catch our boat to one of the Whitsunday islands - Daydream Island. This was part of the trip that many of us were looking forward to - a stay on a paradise island. And whilst I had a fantastic time the best way I can describe it is Butlins in the tropics! After nearly a week of early morning starts I decided to have a lie in and a leisurely breakfast before taking a tour round the island to get my bearings. After a little detour through the rainforest I found
Daydream Island
This was the view from my balcony - if I stood on tiptoes I could see the sea Lover's Cove, a place I had been reliably informed was the best for snorkelling. I met up with my friends and we got a family rate for hiring 4 stinger suits and 4 sets of snorkel gear - very kind of the resort staff but we made an odd looking family! Off we went to Lover's Cove and once again I loved every minute of it. However it was more difficult to get going than it was out in the barrier reef. Out there you just plonked yourself on the edge of the pontoon and plopped into the water when you were ready. Lover's Cove is a beach - a coral beach which is very painful to walk on in bare feet as we all found out. Once we reached the water's edge we sat down in the sea and put on our flippers and got our snorkel gear ready. At this point we were ready to hit the water but this meant shuffling on our bottoms until the water was deep enough for us to do some fancy work to flip over onto our stomachs and turn round so we were heading out to sea - not easy! Once
Daydream Island
Butlins in the tropics in the water we spent a couple of hours swimming around - it really was amazing. However one of the funniest sights was seeing Grant get out of the water and walk up the beach and back down again in his flippers - just because it was too painful to walk on the coral. There's a reason they tell you not to walk in flippers but it was one of the funniest things I have ever seen and the memory will stay with me a long time. The rest of the day was spent lounging around by the pool - it's a tough life!
We reluctantly set sail from Daydream Island at 7.15am!!!!!!!!! We were heading to Rockhampton and the journey was fairly uneventful and verrrrrrrry long. There are huge stretches of highway with nothing in between the odd petrol station. When I say highway I don't want you to be thinking of a road like the M1 in the UK. It's a single carriage highway that goes through any town in it's path - only sometimes there aren't that many towns. We arrived in Rockhampton in the late afternoon and were surprised to see how good it was
looking. Rocky was one of the worst hit towns in the January floods and the amount of clean up work that had already been done was amazing. If you didn't know it had been flooded you wouldn't be able to tell - the only giveaways are the tidemarks on the tree trunks and some buildings. Tonight I was lucky enough to meet up with my friend Gail who I shared a house with in Cambridge a long time ago! She's probably wondering what I'm going to say about her but there's no need to worry Gail - it was a lovely evening and great to see you on your turf for a change and thanks to her friend Judy who drove us round all night.
The following day included a visit to a cattle station. Can't say I would have picked to do this from a brochure but it's certainly a vocation - these people work extrememly hard for not a lot of money which is why this particular family have turned to tourism to help make ends meet. And I am very glad they did because I got to sample some excellent homemade cakes and the best cup
of tea I'd had in a long time. I also tried some traditional bread called dampa (not sure if that's how you spell it!) which is a doughy bread baked in a cast iron pot and served dripping with golden syrup - and I wonder why I felt sick when we got back on the coach.
We spent the following day on Fraser Island - the largest sand island in the world - which basically means it's one huge sand dune. Thankfully due to all the recent rain the roads were in excellent condition - when I say roads, I mean sand tracks. We were warned by the tour director that the bus got a bit bumpy but boy was that an understatement! They take a 4 wheel drive vehicle base and put a coach on top of it. The driver stressed how important it was we wore our seatbelts and I'm sure that if we hadn't some of us would have bounced right through the roof. I stupidly chose the middle seat of the back row which had to be the bounciest place on the whole bus. And as the bus rocked and rolled from side to side
and bumped up and down I got the giggles - couldn't help myself - it was like being on a roller coaster. Anyway it was a brilliant day. I decided to treat myself to a trip in a small plane to get a birds-eye view of the island. I've never been in a small aircraft before and certainly never taken off from and landed on a beach. I was a little worried when the pilot (who looked about 12) flooded the engine and apologised saying he'd been flying the other plane just before and forgot what plane he was in! Anyway - he managed to get the plane started and I had a very memorable flight round the island before re-joining the bus on the beach further up. We also spent a very enjoyable couple of hours swimming in a low Ph lake formed in the middle of the island in what is essentially a huge sand pit. The benefit of it being low Ph is that it is very good for your skin and I now look 10 years younger.
The next major stop off was Gold Coast and surfers paradise. It's a real shame that we arrived
Fraser Island
View of 70 mile beach from the plane here just before 5pm and only had one night here - I would have liked to see more. However it did give me the chance to experience just how powerful the sea is here and how hard surfing is. The waves and the swell are so unpredictable - I was walking along the water's edge and before you have time to realise you are up to your knees in water and you have to steady yourself to make sure your legs don't go from underneath you. The following morning we continued down south through Byron Bay - the most easterly point in Australia - beautiful place but a bit too hippy like for me - there were some strange sights on the beach and around town! Tonight would be our final night together as a group and we pulled into the comfort motel! A quaint place that hasn't really moved on from the early 80's and the service was probably the worst we'd encountered so far on the trip. However the thing that was most memorable was having to navigate your way round the animal poo that had been left by the pool. Thankfully whichever animals had done it had
only done so round one side of the pool so we kept to the other side but every now and then the wind picked up and the smell was awful - probably the quickest swim in a pool I've ever had!
And so we woke up to our last day - but this was going to be the longest day of all. We had over 400km to travel and as such the only places we stopped at were comfort breaks and nothing eventful happened and I was the only person on the coach who didn't join in to sing some good old fashioned aussie songs apparently. We arrived in Sydney just after 5pm and it was a relief to get off the coach. It's amazing how sleepy coach travel makes me though so I just stretched my legs by taking a walk round the block , grabbed a quick bite to eat and set about packing my bags properly for my flight to New Zealand.
So my time in Australia has come to an end and while there are some things I would differently I have had an excellent time and don't regret anything that I have or
haven't done which is how life should be.
I'll update you on my arrival into New Zealand another time but will leave you with this cliffhanger - I remembered to declare my conkers at customs and had to have them looked at by a customs official - did they make it into New Zealand with me.................. bye for now xxx
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The Harlands
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Hi Em Glad to know you are safe I just had to check your blog today! Josh has been looking at the globe and I have showed him where you are bit he insists you are in Greenland !! xx