Blogs from Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 1230

Well folks, we are now exactly six months in to our round the world tour - I suspect that the next six moths will just fly past. When we last left you we were in the happy hippy land that is Byron Bay where our last few days were spent sunning and boozing, surprise surprise! On the last Saturday we met up with a chap that Ken had befriended the last time he was at the festival. He, his girlfriend and us had a terrific evening in the various bars in town until way past silly o'clock. The evening ended with hugs and kisses promises to keep in touch. From Byron we got the coach up to Brisbane where we spent a great week with old friends of Linda's - Cathy and Bruce. In similar circumstances ... read more

I have been in Cairns now for a little over five days now, not much has happened on the job front at the moment but I have been a lot more eager than I anticipated I would be. I have been knocking on all the dive shops, handing in my CV and they have all been polite and taken it whether they wanted to or not. I am also expecting a call over the next couple of days from a dive shop in Magnetic Island so hopefully that is a good call and not one to tell me they have filled the position with someone else. Cairns is not what I expected I thought there would be a beach here but alas there is not so no snorkelling or lazing around on the beach, There is ... read more

On the morning of the 3rd, I decided to head up to Cairns on the 10:40 Greyhound bus. When I got to Cairns, I understood why Shane had described it as a city you would imagine in Western Movies. All the buildings are low - and the streets are quite narrow. It is MUCH smaller than I expected. It almost seems more like a tourist resort than a major city - with every other store being a travel store selling the same trips for diving in the Great Barrier Reef, Cape Tribulation tours, or skydives. I decided to stay at a hostel called Serpent - Nomad. I booked into a $20 room with 6 beds. It was quite a nice hostel, with a swimming pool, bar, and a free dinner in the evening. My room was ... read more

Cant believe it has been 4 years since I was last here! Things never change and I still remember a lot of it. I always said I would be back and here I am! Anyway, this is only a quick update to let you know where we are and what we've been up to. We arrived in Brisbane last Saturday and thats where we've stayed the past week. Its a bigger and much different city from Perth but its ok. To be honest I dont really like city life so we're looking forward to getting to the coast again. We've spend most of the week looking around the city and sorting everything out for the rest of our trip now we have decided to come home in August. We've booked a 25 day tour around the ... read more

At Brisbane's coach terminal, just before I boarded the coach to Noosa, I was asked to weigh in my bags....my backpack is 21.1kg and my small backpack is 10.6kg! Holy Shite! I really need to sort this out, 31.7kg is just a tad over my 20kg baggage limit on busses and planes! Still, with a bit of re-arranging, they let me board and I headed off to Noosa. Noosa is a really, really, gorgeous place. I only managed to spend a couple of days here but loved it instantly. Tea Tree Bay is stunning with gloriously clear waters peppered with long white/transparent fish that swim between your legs. During a wander through Noosa National Park I spotted a turtle swiming to the surface for air at Hells Mouth and my first cuddly Koala, Steve Erwin eat ... read more