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Published: August 2nd 2008
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It's been a while, so we thought we'd let you know what we'v been upto since we left hervey bay!!
We made it upto airlie beach and arrived at 6am so we spent the day umming and arring whether or not to fork out the money and go on one of the sailing trips.
The next day we were sat at the harbour waiting to board a classic sailing schooner with another 12 people for a 2day/2night trip around the whitsundays. It turned out to be an interesting trip as it was the first time the skipper & deckhand had worked together, and the deckhand seemingly spoke not so fluent english and had little sailing experience!!! which at times proved quite funny,especially when he nearly went overboard trying to catch the mooring :-)
The weather wasn't brill so we only got to snorkel once and it was bloody freezing,and the rest of the time was spent either chugging along or sailing around the islands and visiting whitehaven beach (where there were so many people you actually had to queue for the lookout!!!! It wasn't quite the experience we thought it would be (especially the part where helly got seriously munched by
bedbugs) but it did leave us wanting to do more.
After airlie it was another long leg on the bus upto cairns. we ended up spending a few rainy days there working out the cheapest way upto cape tribulation and its accompanying rainforest. In the time we were there helly brought a didjeridoo and we both went back to the shop for lessons for the next 3days and can now circular breath and make a multitude of sounds (some better than others!!).
We finally left cairns on a tour upto cape trib which would leave us upto our own devices for a few days then pick us up and take us to port douglas.
the guide had an impressive knowledge of the local rainforest and we went for a chilly swim in mossman gorge before he dropped us at our camping spot for the next few days. We went for a rugged walk to a rainforest summit and got a lovely view of the inside of a cloud and spent a few days chilling on the beach playing the didj.
Once the tour picked us back up we went on a river tour to see some huge salt water
crocodiles!! Before being dropped off at port douglas where we ended up spending 4days properly relaxing for a bit!! helly even had enough time to braid her hair which looks pretty cool.
We left port douglas feeling a little revived after what has been a pretty hectic tour up the east coast, all that was left was another night in cairns so that we could catch our plane south to melbourne. At the airport we had a very confused looking security guard watching us battle with the dijeridoo, its cover and a karimat in order to pad it out and protect it from the baggage handlers, but she smiled in the end which was reassuring.
We left the heat of cairns and arrived into melbourne at 12am and a chilly 5deg. By the time we'd got into the city and traipsed the streets to our accommodation and got into bed it was nearly 2am!! As we were due to be skiing in 4days time we were up early and headed for the markets and all the gear shops in town to work out our best and cheapest way of staying warm aswell as looking at lots of shiny gear
in the process :-) By 1pm we were sorted and felt we would just about be able to survive the week ahead so we jumped on the train and headed for ballarat once more.
Peter had kindly offered to put us up for a few days, and we spent the next few days meeting the students,having a day by the beach and getting ready to go skiing.
On monday morning we were at the school by 6.15am and sorting everyone out into the appropriate coaches before heading off on the 4hr trip to Mt Sterling, once there we had lunch then met up with the instructors who dished out all the food and equipment for the week ahead. It took the students quite a while to get sorted and it was around 4pm by the time we set off for our first time skiing UPHILL (i'm sure thats not how its supposed to be). It was dark by the time we got to our camp spots for the night and the students needed a bit of motivating to sort their stuff and get dinner on the go.
Over the next few days me and helly did different things,but essentially
their was a learn to ski day then some day tours out to different areas,which included me heading out around Mt Whitstanley and helly going to the summit of Mt Sterling. We had a brilliant few days and some spectacular wipeouts with both my skiis trapping in a root which resulted in a faceplant into the snow and helly careering down a hill and stopping just short of a tree by wrapping herself around a post!!!!
We had been pretty lucky with the weather until thurs night when it crapped out and persisted into yesterday morning whilst we were packing up and descending the mountain, by the time everything was sorted we were thouroughly drenched and are spending today in the warm trying to wash and dry everything.
Over the next week we'r heading back to melbourne for a few days around the city and maybe a few side trips before we fly to New Zealand on Friday.
hope everyones well, sorry the photos are lacking abit at the mo,we'll have a session soon,
Love
Paul n Helly :-)
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