G'day

Apologies for not filling in our blog for such a long time but we have been very busy on our whistle stop tour of Oz and thought you wouldn't really want to hear from us whilst you were getting yourselves ready for a cold xmas. Now that you have got over your holidays and are thoroughly depressed from having to go back to work, broke and in the cold we thought we would brighten up your day and fill you in on our last five weeks (in the sun :).

MELBOURNE:

So we arrived in Melbourne (LAND OF THE FLIES!) and as Si was so ill (Becka) had to do most of the lugging of luggage and believe me they had now grown to the size of baby elephants. We caught a bus to our hostel to meet up with our friend Matt. When we arrived Matt instantly looked at Si and said that he looked like something between an Ethiopian (the flies really helped with that appearance!) or a recovering heroin addict where he was so thin and pale :) Si decided that as he still didn't feel very good that he should go to the hospital to get checked out so off we all went in search of some english normal speaking doctors. When we arrived the waiting room was full of deranged people talking to themselves and wondering around us (what fun). Si was given a quick jab to stop him puking and was told to wait. We waited, waited and waited. Si agreed that there was no point in matt and I waiting as well so we went back to the hostel to book up some more accomodation for the trip ahead (purchasing a few alcholic drinkies along the way) and left Si alone with the deranged (now smelling) people.


Si waited for six hours with no luck so he decided go back the next day as he might have better luck early in the morning. The next day Matt and I waved Si off as he embarked on another hospital trip whilst Matt and I went for a jolly around Melbourne. We went from pub to pub taking in the scenery as we went, a strange cow fixed in a tree??, many cafes and hoped on and off a free tourist tram which took you around the whole district, eventually ending up in the Melbourne aquarium which was great fun.

Feeling a little (very little) guilty and worried about Si we eventually heard from him saying that he was feeling much better. When we met up with him he filled us in on how he got in straight away and they assigned him a bed where they put him on a drip and gave him all sorts of meds (including one he had a rare reaction too and almost caused a seizure!) and ran loads of tests (they thought it might have been Malaria) which pretty much confirmed that he was fairly crook (strange aussie speak for sick......yes their weird slang is now rubbing off on us like thong and bush...... stop with the dirty minds!)

The next day we all took a walk which ended up being a bloody hike to St Kilda, Luna Park (really not worth the trip for those who are thinking of going to Melbourne). All day we continuously did the aussie wave trying to battle off the flies (they were bloody annoying to point where a souvenir cork hat was looking quite appealing).

SYDNEY:

We started our three week coach pass and travelled overnight (sleeping on a smelly, cramped coaches packed full of people is a real test of your love of travelling) to Sydney. At Sydney we did some site seeing at the Opera House, Harbour Bridge and the Botanical gardens to see the fruit bats. Matt and Becka booked themselves on the Harbour Bridge climb for the following day (Si was still feeling dizzy and from his fear of heights he had assured himself he might fall off if he went up). The following day Becka and Matt climbed "The Old Coat Hanger" and met me (Si) at the Rocks for a drink. Later on we visited Sydney Aquarium as I was busy dribbling into my hospital gown back in Melbourne.

BRISBANE:

We arrived in Brisbane and had to trek some way with our baby elephants strapped to our backs in the searing heat. Thankfully we were in a 3 bedroom dorm - meaning only myself, Becka and Matt so we could relax a little, although the hostel was a bit like Hi-de-Hi with random anouncements being made over a tannoy every so often. Brisbane was actually very nice (a lot of people tell you not to go there as theres nothing to do). We wondered around the town buying souveneirs (some of us more than others.. Becka!) and had a few drinks in a couple of bars where we got asked for our age a couple of times (Becka was more than ecstatic about this!), I said something sarcastic to the doorman and thought he was going to beat me but all was fine, apparently they have to ask everyone for ID (hasn't happened anywhere else yet, much to Becka's dismay - think she's slapping on extra anti-wrinkle cream as we speak!).

BYRON BAY:

Byron Bay is one of my favourite places in Australia, it's a pretty little beach side village with some of the most expensive land in Australia. There are no high rises and none of the bigger fast food chains but unfortunately as with everywhere at the moment, there were a lot of tourists. On the first day we took a nice walk to the lighthouse at Cape Byron but to get there we tried to take a bit of a shortcut around some rocks in the sea. Unfortunately for Matt and myself we managed to cross just as a big wave came across and so ended up spending the rest of the afternoon in wet pants (Becka just stood there laughing and is still laughing about it now!). The following day we booked a few tours between us. Becka decided to try her hand at surfing and snorkelling around Julien Rocks whilst myself and Matt went for a mountain bike ride in the rainforest. Ahem I (becka) had a great time snorkelling. I went out with a whole bunch of scuba divers but as I didn't have enough time to do my refresher diving licence I chose to snorkel instead. Feeling slight felt out and upset that I couldn't dive I was fortunate enough to spot a few turtles and sting rays whilst bobbing on the surface of the water and the divers only saw seaweed and a few fish so ha to them! After a fab morning of splashing in the water I continued my mermaid day and went surfing. I don't know what Si is talking about above..... tried my hand at... I'm going to blow my own trumpet and say that I was actually pretty good at surfing and caught some good waves plus I spent the whole afternoon with some really nice aussie surfers....a perfect way to spend a day! Si again, the mountain biking was great fun, it literally was through the rainforest - no paths, riding though spiders webs, bushes etc. When we had lunch I noticed I even had a leech on each leg, nice! The last day I (Si again) was feeling like I hadn't seen enough doctors yet (I was still feeling dizzy) so went to see another one. She ran a few tests, said everything was pretty normal (but I shouldn't have been drinking alcohol!) except some fluid in my ear which could have been causing the dizziness but most likely it would eventually sort itself out. Thankfully for me after a few more days it finally did.

HERVEY BAY:

Hervey Bay is the gateway to Fraser Island, the largest island made entirelly of sand on Earth (so we were told). The morning after arriving we had our pre trip meeting (talking us through safety, how to use the 4x4's, the tides etc.) and we put into our various groups of 9. Our group ended up consisting of 3 Swedish girls, an Austrian guy, a Brazillian guy and an Australian girl. Becka was the first to drive and took us all to the supermarket where we picked up our supplies for the next 3 days. We took the barge across to the Island, picked up our passes, slipped the beast into 4x4 mode and started our adventure. The road was beyond bumpy, there are only a few surfaced roads near the entrance but after that everything is sand, it is cross between rally driving and quad biking in a tractor. There is no way you could do it without the 4 wheel drive! The first place we stopped was the stunning Lake McKenzie where we spent a few hours sunbathing and watching Matt demonstrate his new swimming powers (he had just learnt to swim before joining us). Later on that day we found a site to camp and the guys set up the tents whilst the girls started preparing dinner. As the night fell and we were still eating dinner we came across quite a few Dingos hoping to scavenge some of our food. This was quite worrying as we were advised that Dingos can be quite aggressive and no one was supposed to go wondering on their own at night (even to the toilet which was quite impersonal at times).

Once again we loaded up the beast and set off to the Maheno shipwreck and also stopped off at Indian Heads (Si did the driving to this spot and managed the beast in true form). Here we spotted many tiger sharks in the waters below us and after dodging loads of Orb spiders (which are pretty large) which hung in the trees above us as we made our way back to the beast. We continued our journey to the Champagne Pools where Matt and becka went for a quick dip which ended in them being slightly bashed about by the huge waves and sharp rocks. As our journey was dictated by the tide times we had a fair bit of time to kill before we could head back for camp so we had a picnic and basicially got thoroughly bored just doing nothing. Once the tide went out we found ourselves another campsite. That night it started to rain and as we had the air vent open Si got soaked and matt got quite soggy whilst becka remained dry as a bone and had a lovely nights sleep, the advantages of sleeping in the middle of a tent. The next day we drove to Lake Wabby where I (becka) had a nice swim with the local large catfish and made some silly pics of me jumping down the sand dunes (Si sat and watched whilst still seething after his soggy night in the tent....matt just sat). After a fab few days we arrived back at the hostel and splashed out and did the $10 all you can eat pizza night (si managed seven slices, I did six slices and matt managed a whole three!)

AIRLIE BEACH:

When we got to Airlie beach we thought we should try and find our accomodation which we were staying in over xmas. It was mighty hot by now and the walk wasn't very short so we were really looking forward to doing the same walk with our whales strapped on! As we had a whole day to kill so we wondered around the town and booked a day trip to the great barrier reef for boxing day. The next day we did the onerous 1k trek in the soaring heat with our babies to the holiday park where we were staying. When we got to the reception the lady behind the desk took one look at our red sweaty faces and begged us to come into the airconditioned building and recommended we go for a swim in the pool! So we basically dumped our bags and went for a swim which was heavenly. The boys cooked themselves steak on one of the barbies whilst becka ate tinned spaghetti so all were happy. After drinking the night away we woke up and boarded SV Whitehaven, our new home for the next 2 nights.

SV Whitehaven is a tall ship (sail boat) that holds and sleeps 24 passengers. Our first port of call was one side of Whitehaven beach. December is stinger season (box jellyfish and urukanji) so we had to wear sexy stinger suits which covered us from head to toe to avoid us being stung. After a swim in the sea we had some afternoon tea and played a game of touch rugby which ended with most people being injured in some way or another (Matt had a bruise under his eye and had done something nasty to his shin - it looked dented!). Back on the boat we ate dinner and had a couple of drinks before retiring to our tiny beds for the night. We were up at around 6am for our first snorkel which was ok but not brilliant except for sighting our first Sting Rays. After breakfast we anchored on the other side of Whitehaven beach and had a mini bush walk where we licked ant bums. I should probably add that we hadn't caught scurvy and gone mad but these ants had a tangy juice on their abdomens from the plants they'd been eating which the Aboriginies used to use for cooking or something. Sounds lovely but it just tasted a bit bitter. We walked up to the view point and got shuffled around like cattle whilst pictures were taken before proceeding to Whitehaven beach itself. Whitehaven beach is stunning, its beach is made of ultra fine white silica sand and is surrounded by rainforest and turquoise seas. There were plenty of reef sharks and sting rays swimming around but Becka, Matt and myself seperated ourselves from the group and took some photos instead.

In the afternoon we snorkelled at a place called Pinnacle bay (apparently rivalling parts of the Great Barrier Reef), the snorkelling here was much better, loads of multi coloured corels, cuttlefish, jellyfish and everything else ending in the word fish. That evening we had our Christmas eve meal, a few more drinks and watched the sun go down. Christmas day, I think I got up at 5 (Si) as I heard lots of voices and thought it was time to get up. I dragged myself out of bed just to find that a few people had got up to watch the sun rise. Becka and Matt got up shortly afterwards and we went for a Christmas morning snorkel. It was a bit colder here but the marine life was fantastic. We saw turtles, rays, more jellyfish and many more wierd and wonderful fish. Worth getting up at the crack of dawn on Christmas day for.

We headed back to mainland and spent the rest of Christmas day drinking, messing around in the pool and eating a very Christmassy meal consisting of Tuna and Pasta. Unfornately we had to have this as it was the only thing we could store whilst we were away without it going off!

Boxing day we got up early to head out to the Great Barrier Reef where Matt was almost talked in to joining us on a free introductory Scuba dive (Becka and myself had special discount cards which they automatically assigned to Matts ticket as well). We headed out and the Captain warned us that the weather wasn't looking good so he might have to turn around, but he headed out anyway. The sea became rougher and rougher and the rain was pelting down so unfortunately in the end the Captain decided it was too unsafe (people were being sick everywhere and children were crying) to continue and headed back. Ah well, perhaps another time.

CAIRNS:

We only had a day in Cairns so all we could really do was wonder around the town and have a few drinks. It started off sunny and warm but it soon turned into very heavy rain. After leaving the next day back to Sydney, we said goodbye to Matt who was now heading back to the UK. Becka and myself checked into our room - we were now staying in twin rooms rather than dorms and to our surprise this one had a TV. I caught the news and saw that Queensland (from where we had just flown) was having some really severe weather, a few places had flooded. I think we had come back just in time!

SYDNEY x 2:

We went to Taronga Zoo and saw many animals (pictures of which you can here). On New Years Eve we celebrated the New Year by drinking all day in the Botanical gardens and later watching the fireworks from Harbour Bridge. The weather was great, the wine worked out cheaper than the beer so we polished off a few bottles between us and befriended some older Australians who supplied us with Ferero Roche, Sparklers and glow sticks. Needless to say the fireworks were amazing (i'm sure they probably showed clips of it back in the UK).

After basking in the sun and drinking all day we woke up with a slight hangover and so becka thought it a good idea to go the skytower. I (becka) marvelled at the 360 degree sights of Sydney whilst Si clung to the rail fearing for his life. The next day we decided to catch a train to the blue mountains where we stopped off at a home made chocolate making store, walked around the mountains seeing many different water falls, took a ride on the world's steepest train, cable car and sky way which had a glass bottom. Becka loved the view from the glass bottom whilst Si once again gripped the sides fearing for his life. It was high...twice as high as the Harbour Bridge, a little box holding 100 or so people suspended on a flimsy bit of steel wire is one of my worst nightmares!

We had arranged to see some friends (Kristy and Simon) that evening who we met on our tour around Asia. We took another train to Sutherland near where they live and stayed at theirs. We had a few beers and watched a film, it was so nice to just chill and relax that Si and I passed out and only just managed to get up around 10am (seeing we had got up around 6am most days and been rudley awoken in the night by noisey backpackers). Kristy and Simon took us to their local national park and we went kayaking down the river. We then went for some lunch (kristy and simon had a dirty sausage roll which didn't agree with them) we spent the afternoon down the beach and battled the waves in the sea which was most entertaining. We finished the evening off by going to the cinema and a couple of drinks at the pub. It was really nice seeng them again and sad to say goodbye.

MELBOURNE x 2:

We decided to shorten our stay in Sydney and fly to Melbourne to do some tours we didn't get the chance to do last time due to Si's disease. We stayed in a dodgy hostel but seeing as we planned to be out most of the days it didn't matter too much (although showering with loads of peoples hairs stuck to the wall isn't great). We went to Phillip Island to watch the evening Peguin Parade (cute little penguins which were amazing to watch in their natural habitat), Dangenongs hills, koala conservation park, kangaroo feeding, wine tasting, Great Ocean Road and rode on the Puffing Billy stream train.

TASMANIA:

After three busy days in Melbourne we thought we would continue on cramming in as much as possible so when we got to Tasmania we checked in our hostel and went to the Chapel Penitentiary in Hobart which was really interesting learning about the convicts/prisoners and seeing the hanging chamber. The next day we took a tour to the Mt Field stopping at a wildlife sanctuary where we saw lots of Tasmanian Devils, Possums and a cute but rather feisty Wombat which Si wanted as a pet. We also were very privileged to see a baby Tasmanian Devil which was successfully born in captivity we were also even luckier to see three wild duck billed platypus'. After that we went and saw the second largest trees in the world which were 400 years old. The second day we took a tour to Port Arthur, a very historic place once home to many prisoners (supposedly the worst criminals but most had only carried out minor crimes). We took a cruise around the area stopping at the Isle of the Dead, a small island holding the remains of 1100 people, some which were free people but the most were prisoners. We also passed the first childrens prision called Puer which held children as young as 9.

---

---

---