Blogs from Australia, Oceania
In the Western Australian world of backpacking, there are two Irish people travelling around trying to get jobs and a nice place to sleep. These are there stories. DUMH DUMH! Thursday 9th of feb: 8:30 am: Hostel room: DUMH DUMH! Bit early to rise, we fancy a mcdonalds breakfast but we'll live. Snooze time. Thursday 9th of feb: 11:00 am: Hostel room: DUMH DUMH! Ah a bit fresher. This is a bout the usual time we get up, got our ritual, we take showers and hit McDonalds for a big lunch. Met up with Nialls cousin Keith today and his girlfriend Sarah. Weirdest thing ever, i went to primary school in dublin with her but she didnt remember so that was abit awkward,we were all just 7 then but i have like a facial photographic memory. ... read more
Hello from Cairns the hottest place on earth! it is absolutly stunning up here we are in the middle of a mountain range and you can see lush green hills whenever you turn your head! we flew in and i managed to brave looking out the window and saw a waterfall...theeee most scienic arival ever! i knew we were going to have a good time when i saw that. stepping out into this heat was quite nice from a change from melborune but i seriously love air con now it is most definatly my best friend haha we get free meals at the hostel but last night we couldnt stand our 3rd night of chillie con carne and figured that they just reheat and keep reheating so i splashed out and boguht myself some yum food ... read more
Melbourne bars
Hi all, I write whilst still in Sydney, though we are out of there a week Saturday to once again start off on our travels. The new job is going swimmingly. I got a chance on my second week to go on a road trip out of the city, so it was my first chance to see some of Australia that wasn't city. The destination was Wagga Wagga, a small lifeless town somewhere near (I say near, but this is Australia so I really mean about 3 hours away from) Canberra. We stayed in a trailer park and I was able to get to know the people from work pretty well over the course of the week. They are now good friends and we often have some drinks after work on Friday and Saturday. I got ... read more
Sun hats!
It is now sunday night, ready for another week of school. Actually i'm not going to school tomorrow because the closest apple store is 30km away and I had to have an appointment for my phone, so I am going to try and get my phone fixed tomorrow. On friday after school, even though I'm not in the drama class, they had one extra ticket and I got to go down to Sydney with all the kids that did drama to watch a performance. It was a whole bunch of different acts and monologues put on by university drama students, and it was a lot better than i thought it would be. We didn't get home until about 11:30pm that night though, and the next morning, because i didn't have my phone as a clock, i ... read more
120212 - tasmania route
The return journey over the Bass Strait wasn’t quite as pleasant as the journey out. Although it was still reasonably calm, it definitely got a little rocky at times and I didn’t feel so good… The music entertainment was also terrible this time, but we whiled away the time by watching a movie, doing magazine puzzles and gorging on the lunch buffet! I met a gorgeous couple – Lindi and Tommo from Bridgetown in WA – who were just a pleasure to chat with. Very beautiful and inspirational people. It was very exciting when we began seeing land and then spotted the Melbourne skyline! It felt funny getting off the boat, knowing that this is our Australian home town, but not having a home here anymore. But is was exciting too. First off, we visited our ... read more
Bondi beach
Keskiviikkona lähdettiin lautalla Hunters Hillistä kohti keskustaa Harbour bridgen alta oopperatalon eteen. Oopperatalo näytti hienolta auringon paistaessa. Tästä lähdettiin puistokävelylle oopperatalon viereiseen puistoon, jossa nähtiin papukaijoja ja ”lentäviä kettuja” eli tosi isoja lepakoita, hui. Välillä vähän sateli mutta ei se haitannu. Simo vieraili kirjaimellisesti kiven sisällä. Lounaalla tyydytettiin juustohimoja pizza hutissa ja käyskenneltiin pitkin keskustaa ja business districtiä. Otettiin junamatka monoraililla joka tekee lenkin keskustan ympäri noin 20 metrin korkeudella. Kyyti oli aika turistireissu mut näkymät oli ihan kivat. Torstaina mentiin Britan saattelemana tutustuun kuuluisaan Bondi beachiin. Ihmeteltiin surffaajia ja hiekalla lenkkiänsä juoksevia. Simon surffihimot heräs aaltojen lyödessä rantaan. Tehtiin kävely pitkin rantaa ... read more
City Beach
Dimanche, RDV à 9h00 chez Dawn, c'est bon on est à l'heure, et surprise on trouve des croissants en allant chez elle. On y va à pied, on a juste à traverser un parc. Elle nous prépare un vrai café italien, ça nous change du café en poudre. Ensuite direction City Beach pour notre première baignade dans l'océan Indien. Cette plage s'appelle ainsi car c'est la plus proche de la ville. Il fait un peu frais (23° mais tout est relatif n'est-ce pas ;-) et il y a des nuages mais ça se lève vite. Le bord de mer est aménagé, avec cafés et douches; il y a des Life Rescue (sauveteurs) en rouge et jaunes, et même un hélicoptère qui patrouille, pour surveiller si il y a des requins. Dawn nous dit que parfois ils ... read more
As I haven't had much luck finding work, and having done what I came out to do, I'd decided I would probably go home A.S.A.P rather then staying out here for the full 6 months. I'd got some quotes to change my flight dates and got a bit of a shock when I found out the price. It was cheaper to stay here for another 3 months than to go back home. So I applied for some jobs on the dive boats. It's quiet season now though so wasn't expecting much. Went to Cape Tribulation the following day. It took a couple of hours to drive up there, and then when we arrived we went to some lookout points and drove throught the rainforest before going on a crocodile spotting river cruise. We only saw 1 ... read more
Our new place
Officially in our new place- it's very small and its definitely taking some getting used to! Matty and I are mostly enjoying to living together in such a small space and I’m learning to deal with the dirty clothes on the floor and the smell of cooking in the bedroom!! The neighbours are great though- very sociable and invite us out regularly! Its been pretty non eventful the last few weeks, I’ve been looking after my kiddies a few nights every week and they are getting used to having me around- which is nice! And I have been working at the cafe to save up some money for our trip to Sydney at the end of the month! I'm looking forward to catching up with Sal! A friend of a friend Becky came to stay from ... read more
120211 - wetlands jax 1
It’s our last day in Tassie! Already! The first fortnight of our trip has just flown. We’ve discovered things that we want to change/add to the van, and we’ve decided that we don’t actually need everything that we’ve taken with us. Thank goodness we’re calling in at our storage facility – not just to drop things off, but because there are a number of things that I wish I HAD taken with me! We started the day with the 2km walk around the Tamar Island Wetlands Reserve. We saw native plants and a number of birds, including swans and egrets, and really enjoyed the peacefulness of the place. Afterwards, we headed into town and went to the lovely Launceston Festivale. It is held in City Park which, bizarrely, also houses an enclosure with monkeys. The Festivale ... read more
