Blogs from Australia, Oceania - page 4004

After leaving the Blue Mountains we took the scenic route to join the Pacific highway heading north for a town called Newcastle (which strangely enough also has a Gateshead just outside like in England). Also, strangely, we met four jordies in our hostel there who assured us there weren't many comparisons, although were proud to note that the guy who built Sydney Harbour Bridge also built the Tyne Bridge.....a little known fact!? We only spent one night in Newcastle. Early next morning we were heading west to the Hunter Valley and guess what, another winery tour. This is our last, we promise, and will leave us fully up-to-speed on new world wines. We stayed in the town of Cessnock at the Wentworth Hotel, which was very nice. The town itself was quite deserted and a bit ... read more

From the prom we headed onto Phillip Island. Another area with amazing landscapes and coastal views. Here, we did some more walking and came across A SNAKE which was a little bit scary but also quite amusing when Alke completely freaked out after an earlier conversation about how you SHOULD react upon seeing a snake!!! Let’s just say her actions weren’t quite as she’d planned they should be. Whilst on Phillip Island we had to do the classic tourist thing of visiting the penguin parade. A huge money making scheme taking total advantage of the fairy penguins who nest around one particular area. Every night they return from their day at sea to their burrows and hundreds of tourists come along to watch them as they waddle up the beach. Despite feeling a little uncomfortable with ... read more

On my way towards Melbourne I met up with Alke - a German speech therapist who has also passed the big “3 0” (woohoo - I’m not the only 30+ backpacker in Australia!) Anyway, we decided to head down to Wilson’s Promontory, the southernmost tip of Australia for a bit of hiking & exploring. What an amazing place!! I thought I’d seen the clearest sea possible but we found areas that were really breathtaking. After a long, hot trek along part of the coastline we headed back to the most gorgeous beach where we swapped our hiking boots for our swimmers and recovered in the crystal clear sea. No pics at present as my camera decided to have an off day - typical!! Hopefully Alke will email me her snaps and I'll add them soon...... read more

We thought it was about time we let Chester in on the news that he was coming with us to Europe. He was so excited he packed his bags and jumped in the car ready so we wouldn't forget him. He tends to be pretty sedate, so he leaves the more exciting stuff to us. He mostly enjoys pampering himself, and we always have surprise room-service bills when we leave him to his own devices back at the motel. We're not sure how he will go though this trip as we intend on staying more in hostels than motels. Chester has travelled with Teresa before to the UK and California, and he has travelled with us both to NZ in Oct 2005. Typical bear, he is mostly looking forward to sampling the food in Europe, and ... read more

Adelaide is offically my least favorite city. As I've probably mentioned hundreds of times in this blog. So i'll let it go for now. I'm crazily excited to be getting back to Perth in the next few weeks. 19 days exactly, I'll be outta here. I'm applying for jobs there already so I won't end up like this again, having to go back to this city. The weather has been very nice here, reminding me just how much I dont miss winter at all. End of the week is supposed to be about 40 degrees. That temperature seems hotter in Adelaide than it did in Perth. I've become addicted to Terry Goodkind books. The library is holding the fourth one from me, and i'm getting antsy. Hopefully they'll finally have it in for me tomorrow, cuz ... read more