Blogs from Oceania - page 6525

We spent 5 wonderful days in Brisbane. Its is a very nice to city. It is one of those cities that is probably better to live in rather than visit, because there arent too many sites to see. We did however go to the largest urban rainforest in the world, Roma St Parklad. There we saw the largest lizard I think I have ever seen. Us being the tourist we are decided we should take a picture of us, or rather me, near the lizard. Ya so lesson number one, big lizards dont like humans near them...that was our first and hopefully only near death experience. While in brisbane we saw the oldest Cathedral in Australia, went to the cultural center, the Botanic Gardens, Queens St- shoppers paradise, Mt. Cootha-which has an amazing view of brisbane ... read more

From Orange I decided to go across the Blue Mountains and to stop at Katoomba, only an hours drive .Found a backpacker place to stay and then went exploring. The Blue Mountains;why are they called such ?The area is densely populated with eucalyptus trees the oily mist they give off inconjunction with the dust particles in the light create the blue coloured haze . There is evidence of Aboriginal occupation of the Blue Mountains that dates back 14000 years.Art sites,rock engravings and stone tools thoughout the Mountains;all sites are protected. The Duruk,Gundungurra and Wiradjun tribes inhabited this region, The Aboriginal dream-time legend has it that three sisters, 'Meehni', 'Wimlah' and Gunnedoo' lived in the Jamison Valley as members of the Katoomba tribe. These beautiful young ladies had fallen in love with three brothers from the Nepean ... read more

Hi all, Just a quick note to let you know that we arrived in Fiji safely with all our baggage in tact. It was like stepping into a sauna getting off the plane. With 26 deree heat at 10pm at night! We awoke this morning (15th) to about 30 degree heat at 7 in the morning. We are staying at the Aquarius Fiji backpackers in Nadi and it's right on the beach with hamocks, palm trees a nice swiming pool and of courtse the ocean on the backdoorstep. Pictures to follow. We'll be spending the rest of the day making a plan of action but it looks likely that we'll leave Viti Levu, the main island asap and head towards the mamanuca and the yasawa islands to the north west of Fiji. Rumour has it their ... read more

Well we finally left Byron and let me tell you it was a sad day... I had the best times there and I learned a lot just from meeting so many different people from everywhere in the world. We met up with my cousin Jeremy who is also travelling the great land down under and I think he describes our time in Byron best. Here is an entry from his travelblog... "It was time to hop on a 12 hour overnight bus ride up to Byron Bay where I was met by my cousin Sarah, who's taking a year off from University and enjoying the easy going life down under. She's travelling with her friend Dayna from Orangeville and the 2 of them quickly showed me how they've been spending the past month in Oz. While ... read more

Spent most of the early Morning sorting out my blog its not taking too much time but the problem seems to be the speed of the internet connection, it seems so slow to what I am used to. Went to Visit my Cousin Francis who I have met before but the last time was so long ago in Ireland, She tells us that she is very happy and things in her life are sorted now. She has met a new partner and Aborigine called Keith; he is a lovely man we stay for tea and cake and catch up on old times. Typically in true Irish fashion my Uncle Liam has not seen her for some time either so my arriving has made them get together to. We leave after a few hours and travel a ... read more