Blogs from Oceania - page 7090

Hello everyone. It has been a few days so I thought I would update you on all to my activities. I realize that, once again, there are no pictures. I have just tried uploading them onto this internet cafe computer and it doesn't want to know. It keeps asking about installing software and I haven't brought that along as mistakenly I thought it would be easy to extract them. Of course this is not the case. This may mean that I have to purchase a proper digital camera if I want to show you all where I've been and what I've got up to. More expence! For the time being I'll try and paint pictures with words. Alternatively Google images of Auckland. These will be like my photos except more professional looking and without my thumb ... read more

We got into Rainbow beach and we hit a wall of rain.. this is about the first time i have seen rain since i left home, kinda weird. We ended up booking a 3 day self drive 4X4 trip to fraser island at the hostel we were staying at. They put you into groups of around 11 people and give you a car and camping gear and off you go... kinda crazy! Our group was really really cool a few english girls some canadians and some italians. the other group we went with that were in the other car aside from 4 of them were not so cool :SThe island was beautiful... loads of dingos and amazing fress water lakes. You couldnt swim in the ocean because it was shark breading ground.. they showed us this ... read more

Escaping from Pemberton as quickly as I could, I made my way to the Gloucester Tree, another famous fire tree that's climbable by the public, and another famous fire tree that was to remain unclimbed by me. There was a short walking trail through the woods nearby, at the beginning of which were umpteen brightly coloured parakeets (?) pecking around on the forest floor, chuntering to themselves like guinea-pigs and behaving to all intents and purposes as if I wasn't there. The size of the karri trees is impressive, and you find yourself walking around with your head back, like on a first visit to downtown Manhattan. Karri is apparently a popular wood in the building industry because of its length and lack of knots. I'd picked up a leaflet describing the Karri Explorer scenic drive, ... read more

Well, I've crossed the state line into the Northern Territory, a land equivalent in size to France, Italy and Spain combined, but with a total population of around 200,000. A land that shunned the offer to be a true 'state' in favour of being self-governed....well, it's probably something to do with the fact that it gets more cash from the government this way. See - I am learning some stuff! Anyway, I've settled in Darwin, (or should I say Dulwin) : a small town, prematurely pushed into being a city, and it shows. Hot, lazy and utterly devoid of life and vibrancy, so much so that I'm glad I'll have only wasted 3 days here by the time I return from kakadu National Park on Sunday. Talking of Kakadu, I was supposed to go yesterday but ... read more

Despite its name and being so far south, Tasmania is not the exotic place many believe it to be. The mainland Aussies actually regard it the way many Americans regard West Virginia. Basically the towns and cities (very small cities) look like the towns and cities in Ireland. The pastures with sheep look like Ireland too. The mountains, trees, lakes, etc are bigger though, more like the landscape of central PA or the Rockies in the US. Unlike the landscape of PA, the Rockie, and Ireland, there are incredible beaches in Tasmania that made me wish it were summer time so I could swim in the sea. The most beautiful beach was Wineglass Bay in Freycinet National Park. I will go back someday to swim at this beach. The water was crystal clear and blue, definitely ... read more