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Great Ocean Road - 12 Apostles
The 12 Apostles are 12 massive rock formations,,, though the guy who took this pic managed to miss them all in the background. Hi Everyone,
Hope everyone is well and not suffering from cold symptons where ever you are! Also before you read details in here, we're fine, no injuries, if that's got you wondering, read on.
Perth Ok, so last we wrote we were just about to leave Singapore to head to
Oz. We arrived just after midnight in
Perth and in our wisdom decided rather than head into town to pay for a room that we'd only sleep in for a few hours, that we'd sleep in the airport. Genius... apart from the fact we couldn't sleep and nothing was open. So after arriving in town and getting digs we went to the massive Kings Park and had a kip whilst the locals ran, cycles, jogged, power walked or just took their dogs for a walk around us. Was very tiring to watch. A beautfiul park though, with its botanical gardens and views over the city. Plus it was really warm too.
A few days later we had arranged to meet up with Nick (Kev's old school mate from Norwich) and his family, Julia and little Rosie. We had a great couple of days with them in
Stirling, eating
food from the BBQ, drinking beer and watching the Wiggles with Rosie (Wake Up Jeff!) We all spent a day out at
Freemantle enjoying the Sunday morning coffee club and a massive Fish n' Chip lunch. We had thought about doing a bit of surfing/body boarding, but the fish and chips finished us off. Also saw how the other half live in the local show rooms of a really nice estate, we all voted for the huge bungalow. Big thanks to Nick and Julia for making us so welcome and showing us around. It was great. Also thanks to Rosie for sharing her toys with us and chatting to us about everything she does.
Alice Springs So after flying from Perth we arrived in Alice Springs for the Uluru (Ayres Rock) Tour. A piece of De Ja Vu for Maria here as she had already done this bit 5 years ago with Kay. A really early start on Day 1 and a trip to the local Camel Farm got us off. Though we didn't have the Camel burgers like some of the people in our tour group. We'd also been upgraded unexpectly, and so instead of sleeping in big
Kings Park - Perth
Joggers paradise! Or a sitting sleeping paradise for us. sleepng bags we had tents with proper beds and fans in.... even a cook came with us to make all our meals. Bonus!
Over the next 3 days we did lots of driving and walking. The other activity was waving away the hundreds of flies, until we bought are funky fly net hats, very attractive and much better than corks around a hat! Having visited the Olgas, a base walk around Uluru (the walk to the top was closed due to high winds) and a great walk around Kings Canyon. Spotting Rock Wallabys, Kangaroo's and Flaming Galars (Parrotts to you and us). The last day was a trek through Palm Valley that has massive Monitor lizards throughout, though we only saw one baby one. One particular highlight in an Aboriginal township was the freezer full of Kangaroo Tail's,,, won't be long before you see them in Tesco's we're sure!
Melbourne After our final night out in Alice we were up the next morning to get another flight,, this time to
Melbourne,,, or 'Melbon' as the locals pronounce it. It was SOOOOOO COLD. Finally the stuff at the bottom of our ruck sacks we'd been carrying around for 2
Shrimps on the Barbie!
Nick in charge, Kev just pointing,,, waiting for the food to be cooked. months came out,, the boots, big socks, scarfs, hats and gloves. Needed especially when we went to the 'Melbourne Cricket Ground' (MCG) to watch a game of Aussie Rules Footie. Really good fun, though cold,,, needed tea n' wedges at half time to brave the second half. Where it was cold again!
There are loads of coffee shops,,, everywhere is a coffee shop. Good shopping too.
With a few days left we decided to hire a car and go along the
Great Ocean Road. So in our little White Toyota Yaris we headed off to where the scenary was just stunning. The roads were great to drive around as well and around every corner was a postcard scene. Arriving in the town of
Warrnambool we looked around for some accomodation, and managed to book one 5 mins drive away. On the way there though a woman in a Red Mazda managed to not see our bright White Toyota Yaris and pulled out from a junction and we couldn't avoid her. A pretty large bang and we came to a very fast stop. Maria said some words that have never been heard before (the shock she later explained), but
Conversations with the locals
Where is the nearest Billabong? thankfully we were fine bar a couple of bruised elbow's, knees and wierdly Kev's index finger! The car (see pic) wasn't driveable though and so we sorted it all out with the hire car company to be picked up and a new one provided. A friendly local had stopped and she gave us a lift to our place. A visit from the local copper (a guy from Manchester would you believe it) came round later and said they'd given the woman a ticket and a slap,,, on the wrist. The next morning we headed off in our very large, White, 8 seater people carrier to finish our trip. Maybe they didn't trust us after the little Yaris.
On the last day we ended up in a place called
Ballarat, home of the Australian Gold Rush in the 1850's. Not going to bore you all with the details,, but they did have big massive Gold Nuggets on show!!!
Next morning a very early rise was followed by the fairly short flight to
New Zealand and into
Christchurch. Interestingly we weren't allowed off the plane straight away and were told to wait for the Health Department. Fears about the Swine
Flu. Though after 10 mins they just let us off, though we think we were on TV as we walked through the terminal, not as potential carriers we must admit,, all's fine.
So there you go, Oz in a nutshell. We're currently in a place called
Oamaru on the East Coast of the South Island, heading to
Queenstown for some adventure action in the morning.
Speak to you all soon and hope you're all well.
Maria and Kev
PS. A BIG Congrats to Lian and Andy on the birth of their little girl last week!
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'BT' Tom
non-member comment
Kev's driving
I always knew you couldn't handle the V8 horsepower of a Yaris! What happened to the other 10 apostles ;) Great to see you being so stereotypically australian and I shall await the frozen Kangaroo tail in the post. Cheers guys and enjoy the next leg of your tour.......