Kathleen a reener

Of all the places and of all the things I have ever done while traveling...Fraser Island is in the top three if not number one...We arrived in Rainbow Beach which is the jump off point to arrive in Fraser Island...We got to our hostel called Dingos for our briefing the day before we headed over to the Island...They broke up 44 of us in to 4 groups of 11...And provided us with an order form for booze and a list of our camping supplies and food...The next morning we got up bright and early to pack our trucks...The cars were land cruisers kitted out to 4 wheel drive and had racks on the roof to pack up all of our gear...They gave us 4 tents, 2 coolers, cooking supplies and all our food and drinks...We packed ... read more

From Cape Tribulation we drove back down the coast to Port Douglas to get our dive on...The day we got there we headed to the beach to do some tanning...Upon becoming extremely hot because of course it's Queensland...we headed into the water to refresh...Big surprise when we jumped in...The water is about as hot as the air and provided little to no relief from the heat...After braving the heat for a few hours we retired to our nicely airconditioned hostel for dinner...The next day I got up nice and early to catch the bus to my dive boat...It was called the Poseidon and they took us out for a day of diving on the Great Barrier Reef...All three dives were amazing and we saw turtles, sharks and a chambered nautilus among other beautiful bright fish and ... read more

Just to throw it out there...Elizabeth and I have both decided that if we were going to live anywhere for an extended period of time...Sydney would be at the top of the list...It's a great city with beautiful beaches and awesome people...Scotty and his friend Toby made us reservations on our first night at a restaurant called Tatsuyas...We were informed by our hosts that it is considered one of the top 10 restaurants in the world...And we happily obliged to join them for dinner...It was a ten course meal with accompanied wine pairings...7 savory and 3 sweet...One of the best meals I have had in my entire life...The next day Elizabeth and I did a little tanning before joing Scotty, his girlfriend Bianca, Toby and two of their friends from Melbourne, Ken and Tully on a ... read more

On the 2nd Elizabeth and I embarked on a huge road trip with Scotty...He is on his annual leave and decided to chaperone us up the east coast...We did a HUGE drive from Melbourne to Noosa...21 hours!!! And believe me there isn't much to see along the way...just a lot of cows, sheep and dry land...When we got into Noosa it was pouring rain and sooo humid...Scotty's sister Jane was in town with her boyfriend Rob so we went over to their place for dinner...They made us a lovely BBQ...The Australians are great at that kind of thing...and then we had a few drinks before heading over to Noosa's one and only club...the Rolling Rock...Not too exciting...The next day we went to the beach and worked on our tans...The sun is sooo intense over here seeing ... read more

For Christmas we got a real taste of the country...Our friend Mark invited us to celebrate with his family in a small town outside of Melbourne called Wangaretta...His uncle owns an olive orchard and grows many different types of fruit trees as well...He even made his own proscuitto and salame for our Christmas dinner...We had a wonderful appetizer course followed by a huge dinner of turkey, ham, roast vegetables and loads of GRAVY!!! For dessert we had some traditional dishes called summer pudding, Christmas pudding and this type of custard...(FYI a pudding is not like what we know...it's actually a kind of cake)...Following dinner we all got in the backyard to play a game of cricket...After about an hour of "bowling" and batting I still don't understand the game...(I have a feeling never will)...Mark's uncle has ... read more