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Published: October 27th 2010
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hooked up for the last tow
After several days cleaning the rig we left Kennedy's for Scarborough. Hi all
The car and caravan are sold!
We've had a wonderful two years exploring Australia with no time limits - free to stop where and for how long we wanted. Some of the places we enjoyed the most, were the lesser known, smaller, outback or coastal places. We've done most of the main attractions of each state (except Canberra), and met some interesting people, and made some good friends.
We have some special people to thank very much for making this trip possible.
Australian end:
* Rowan - car purchase and insurance arranged for us for car and van
* Snow and Zena - Brisbane "base camp", Queensland address for car and van registrations, rear car seat storage
and accomodation, etc
* Dave and Raemar - banking help and address
* Sue D - Sydney exploration guide
* Louise and Steve - Perth storage of rig
N.Z. end:
* Hamish and Nicole - mail handling, paying any accounts due, etc
* Tracey and Kent - accomodation when visiting NZ
* Linda and Denis - car and trailer storage, airport pick ups and drop offs, accomodation, etc
* Graeme and Coralie - our containers storage (our household
"stuff"), tempory bus parking
* Allen and Marijke - bus storage 1st year
* Rick and Sue - bus storage 2nd year
* Donald and Patti - buying our rig, giving us a "no hassles" end to our trip, taking extra bags back to NZ for us
* those friends and relations who came over and joined us for part of our adventure, we loved sharing some good
times with you.
* all the friends and family who kept in touch with news from home, and had us to stay when we returned for visits.
Thankyou all very much!
We have memories of good times spent with new friends too. Some special times we have shared:
* Jan and Rowan - Mudjimba and Hervey Bay (whale watching)
* Trevor and Margaret - Melbourne Cup Day in Adelaide, exploring SA, Mt Gambia, Port Arthur campfire & Redcliffe bridge
walk
* Chris and Kurt - Devils Marbles, Banka Banka Station
* Mardi and Bap - we've had so many special times with you - Daly Waters Pub, Darwin, Kununurra, Broom - afternoons
and sunsets on Cable beach, Eighty Mile Beach fishing, Bowen and Airlie Beach
* Jerry
and John - Banka Banka Station, Mataranka campfire, Katherine Gorge cruise, Broom (with Mardi & Bap too)
* Louise and Steve - Quobba Point, Perth
* Joy and Geoff - fellow NZers, Geraldton, Kalgooli, Nullabour especially playing that golf course, Eyre Peninsula,
Adelaide and that 20c dice game!
* We met and had drinks with or sat around a campfire with many others , too numerous to name.
People have asked us what is your favourite place - we have so many! How do you narrow it down, but we especially loved WA, the Kimberleys, Ningaloo Reef, Broome and the south west area. We enjoyed tasmania and are glad we ventured down there also with the van. Outback and coastal Queensland were also favourite places, but all states had their special areas we loved. Yamba in NSW was the first place of many we stayed longer than planned because we liked it.
Spectacular scenery:
Great Ocean Road V
Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair Tas
Margaret River & SW forest areas WA
Sydney Harbour NSW
Armidale & New England Highway in autumn NSW
Some favourite beaches:
Cable Beach, Broome WA
Eighty Mile Beach WA
Sth Mission
Beach Q
Whitehaven Beach, WhitSunday Is. Q
Horseshoe Bay, Bowen Q
Some favourite tramps / climbs:
Carnarvon Gorge Q
Round the lake at Cradle Mountain Tas
Grampians
Bluff Knoll, Stirling Ranges WA
Best 4WDing we did:
Fraser Island (with Allen and Marijke)
Road into Bungle Bungles, Kimberleys
Litchfield National Park
Gibb River Road & El Questro, Kimberleys
Favourite fossicking areas:
Sapphire - sapphires
Whitecliffs - opals
Lightening Ridge & Glengarry area - opals
Interesting lesser known rock formations:
Bungle Bungles
Devils Marbles
Pinnacles, Cervantes
Marble Bar
+ lots of gorges, escarpments eg Carnarvon Gorge, Geikie Gorge, Lawn Hill, Kimberleys, Karajini
Islands we enjoyed exploring:
Fraser Is
Kangaroo Is
Rottnest Is
WhitSunday Is
We did many boat trips/ sea adventures. Special ones were:
South Bruny Island, Tas - a freezing RIB trip to the southern most point
Hervey Bay Q - whale watching
WhitSunday Is Q - snorkling
Cairns - Great Barrier Reef Q - snorkelling in the rain with Linda and Den!
Coral Bay - Ningaloo Reef - WA - snorkelling with manta rays
Strahan - Gordon River Cruise - Tas
Denham - westernmost point of WA, +snorkel
Murray River Cruise with Allen and
our cabin at Scarborough
we stayed here 2 nights, 1 before and 1 after Don and Patti arrived. Marijke
Goolwa - Kurong - Murray River Mouth cruise with the flies!
Lawn Hill - kayak up the gorge
Hawkesbury River cruise, Sydney
Many other canal and river cruises, we did lots!
Places we fished successfully at
Eighty Mile Beach WA
Pt Germein SA
Kurumba Q
We visited some great zoos especially:
Australia Zoo
Dubbo Zoo (it was worth it to go early in the morning, about 6.30am and watch the early morning routines)
Taronga Park Zoo, Sydney, with Tracey, Kent, Lauren, Cushla and Sue D
We saw some lovely gardens. Some of note were:
Cowra Japanese Gardens in spring
Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens, Adelaide
lots of lovely rose gardens around the Murray R and SA area
Chris and I visited many different mines, some huge! Some of note were:
Newman
Mt Isa
Kalgooli
Bendigo and Ballaret
Kakado
Beaconsfield
Some notable hot pools we swam in:
Gwydir Carapark, Moree
Mataranka Hot Springs - floated down the warm river on our noodles
Burren Junction
Litchfield National Park - rivers and base of waterfalls, again with our noodles.
Interesting Pubs
Daly Waters Pub complete with birdman - he sang with a chook on his head -
just back from the airport
cuppa time with Don and Patti and Mardi had a GOOD time!!!
Nindigully Pub - nice free camping beside the river too
We stayed at some interesting stations in the outback, and even did some volunteer work. Some were:
Hamlin Station - Chris helped muster sheep and goats.
Indie Station - Chris hung some doors for them on an accomodation block, I helped prepare for a wedding
Barn Hill Station- nice beach, good food and entertainment too!
Lorne Station, Lightening Ridge
Banka Banka Station
Pardoo Station - we did some 4WD tracks to the beach
Our favourite caravan parks were:
Cania Gorge Big 4 - each big site has it's own fireplace, lots of colourful birds, good walks nearby, entertainment, etc
Sapphire Caravan Park Retreat
We went back to each of these, and they were still great!
Kidman Camp, Back of Bourke - sites even had herbs like rosemary, mint growing
Renmark Big 4 - on the banks of the Murray R
Best city caravan parks:
Adelaide West Beach Big 4
Sydney North Narabeen Big 4
Melbourne - Ashley Gardens Big 4 (+ storage)
(all these were really easy to get to the city by bus)
Perth Forrestfield Big 4
Darwin Free Spirit
Big 4
Cairns - Crystal Cascades Big 4 (+ storage)
Brisbane - Scarborough Holiday Village
Favourite Free Parks
Quobba Point Blowholes WA (good snorkelling)
Gregory River
Nullabour
National Parks Camps we especially enjoyed:
Cape Range N.P. Ningaloo Reef snorkelling
Litchfield N.P. 4WDing and swimming
Cape Keraudren N.P. tame kangaroos
Cape Le Grande N.P.
We been winetasting in the Hunter Valley, Barossa Valley (with Marijke and Allen), and Margaret River area (with Harv and Linds, and Rick and Sue) to name a few places! We visited Hutt River Province, and lots of very good museums, especially Darwin, the maritime museum at Fremantle , Longreach and Darwin air museums, and Zeehan mine museum in Tasmania. We've played golf accross the Nullabour with Joy and Geoff which was a lot of laughs, been to airshows and V8 car racing. The flies we encountered in some places were amazing, especially the Kurong (the Murray River mouth), Kalbarri N.P. , Coronation Beach WA and the march flies around Northcliffe WA!
But most of all, we've had a great time. Australia is a huge country, there's so much to see and do, and there's certainly a lot more for us to come back
back over the new Gateway Bridge
We spent this last week at Wellington Point with the Kennedys to sometime. Chris and I return to NZ tomorrow, having had a super 2+ years travelling .
WE would not have changed anything with our rig. The car performed brilliantly, and the caravan was comfortable for full time living in. We had no punctures, and no dramas!
We wish Donald and Patti safe travels, and hope they have as good a time as we have had.
Regards to all and thanks for reading my travel blogs.
Lynne and Chris
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Mike & Jill
non-member comment
Thank you guys
Lynne, Chris It's a very big thank you to you guys for taking us all on a great trip around Australia. Your blogs have been very informative, descriptive and at most times entertaining - allowing us to visualise the various areas you have been into and we have not seen photos of. It's a credit to you both for the work you have put into these blogs and you should be proud of yourselves. We are pleased it all went so well. Once again - thank you - maybe you have saved Jill and I the trip???? See you back home Mike & Jill