Blogs from Port Douglas, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 20

So here we are - back in Australia. It was an early start to get to Auckland airport for 7am, but we made it ok. Then a 5 hour flight to Cairns. We arrived and admitted to the immigration that we'd stayed on a farm, and after a few questions they took our shoes away and cleaned them for us! We also had to wait a while for the hire car to arrive, but it was upgraded to a van. At least the luggage was easy to fit in! Our last two cars it was a bit of a jigsaw to get all the cases into the boot. Anyway, we set off for Port Douglas and our first two nights at the Barrier Reef. We got there at about 4pm, and went for a swim. The ... read more

Auf dem Weg nach Port Douglas haben wir einige der zahlreichen Northern Beaches besucht, die sich über 26km entlang der Nordküste von Cairns erstrecken. Port Douglas an sich ist eine sehr kleine und sehr touristische Stadt mit rund 1.000 Einwohnern und liegt etwa 60 km nördlich von Cairns. Port Douglas erfreut sich auch großer Beliebtheit bei den Stars. So war beispielsweise der ehemalige US-Präsident Bill Clinton vor einigen Jahren hier auf Urlaub. Tragisches Detail am Rande: Am 4. September 2006 starb der australische "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin bei Dreharbeiten an der Küste von Port Douglas durch den Stich eines Stachelrochens.... read more

April 1 Port Douglas. Rolled in at 7:30 and set up camp for the night. April 2 Up early to catch the bus to the Wavelength Reef Boat. The bus driver/marine biologist/photographer/host named Fluffy kept us entertained on the ride. When we got to the dock, we all got lycra dive suits to protect us from jellyfish stings and sun (you don't have to put on too much sunscreen that harms the coral). Adam was eager to put on his suit and put it on immediately. He wore it for the entire 1 hour 45 minute ride to the first spot. We had to stay in groups of at least 2 during the snorkeling. We all swam together at the first site. Before getting in the water, there was a huge wrasse fish behind the boat. ... read more

Geo: -16.4958, 145.46720-22/02/09 At sea Temps Air 29°C Sea 27°C 20/02/09 We've just been informed by the captain that we're about to pass the German cruise liner the Europa which is on a 165 day world cruise, it's has the highest rating within it's companies fleet and is rated at 5 Star + a standard cabin for this current cruise was priced at £110,000, recession what recession? We took on a sea pilot at Darwin I didn't know there was such a thing, I thought pilots were pilots once you've had one so to speak they're all the same, apparently not, they're different to the normal pilots you sea in coastal waters, the ones you normally associates with ships entering ports and the like. Certain areas of the seas require the services of these guys who ... read more

Ahhh, Australia and the plethora of random public holidays......aside from the fact that they all seem to fall within the first half of the year, they're great. We have days off for reasons such as ANZAC Day (think Rememberance Day for the UK), Labour Day (whatever that is) and the best idea, being English, is we get a public holiday for the Queen's Birthday! Brilliant! Anyway, the holiday in January is on 26 January - or the working day following - for Australia Day. Essentially, this is the day which commemorates (celebrates?) the landing in Australia of Cook in 1788. This year however, with the naming of the Australian of the Year, there has been some debate surrounding whether this is the correct date to celebrate the birth of Australia as we now know it. Mick ... read more