Blogs from Stanthorpe, Queensland, Australia, Oceania

We had planned a trip to John's hometown of Stanthorpe, and my friends took some time to map an interesting route for us. Ellen quickly found a must-visit town name for us to visit on the way (not too difficult in Australia!) and after only about an hour in the car, we were in the middle of the mountains looking for the town of Dum Dum. Google maps said we had arrived, and there certainly was a neighborhood of homes with a school, but no sign indicating we were actually there. Still, we 'checked in' on Facebook, took a few photos, and made as Dum Dum jokes we could think of in the three-minute tour. I realized that the majority of exploration of mainland Australia has been confined to major cities and tourist spots, so the ... read more

Well, it all turned out to be lies! At the conclusion of our last blog we promised to add another one during 2016, and look here it is already half-way through 2017! To coin a well-worn phrase “Better late than never” It’s hard to believe how quickly time has flown since our arrival in October 2015 (and subsequent departure in Jan 2017) and now, here we once again find ourselves in the Granite Belt! During our time here, between us, we have worked at half a dozen different venues across the region, but we wound up working at our most-loved venues towards the end and give thanks to the great couples and their families who we happily call new friends today! From humble beginnings in the caravan park, we slid into “home” life via our Aussie ... read more

WELL!!!! What a day it was today! We are in Stanthorpe for a few days before we move on again. We have never toured the Stanthorpe area before and decided it was time we did and I must say we have not regretted it. Todays adventures were to great to put all the pictures all in one blog so I have done up a few blogs for today to cover all the different places we visited. I must say, Lyn is now having a NANNY NAP to get over today. We started out early (07:00 as usual) and headed East on the back road towards the Mt Lindsay Rd and around to Bald Rock National Park. Lovely drive, but it didn't prepare us for the breathtaking beauty of the Bald Rock National Park. The Rock has ... read more

19 December Ondertussen zitten we al een weekje in Stanthorpe en, ook al haat ik het om te klagen, het is blijkbaar het enige dat we hier kunnen doen. Laten we hopen dat we hier over een maand kunnen lachen. Na een weekje nectarientjes plukken en appelboompjes uitdunnen kan ik alleen maar zeggen dat het werk op zich nog wel 'meevalt', maar voor het geen we er voor betaald krijgen is het toch wel verdomd zwaar. Korte uitleg: Nectarientjes zijn feest, een dagje plukken levert ons 100 dollar op. De appeltjes daarentegen (Thinning met een leuk woordje) worden betaald per boom. En dan is dat zo'n leuke 1 dollar per boom, blijkbaar ongeacht de grootte van de boom, ook al meen ik me te herinneren dat we een contractje moesten tekenen waarin stond dat we voor ... read more

My apple picking career is over for the time being! Not sure how i will survive with not getting up at 3.15am any more!! I've had a great 5 weeks but i'm very happy to be leaving, i need a rest. What i'll miss the most is our Saturday nights down the local pub. Last Saturday we had a pj party. I donned my pj's, messed my hair up and smudged mascara all over my face, what a pretty site! I drank way too much cider as usual and felt rather rough Sunday morning. Made loads of great friends here, Room 5 rules! We are all heading up the coast to Cairns but will be a few days behind eachother but we will have a reunion in Cairns if not before. Just a short entry so ... read more