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Published: November 29th 2009
Hello again guys. Sorry for the lack of updates! We left you in Newcastle which seems ages ago. From there we stopped in Coffs Harbour for two days. Quaint little place which did amazing fish and chips. Took in a lovely sunset sat on Muttonbird Island - so called because it is them home to about 12,000 of the things.
Next us was Byron Bay which turned out to be one of our favourite places. Really cool surf vibe and quality night life. Cheeky monkeys was one of our best nights out. The Beef, bacon and cheese pies were tops too. The main thing we did here was make our debut in the surfing arena. Had a really good day and even managed to catch a few waves. Didnt exactly hang ten (Surf speak) and I dont think Kelly Slater has too much to worry about just yet! The funniest part of the day was when a huge wave came out of nowhere just as i was getting ready to get on my board. The instructor shouted emergency action, which meant i should have tried to stop or get off my board.......instead i held on for dear life and body
boarded in! The wave gets higher every time i tell the story but Christine assures me it wasnt that big!!! Unfortunately right at the end Christine went one on one with a wave and came out second best damaging her hand. Thankfully it wasnt anything too serious. Honest she is fine. (No need to worry Mum)
After the highs of Byron Bay we headed to Surfers Paradise. Paradise my a**e! Maybe it was because there was a big V8 race on whilst we were there so the place was full of roadies and biker boys but we thought is was kack! To give you a better idea it was a bit like Blackpool on a bad day. Another fine example of the clientele was the guy who got out of the first floor jacuzzi walked across the roof then went for a wee over the side of the buidling onto the people below. The weather wasnt the best either.
Anyway enough of that place next up was Brisbane which we really enjoyed. Mainly because we went to Steve Irwins (RIP) Australia Zoo. It is definately in our top five things we have done. The place is brilliant. Christine
particularly enjoyed it as she got to stroke Kangaroos and get here picture taken holding a Koala. I seriously thought she was going to make a run for it with the little fella! We also got to feed Elephants and hold an 18kg snake. The crododiles probably still stole the show. If your ever in Australia you definately need to take in the zoo. We got the train which meant we passed the Glass Mountains too which was a bonus.
The rest of the time in Brisbane was spent walking round the streets taking in botanical gardens and various old buildings. We also went back to Uni for two hours when we sheltered from a rainstorm which made us both feel very very old! The river cruise we took in was good and you have to go to the man made beach there just to see how pants it is! Very bizzarre.
From Brisbane we went to Noosa which was a really cool chilled out place. It had a really nice Cafe bar theme to it, a gorgeous beach and a great cliff top walk. There was also a triathlon on whilst we were there. I was tempted
to enter until i remembered i swim like a brick as a few of the lads back home can testify too. "Snake im drowning!" being one memory from Malia!
We also used Noosa as a base to go Whale watching. What an unforgettable experience for two reasons. The obvious one seeing the whales leaping from the ocean an swimming alongside the boat the second being me getting as close to death as possible from seasickness. I survived the first hour fine then for the next five hours spent my time either in the loos or with my head in a sick bag! Christine thought i was on my way out! Despite my tan i looked like casper the ghost. It was still worth it as i did manage to see the whales each time i surfaced and at least half the boat was as bad as me. We got a wicked picture of one of the whales too.
From Noosa we headed two hours North to Rainbow Beach. Quiet little place with an amazing beach that leads all the way up to Fraser Island. The was also a pretty amazing sandblow there too. The best thing we did
hear though was go and feed some dolphins. Not quite as good as swimming with them but the feeding was wicked.
From Rainbow it was onto Harvey Bay where we stayed in one of our favourite hostels. We met up with David and Lucy, the scottish couple then headed over to Fraser Island for a two day, one night trip. The ferry trip over was fine and the island itself was amazing. It is made completely from sand and you can only get around via 4WD. It had some of the most beautiful places we have been too. Lake Mackenzie was fantastic, pure white sand and crystal clear waters as you can see from the pics. Lake Wabby wasn't bad either and Indian Head allowed us to view Stingray, Sea Turtles, Sharks and Dolhins in the waters below.
To break up the journey to Airlie Beach we stopped off in Rockhampton. Strange sort of place famous for its cattle. It also had the Tropic of Capricorn passing through it so we stopped off there for a pic. I have now stood on it in Australia, South Africa and South America as Christine is tired of hearing me say!
On our way to Airlie Beach - (the best base for the amazing Whitsunday Islands) the weather finally turned on us and we had three days rain! I can imagine your hearts bleed for us :-) Due to my love of the open seas we decide to skip the over night sailing trips and do day trips instead. We went to Long Island one day and got stuck in about three torrential downpours. We also got to see Koala (South Molle) and Daydream Island on our ferry cruise there and back.
Thankfully the weather returned to sunshine and clear blue skies for our trip to Whitsunday Island and the best beach we have been too---Whitehaven. As we arrived Christine spotted that someone had written in huge letters on the beach...Will you marry me?!!!......................No folks it wasnt me. Not quite time for that :-) We had a BBQ on Whitehaven beach and made the most of the beautiful sand to sunbathe. During the day we also took in Hill Inlet which has incredible views of the Whitsundays. I know i am using every superlative in the book but it really was that good.
We ended the day visting Hook
Island and snorkelling for the first time. After a few teething problems we got our breathing sorted and enjoyed the multi coloured fish and coral. It was awesome. God only knows how good the Great Barrier Reef is going to be. I also saw a tiny jellyfish. Thankfully we had our stinger suits on and i didnt hang around long enough to see if it was one of the leathal ones!
On our way up to Cairns we stopped off at Townsville so we good spend a day on Magnetic Island. It was a bit of a mixed bag. The horseshoe bay was fantastic. We had lovely fish and chips there and sunbathed. Picnic Bay wasnt as good but still nice enough.
We took our final Greyhound bus journey up to Cairns on 15th November and set up base for our trips North and out to Uluru. On our first day we headed up to Karunda on a 7.5km skyrail. Really good if not a little scary as everytime you passed one of the 35 support pylons your cable car rattled like it was about to fall off. Christine inparticular really enjoyed that. We took a scenic train
journey home which actually lived up to its billing unlike the one in New Zealand.
The following day we took a day trip up to Cape Tribulation which was a great day out. For once the trip was mainly English. I swear at the minute 3/4 of Germany is over here. We met some great people and really enjoyed the trip. We swam in the freshwater Mossman Gorge, visited a wildlife park where Christine fed Wallabies paper - not intentionally i hasten to add, went on a boat cruise down Daintree river and saw two Crocodiles. One of which had attacked the boat a few days earlier! We ended up at Cape Tribulation beach which again was beautiful.
We had a rest day after that....all this travelling is hard work you know. Basically sunbathed at a huge Lagoon by Cairns marina. The next day took us to the Great Barrier Reef. This was our highlight of Australia so far. It's hard to get across just how jaw dropping it is. We got about 5-6 hours snorkelling in and would have stayed out there longer if we could. We hired an underwater camera so have some great video footage
and pics.
The next day was my Birthday. It started pretty amazingly. First up we got a text letting us know that Dan and Grainne had had their first child - Orla - technically we share the same birthday on Ozzie time! then half an hour later we were throwing ourselves of a bridge for a tandem bungey jump! What a buzz! I was nervous but i think it's save to say it is the most scared Christine has ever been. Unlike the skydive and Nevis Arc i did have a few doubts as to whether she'd make it or not but once we were up there she was fine and it was me taking my time to edge forward! On the count of five we did it and screamed our heads off. We have a great video of it which we cant upload at the minute but will do when we get home. As soon as we got back to earth we had a beer and finished the day in the same style. Christine even got me a little cake with candles bless her :-)
The next day involved doing very little as its the roughest we
have felt all trip. It allowed us to get ready for the most amazing trip i have done in all my travels. It's Christines favourite part of our travels too.
The trip in question was a three day, two night camping trip to Uluru, The Olgas and Kings Canyon. We did a 7km hike around each of the forementioned locations which was amazing enough. On top of that we met Aboriginal leaders, singing Dingos, slept out under the stars, had ozzie bbq's, cheap wine by the campfire and best of all drank champagne whilst watching the sunset of Uluru - very romantic stuff. Even despite two 4am wake up calls to was a fantastic experience and i'd advise anyone coming to Oz to fit it into their plans.
Thats us up to date. We are currently sat in Alice Springs passing time before we fly back to Cairns. We are going out to the Reef tomorrow then White water rafting on the Barron river after that.
Then the aussie dream is over! We head to Singapore for a couple of days then have a couple more in Kuala Lumpur before starting the Thailand tour in Krabbi.
I hope this hasnt been too long and you havent all fell asleep! It took us long enough to write :-)
Thanks for all your messages, i know we havent replied to them alll but we do appreciate it. Hope your all well. Missing you loads and looking forward to some good sessions on the pop when we get back.
See you all in a month!!! We will try and update this in Thailand if we can.
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Pilk
non-member comment
jealous!
This update has made me most jealous out of all of your updates! Probably cos I was in that part of the world a couple of months ago and I can really relate to it. Barrier Reef sounds good - as you know I'm into my scuba. I did 3 half hour dives to about 10 metres but it sounds like you've still managed to see loads of stuff just snorkelling. Sounds like you've got the bug too! We've just had a weekend away in the Lakes, last chance on our own before Xmas and the new arrival. 5 weeks to the due date now! The rain here has been mental. There's been loads of flooding in the Lakes the last couple of weeks but the bit we were in was ok. Caz has now only got 3 weeks left at work and most of that she's working from home, and then it's over a year off! She really can't wait. Anyway, I'm off to hopefully see Arsenal get something off Chelsea after just being disappointed with your poor display against Liverpool. Never mind mate, you might make top half if you're lucky! Enjoy Singapore and Thailand and hopefully you'll be back to wet the baby's head. By the way, what's your new mobile number? Have you got one? And good I need some games of squash, I've done no exercise since you left!!! Nightmare! Take it easy. Pilko.