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Published: July 16th 2005
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Pelican
At one of our many scenic lunch stops. Rockhampton is in the heart of Australian cow country. The lonelyplanet has it down as Australia's steak capitol and with that we didn't think there where any further reasons needed to add this town to our list of stopovers. From whichever direction you enter the town you are greated by a grand concrete cow, modelled on one of the many famous breeds from around the area. These are generally on roundabouts or in other prominent positions that are easily viewed by people passing through the town. Now, whoever designed these cows either had a serious issue about being anatomically correct or had a wicked sense of humour and decided that the bollocks of said cows needed the freedom to, shall we say, swing in the air (as bollocks rightfully should!). Now imagine, if you would, a small town on a saturday night where numbers of young, bored teens/twentysomethings are in need of a good steal. Everyone has a pub ashtray, traffic sign, garden gate etc. but who has a bespoke pair of conrete cow balls! "Not me" I hear you cry! and hence started the Rockhampton bollock stealing fiasco. The problem got so out of hand that there is now a
Fraser Island
Another beach viewed from the plane. council official whos job it is to go around with spare sets and re-attach where necessary!
Unfortunately we ended up staying in a campsite on the outskirts of town, which managed to limit our dining choices. We took some direction to the nearest watering hole which was meant to do some decent grub and looked forwarded to our long awaited steak experience. We ended up in a locals betting bar which was in the middle of a retail complex, not quite what we were expecting. When we finally got our steak it was nothing special and we felt a bit cheated. If we went again I'd choose the chicken!
The following morning after popping into Rockhamptons tourist information centre (which was possible the most helpful place we have come accross in Australia) we headed out, on recommendation, to the Aboriginal Cultural Centre. It was here that we finally choose our didgeridoo and took on some helpful tips from one of the centre's guides. Rich has really got to grips with making the right sound and just has to master the circular breathing (easier said than done), whereas I only manage a sound that resembles a gerbil fart!
Butterfly Lake
On Fraser island. As we headed south out of the town we took a 38km detour to Mt. Hay Gemstone park where we planned to try our luck at fossicking. Fossicking is an activity which normally envolves searching through piles of dirt looking for small gems that have been missed during the mining process. At Mt. Hay you don't fossick for gems, you are looking for
thundereggs. Thundereggs where first discovered at Mt. Hay and it is still the best place to find these interesting geological formations. A thunderegg occurs when some hot lava that contains a gas bubble is compressed over millions of years. What you are looking for when searching for the eggs is a rock that has a rounded section (the bubble). The bubble is generally partly covered with rhyolite another mineral that is found in the same area, this makes them very difficult to identify in a pile of normal rocks. For this reason the first half an hour or so in our fossicking experience was very fustrating and we just seemed to be picking up stones. It was only after our first real find that we got the right idea and with our little pickaxes blazzing there were
More sand
Fraser Island soon thundereggs a plenty. We ended up getting about 16 of them cut and out of that only 3 were duds so it was a good crop! We left Mt. Hay with our bounty and got back on track, it was now down to Harvey Bay and Fraser Island.
Due to our ever increasing pressure to get down to Sydney in time to meet our flight to NZ, we were having to think of the best ways to see things but in the least time possible. Fraser island is generally recommended as a 3 day tour, so arriving with around 24 hours to spare was a tough one, until we found the airstrip and realised we could fly over it in 45 minutes! Now thats what I call timesaving. So Rich, the pilot and I took off in our very small, fantastically retro (leather interiour, with fluffy seat covers!) light aircraft for our airial view of the largest sand island in the world. We couldn't believe how much fun it was. The views were amazing and the pilot was a really great guy who gave us a running commentry of what we were seeing beneath us. We didn't think
Shipwreck
Fraser Island the flight could get any better until a call came through on the radio from another plane saying that they had spotted whales! As the pilot brought the plane round we saw a humpback jumping out of the water and crashing back down into the sea. Rich and I both had the biggest smiles on our faces, it was one of the most beautiful things we have ever seen. The whale repeated its performance about 4 times before disapearing again. Definately one of our highlights in Australia.
Next we were off to Brisbane for our van's safety check and then straight on to Byron Bay. By this point in our trip it was just a matter of how many kms we could get through in each day, so with deep regret we rushed through Byron, only having enough time for an evening of fantastic fish and chips and some early morning dolphin spotting from the cliffs. Having said that, the weather was pretty wet and so not really the right time for sitting on the beach!
Between Byron and Sydney all we did was drive, drive and drive some more (oh, and stop to see a big pineapple!).
When we finally reached Sydney it was a relief to know that we were dropping off the van! Our last days in Australia were spent on foot, wandering around the famous city and jumping on some boats and buses in order to take in what we could before our departure. It was nice to slow the pace down again and actually be able to chill out and not worry about moving on. Looking back, we took on too much in too shorter time. We could have done with another 2 weeks on top of the 2 we had.
We flew to Auckland on the 6th June and that is where we are now. We have sorted ourselves out with an appartment and both have jobs! Yes its back to the grindstone again. Rich is working for ASB Bank and I am working for an energy company. It took about a week to get over the initial enthusiasm and now we are back to loathing Mondays and counting down the hours till the weekend! Im sure there are lots of you back home just loving hearing this! Rich had his 28th birthday yesterday and now has a new camera, so
hopefully the photos will get better. Thanks to everyone who sent him cards, it made his day. We are off to see the Lions play Auckland on Tuesday so hope they play better than they have been! We are 3 weeks into our 8 weeks of work and then its off on our NZ tour. Cant wait.
B & R
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