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Published: April 27th 2007
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Scuba time
Great Barrier Reef Dear All...
Apologies that we haven't sent you any reading material for a month!
The trip has just come to an end for me, and Nicole has been back in Blighty for a week now!
Where did the time and the tans go?!
What a month! From Melbourne we flew to Cairns and we were greeted by the warm Queensland sun! We took full advantage of the weather and enjoyed some Lagoon time. Cairns was also our gateway to the Great Barrier Reef where we snorkelled our socks off and had our first Scuba dive (I think it was the 1st and the last for poor Nicole). The reef was amazing - so many beautiful fish and sealife. We saw Giant Turtles, NEMO and friends and Parrot fish etc. We also had a boomnetting (hanging onto a net in the waves behind the boat) experience, it looks like a lot of but it was painful!
We were reluctant to leave Cairns' blue skies but we needed to hop onto our Oz Experience bus and race down the coast.
Our first major stop was Airlie Beach and from there we did two day trips around the Whitsunday Islands which
Nic & Mr Turtle
Great Barrier Reef were beautiful. Whitehaven beach is too good to be true as is the Coral, the fish and the surroundings. A couple of highlights were seeing a Giant Maori Wrasse (Called Elvis!) and looking down onto Hill inlet ... white sands and beautful shades of blue. You could even see sting rays dashing about!
Our next stop after Airlie Beach couldn't have been a greater contrast ... the Kroombit Cattle Ranch in the middle of nowhere! On our way here we saw our first wild Kangas! The Cattle ranch gave us a good meal (beef and gravy - Result!) and then taught us how to whipcrack! We then attempted to stay on the Mechanical Bull - owww. The next morning after sleeping in a dorm which was better described a stable, we did some goat mustering on horseback. So funny but unfortunately we weren't allowed to go faster than a walk on the horses, so that was a little disappointing.
From the Cattle Ranch we had a full day on the bus (with our lovely driver Brad and Clare and Grace) to Rainbow Beach. We were intending to go to Fraser Island from here but it didn't happen unfortunately.
We had a good few days at Rainbow nonetheless.
Noosa was our next stop where we were lucky enough to stay with Chimay and Julian in the apartment where we were utterly spoilt with amazing food and drink - Thank you guys! On arriving in Noosa we were advised by our driver that in the Noosa National park there are wild Koalas - so we went straight there and walked through the park for an hour looking up in the trees ...unsuccessfully! Noosa's beach was gorgeous as were the crowd and the surfers. There weren't as many backpackers here which was a great change. We also went to Eumundi Markets where we successfully completed 'the quest for the pretty dress'!
We were pleasantly surprised by Brisbane and the highlight was undoubtedly the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where we both had a cuddle with Mr P-Body the Koala and got to stroke lots of Kangaroos!
Next stop was Byron Bay. Nic left from here for Surf camp and Sydney and I stayed for 3 days. Byron was beautiful with a relaxed atmosphere, gorgeous beach, friendly town, cheesy nightlife at Cheeky Monkeys and an interesting day trip to the
Whitehaven Beach
Whitsunday Island hippy town of Nimbin and Paul's 'home-grown' rainforest (It has taken him 27 years to grow it) where he cut down 3 trees until he found pedinkles/pedunkles! Very funny!
Surf camp was fun but sooooo hard! I think I may have stood up once but I struggled! I'd definately like to master it! The main thing learnt was - surfers party hard!
Then last but by no means least there was
Sydney - BEAUTIFUL!
Couldn't contain myself when I saw the skyline for the first time. It was really surreal to be drinking in the Opera bar (next to the op hse) within 2 hours of arriving with the view of the bridge and the opera house itself. Wow! Thanks to Ben and Chimay I got to see plenty of beaches; Freshwater, Manly, Balmoral, Bondi, Tamarama and Bronte. They are all so beautiful - even in the Australian 'Winter'! The Bondi to Bronte coastal walk was especially pretty.
The Blue Mountains were stunning, I did a 2 hour walk around Wentworth Falls and then went to the '3 Sisters'.
I visited Darling Harbour, Sydney Tower, Paddy's Markets, Boutiques on Oxford Street, Kings Cross' bars and mooched about the
city pretending I lived there! Can't wait to go back already!
On my trip to visit the Collis family, Andy snuck me into the Sydney Aquarium as an art student and showed me the Gosford area - Avoca Beach, Brisbane Water and tickled the Koi with Simon in the Japanese Garden. Thank you so much for having me and for playing 'Here comes the Sun' again!
There are more sydney and Gosford Photos to come!
Thanks for watching, we had an absolute ball ... hope you didn't miss us too much! Looking forward to catching up with everyone at some point
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