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Published: January 27th 2009
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Yo yo
Yes we know we have been slack and probably told those of you we have seen half of these stories but we thought that we should finish telling you about our awesome adventure.
From NZ it was across the Tazman Sea to Sydney, where we met up with mates at Circular Quay (Canary Wharf lookalike, but with warm weather). We were put up by the Hills, our hospitable hosts and local tour guides who made heaps of effort to show us around. We took in all the main sights, did the coogee to bondi beach walk (the fish and chip lunch afterwards was well deserved), hopped on the ferry to manly and had a cool make-it-yourself pizza evening at Ryan and Laurens. We also missioned down to Crunella Beach on the bus...seems that its not just in London that they have engineering works on weekends, spent the day with Greg's cousin and family and thankfully Jason gave us a lift home.
Then we picked up our next campervan, this time we were styling in lumo green and purple, and headed north. First stop Newcastle and the Hunter Valley where we enjoyed some beer tasting at Blue
Tongue Brewery first thing in the morning. Staying more rural below Port Macquarie our campsite was overrun with Kangaroos and we were happy that our first roo spotting was a live one and not road kill. Stopping in Port Macquarie we visited the Koala Hospital, which nurses injured koala's back to health... and Caroline was disappointed to learn that you couldn't take one home.
Carrying on up the coast we ventured inland, strangely to find the Pub with no beer a quaint little bush pub with a shrine to Slim Dusty who made the place famous with his songs. Went whale watching in Coffs Harbour and had some awesome sightings of migrating hump backed whales and a massive pod of common dolphins. In Byron Bay we were spoilt with great sunsets on our beach walk past the lighthouse and most eastern point of the Aus mainland. We also tried our hand at surfing on longboards with coaches who looked like they were straight out of point break, which was a good laugh.
Spent the morning tanning on Surfers Paradise before crossing the state line into Queensland, forgetting that we had changed time zones and arrived an hour early
in Brisbane for dinner with mates. While we waited we celebrated Caroline's acceptance into her course. Our host Greg Hogg showed us around town and allowed us to park/sleep in his driveway.
We hit Steve Irwin's Australian Zoo enjoying the interactive shows, stroking Koalas and feeding elephants. It was moving to see the Khaki Shrine of shirts signed in honour of Steveo and to share his enthusiasm for wildlife. From Rainbow Beach we jumped on a 4wd bus to Fraser Island and were soon racing down the white sandy beach to the ship wreck and pinnacles. Had a bumpy ride through the rainforest to Lake Mackenzie's white Silicon beaches which were spectacular.
We were back on the bottle in Bundaberg, the home of Bundy Rum, lethal stuff on a par with the Russian Bear of Vodka, but the aussies seem to love it! You get Bundy and Cola on tap or mixed in bottles with pretty much anything.
In Airlie Beach we continued to make use of the free beachside BBQ's with amazing backdrops before we hopped on The Boomerang Maxi sailboat for 2 nights. Sailing around the Whitsunday Islands we had awesome snorkelling, fine dining and
good company, spotting a few turtles and swimming on the beautiful Whitehaven Beach...good times!
Had an overnight stop in Townsville, where it seemed compulsory for the whole town to walk/run up the steep hill to the look out point, Castle Hill..we felt guilty driving, but it passed. Cairns provided the chance to dive and snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, which was pretty special as it was the first time Caroline had been diving. There was no rest for the wicked as we had a crazy night with Greg's Scottish mate, Kev who was working in Cairns at the time and also joined us in Cape Tribulation for the night. We spent Halloween there with some hog hunting locals and went Jungle surfing through the rainforest the next morning.
We were very sad when it came time to hand back our jucy campervan, but excited to head off to Thailand.
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a hot girl
non-member comment
whose that sexy scot
you guys are lucky to travel with such a cute guy, do you have his phone number.