Blogs from Australia, Oceania - page 4435

Tuesday 23. Local newspaper interview and photo. Tide racing out rippling at river mouth. Headed for Mooloolaba. Yachts aplenty. Water activity. Did I see an osprey and a gannet? Pervasive quiet on a shore looking north to bluffs and peaks. Tropical stillness. Wednesday 24. I'm starting to get a sense of being in Queensland. It was always going to be fabulous. And since my blog is intended to be brief, I'll leave it at that. Yacht race coming north, rounding the penultimate mark. Then beating in to Mooloolaba. Surfing, spruiking. Stickering the east coast. Must get to YC. Need to get up to speed. Warm climes. Good times. Cotton trees. Condos. As far as I can tell, the only industry here is happiness. ... read more

So we've been busy seeing and doing these past two days. Up until recently, we've refused to use the subway system because everything's just a 20-30 minute walk from our hostel. But tie that into walking around everywhere else all day and we finally gave in and took the underground system last night for going out. I'm not really sure what it's called here...I keep wanting to call it the metro because it's really similar to DC's system, complete with similar fare cards. But no two cities have the same name for a subway. (okay...maybe there are 2, but no more.) Before I fill you in on what's been going down since I last wrote...a quick question to answer as per Brendan's request. Just which way do the toilets flush? The answer....the toilet water just kind ... read more

Rick says What a joke! Typical. Bloody typical of those thieving bin dipping scally scouser buggers robbing the FA cup from the Hammers' grasp. Blooming Stevie Gerrard scoring two amazing goals. If he does that in the World Cup final against Germany then I may, just may, forgive him for previous crimes against West Ham lack of silverware. We watched it in Alice Springs with Gorm (another west country bumpkin) and Kate his wir-bird fiancee. I was very dejected and hoarse afterwards but proud. So anyway who cares about football when we are travelling on the other side of the world (well me). Northern Territory (along with Queensland) was the Australia I always had in my mind before I went. Real remote outback stuff and nothing for miles around, weird unique creatures and Great Barrier Reef/Whitsundays ... read more

Tom, Rob, Sam and I arrived in Brisbane on the 19th, and I think all of us had pretty much decided that we didn’t really want to be there after only an hour or so. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a nice city, probably quite a lot to do there, but it looked the same as any other city we had been to, we wanted to find some decent beaches, go for a surf, and see something new, so the next morning we headed off to Surfer’s Paradise on the Gold Coast. The first thing we did there was to go straight to the ‘wet n wild’ water park, which was great fun, as it’s winter over here the place was pretty empty (even though it was still high twenties, and definitely hot enough to get ... read more

The rain continued to fall all the way to Phillip Island. I was starting to get down heartened and was hoping that I had made the right decision to come to Phillip Island instead of heading straight for Melbourne. Phillip Island was definitely a fine weather destination. Luckily as if by magic as I went over the bridge that links the island to the mainland the clouds began to lift and the sun started to peak through. The hostel was again quiet although a German cyclist turned up quite late so I did have one person sharing the room, and oh my god he knew how to snore. Anyway before all that I headed off to watch the Phillip Island Penguins. Every night these Little Penguins (the smallest in the world) come ashore at the end ... read more