Waving goodbye to Oz

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The past 6 weeks has absolutely flown by. We ended up fitting in pretty much everything that we wanted to do the only issue with my time in Australia was that it was far too fast and some places felt like we hadn't spent nearly enough time in them. We did however fit an amazing amount into just 6 weeks. Briefly, we spent a few days in Melbourne then travelled up to Sydney where we settled for quite a while. Sydney was amazing, such a good city and we also met some really nice people and saw my second cousin there who gave us a very good couple of days out and some fantastic food. The next stop was Byron Bay where we spent far too much money in a short space of time by buying many deals (everything worked out really cheaply actually, it was just a shock to have that much money out at once). After a very rushed time in Brisbane where we only really managed to see the koala sanctury, we headed up to do a tour of Fraser Island. That was interesting, I wasn't that impressed with it, although some amusing things happened such as Helen's attack by a dingo who tried to steal her camera and then settled for her munching on her top. Over all the trip wasn't great, I wasn't too pleased about spending so many days in the back of a 4x4, but we did meet some nice people.

The next stop was the Whitsunday sailing which was AMAZING. So relaxing, so beautiful, with amazing people and great food. Slept under the stars on deck watching for shooting stars, saw so many fish when snorkling, saw dolphins in the water actually jumping out which was fantastic. The whole trip was just fantastic.

Sadly we had to leave the S.V.Whitehaven boat and then went on to Cairns. Wasn't too great as cities go, quite ordinary really, apart from the reef of course. We saw turtles! It was amazing, me and Helen went diving and there was a turtle which was so close and amazing to see. We did have trouble with our boat driving over a sail that was in the ocean and ended up not going on a second dive however. Wouldn't recommend Compass at all, the customer service was shocking.

Onto Cape Tribulation after that which was fairly disappointing apart from again meeting some lovely people. It was a point where 2 national parks join, Daintree rainforest and Great Barrier Reef, but you couldn't go swimming in the sea because of the jellyfish or the streams because of the crocodiles, and in fact the weather wasn't very good so it was just a beach in the rain really.. Good thing about that trip was the river cruise where we saw a few crocodiles in the wild and a snake too.

After our last night in Cairns there was no stopping and we were straight on a plane to Alice Springs where we spent half a day exploring (and half a day was plenty of time really..) and then we were off to the rock tour. Spent 3 days driving to Ayers rock, doing plenty of walking, some swimming, and lots of chatting with another nice group of people. The tour guide in particular was really cool and we found out loads about wildlife and aboriginal culture.

Then we spent 2 days on another tour which was basically driving from Alice Springs to Adelaide stopping over in the Opal mining capital of the world which of course made all 3 of us a little poorer! We slept underground though which was interesting. The wine day was the highlight of Adelaide, we headed to the Barrossa valley and went to 4 wineries including the very famous Jacob's Creek and had an amazing BBQ.

Then onto the last week of Australia where we hired our campervan to encounter several problems on route but to luckily always find a good way out of our sticky situations. The great ocean road was beautiful and we saw some koala's in the wild which was great and some fantastic scenery. I was really glad to have a real bed after nearly a week in the campervan though and don't think I could handle more time than that.. Melbourne was our final destination where we spent a few days doing the neighbours night and seeing some friends. Generally had a very good time, and won't mention Ramsay St as that is still a sore point..

So now we are 4 countries down and nearly half way through our time away from home, it is flying past quite scarily! We have had a very very relaxing few days in Christchurch with a little sightseeing and many movie marathons. All 3 of the Lord of the Rings trilogy I feel is good preparation for our time in New Zealand! Our hire car named "El Cheapo" is to be picked up tomorrow, and we are onto our second road trip of the 6 months, this time to sleep only in warm hostels though as it is freezing in New Zealand, like home in fact!

x

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