Blogs from Oceania - page 7270

Havin found breakfast we hit the road, heading north again we stopped off at the Ettamogah Pub. A Strange creation based on cartoons. Wacky probably covers it. with a larger top than bottom. its a living cartoon....and serves beer! we were impressed! We decided to brave the coast and cruised north through Maroochydore; via the SuperBee Honey factory...both of us over indulged a little and felt a bit sick!! Next we went in search of a medieval castle. yes i know...no one was building castles in medieval oz. But there is one. Its Bli Bli Castle, soon to be renamed the Sunshine Castle...wouldn't be out of place in Ingleby Barwick with its toy town style and slightly lego-land nature!! made us laugh anyway! North we continued to Moloolaba and eventually up the coast past Coolum Beach ... read more

Got slightly sunburnt on St Kilda beach today, but it's not too bad - my skin seems to be aclimatizing to this weather finally, or maybe I've already maxed out my skin-cancer quota for this year? Watched some sort of Pacific Music Ensemble with Miranda this evening at the Music Bowl, which consisted of a -pretty cool Mauri band followed by some horrendously repetative pan pipes from The Solomon Islands; you know it really didn't help inspire the audience when the MC declared that 'althought Pan Pipes have only been a part of the Solomon people's culture in the twentieth century, they've embraced them passionately'. I mean, I'd turned up in the hope of seeing some historical dancing and music from eons ago just to be placated with some high-street musicians who've stolen instruments from other ... read more

With work on the orchard starting to dry up until the next variety is ready we headed up to Auckland to spend a few days with my parents. Our friends Steve and Lynn very kindly put us up for a few days (cheers Guys). Fisrt stop in Auckland, we decided to take my parents to the Viaduct (probably mentioned this in previous Blogs) a swanky waterfront resort by Aucklands main harbour lined with restraunts, bars and expensive boats and Yatchs, where we enjoyed a meal and a few drinks in the sun, (how is the weather back home by the way?). After this we headed off to the Sky tower Aucklands tallest building and the tallest in the southern hemsphere (I think), where we watched people jump off before we went up ourselves, from the top ... read more

Wow! I still can't believe that I celebrated my 19th birthday on Hamilton Island. I had a beautiful swim in the sea with my sister in law, the sea was so lovely and warm (you just had to be careful of the transparent jellyfish!) Unfortunately it rained quite a bit that day, but the moment we went onto the beach for our swim the sun actually came out from behind the clouds and then went back in when we did :) Beach, sun and stunning surroundings for my birthday, a combination I want to experience on many birthdays to come... It was so great to be with my brother and sister in law on my birthday morning. I couldn't believe how many cards I got all the way over here in Australia! Thankyou so much everyone ... read more

Hi All, Our third day in Sydney got off to a good start down in the Sydney Harbour Marriot restaurant. The service was great, as was the food. We got to try vegemite for the first (and definitely last) time. Hard to describe the taste, but it looks like dried up engine oil, and I think it tastes the same…nasty. After breakfast we took a walk down to circular quay to grab an explorer bus. We bought a 2 day pass to go pretty much anywhere in Sydney. We hopped on the Bondi Explorer bus, and were off. This bus takes a loop out to Bondi Beach. There are 19 stops on the way. We saw Woolloomooloo Bay, and a famous meat pie shop that has been there since 1945. The route follows the coast and ... read more