Blogs from Oceania - page 7833

Arrived Mission Beach after a really boring and annoying trip down from Canz last night, full of kids and it was all a bit dull on the OZ Experience really and I was glad to see the back of them and the bus when I reached Mission Beach. Scotty turned up to meet us in his van and quipped 'I hope all the guys got life insurance' I spend a few days at Scottys' which was a real beach type hostel, 5 mins walk from the sea with Palm Trees everywhere. I was glad to me here and this is where I would make a few friends.... read more

Wake up pretty late actually. We were to be leaving at 7:30am, so I had an hour to shower, get all packed up and to have some breakfast. Thankfully I’d done it in time, though I was the last to put my stuff on the coach. I had some cornflakes and a cuppa for breakfast. Our first destination was Lake Matheson. This was only a 6-km drive from the village. It was a perfect sunny day today. It was a total opposite to the second half of yesterday. I discovered that Susan and Stephanie had left earlier that morning to skydive over the glacier. They, like me, had been so desperate to do one. I was a bit annoyed that they didn’t say anything about it to me yesterday, as I’d have been up for it ... read more

Today we had a bit of a lay-in. Well I say lay-in, but we were up at 7am, as today was ‘optional activities’ day. We’d all booked these up with the guys on the Sunday drive from Christchurch to Lake Ohau. I had chosen the two things I wanted to do, even before I’d even come out to New Zealand, the ‘Lord of the Rings 4x4 tour’ and the 12,000 ft Tandem Skydive. I was really excited about today, though when I looked outside, it was very overcast. There were eight of us doing the Lord of the Rings tour this morning, and a few others were doing theirs this afternoon, as they were either bungying or Shotover jetboating this morning. The group this morning were, from my tour, Lisa (a schoolteacher in Sydney), Tania, Jo ... read more

Alarms were set for 4:30am this morning. It was a good job we didn’t go to sleep any later than we did last night, otherwise we’d have really struggled. Breakfast was at 5:30am, so we had an hour to get ready. I don’t know how all the girls managed. There were four of them in each of the rooms. They must have had to get up a whole lot earlier than us, so that they could all get ready in time. Anyway, we were all done, so went and had our ‘brekkie’. Everyone looked half asleep still, including me. Had some cereal and juice, and by 6am we were all up and ready to hit the road. We had the ‘morning song’, as usual and left for Milford Sound. Milford is only about 20 miles ‘as ... read more

Nestled in the Glass House Mountains on the Sunshine Coast in Beerwah Queensland, we visited Australia Zoo, the official home of the Crocodile Hunter. In November 2003, we arrived early and met Brian and Stewie from the television show and had a brief chat. We asked them about the Irwins and they said they were there but not available. Brian was cleaning Agro & Cookie’s billabong (Aboriginal meaning "small lake") and he said he had no idea that the Crocodile Hunter was so big in America, but that he was just doing his job. (Is he joking???) He seemed surprised that we recognized him from the show. Next best to meeting Steve or Terri I reckoned :) Just to get the chance to SEE Australia Zoo was so inspiring! The first thing you see is Coot-tha, ... read more