Blogs from Oceania - page 7853

We arrived in Fiji late in the evening and spent the night in transit at a small motel type establishment that seemed to be almost at the end of the runway. According to everything we'd read, our ultimate destination was a resort on a palm fringed beach complete with pools, bars and restaurants, so we were keen to leave the diesel fumes of our slightly ramshackle overnight accommodation as soon as possible. Convincing Scott of this however proved to be somewhat difficult. He'd discovered that it had a small playground, and nothing was going to drag him away from it, well at least not without a lot of loud protesting. This did leave us contemplating the rather extreme difference in vacation requirements between us and and least one of our offspring. Our holidays would be a ... read more

Zaterdag Vandaag de etappe van Tennant Creek naar Mount Isa. Lang! en heel veel zwoot! 650 km gereden in extreme hitte. je ziet in de tussentijd 1 benzinepomp en 2 boerderijen. Het weekend hebben we doorgebracht in Mount Isa. Immers, onze bankpas zou hier op het postkantoor liggen en die ging pas maandag weer open. Een nieuwe tijdzone! Er was niets aangegeven maar we waren ervan overtuigd dat we de klok anderhalf uur vooruit moest waardoor het tijdsverschil met Nederland negen uur zou worden. 's avonds wilden we ff stappen en al snel bleek dat alle kroegen er om 22.00 uur sluiten. Wat een kutzooi! Maar een taxi-chaffeur wist ons te verblijden. Er is Octoberfest in de Buffs. Dat klonk erg goed, echter het zou $10 kosten. Toch maar ff kijken. Daar aangekomen sneakten we er ... read more

15 October 2002 This Benalla motel doesn’t have the most comfortable bed. It’s only because I have been tired that my sleeps have been all right. Yesterday was easy and I managed to work my way through three rooms to finish by mid-day. I’ve been thinking how much longer I’m going to continue in this business. When I go to centres where the children are easy to work with, I actually enjoy my job. At other times, such as today, every time I thought a room was finished there was somebody new to photograph. This happens when children arrive at all times of the day and it makes a straightforward job hard. I ran out of time in the morning and had to wait two hours while the children slept before I could finish the job ... read more

My first time to Australia, how exciting! Met up with Sarah and Rachael at Chek Lap Kok airport at about 5ish. Our plane was boarding at 1910, Qantas Airways. It was quite sad leaving my parents (for the first time...apart from the trip to Devon for 5 days when I was in year 6...!) As soon as we got to Cairns we took a bus to Wild World...tired and feeling skanky we looked at all the animals and took a photo with a Koala. The koalas were extremely shy and rather "Drugged up" but were immensely cute to cuddle up to. I had never come so close to "wild" animals, so was a bit worried when kangaroos actually ate from the palm of my hand. I was also shocked when we watched the bullfrog race, it ... read more

I had decided to leave life in beautiful Frankland on the 13th of August to allow for a weekend of fun in Perth before beginning my adventure up the west coast. This happened to be a Friday. Normally I am not a superstitious person, but this day has changed my perception. Naturally, before I could leave Frankland I had to have a bit of a farewell bash. And, naturally, this involved me having one or two drinks too many (ie. getting rottenly drunk and not recalling a whole lot of the evening’s events). Not to worry!!! It has happened before and I have no doubt it will happen again!!!! None the less it was a little concerning to wake up in the morning with not much recollection of the previous night and no idea how I ... read more