Blogs from Oceania - page 7854

Zaterdag Volgende etappe richting Airlie Beach alwaar een driedaagse zeiltrip staat gepland over de azuurblauwe wateren rond de Whitsunday Islands met hun witte stranden. Slechts 280 kilometer voor de boeg vandaag, dat is dat een rustig dagje. Maar nee. Na 80 kilometer begint er een lampje te branden in Mr. Turbo die nog niet eerder had gebrand. Snel beraad van het boekje leert dat er iets niet in de haak is. Toch maar proberen door te rijden tot een tankstation, anders sta je daar tussen de suikerrietvelden... Maar daar kwam de trein met geoogst suikerriet, zoals er door deze streek zovelen rijden. Dus maar even stoppen. Stank. Meer stank. Rook. Meer rook. Van onder de motorkap? Ja. De auto maar even de berm in sturen en uit zetten dan. De motor kookt. Pofferdikkie. Motorkap open. De ... read more

I stayed in Guam for more than four good weeks. It was another business trip with my second company. I remember landing at the airport, which was overlooking the city and the sea. Guam is pretty much small that we were able to drive around the main island of Guam in about two hours! I liked it. It was small and sunny. I can say it has the best of both worlds. As my boss says, you live a life like you are in the Philippines due to similar weather and timezone, but you earn green money! My coworkers were mostly immigrants from the Philippines. They say they make up more than 50% of Guam's population. The second largest group are the natives themselves, the Chamorros. Imagine that?! The natives are outnumbered by us Filipinos?! My ... read more

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