I can't believe it, I started writing this Melbourne blog in my 7th week, then it was the 17th week and before I knew it I was hanging up my Aussie hat, leaving the country after a year of amazingness and I never did get around to finishing it.
Well here it is in its full glory AND if things couldn't get any better, i've had a little play on the new template designer and freshened up the design and everything! Wow.
Soooooo...17 weeks on and yes, Michelle and I were still in Melbourne, working like busy bees and storing away the honey money for the next chapter of the adventure which felt long overdue. Saving I find relatively easy, saving on Australia's minimum wage of $15 an hour was not so easy... especially when we found ourselves living in the 'suburb to be seen in' along with Danni Minogue, her new beau and baby.
When Tina and I first arrived in Melbourne (for the 2nd time) on April 15th our first port of call was getting a taxi to Dylan and Lynn's house in South Yarra. Dylan and Lynn are mates of Ants (my bro) who left London and made the move to Australia themselves in 2008. They put us up in their new place for 4 days when we made a flying visit in February and offered to house the homeless again if we needed it.
Not one to take an offer lightly it was only a matter of time before I was banging off a facebook message letting them know our flight details and asking for the spare key to be left under the back door! We just needed a place while we found our feet and sorted out new jobs and accommodation so we're very thankful to them for that and probably saved about $300 in hostel fees.
One key piece of advice i'd give to potential travelling buddies is make sure you have the same priorities because it just turns out (but we both knew this anyway) that Tina and I are equally 'ocd' obsessive and borderline freaks about writing lists, being productive and getting EVERYTHING sorted as fast as humanly possible. I'm not exaggerating when I say that by the end of day 1 we had set up a sort of temporary mobile office in D+L's sitting room. We had two laptops on the go, wireless internet being used to the maximum capacity, excel spreadsheets of house viewing times, job applications and phone numbers being created. In the corner of the room Tina sat with the Skype headset on calling endless agents and account managers looking like she was on a call centre marathon challenge.
It was fair to say that by the end of the day we felt we'd had a good stab at getting going on this new Melbourne phase....
By the end of the first week both Michelle and I had jobs, Tina had utilised her account managing experience to land an admin role in an office full of 40 somethings in the Southbank area and I started working at a restaurant in a boutiquey art hotel 10 minutes away called the The Cullen.
Through the powers of fate we also stumbled across the ultimate apartment, perfect in every way and complete with a pool and gym in the rooftop to help get rid of 4 months of backpacking stodge which i'm pleased to say worked a treat. The Wierd story behind the apartment is that it turned out we were moving into Lukes bedroom, Luke being the random Brit we met 4 months previously in New Zealand while doing the glacier hike! It was completely crazy that his boyfriend showed us around the place and we didn't even know it was his, some things are just meant to be.
Over the weeks we've been really strict on not going out too much, especially at the beginning to make sure we were on track with our targets but there have been certain things to tick off the list and add to our agenda which have made our time not only in the city, but in Victoria a fun and memorable one.
Over the weeks we got to know Gerald, our local Avis car hire rep, we even worked the Tina and Doxie magic by blagging the corporate rate for our trips! Dan (Tinas friend) came to visit from Sydney and we drove down the peninsular to the seaside town of Sorrento. This is a place that throbs with tourists in the summer months but had that slightly wind blown desolate feel to it when we went down. It was great driving through the wine regions and having the freedom with the car to go in search of random deserted light houses and look out points though.
A couple of weeks after that Tina and I went in search of a mini adventure yet again and stopped off at the infamous Ramsey Street otherwise known as Pin Oak close, it was soooo weird to be standing outside the houses I used to watch on tv after school in the 90's, especially when it's in Australia...on the other side of the world! After a pit stop there we drove on into The Dandendong Ranges, a scenic drive up into the mountains which look over the Victorian plains. It was a sunny day and worth the climb up to the top to look out at the view of our temporary home.
That day we also managed to fit in a lunch visit to an award winning pie shop as well as some tasty scones and cream in one of the villages on the way down which was completely done up in christmas decor to celebrate the 'Christmas in July' thing the Aussie's do during their winter.
One memorable moment from the day was when in typical Tina and Doxie style we actually managed to lose our hire
car. We were trying to be good and thought seeing as we'd driven up there we should stretch the legs and go for a walk. Unfortunately the sky had clouded over and spots of rain started appearing on the windscreen. We had our umbrellas with us so not to be discouraged I slipped off the uggs and put on the trainers in preparation for an hour of fresh air. We left the car at the tip of a small and VERY muddy walking trail and followed some battered old signs further and further into the forest into we got to the rather disappointing waterfall we'd been looking for, it was more of a muddy trickle.
Anyway, on the return leg the sky was losing light fast and we couldn't quite remember the exact way we'd come from so had to make a bit of an educated guess, which we must have gone wrong because when we reached the car park our car wasn't there! We had an initial 'freak out' and then agreed we must have arrived at a different car park and had to somehow find the first one.
I had horrible visions of having to sleep up in the mountains but after a couple of attempts a car stopped for the waving lunatics on the side of the road and pointed us in the right direction.
In our last month we upped the socialising another level and went out another two times, this time going to as many places as possible in the process. We managed 5 clubs in one night and it didn't cost us anything either because of my new Melbourne friend connections which we utilised to the max (one being a massive bouncer called Tiny who I made skinny lattes for!!)
Our trip to Oz also wouldn't have been complete without a trip to an AFL footie game which we enjoyed loads. We watched Calton vs Collingwood (known for their bogan/chav supporters) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and to my horror/delight we had the worst of the bunch sitting behind us, a real gross family with painted Collingwood flags on their faces constantly yelling pointless abuse at the Calton team.
It was particularly pointless abuse seeing as we were in the highest tier of seating and miles from earshot of the players.
Before we knew it we were into August and the weeks running away from us, a special mention has to go out to the restaurant Babble for giving us the best fillet steak of our lives during one of our treat meals out in Chapel Street. Babble itself is really cute, done up like the inside of a ski chalet with a log fire, stone walls and antler and candle chandeliers. For the hour and a half we were in there I forgot I was in Melbourne and almost expected to walk out onto the snowy streets of Switzerland.
That was our second to last weekend and now that I was working more evenings we'd managed to plan another day trip away at the weekend to Phillip Island, a little pocket of land south of Melbourne connected to the mainland by a bridge but more known for it's wildlife and environmental attractions.
Gerald at Avis had obviously thought he was doing us a favour by upgrading us two car sizes but it's fair to say Tina and I were both shocked and unhappy about being presented with a family sized 'dad type' saloon car for our 3rd and final trip.
This thing was a beast and neither of us wanted to be the first to drive it out of Melbourne! We got there fine though and enjoyed fish and chips on the promenade in Cowes and then cruising around the circumference of the Island in the sunshine.
We finished up the day by watching the very talented local surfers ride huge barrels as the sun set and then I somehow got lost on the drive home. Oh well, all fun and games.
The following weekend I gathered everyone i'd met in Melbourne together for a 'leaving party' night out and we went to an infamous St Kilda venue to watch some local Dj's called Dirty South play. It was good to finish my time in Melbs with a bang and seeing the group out together really reminded me how far we'd come in just 4 months of setting up a brand new existence in a brand new city.
Our last week was crazily hectic and there didn't seem to be enough time to do anything at all. Both of us were working right up until the day before we flew out of the country and any free time was filled with boring tasks like renewing insurance, tax rebate appointments, filling out forms and post office trips. Our last night in the apartment was a randomly great one though with two goodbye visits, one from Karl (good friend from work) and the other from Dylan and Lynn.
Alot of champagne and wine was consumed and the night turned into a bit of a blurry reminiscence of our time in Australia and included some nostalgic staring out across the night sky to the beautiful city scape from the balcony.
When the alarm woke us up at 6am with the traces of a headache to remind us of the night before there just wasn't time to deal with it. What followed was a frantic 3 hours of packing and cleaning before leaving for the airport. We were so rushed that there wasn't even time to eat the remaining 6 milos that sat on the fridge shelf waiting to be devoured...a real sign that things were manic. So before we knew it our keys were on the side waiting for their next owner and the front door closed for the last time.
......And then that was that, Melbourne was over.
Wednesday, 25 August 2010
Monday, 12 April 2010
Round Trip Road Trip
Our road trip to Cape Tribulation has been, well, a complete disaster! I think both Tina and I knew it was off to a bad start from the moment we left the hostel to pick up our rental car.
We woke up on this warm Saturday morning in Cairns full of the hope that the looming grey clouds that had been stationed above us for days would have cleared to reveal crystal clear blue skies and sunshine. Unfortunately, the thick blanket was still above us and there remained no sign of a break in the depressing weather.
Onwards and upwards though right?! We'd booked and paid for 48 hours with a car and pre-paid for 2 nights up in Cape Tribulation so the show must go on...
Or not.
The twats at 'All Car Rentals' obviously deemed us not worthy of the standard economy model so presented us with the biggest piece of s**t blue Nissan Micra i've ever seen. As Tina turned the key in the ignition it coughed and spluttered but then immediately died on us and this didn't fill us with hope for the onward journey. Even the dodgy owner couldn't get it started with all his tweaking under the bonnet so much to their disatisfaction we were given the keys to a better set of wheels. Not an upgrade I may add, just the car we should've had in the first place and not the crappy micra.
By this time the rain had become torrential and with wipers on full speed we trundled north out of Cairns in the direction of supposed paradise. I'd been looking forward to this trip to Cape Trib for about 10 months now so I have to
say my mood was particulary sour at this point. Infact I knew we'd hit a new low when we found ourselves in a McDonalds 15 minutes out of Cairns using their free wi-fi internet to 'pass the time'...oh dear.
You have to remember that where we were going is known for it's pristine white beaches, warm turquoise blue waters, spotless skies and vivid green jungle.... not the grey misty fog which is all we coud see. Livid is the word, livid.
Anyway, early afternoon we stopped at a little cafe for lunch (well a late breakfast actually and the BEST ((and only))eggs benedict we've ever had) and were warned that the creeks might be over flowing and to watch out for that, so dripping wet and with this new advice we hot footed it up to the Daintree ferry to make the crossing over the river to get to our accommodation as soon as possible.
Arriving at the ferry booth and being greeted by the spotty youth serving us remains seared in my mind as the ultimate nail on the coffin when he so helpfully informed us that Cow Bay Creek (the road north) was closed and there had been a massive mud slide so no-one could use the roads for at least a day. Bollocks.
I think it was at this moment that Tina and I just had to laugh because it couldn't have gone more wrong and things really were that bad. We'd paid for a car and accommodation we didn't even need and tears were close to being shed!
In desperation (and with the rain pelting harder and harder as darkness decended) we realised we were in a pretty bad situation with not only no mobile phones but no-where to sleep either. It was at this point we randomly ended up at a tiny cafe in the middle of no-where eating a homemade banana muffin and using their phone to call hostels for an unplanned bed that night.
Every cloud has a silver lining I guess so instead of dining on lobster in the 'garden of Cape Tribulation eden' we ended up in a tiny stop over called Port Douglas spending the evening drinking cheap wine and listening to a reggae band (who were actually so good we bought their CD).
I'm already working out how much it'll cost me to fly baCK here from Melbourne, hire a car again and have the experience we should've had this weekend....hmmmm alot. Damn!
----------------
It's now the evening of April 7th, and indeed the night before my first ever suicide attempt because tomorrow I will be throwing myself out of a plane 14,000ft in the sky and hurtling towards to ground and certain death at a mininum of 200km an hour.
Thankfully I'm limiting my chances of succeeding by having an ozzy dude strapped to my back and pulling the parachute chord. This paragraph will be highly distasteful if anything actually did happen so sorry about that.
We are currently staying at a really nice hostel in Mission Beach called Absolute Backpackers, it's fairly new on the circuit and has a great layout and vibe. Infact Mission Beach has a great vibe too, laid back and tropical, just like how I thought the whole East coast would be.
We escaped from the grimness that was Cairns yesterday by booking a coach back down south, the
reason for this is to hopefully have better weather than we did on the way up and finally do our skydive and Whitsunday Cruise. Luckily the sky is predicted to be blue tomorrow, hence the booked plunge.
In 2 days Tina and I are planning on taking a water taxi over to Dunk Island* to feel like we've actually had some contact with the barrier reef because we sure as hell don't yet! The taxi is $30 return and this morning when walking past the hostel noticeboard I read an invitation to win a trip for 2 to Dunk Island...perfect!!
*This never happened, we wanted coffee and cake instead ;)
The only thing between me and my prize was a paper aeroplane competition, the furthest flight winning. Not taking the challenge lightly Tina and I logged onto You Tube to find a video on how to make a good paper plane, this was followed by some eager practice throws (from me) and Tina looking sheepish and worrying that I was looking "too keen".
As 7pm rolled round I limbered up and made sure my launching arm was warmed up nicely, my competitive
hat was firmly on, the prize was ours for the taking. At first only 3 people were there to enter, Me, Tina and a random Swede so things were looking very much in our favour. But then, out of the blue, 2 boys and 5 other girls shuffled over to compete. Suddenly our chances of winning were somewhat diminished but I remained undetered as my 'Padi Concorde' (a streamlined jet made from a PADI diving brochure) had flown strong and far during my pre-testing.
Eventually the contest began and a number of different designs were put forward. When it came to me I raised the arm, tilted the plane's nose slightly down and with a deep winning breath launched my creation high into the air.......
"WHAT WAS THAT?!?!" I yelled. Unfortunately, my fickle aerodynamic jet decided to be highly UN-aerodynamic
for the main event and did a stunt twirl and crash virtually next to my feet. It goes to say, I, nor Tina, won and who did?
The bloody Germans, grrrrrrrrr.
Aside from the fun and games we've had our house hunting hats on and have been knee deep in Gumtree applications for somewhere to live in Melbourne. Our flight is booked out from Hamilton Island to Melbourne on the 13th and Ant's mates Dylan and Lynn have very kindly offered to put us up again while we find a cool, chic, trendy, city pad....we hope!
------------------------------
....WOW. wow. wooooooooow.
What an amazing past 5 days we've just had, although to be honest it seems alot longer. The clouds must have felt
bad for their behaviour over the last few weeks so finally decided to bugger off and allow us to re-kindle our romance with the sun and have (to be completely honest) the best five and final days of our East Coast travels we could have asked for.
The skydive in Mission Beach went perfectly to plan and will stand out as an unbeatable moment for ever. How can
you possibly beat the rush and excitement of launching yourself out of a little plane door into the sky?!?! That adrenaline buzz was something i've never had before and if you could bottle it and sell it on the streets i'd be a very rich girl.
Tina and I ended up being the last jumpers of the day and not only were we the only two paying customers in the plane, we got to go up and jump with all the instructors who were doing their 'fun' solo jumps of the day. Although I was initially worried about the sun's light being a bit weak for our DVD's it turned out perfectly and we ended up falling
through the sky as that dusky evening light began to take over from the blinding blue brightness of the day. The
poor cameraman doing my shots must've been feeling some pressure as he found out about my job and photography hobbie as well as me grilling him a little bit on his technique, styling and equipment!
With smiles still plastered on our faces the next day we took our last greyhound journey of the trip to Arlie Beach and had fingers, toes, legs, arms and ears crossed that the weather would hold up for our Whitsunday cruise. We knew it would make or break the tour and really felt it was time luck played along with us...
...and it couldn't have been more perfect. I'm not exageratting when I say there was not one single cloud in the whole
sky from the moment we left the marina on our boat Avatar to the moment we moored back into port.
Our skipper, a Kiwi called Neil, said that it was the best weather he'd had for the past 3 months and he wasn't wrong.
We got the stunning sunrise, sunset and stars that we bitterly missed out on in the desert and sucked in every single second of it. Shooting stars whizzed over our heads every few minutes and we could see the Milky Way VERY clearly, it was incredible!
The boat was great too, a huge 26 person trimaran with big nets to lounge about on and a host who provided a tasty
selection of treats to his passangers (Melbourne gyms here I bloody come!!!).
In between topping up the tan Neil took Avatar to some reefs so we could have a bit of a snorkel, unfortunately the
cyclone had left it's mark in the water and the visability was pretty poor but to be honest I was just happy to be out
amoungst the Whitsunday islands in the sun and water. Between November and May it is compulsory for anyone entering the water to wear a stinger suit, this prevents a nasty sting from the dreaded box jellyfish and certain death. The suits in question are pretty funny, tight blue stretchy all-in-one's and gave us some funny photo opportunities too :)
On day 2 we went to paradise. Definetely unquestionably paradise. Whitehaven beach must been the Whitsunday's most famous and photographed beach. The ice white sand is 98% silica, so pure that NASA paid the Australian government millions of dollars for 5 tonnes of the stuff to build the Hubble Telescope.
At low tide you can climb up to a lookout point which gives the picture postcard view you see on all the brochures and the combination of vivid greenery, white sand and turquiose sea is enough to take your breath away. Shallow white sandbars snake in and out of turquiose channels of pristine water to give this swirly painting effect on the beach and all you can hear is people exclaiming "Oh my god, look at that...".
Ok ok, enough of that basically if you're ever thinking of going...do :D
We woke up on this warm Saturday morning in Cairns full of the hope that the looming grey clouds that had been stationed above us for days would have cleared to reveal crystal clear blue skies and sunshine. Unfortunately, the thick blanket was still above us and there remained no sign of a break in the depressing weather.
Onwards and upwards though right?! We'd booked and paid for 48 hours with a car and pre-paid for 2 nights up in Cape Tribulation so the show must go on...
Or not.
The twats at 'All Car Rentals' obviously deemed us not worthy of the standard economy model so presented us with the biggest piece of s**t blue Nissan Micra i've ever seen. As Tina turned the key in the ignition it coughed and spluttered but then immediately died on us and this didn't fill us with hope for the onward journey. Even the dodgy owner couldn't get it started with all his tweaking under the bonnet so much to their disatisfaction we were given the keys to a better set of wheels. Not an upgrade I may add, just the car we should've had in the first place and not the crappy micra.
By this time the rain had become torrential and with wipers on full speed we trundled north out of Cairns in the direction of supposed paradise. I'd been looking forward to this trip to Cape Trib for about 10 months now so I have to
say my mood was particulary sour at this point. Infact I knew we'd hit a new low when we found ourselves in a McDonalds 15 minutes out of Cairns using their free wi-fi internet to 'pass the time'...oh dear.
You have to remember that where we were going is known for it's pristine white beaches, warm turquoise blue waters, spotless skies and vivid green jungle.... not the grey misty fog which is all we coud see. Livid is the word, livid.
Anyway, early afternoon we stopped at a little cafe for lunch (well a late breakfast actually and the BEST ((and only))eggs benedict we've ever had) and were warned that the creeks might be over flowing and to watch out for that, so dripping wet and with this new advice we hot footed it up to the Daintree ferry to make the crossing over the river to get to our accommodation as soon as possible.
Arriving at the ferry booth and being greeted by the spotty youth serving us remains seared in my mind as the ultimate nail on the coffin when he so helpfully informed us that Cow Bay Creek (the road north) was closed and there had been a massive mud slide so no-one could use the roads for at least a day. Bollocks.
I think it was at this moment that Tina and I just had to laugh because it couldn't have gone more wrong and things really were that bad. We'd paid for a car and accommodation we didn't even need and tears were close to being shed!
In desperation (and with the rain pelting harder and harder as darkness decended) we realised we were in a pretty bad situation with not only no mobile phones but no-where to sleep either. It was at this point we randomly ended up at a tiny cafe in the middle of no-where eating a homemade banana muffin and using their phone to call hostels for an unplanned bed that night.
Every cloud has a silver lining I guess so instead of dining on lobster in the 'garden of Cape Tribulation eden' we ended up in a tiny stop over called Port Douglas spending the evening drinking cheap wine and listening to a reggae band (who were actually so good we bought their CD).
I'm already working out how much it'll cost me to fly baCK here from Melbourne, hire a car again and have the experience we should've had this weekend....hmmmm alot. Damn!
----------------
It's now the evening of April 7th, and indeed the night before my first ever suicide attempt because tomorrow I will be throwing myself out of a plane 14,000ft in the sky and hurtling towards to ground and certain death at a mininum of 200km an hour.
Thankfully I'm limiting my chances of succeeding by having an ozzy dude strapped to my back and pulling the parachute chord. This paragraph will be highly distasteful if anything actually did happen so sorry about that.
We are currently staying at a really nice hostel in Mission Beach called Absolute Backpackers, it's fairly new on the circuit and has a great layout and vibe. Infact Mission Beach has a great vibe too, laid back and tropical, just like how I thought the whole East coast would be.
We escaped from the grimness that was Cairns yesterday by booking a coach back down south, the
reason for this is to hopefully have better weather than we did on the way up and finally do our skydive and Whitsunday Cruise. Luckily the sky is predicted to be blue tomorrow, hence the booked plunge.
In 2 days Tina and I are planning on taking a water taxi over to Dunk Island* to feel like we've actually had some contact with the barrier reef because we sure as hell don't yet! The taxi is $30 return and this morning when walking past the hostel noticeboard I read an invitation to win a trip for 2 to Dunk Island...perfect!!
*This never happened, we wanted coffee and cake instead ;)
The only thing between me and my prize was a paper aeroplane competition, the furthest flight winning. Not taking the challenge lightly Tina and I logged onto You Tube to find a video on how to make a good paper plane, this was followed by some eager practice throws (from me) and Tina looking sheepish and worrying that I was looking "too keen".
As 7pm rolled round I limbered up and made sure my launching arm was warmed up nicely, my competitive
hat was firmly on, the prize was ours for the taking. At first only 3 people were there to enter, Me, Tina and a random Swede so things were looking very much in our favour. But then, out of the blue, 2 boys and 5 other girls shuffled over to compete. Suddenly our chances of winning were somewhat diminished but I remained undetered as my 'Padi Concorde' (a streamlined jet made from a PADI diving brochure) had flown strong and far during my pre-testing.
Eventually the contest began and a number of different designs were put forward. When it came to me I raised the arm, tilted the plane's nose slightly down and with a deep winning breath launched my creation high into the air.......
"WHAT WAS THAT?!?!" I yelled. Unfortunately, my fickle aerodynamic jet decided to be highly UN-aerodynamic
for the main event and did a stunt twirl and crash virtually next to my feet. It goes to say, I, nor Tina, won and who did?
The bloody Germans, grrrrrrrrr.
Aside from the fun and games we've had our house hunting hats on and have been knee deep in Gumtree applications for somewhere to live in Melbourne. Our flight is booked out from Hamilton Island to Melbourne on the 13th and Ant's mates Dylan and Lynn have very kindly offered to put us up again while we find a cool, chic, trendy, city pad....we hope!
------------------------------
....WOW. wow. wooooooooow.
What an amazing past 5 days we've just had, although to be honest it seems alot longer. The clouds must have felt
bad for their behaviour over the last few weeks so finally decided to bugger off and allow us to re-kindle our romance with the sun and have (to be completely honest) the best five and final days of our East Coast travels we could have asked for.
The skydive in Mission Beach went perfectly to plan and will stand out as an unbeatable moment for ever. How can
you possibly beat the rush and excitement of launching yourself out of a little plane door into the sky?!?! That adrenaline buzz was something i've never had before and if you could bottle it and sell it on the streets i'd be a very rich girl.
Tina and I ended up being the last jumpers of the day and not only were we the only two paying customers in the plane, we got to go up and jump with all the instructors who were doing their 'fun' solo jumps of the day. Although I was initially worried about the sun's light being a bit weak for our DVD's it turned out perfectly and we ended up falling
through the sky as that dusky evening light began to take over from the blinding blue brightness of the day. The
poor cameraman doing my shots must've been feeling some pressure as he found out about my job and photography hobbie as well as me grilling him a little bit on his technique, styling and equipment!
With smiles still plastered on our faces the next day we took our last greyhound journey of the trip to Arlie Beach and had fingers, toes, legs, arms and ears crossed that the weather would hold up for our Whitsunday cruise. We knew it would make or break the tour and really felt it was time luck played along with us...
...and it couldn't have been more perfect. I'm not exageratting when I say there was not one single cloud in the whole
sky from the moment we left the marina on our boat Avatar to the moment we moored back into port.
Our skipper, a Kiwi called Neil, said that it was the best weather he'd had for the past 3 months and he wasn't wrong.
We got the stunning sunrise, sunset and stars that we bitterly missed out on in the desert and sucked in every single second of it. Shooting stars whizzed over our heads every few minutes and we could see the Milky Way VERY clearly, it was incredible!
The boat was great too, a huge 26 person trimaran with big nets to lounge about on and a host who provided a tasty
selection of treats to his passangers (Melbourne gyms here I bloody come!!!).
In between topping up the tan Neil took Avatar to some reefs so we could have a bit of a snorkel, unfortunately the
cyclone had left it's mark in the water and the visability was pretty poor but to be honest I was just happy to be out
amoungst the Whitsunday islands in the sun and water. Between November and May it is compulsory for anyone entering the water to wear a stinger suit, this prevents a nasty sting from the dreaded box jellyfish and certain death. The suits in question are pretty funny, tight blue stretchy all-in-one's and gave us some funny photo opportunities too :)
On day 2 we went to paradise. Definetely unquestionably paradise. Whitehaven beach must been the Whitsunday's most famous and photographed beach. The ice white sand is 98% silica, so pure that NASA paid the Australian government millions of dollars for 5 tonnes of the stuff to build the Hubble Telescope.
At low tide you can climb up to a lookout point which gives the picture postcard view you see on all the brochures and the combination of vivid greenery, white sand and turquiose sea is enough to take your breath away. Shallow white sandbars snake in and out of turquiose channels of pristine water to give this swirly painting effect on the beach and all you can hear is people exclaiming "Oh my god, look at that...".
Ok ok, enough of that basically if you're ever thinking of going...do :D
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
We Survived!
In true Tina and Doxie form it turned out that cyclone Uluri hit the Queensland coast the very exact day we were booked to visit Fraser Island! For those who don't know, Fraser Island is one of only 10 world heritage sites and classified as a 'tropical paradise'. Along with the Whitsundays it is deemed THE thing to do while travelling the East Coast of Oz and the millions of travel centres, brochures and sales reps that promote doing a trip there boast of the endless blue skies, diamond white sand and turquoise sea.
You can imagine our frustration then (and that is putting it VERY mildly) when we learnt that Uluri was heading for the coast just north of Fraser Island and the weather pattern it was bringing with it resembled something like an angry washing machine.
I have to mention at this point that I feel we were rather mislead by the irritatingly chirpy and rather slimy tour guide at the 4x4 base in Hervey Bay who assured us that not only would we be able to continue with our pre-planned itinerary of the island but that the bad weather would probably 'swing' right past us.
Now skip forward 48 hours and picture 8 grumpy girls bumping along the beach in a 4x4 at 6am, still half asleep and wearing an odd selection of pyjamas while the wind whistled through the axels and horizontal rain lashed against the windows. I can assure you, that at that moment, the weather had not swung past us.
However, not all was disastrous, even though we'd been the only group to miss our ferry boat to the island the day before (not a good start) and the weather was seriously trying to dampen the sprits of our once in a lifetime paradise trip, I think we did a great job of making the best of the situation.
There were 8 girls in the group which consisted of Tina and I, Jen, a friendly chatterbox from Newcastle, Jenna and Emma, two mates from Scotland and the 3 Germans. Two of them were pretty harmless but the third was a rather rotund individual with a penchant for taking more than her fair share of food, most annoying.
On day 2 the plan was to drive along the flat sand of Eastern Beach and up to Indian Head at the north of the island for breathtaking views and to bath in the Champagne Pools (natural rock formations). But alas, the crazy sea was spilling it's salt watery guts up virtually the whole width of the beach and we'd been warned that if the vehicle touched salt water a hefty $5000 fine would apply to the group. Hence Jen who was driving the beast, and I who was perched up front navigating, voted to get inland pronto and re-route the day.
To cut a long story just a bit shorter it was a long, long day with almost 10 hours of continuous driving and many obstacles to get past (including a full sized tree that had been uprooted and fallen across the track blocking our path). The weather cleared up a bit and the driving was an adventure but it wasn't the relaxing day we'd all had in mind! Timing the tides right we managed to get back onto the beach and drive up to a sand dune we could unload and camp behind for the night. We managed to set up camp and cook a meal before dark but I was absolutely gutted when for the millionth time was denied any form of sunset, just a cloudy sky :(
Another issue for Tina on the trip were the Dingoes, very much alive, active and wild. They are a cross between foxes, wolves and dogs and scavengers by nature. Tina who it'd be fair to say hates most animals was absolutely bricking herself every time there was a rustle in the dark. Can you believe that out of a group of 30 people in total only 2 people had brought a torch camping with them....TWO PEOPLE?!?! And that was me and Tina! What's wrong with people!?
Anyway, back to the dingoes, I was doing my best to reassure her and act very blasé about the possibility they could attack us at any moment when to prove my point of being safe I shone my torch into the inky black next to us only to meet the glowing eyes of a tooth bearing dingo about 5 meters from where we were sitting.
It is at this point I’d like to say I calmly stood up and shooed the animal away in a responsible manner but instead I sort of yelled 'DINGOOOOOOOO' into the night and everyone scrambled to their feet and ran with the shock.
I don't think Tina ever quite recovered.
We also developed a system we named the '360 degree wee' when having to use the 'non-existent' bathrooms in the night. It would involve one of us preparing the site while the other rotated around them with two torches flailing light beams in all directions dramatically as so to pre-empt any dingo or snake like animals creeping up on us while doing our business. I always ended up in hysterics as to me the torch light of the operation reminded me of the high strength light beams used at award ceremonies on the red carpet. I tended to narrate at the same time announcing something like 'Welcome to to 82nd Oscar Ceremony held here in LA......' maybe you had to be there lol.
Much to my delight, when I awoke at 3.30am on our second night in order to do a loo stop with Tina I looked up and couldn't believe it, the sky was crystal clear of any cloud and every single star was out in force. It was absolutely beautiful and that one moment, seeing the stars like that was all I needed to make the trip amazing. I didn't want to go back to sleep so sat up for 15 minutes just staring at them before passing out on the rock hard floor again. When I woke up in the morning the cloud was back and I wondered if it had been a very good dream. We got a bit of a sunrise which was nice but it was a shame that in the 4 mornings I’ve been up before 5am there hasn't been a clear sky to enjoy.
There was also an amusing incident at a little remote cafe in which Tina and I spotted a urn of hot water and thought it would be ok to take a couple of cups worth to use with our own teabags that we carry everywhere with us. Apparently NOT as when we began walking out of the door a real bloody jobsworth of a woman came over asking us just 'who did we think we were helping ourselves to things that aren’t ours' etc etc....IT WAS ONLY SOME HOT WATER FOR GODS SAKE!!! I should mention that not only was it 7am but the bad weather beach incident had just happened and everyone was somewhat pissed off. I told her I thought her tone was unnecessary (hahaha!) which much to my amusement wound her up some more. Because Tina and I are stubborn we resorted to paying the $1 EACH for the hot water and sipped our fruit teas with smug looks on our faces.
On day 3, our last, we managed to cram in all the bits we'd missed out on the previous day. We saw the famous ship wreck, a gorgeous natural spring creek, the stunning Lake Mackenzie and I thoroughly enjoyed driving the 4x4. As I sped through the forests it felt worryingly like I was in Jurassic Park and kept expecting a t-rex to jump out and rip the truck apart with it's teeth. I would've liked to have driven a bit more like a maniac but something told me the 7 other girls in the back wouldn't have enjoyed that as much as me.
Really randomly we also bumped into Ross and Jon, our buddies from New Zealand at the Lake on Fraser Island so there was much hugging, whooping and exchanged chat before having to split again. It turns out that Ross has been offered a 2 year contract with a dive school in Cairns to become a dive instructor (full training and accommodation provided!) as is going to take it with open arms. Looks like his family won't be seeing him for another few years then!!!! His new employer is apparently a 30 something guy with a 42ft catamaran boat and enjoys entertaining on it so we're praying to the gods we get a few days out on that!
So anyway, after a long and tiring 3 days the group returned back to base on the mainland looking like a selection of
beaten up war soldiers with all sort of ailments but good memories and a memory card full of photos.
--------------------
Then it was onwards and upwards to the town of 1770, a fairly recent addition to the backpacker map as far as I’m aware but this is what excited me about it, finally somewhere a little different, not too commercial. I believe everything happens for a reason and that day we bumped into Ross and Jon they warned us not to stay at Cool Bananas (the hostel we were booked to go to) but instead to stay at Southern Cross, and how right they were!
Southern Cross is gorgeous, so so soooooooooooooooooooo nice :) Every time I arrive somewhere like this I profess my love for it and start engaging the brain into plan mode, how can I stay here? when can I come back? Could we work here? When? How? Now! What made my eyes extra wide about 1770 is that it's awesome for kite surfing and there are kiters floating around with their boards and backpacks, I was in love.
Jen who is also on her way up the coast had tagged along with Tina and I which was perfect as we got to stay in our very own 3 person room with no strangers yay! There were to two rooms to each little wooden house dotted around the grounds and a pool, hammocks, camp fire etc to keep the travelling feel of the place alive. The houses also had large verandas out front so you could sit out and enjoy a beer while watching the sun set, or in our case, watch the mosquitoes rip us to shreds.
We had three days to kill in 1770 but it's gone really fast which is a good sign and has been the best stop yet. On day one I got to realise the life long dream of cruising down the highway on my very own chopper motorbike complete with a custom paint job of the American stars and stripes all over the bodywork, this was a good day.
The tour was called ScooterRoo and you basically rock up at this large shed where at least 100 awesome looking motorbikes, all hand painted with cool designs sit waiting for you, the highly inexperienced and over keen punter to jump on the seat and open that throttle to it's max to feel the wind in your hair and bugs in your teeth.
This dude's set up must make his insurance company cringe because to me, the idea of 40 backpackers (plus a few random German tourists) skidding to a nasty halt on the gravely tarmac seems like quite a realistic possibility but luckily it didn't happen to us!
Instead Tina, Jen and I sped along the highway on our choppers and flame-lined helmets feeling like stars on a film set while the sun set in front of us. When we'd finished cruising I asked the owner what the bikes were, where I could get one and how much they cost, I now know the answers and will be purchasing one, complete with stars and stripes on my return.
On day 2 the sun stayed out for us and Jen and I did a 3 hour surf lesson for a measly $17!! It was perfect, 20 mins of basic tuition by a brown wrinkly skinned, bleached blond haired surf dude. We both managed to stand up and ride a wave which was good fun but the strong current meant it was hard work and really bad for my back :/ (I'm paying the price today believe me).
Day 3 (today) has been super chilled, Jen left last night and Tina and I have enjoyed eating the BEST muffins ever made in the history of man. I've eaten alotttt of muffins but these are something else, seriously good!!!!
Now we're waiting to board the Greyhound night bus which will be a 14 hour long journey argh! I don't think we'd really thought about how long this was until 10 mins ago when eating our jacket potato, beans and cheese. That's more than a flight from London to LA...and half of London to Australia!....but Tina makes a good point, at least we save on one nights accommodation, a poxy $30 (which we'd happily spend on 6 white chocolate magnums anyway)
In summary it’s been a great few weeks but if I ever hear just one more Australian mention that this is the most uncharacteristically wet summer they've ever had again, I think I will rip the tongue from their mouth and send it in a little parcel to the Sahara where i'm sure it'll be nice and Sunny! :)
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Whoops, didn't get a chance to send the blog until now and now it's 4 days later than it was so had better mention the last few days because they've been so fun and defo worth a decent mention.
So we survived the night bus, it wasn't the 14 hours of hell that we thought it might be, it actually went pretty quickly
and we both managed to get some hours of zzzzzz as we trundled through the more non-descript towns of the east coast. There's something about being cooped up on a bus and travelling for hours that makes you buy crap, crap you don't even want but suddenly find yourself drawn to. An example being 'My god, I desperately need that horribly greasy chicken burger even though it's 7am and I don't even like chicken burgers'. Or in my case, 'I must have that 5th pack of skittles AND the M&M's'. To be honest, it's amazing I haven't been sectioned into a fat camp with the treats i've been buying but you only live once eh.
We pulled up into Townsville around 11.30am and jumped in a cab to take us to our residence for the next 3 nights, Orchid Lodge. As Tina and I surveyed the landscape of desolate retro architecture and abandoned shop facades whizzing in front of our eyes we realised that the Lonely Planet travel writer reviewing Townsville had clearly been on acid while accessing the area to see it in such a positive light and hastily cut short our pre planned 3 nights to 1.
It was a useful stop over though and the hostel was more like staying at your granny's house then a hostel. It came complete with free laundry facilities and the old ladies running it were very cute.
However, cute old ladies were not enough to stop us venturing over to Magnetic Island on the ferry the next day and we made the 8k cruise out of Townsville to our new home in Nelly Bay. Here we have been staying at Base hostel, a VERY cool place which is more like a resort than a backpackers. The huge wooden decking pumps out music across picnic tables of people eating and drinking while the sea laps at the foot of the door. The whole place backs right onto the beach complete with palm trees and a full moon glowing onto the water.
In our three days here Tina and I have really chilled out and explored the island by hiring the craziest little car from
'tropical topless rentals'! It looks just like a larger version of a barbie car complete with pink and white plastic decor and was a convertible of course. It was wicked to zip around the empty roads feeling like I was in a computer game.
Another perk was the fact that one of my prizes from the Australian visa bureau that I won for my blog was 3 nights free accommodation here at Base so I've been staying here for free and that's $100 saved!
It was funny because today I was walking round taking pictures and who should call my name from reception but Jen, she'd caught up with us here on the island which was cool and we've just had a nice dinner together so that's all good. She's been telling us about her trip in the Whitsundays which we're doing on the 10th and getting excited about but also thinking about our sky dive which is happening on the 7th at Mission Beach. I can't believe i'm going to be throwing myself out of a plane in 7 days, hope the parachute opens :/
Going to post this now before it gets any longer now, hope whatever you're doing and where ever you're doing it in
the world you're doing it well and having fun, laters! :)
You can imagine our frustration then (and that is putting it VERY mildly) when we learnt that Uluri was heading for the coast just north of Fraser Island and the weather pattern it was bringing with it resembled something like an angry washing machine.
I have to mention at this point that I feel we were rather mislead by the irritatingly chirpy and rather slimy tour guide at the 4x4 base in Hervey Bay who assured us that not only would we be able to continue with our pre-planned itinerary of the island but that the bad weather would probably 'swing' right past us.
Now skip forward 48 hours and picture 8 grumpy girls bumping along the beach in a 4x4 at 6am, still half asleep and wearing an odd selection of pyjamas while the wind whistled through the axels and horizontal rain lashed against the windows. I can assure you, that at that moment, the weather had not swung past us.
However, not all was disastrous, even though we'd been the only group to miss our ferry boat to the island the day before (not a good start) and the weather was seriously trying to dampen the sprits of our once in a lifetime paradise trip, I think we did a great job of making the best of the situation.
There were 8 girls in the group which consisted of Tina and I, Jen, a friendly chatterbox from Newcastle, Jenna and Emma, two mates from Scotland and the 3 Germans. Two of them were pretty harmless but the third was a rather rotund individual with a penchant for taking more than her fair share of food, most annoying.
On day 2 the plan was to drive along the flat sand of Eastern Beach and up to Indian Head at the north of the island for breathtaking views and to bath in the Champagne Pools (natural rock formations). But alas, the crazy sea was spilling it's salt watery guts up virtually the whole width of the beach and we'd been warned that if the vehicle touched salt water a hefty $5000 fine would apply to the group. Hence Jen who was driving the beast, and I who was perched up front navigating, voted to get inland pronto and re-route the day.
To cut a long story just a bit shorter it was a long, long day with almost 10 hours of continuous driving and many obstacles to get past (including a full sized tree that had been uprooted and fallen across the track blocking our path). The weather cleared up a bit and the driving was an adventure but it wasn't the relaxing day we'd all had in mind! Timing the tides right we managed to get back onto the beach and drive up to a sand dune we could unload and camp behind for the night. We managed to set up camp and cook a meal before dark but I was absolutely gutted when for the millionth time was denied any form of sunset, just a cloudy sky :(
Another issue for Tina on the trip were the Dingoes, very much alive, active and wild. They are a cross between foxes, wolves and dogs and scavengers by nature. Tina who it'd be fair to say hates most animals was absolutely bricking herself every time there was a rustle in the dark. Can you believe that out of a group of 30 people in total only 2 people had brought a torch camping with them....TWO PEOPLE?!?! And that was me and Tina! What's wrong with people!?
Anyway, back to the dingoes, I was doing my best to reassure her and act very blasé about the possibility they could attack us at any moment when to prove my point of being safe I shone my torch into the inky black next to us only to meet the glowing eyes of a tooth bearing dingo about 5 meters from where we were sitting.
It is at this point I’d like to say I calmly stood up and shooed the animal away in a responsible manner but instead I sort of yelled 'DINGOOOOOOOO' into the night and everyone scrambled to their feet and ran with the shock.
I don't think Tina ever quite recovered.
We also developed a system we named the '360 degree wee' when having to use the 'non-existent' bathrooms in the night. It would involve one of us preparing the site while the other rotated around them with two torches flailing light beams in all directions dramatically as so to pre-empt any dingo or snake like animals creeping up on us while doing our business. I always ended up in hysterics as to me the torch light of the operation reminded me of the high strength light beams used at award ceremonies on the red carpet. I tended to narrate at the same time announcing something like 'Welcome to to 82nd Oscar Ceremony held here in LA......' maybe you had to be there lol.
Much to my delight, when I awoke at 3.30am on our second night in order to do a loo stop with Tina I looked up and couldn't believe it, the sky was crystal clear of any cloud and every single star was out in force. It was absolutely beautiful and that one moment, seeing the stars like that was all I needed to make the trip amazing. I didn't want to go back to sleep so sat up for 15 minutes just staring at them before passing out on the rock hard floor again. When I woke up in the morning the cloud was back and I wondered if it had been a very good dream. We got a bit of a sunrise which was nice but it was a shame that in the 4 mornings I’ve been up before 5am there hasn't been a clear sky to enjoy.
There was also an amusing incident at a little remote cafe in which Tina and I spotted a urn of hot water and thought it would be ok to take a couple of cups worth to use with our own teabags that we carry everywhere with us. Apparently NOT as when we began walking out of the door a real bloody jobsworth of a woman came over asking us just 'who did we think we were helping ourselves to things that aren’t ours' etc etc....IT WAS ONLY SOME HOT WATER FOR GODS SAKE!!! I should mention that not only was it 7am but the bad weather beach incident had just happened and everyone was somewhat pissed off. I told her I thought her tone was unnecessary (hahaha!) which much to my amusement wound her up some more. Because Tina and I are stubborn we resorted to paying the $1 EACH for the hot water and sipped our fruit teas with smug looks on our faces.
On day 3, our last, we managed to cram in all the bits we'd missed out on the previous day. We saw the famous ship wreck, a gorgeous natural spring creek, the stunning Lake Mackenzie and I thoroughly enjoyed driving the 4x4. As I sped through the forests it felt worryingly like I was in Jurassic Park and kept expecting a t-rex to jump out and rip the truck apart with it's teeth. I would've liked to have driven a bit more like a maniac but something told me the 7 other girls in the back wouldn't have enjoyed that as much as me.
Really randomly we also bumped into Ross and Jon, our buddies from New Zealand at the Lake on Fraser Island so there was much hugging, whooping and exchanged chat before having to split again. It turns out that Ross has been offered a 2 year contract with a dive school in Cairns to become a dive instructor (full training and accommodation provided!) as is going to take it with open arms. Looks like his family won't be seeing him for another few years then!!!! His new employer is apparently a 30 something guy with a 42ft catamaran boat and enjoys entertaining on it so we're praying to the gods we get a few days out on that!
So anyway, after a long and tiring 3 days the group returned back to base on the mainland looking like a selection of
beaten up war soldiers with all sort of ailments but good memories and a memory card full of photos.
--------------------
Then it was onwards and upwards to the town of 1770, a fairly recent addition to the backpacker map as far as I’m aware but this is what excited me about it, finally somewhere a little different, not too commercial. I believe everything happens for a reason and that day we bumped into Ross and Jon they warned us not to stay at Cool Bananas (the hostel we were booked to go to) but instead to stay at Southern Cross, and how right they were!
Southern Cross is gorgeous, so so soooooooooooooooooooo nice :) Every time I arrive somewhere like this I profess my love for it and start engaging the brain into plan mode, how can I stay here? when can I come back? Could we work here? When? How? Now! What made my eyes extra wide about 1770 is that it's awesome for kite surfing and there are kiters floating around with their boards and backpacks, I was in love.
Jen who is also on her way up the coast had tagged along with Tina and I which was perfect as we got to stay in our very own 3 person room with no strangers yay! There were to two rooms to each little wooden house dotted around the grounds and a pool, hammocks, camp fire etc to keep the travelling feel of the place alive. The houses also had large verandas out front so you could sit out and enjoy a beer while watching the sun set, or in our case, watch the mosquitoes rip us to shreds.
We had three days to kill in 1770 but it's gone really fast which is a good sign and has been the best stop yet. On day one I got to realise the life long dream of cruising down the highway on my very own chopper motorbike complete with a custom paint job of the American stars and stripes all over the bodywork, this was a good day.
The tour was called ScooterRoo and you basically rock up at this large shed where at least 100 awesome looking motorbikes, all hand painted with cool designs sit waiting for you, the highly inexperienced and over keen punter to jump on the seat and open that throttle to it's max to feel the wind in your hair and bugs in your teeth.
This dude's set up must make his insurance company cringe because to me, the idea of 40 backpackers (plus a few random German tourists) skidding to a nasty halt on the gravely tarmac seems like quite a realistic possibility but luckily it didn't happen to us!
Instead Tina, Jen and I sped along the highway on our choppers and flame-lined helmets feeling like stars on a film set while the sun set in front of us. When we'd finished cruising I asked the owner what the bikes were, where I could get one and how much they cost, I now know the answers and will be purchasing one, complete with stars and stripes on my return.
On day 2 the sun stayed out for us and Jen and I did a 3 hour surf lesson for a measly $17!! It was perfect, 20 mins of basic tuition by a brown wrinkly skinned, bleached blond haired surf dude. We both managed to stand up and ride a wave which was good fun but the strong current meant it was hard work and really bad for my back :/ (I'm paying the price today believe me).
Day 3 (today) has been super chilled, Jen left last night and Tina and I have enjoyed eating the BEST muffins ever made in the history of man. I've eaten alotttt of muffins but these are something else, seriously good!!!!
Now we're waiting to board the Greyhound night bus which will be a 14 hour long journey argh! I don't think we'd really thought about how long this was until 10 mins ago when eating our jacket potato, beans and cheese. That's more than a flight from London to LA...and half of London to Australia!....but Tina makes a good point, at least we save on one nights accommodation, a poxy $30 (which we'd happily spend on 6 white chocolate magnums anyway)
In summary it’s been a great few weeks but if I ever hear just one more Australian mention that this is the most uncharacteristically wet summer they've ever had again, I think I will rip the tongue from their mouth and send it in a little parcel to the Sahara where i'm sure it'll be nice and Sunny! :)
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Whoops, didn't get a chance to send the blog until now and now it's 4 days later than it was so had better mention the last few days because they've been so fun and defo worth a decent mention.
So we survived the night bus, it wasn't the 14 hours of hell that we thought it might be, it actually went pretty quickly
and we both managed to get some hours of zzzzzz as we trundled through the more non-descript towns of the east coast. There's something about being cooped up on a bus and travelling for hours that makes you buy crap, crap you don't even want but suddenly find yourself drawn to. An example being 'My god, I desperately need that horribly greasy chicken burger even though it's 7am and I don't even like chicken burgers'. Or in my case, 'I must have that 5th pack of skittles AND the M&M's'. To be honest, it's amazing I haven't been sectioned into a fat camp with the treats i've been buying but you only live once eh.
We pulled up into Townsville around 11.30am and jumped in a cab to take us to our residence for the next 3 nights, Orchid Lodge. As Tina and I surveyed the landscape of desolate retro architecture and abandoned shop facades whizzing in front of our eyes we realised that the Lonely Planet travel writer reviewing Townsville had clearly been on acid while accessing the area to see it in such a positive light and hastily cut short our pre planned 3 nights to 1.
It was a useful stop over though and the hostel was more like staying at your granny's house then a hostel. It came complete with free laundry facilities and the old ladies running it were very cute.
However, cute old ladies were not enough to stop us venturing over to Magnetic Island on the ferry the next day and we made the 8k cruise out of Townsville to our new home in Nelly Bay. Here we have been staying at Base hostel, a VERY cool place which is more like a resort than a backpackers. The huge wooden decking pumps out music across picnic tables of people eating and drinking while the sea laps at the foot of the door. The whole place backs right onto the beach complete with palm trees and a full moon glowing onto the water.
In our three days here Tina and I have really chilled out and explored the island by hiring the craziest little car from
'tropical topless rentals'! It looks just like a larger version of a barbie car complete with pink and white plastic decor and was a convertible of course. It was wicked to zip around the empty roads feeling like I was in a computer game.
Another perk was the fact that one of my prizes from the Australian visa bureau that I won for my blog was 3 nights free accommodation here at Base so I've been staying here for free and that's $100 saved!
It was funny because today I was walking round taking pictures and who should call my name from reception but Jen, she'd caught up with us here on the island which was cool and we've just had a nice dinner together so that's all good. She's been telling us about her trip in the Whitsundays which we're doing on the 10th and getting excited about but also thinking about our sky dive which is happening on the 7th at Mission Beach. I can't believe i'm going to be throwing myself out of a plane in 7 days, hope the parachute opens :/
Going to post this now before it gets any longer now, hope whatever you're doing and where ever you're doing it in
the world you're doing it well and having fun, laters! :)
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
A Big Wash Out
I'm knackered!
We've been constantly on the move for what seems like an eternity, it's time for some rest and relaxation. New Zealand was hectic and the last 4 weeks back in Australia haven't been slow paced either.
Unfortunately our 4 days in the desert were, not ruined, but...well, kinda ruined by the weather. I have
to say I was really excited about going to the Red Centre, seeing Uluru at sunrise and sunset and especially camping under the stars. But just like everywhere else i've been on this journey there has been some crazy highly unusual weather pattern affecting the area which no-one has ever seen before and it sucks.
Alice Springs (where we were staying) saw more rain in one day than they usually have in a whole YEAR, and it's been raining 8 days flat. It was only the day we left that the sun began to shine and clouds part...if i think about it too much i'll cry!
So yeah, the tour was fun but we didn't get the experience I wanted, especially gutted about not seeing one star the
whole time. Maybe a millionaire will helicopter me back for a sunset dinner there in the future, that'd be good.
However, what we did do was fun and Tina and I were in hysterics most of the time, probably from the early starts and lack of sleep. On day 1 we were picked up at 6am and began a 5 hour drive out towards Kings Canyon, it was actually quite pleasant to have some cloud cover and cooler temperatures as the walk from one side to the other was 3 hours and would've been a struggle in 40 degree heat. I went to see the doctor in Adelaide and was diagnosed with inflammation of the knee cartilage (which is why it's been hurting to walk all the time) so bought one of those tubigrip supports and hoped that would help, instead it just made me look like the weakest link of the group as I hobbled over the rocks in a disabled fashion.
That evening we arrived at our camp site (a patch of dust with a dangerously unstable looking rain shelter) and set up camp. The rain held off long enough to have dinner round the camp fire which was fun but it promptly started up again as we rolled out our 'waterproof' swags and climbed inside. I probably shouldn't have looked but wanted to make sure I wasn't sharing my swag with any uninvited guests so got the torch out to dig around down in the bottom. To my delight I pulled out a dead cockroach and let out a piercing scream of joy that echoed around the desert.
Another issue was the 'bathroom' situation. Tina and I are a really, really bad influence on each other and if one of us goes, so does the other, and because we'd had a few beers before bed that night we ended up having a bit of a midnight adventure trip to the 'dunny', a wooden shack with a hole in the floor. We were flashing our little torches around looking for spiders and scared snakes would bite our behinds so it must have been a funny sight for anyone watching us from the camp!!
On day 2 we entered the Aires Rock national park and spent some time walking around the area (still bandaged up like a granny). We were supposed to witness the stunningly beautiful red rock at sunset but all we got was a gradual transition from light cloud to dark cloud and the memory of Tina and I yet again sneaking off behind the bushes with the loo roll.
Day 3 was a 4.30am start in order to see the stunningly beautiful rock sunrise but again all we got was a dark cloud to light cloud transition, whoop-de-doo.
After leaving Alice Springs we flew to Brisbane for 4 days which turned out (as we suspected) to be expensive and too long, it's an ok city but we were only hanging about to see what it was like at the weekend anyway. We spent our time just walking around the city, going to the cinema and craaaaving to be back on a beach!
Seeing as Brisbane is a river city and not a sea city the Brisbane council built a fake beach on the South Bank of the
river which was quite nice but no supplement. It was weird walking over the South Bank bridge, looking around I
noticed their white 'city eye' big wheel, the metal suspension bridges over the river, the gross brown river water, the ominous dark grey sky and heavy rain drops landing on my rain jacket...'hang on?!' I thought....am I back in London?!
Those last few days in Brisbane i'd been making the effort to talk to a French girl who had been staying in our room, she didn't speak much english which must have been fairly scary for her so seeing as i'm working on my French it was good practice to try and help out.
The gesture obviously paid off as when she saw me queuing up for the computers she offered me use of her unlimited free internet on her laptop! It took a few minutes to understand what she was talking about but we got there in the end lol.
From Brisbane we cruised down to Byron Bay via an over night stop in Surfers. It was so weird to be back when I wasn't sure i'd ever see it again and was bombarded by flash backs from my time there before Christmas. Amanda came to pick Tina and I up as which was awesome, so good to see her again and then we did the obvious...drove straight to Max Brenner for a chocolate brownie! We also squeezed in a drive down to Kirra where a Quiksilver surf competition was on, had dinner at one of my old favourite cafes and popped into build a bear to check out the new stock.
We arrived into Byron late into the evening but checked into the most amazing hostel ever, 100% the best so far and i'd put money on it being unbeatable. It was a guest house with a distinctly Caribbean feel to it, white washed wooden verandas overlooking tropical plants and palm trees swaying in the breeze. There were surfboards and paintings of tropical paradise's hanging from the tall ceilings and a general air of casual luxury about the place.
Staying at 'The Atlantic' made the 4 days we spent there pass fast in a blur of beach, beer and live music. The rooms were only 3 beds which was great, however it turned out we were sharing with a fairly elderly lady who fast became nicknamed witch number 2.
She wasn't as awful witch 1 from New Zealand but we had a few rounds of 'Fan Wars' during our time together. Tina has developed a bit of an obsession with the ceiling fans and if you don't want the fan on the same speed as her during the night then god help you.
Every night this lady would go to bed with the fan off...then we would creep in after hours and whack that bad boy up to 3 which was promptly followed by an awakening from The Witch, a stomping motion over to the button and an adjustment to speed 1.
It's at this point we had to tread really carefully as were feigning sleep but slowly and surely we'd reach over and twizzle (twizzle - surely a word that's not used enough?) the knob up to speed 2.
Sometimes we'd win and other times there would be vocal confrontation but there you have the essence of Fan Wars.
Other events cropping up include my frustrating and disastrous trip to the Chiropractor. To cut a very long story
short my body hates me at the moment and i'm in pain, a lot of it at the moment. Seeking immediate relief I booked in and paid $100 for 2 sessions with what I was told was a Chiropractor. It said Chiropractor on the door and I was happy with that. HOWEVER. After lying down on the table and being led through a series of breathing exercises it dawned on me that this was no normal click-you-into-place chiro but some f**king positive spine and wave force of life energy healer. THIS DID NOT MAKE ME HAPPY. So the outcome of that was that I may have well as burnt that $100 and i'm still in pain.
So now we're up in Noosa, when we were in Byron Bay we met a guy called Luke, a Californian surfer pilot who we starting hanging out with him for a while. A lot of people are in the 20-22 age bracket so it was cool to hang out with someone a bit older at 33. He even ended up driving us to Noosa from Byron so we could keep him company as he was travelling alone lol!
I hear there's a tropical cyclone on it's way too which is annoying, a grade 4 at the moment which'll bring more rain and storms. The problem with the East Coast is that your daily choices are go to the beach, or go to the beach and rain does not fit well into that equation :/...........
We've been constantly on the move for what seems like an eternity, it's time for some rest and relaxation. New Zealand was hectic and the last 4 weeks back in Australia haven't been slow paced either.
Unfortunately our 4 days in the desert were, not ruined, but...well, kinda ruined by the weather. I have
to say I was really excited about going to the Red Centre, seeing Uluru at sunrise and sunset and especially camping under the stars. But just like everywhere else i've been on this journey there has been some crazy highly unusual weather pattern affecting the area which no-one has ever seen before and it sucks.
Alice Springs (where we were staying) saw more rain in one day than they usually have in a whole YEAR, and it's been raining 8 days flat. It was only the day we left that the sun began to shine and clouds part...if i think about it too much i'll cry!
So yeah, the tour was fun but we didn't get the experience I wanted, especially gutted about not seeing one star the
whole time. Maybe a millionaire will helicopter me back for a sunset dinner there in the future, that'd be good.
However, what we did do was fun and Tina and I were in hysterics most of the time, probably from the early starts and lack of sleep. On day 1 we were picked up at 6am and began a 5 hour drive out towards Kings Canyon, it was actually quite pleasant to have some cloud cover and cooler temperatures as the walk from one side to the other was 3 hours and would've been a struggle in 40 degree heat. I went to see the doctor in Adelaide and was diagnosed with inflammation of the knee cartilage (which is why it's been hurting to walk all the time) so bought one of those tubigrip supports and hoped that would help, instead it just made me look like the weakest link of the group as I hobbled over the rocks in a disabled fashion.
That evening we arrived at our camp site (a patch of dust with a dangerously unstable looking rain shelter) and set up camp. The rain held off long enough to have dinner round the camp fire which was fun but it promptly started up again as we rolled out our 'waterproof' swags and climbed inside. I probably shouldn't have looked but wanted to make sure I wasn't sharing my swag with any uninvited guests so got the torch out to dig around down in the bottom. To my delight I pulled out a dead cockroach and let out a piercing scream of joy that echoed around the desert.
Another issue was the 'bathroom' situation. Tina and I are a really, really bad influence on each other and if one of us goes, so does the other, and because we'd had a few beers before bed that night we ended up having a bit of a midnight adventure trip to the 'dunny', a wooden shack with a hole in the floor. We were flashing our little torches around looking for spiders and scared snakes would bite our behinds so it must have been a funny sight for anyone watching us from the camp!!
On day 2 we entered the Aires Rock national park and spent some time walking around the area (still bandaged up like a granny). We were supposed to witness the stunningly beautiful red rock at sunset but all we got was a gradual transition from light cloud to dark cloud and the memory of Tina and I yet again sneaking off behind the bushes with the loo roll.
Day 3 was a 4.30am start in order to see the stunningly beautiful rock sunrise but again all we got was a dark cloud to light cloud transition, whoop-de-doo.
After leaving Alice Springs we flew to Brisbane for 4 days which turned out (as we suspected) to be expensive and too long, it's an ok city but we were only hanging about to see what it was like at the weekend anyway. We spent our time just walking around the city, going to the cinema and craaaaving to be back on a beach!
Seeing as Brisbane is a river city and not a sea city the Brisbane council built a fake beach on the South Bank of the
river which was quite nice but no supplement. It was weird walking over the South Bank bridge, looking around I
noticed their white 'city eye' big wheel, the metal suspension bridges over the river, the gross brown river water, the ominous dark grey sky and heavy rain drops landing on my rain jacket...'hang on?!' I thought....am I back in London?!
Those last few days in Brisbane i'd been making the effort to talk to a French girl who had been staying in our room, she didn't speak much english which must have been fairly scary for her so seeing as i'm working on my French it was good practice to try and help out.
The gesture obviously paid off as when she saw me queuing up for the computers she offered me use of her unlimited free internet on her laptop! It took a few minutes to understand what she was talking about but we got there in the end lol.
From Brisbane we cruised down to Byron Bay via an over night stop in Surfers. It was so weird to be back when I wasn't sure i'd ever see it again and was bombarded by flash backs from my time there before Christmas. Amanda came to pick Tina and I up as which was awesome, so good to see her again and then we did the obvious...drove straight to Max Brenner for a chocolate brownie! We also squeezed in a drive down to Kirra where a Quiksilver surf competition was on, had dinner at one of my old favourite cafes and popped into build a bear to check out the new stock.
We arrived into Byron late into the evening but checked into the most amazing hostel ever, 100% the best so far and i'd put money on it being unbeatable. It was a guest house with a distinctly Caribbean feel to it, white washed wooden verandas overlooking tropical plants and palm trees swaying in the breeze. There were surfboards and paintings of tropical paradise's hanging from the tall ceilings and a general air of casual luxury about the place.
Staying at 'The Atlantic' made the 4 days we spent there pass fast in a blur of beach, beer and live music. The rooms were only 3 beds which was great, however it turned out we were sharing with a fairly elderly lady who fast became nicknamed witch number 2.
She wasn't as awful witch 1 from New Zealand but we had a few rounds of 'Fan Wars' during our time together. Tina has developed a bit of an obsession with the ceiling fans and if you don't want the fan on the same speed as her during the night then god help you.
Every night this lady would go to bed with the fan off...then we would creep in after hours and whack that bad boy up to 3 which was promptly followed by an awakening from The Witch, a stomping motion over to the button and an adjustment to speed 1.
It's at this point we had to tread really carefully as were feigning sleep but slowly and surely we'd reach over and twizzle (twizzle - surely a word that's not used enough?) the knob up to speed 2.
Sometimes we'd win and other times there would be vocal confrontation but there you have the essence of Fan Wars.
Other events cropping up include my frustrating and disastrous trip to the Chiropractor. To cut a very long story
short my body hates me at the moment and i'm in pain, a lot of it at the moment. Seeking immediate relief I booked in and paid $100 for 2 sessions with what I was told was a Chiropractor. It said Chiropractor on the door and I was happy with that. HOWEVER. After lying down on the table and being led through a series of breathing exercises it dawned on me that this was no normal click-you-into-place chiro but some f**king positive spine and wave force of life energy healer. THIS DID NOT MAKE ME HAPPY. So the outcome of that was that I may have well as burnt that $100 and i'm still in pain.
So now we're up in Noosa, when we were in Byron Bay we met a guy called Luke, a Californian surfer pilot who we starting hanging out with him for a while. A lot of people are in the 20-22 age bracket so it was cool to hang out with someone a bit older at 33. He even ended up driving us to Noosa from Byron so we could keep him company as he was travelling alone lol!
I hear there's a tropical cyclone on it's way too which is annoying, a grade 4 at the moment which'll bring more rain and storms. The problem with the East Coast is that your daily choices are go to the beach, or go to the beach and rain does not fit well into that equation :/...........
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
A Home Away From Home
Right really going to keep this brief...
We were both excited and apprehensive about meeting Melbourne as it's where we're planning to live and work for 2+ months and wanted to love it. The good news is, we do.
A lot of people have raved on about how great it is, really cultural, young and trendy so we had high hopes but it really is as good as the recommendations. A cross between London and Brighton, street art adorning every brick wall and tiny cafes, bars and clubs poking out of holes in back alleys. We're very excited to be heading back there, defo my favourite Australian city.
On day 1 we caught a tram into the CBD and followed the Lonely Planet's recommended walking guide to get to know the streets fast, it was a cool tour and took us past everything we needed to see to get a feel for the place. We'd only just got started when we promptly stopped again and enjoyed and very cosmopolitan lunch of risotto and wine while sitting at a little cafe table under the shade of a big canvas umbrella.
After our walk we made time for a quick fondue from Max Brenner and then got comfy in our Imax seats for Avatar 3D which was absolutely, unbelievably, incredibly amazing. A life changing experience really, just astounding. Especially as Melbourne has the 3rd biggest screen in the world :)
We ended up walking over 7 miles on day 2 because we wanted to check out St Kilda and all the funky suburbs we might want to live in. St Kilda had a fun beachy vibe to it and the huge palms reminded me of America which made me a bit travel sick for LA.
It was really windy so I got a great unexpected surprise when I spotted a kite hovering in the air a mile or so away.
I sat bolt upright staring at the horizon and then noticed a whole sky full of kite colour WOOHOO! I walked down to the harbour and went straight up to a guy to ask him about the wind seasons and kite community which is apparently thriving so have made the decision to get my stuff sent down to Melbourne for when i'm there, don't know how yet but can't wait!
On our last day we walked another 7 miles into a different district (also uber-cool) to check that out and ended up treating ourselves to another cosmo lunch, oops! We loved our 3 days in Melbourne and packed our bags happy in the knowledge we are heading back in a month or two.
The last 3 days we've been travelling from Melbourne over to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road on the Groovy Grape
tour bus lol! It's been really fun, Tina and I are the only English on the mini bus which seems quite rare but it's taken
us past some awesome views including my highlight, sunset at the 12 Apostles. The Apostles are a coastal rock formation formed by sea and wind erosion but they don't sound so mystical like that so we'll leave it as The Apostles.
The day before yesterday we drove up into the Grampian mountains and saw koalas just chilling in their natural habitat which was so cool and nice to see, i'm not sure i'd fancy going to a zoo again after that. In the evening we stayed at little cabins surrounded by bush so as dusk fell loads of kangaroos started appearing out from the trees and coming right up to us where we were having a bbq! It was one of those 'wow, i'm really in Australia moments'.
Our final day took us on a hike up into Hollow Mountain which sounds a bit like a Disneyland ride but was actually some dramatic sandstone mountains we got to scramble up to reach the summit, amazing views and worth the effort for sure.
Then we had a quick pit stop for a picnic lunch and hit the road for the remaining 5 hour drive to Adelaide. We arrived quite late, too late to do anything yet had that agitated 'been stuck on a bus' feeling so I managed to persuade Tina to go on a jog around the town before bed, not sure how that happened!
So now we're in Adelaide and we're off to explore the town, we've chosen a good time to come as the Fringe Festival is currently on and the area seems to be buzzing more than usual.
Next stop is Alice Springs and the desert, hope I don't get bitten by a scorpian...or snake...or spider....or...........
We were both excited and apprehensive about meeting Melbourne as it's where we're planning to live and work for 2+ months and wanted to love it. The good news is, we do.
A lot of people have raved on about how great it is, really cultural, young and trendy so we had high hopes but it really is as good as the recommendations. A cross between London and Brighton, street art adorning every brick wall and tiny cafes, bars and clubs poking out of holes in back alleys. We're very excited to be heading back there, defo my favourite Australian city.
On day 1 we caught a tram into the CBD and followed the Lonely Planet's recommended walking guide to get to know the streets fast, it was a cool tour and took us past everything we needed to see to get a feel for the place. We'd only just got started when we promptly stopped again and enjoyed and very cosmopolitan lunch of risotto and wine while sitting at a little cafe table under the shade of a big canvas umbrella.
After our walk we made time for a quick fondue from Max Brenner and then got comfy in our Imax seats for Avatar 3D which was absolutely, unbelievably, incredibly amazing. A life changing experience really, just astounding. Especially as Melbourne has the 3rd biggest screen in the world :)
We ended up walking over 7 miles on day 2 because we wanted to check out St Kilda and all the funky suburbs we might want to live in. St Kilda had a fun beachy vibe to it and the huge palms reminded me of America which made me a bit travel sick for LA.
It was really windy so I got a great unexpected surprise when I spotted a kite hovering in the air a mile or so away.
I sat bolt upright staring at the horizon and then noticed a whole sky full of kite colour WOOHOO! I walked down to the harbour and went straight up to a guy to ask him about the wind seasons and kite community which is apparently thriving so have made the decision to get my stuff sent down to Melbourne for when i'm there, don't know how yet but can't wait!
On our last day we walked another 7 miles into a different district (also uber-cool) to check that out and ended up treating ourselves to another cosmo lunch, oops! We loved our 3 days in Melbourne and packed our bags happy in the knowledge we are heading back in a month or two.
The last 3 days we've been travelling from Melbourne over to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road on the Groovy Grape
tour bus lol! It's been really fun, Tina and I are the only English on the mini bus which seems quite rare but it's taken
us past some awesome views including my highlight, sunset at the 12 Apostles. The Apostles are a coastal rock formation formed by sea and wind erosion but they don't sound so mystical like that so we'll leave it as The Apostles.
The day before yesterday we drove up into the Grampian mountains and saw koalas just chilling in their natural habitat which was so cool and nice to see, i'm not sure i'd fancy going to a zoo again after that. In the evening we stayed at little cabins surrounded by bush so as dusk fell loads of kangaroos started appearing out from the trees and coming right up to us where we were having a bbq! It was one of those 'wow, i'm really in Australia moments'.
Our final day took us on a hike up into Hollow Mountain which sounds a bit like a Disneyland ride but was actually some dramatic sandstone mountains we got to scramble up to reach the summit, amazing views and worth the effort for sure.
Then we had a quick pit stop for a picnic lunch and hit the road for the remaining 5 hour drive to Adelaide. We arrived quite late, too late to do anything yet had that agitated 'been stuck on a bus' feeling so I managed to persuade Tina to go on a jog around the town before bed, not sure how that happened!
So now we're in Adelaide and we're off to explore the town, we've chosen a good time to come as the Fringe Festival is currently on and the area seems to be buzzing more than usual.
Next stop is Alice Springs and the desert, hope I don't get bitten by a scorpian...or snake...or spider....or...........
A Home Away From Home
Right really going to keep this brief...
We were both excited and apprehensive about meeting Melbourne as it's where we're planning to live and work for 2+ months and wanted to love it. The good news is, we do.
A lot of people have raved on about how great it is, really cultural, young and trendy so we had high hopes but it really is as good as the recommendations. A cross between London and Brighton, street art adorning every brick wall and tiny cafes, bars and clubs poking out of holes in back alleys. We're very excited to be heading back there, defo my favourite Australian city.
On day 1 we caught a tram into the CBD and followed the Lonely Planet's recommended walking guide to get to know the streets fast, it was a cool tour and took us past everything we needed to see to get a feel for the place. We'd only just got started when we promptly stopped again and enjoyed and very cosmopolitan lunch of risotto and wine while sitting at a little cafe table under the shade of a big canvas umbrella.
After our walk we made time for a quick fondue from Max Brenner and then got comfy in our Imax seats for Avatar 3D which was absolutely, unbelievably, incredibly amazing. A life changing experience really, just astounding. Especially as Melbourne has the 3rd biggest screen in the world :)
We ended up walking over 7 miles on day 2 because we wanted to check out St Kilda and all the funky suburbs we might want to live in. St Kilda had a fun beachy vibe to it and the huge palms reminded me of America which made me a bit travel sick for LA.
It was really windy so I got a great unexpected surprise when I spotted a kite hovering in the air a mile or so away.
I sat bolt upright staring at the horizon and then noticed a whole sky full of kite colour WOOHOO! I walked down to the harbour and went straight up to a guy to ask him about the wind seasons and kite community which is apparently thriving so have made the decision to get my stuff sent down to Melbourne for when i'm there, don't know how yet but can't wait!
On our last day we walked another 7 miles into a different district (also uber-cool) to check that out and ended up treating ourselves to another cosmo lunch, oops! We loved our 3 days in Melbourne and packed our bags happy in the knowledge we are heading back in a month or two.
The last 3 days we've been travelling from Melbourne over to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road on the Groovy Grape
tour bus lol! It's been really fun, Tina and I are the only English on the mini bus which seems quite rare but it's taken
us past some awesome views including my highlight, sunset at the 12 Apostles. The Apostles are a coastal rock formation formed by sea and wind erosion but they don't sound so mystical like that so we'll leave it as The Apostles.
The day before yesterday we drove up into the Grampian mountains and saw koalas just chilling in their natural habitat which was so cool and nice to see, i'm not sure i'd fancy going to a zoo again after that. In the evening we stayed at little cabins surrounded by bush so as dusk fell loads of kangaroos started appearing out from the trees and coming right up to us where we were having a bbq! It was one of those 'wow, i'm really in Australia moments'.
Our final day took us on a hike up into Hollow Mountain which sounds a bit like a Disneyland ride but was actually some dramatic sandstone mountains we got to scramble up to reach the summit, amazing views and worth the effort for sure.
Then we had a quick pit stop for a picnic lunch and hit the road for the remaining 5 hour drive to Adelaide. We arrived quite late, too late to do anything yet had that agitated 'been stuck on a bus' feeling so I managed to persuade Tina to go on a jog around the town before bed, not sure how that happened!
So now we're in Adelaide and we're off to explore the town, we've chosen a good time to come as the Fringe Festival is currently on and the area seems to be buzzing more than usual.
Next stop is Alice Springs and the desert, hope I don't get bitten by a scorpian...or snake...or spider....or...........
We were both excited and apprehensive about meeting Melbourne as it's where we're planning to live and work for 2+ months and wanted to love it. The good news is, we do.
A lot of people have raved on about how great it is, really cultural, young and trendy so we had high hopes but it really is as good as the recommendations. A cross between London and Brighton, street art adorning every brick wall and tiny cafes, bars and clubs poking out of holes in back alleys. We're very excited to be heading back there, defo my favourite Australian city.
On day 1 we caught a tram into the CBD and followed the Lonely Planet's recommended walking guide to get to know the streets fast, it was a cool tour and took us past everything we needed to see to get a feel for the place. We'd only just got started when we promptly stopped again and enjoyed and very cosmopolitan lunch of risotto and wine while sitting at a little cafe table under the shade of a big canvas umbrella.
After our walk we made time for a quick fondue from Max Brenner and then got comfy in our Imax seats for Avatar 3D which was absolutely, unbelievably, incredibly amazing. A life changing experience really, just astounding. Especially as Melbourne has the 3rd biggest screen in the world :)
We ended up walking over 7 miles on day 2 because we wanted to check out St Kilda and all the funky suburbs we might want to live in. St Kilda had a fun beachy vibe to it and the huge palms reminded me of America which made me a bit travel sick for LA.
It was really windy so I got a great unexpected surprise when I spotted a kite hovering in the air a mile or so away.
I sat bolt upright staring at the horizon and then noticed a whole sky full of kite colour WOOHOO! I walked down to the harbour and went straight up to a guy to ask him about the wind seasons and kite community which is apparently thriving so have made the decision to get my stuff sent down to Melbourne for when i'm there, don't know how yet but can't wait!
On our last day we walked another 7 miles into a different district (also uber-cool) to check that out and ended up treating ourselves to another cosmo lunch, oops! We loved our 3 days in Melbourne and packed our bags happy in the knowledge we are heading back in a month or two.
The last 3 days we've been travelling from Melbourne over to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road on the Groovy Grape
tour bus lol! It's been really fun, Tina and I are the only English on the mini bus which seems quite rare but it's taken
us past some awesome views including my highlight, sunset at the 12 Apostles. The Apostles are a coastal rock formation formed by sea and wind erosion but they don't sound so mystical like that so we'll leave it as The Apostles.
The day before yesterday we drove up into the Grampian mountains and saw koalas just chilling in their natural habitat which was so cool and nice to see, i'm not sure i'd fancy going to a zoo again after that. In the evening we stayed at little cabins surrounded by bush so as dusk fell loads of kangaroos started appearing out from the trees and coming right up to us where we were having a bbq! It was one of those 'wow, i'm really in Australia moments'.
Our final day took us on a hike up into Hollow Mountain which sounds a bit like a Disneyland ride but was actually some dramatic sandstone mountains we got to scramble up to reach the summit, amazing views and worth the effort for sure.
Then we had a quick pit stop for a picnic lunch and hit the road for the remaining 5 hour drive to Adelaide. We arrived quite late, too late to do anything yet had that agitated 'been stuck on a bus' feeling so I managed to persuade Tina to go on a jog around the town before bed, not sure how that happened!
So now we're in Adelaide and we're off to explore the town, we've chosen a good time to come as the Fringe Festival is currently on and the area seems to be buzzing more than usual.
Next stop is Alice Springs and the desert, hope I don't get bitten by a scorpian...or snake...or spider....or...........
Until Next Time New Zealand...
Helloooooooooooo,
How's it going? All ok in the uk? Any more snow at all? I'm sort of pining for some cold weather myself actually, I can't remember the last time I was cold and sleeping, eating and walking in the heat 24hrs a day is getting slightly unpleasant at times. Then again I bet if i was cold i'd wish for the opposite.
I've got wayyyy behind with the blog again so am trying at every moment to get it up to date but then we end up doing something else and it's a horrible never ending cycle of news stretching ahead of me!
We're now back in Australia and have been for a week, first to Melbourne and then onto the 'Groovy Grape' bus to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road. It was weird flying back into Oz, almost like returning home in way which was nice, but again, odd. The last 6 weeks seem to have come and gone slightly too quickly, a time warp of memories trapped back over in New Zealand. It's unbelievable to think that I had no plans to visit there when I left the UK...although I think perhaps the intention was always there.
So back to Queenstown, NZ...during our 5 days there (which we loved!) we spent a lot of time chilling out and treating ourselves to ice-creams and other goodies. For some reason Tina and I have a habit of turning the most simple task, one i'm sure many would accomplish in an hour by referring to the Lonely Planet, into an all day marathon which sucks all energy and brain power from us. The example here being our search for a hostel that had reasonable priced twin rooms that we could book out for our return to Queenstown on the 10th. We wanted to get away from the dorms for a couple of nights seeing as it was my birthday on the 11th and thought the upgrade would be justified.
Anyway, after 3 to 4 hours of traipsing around every single hostel in town and exhausting all possible options we decided on The Black Sheep (one of the first ones we saw) and booked ourselves in.
We tried to go out a couple of times during our first visit to Queenstown but it didn't really work out as there were really only two bars that got busy and they were catering solely for the backpacker crowd. I know that technically we are backpackers but there's only so many 18-22yr olds dancing around to chart music in togas I can take and i'd like to think I left them back at Bournemouth Uni!
There were a couple of cute wine bars (for us old biddies) but they were dead, we think they were the type that
would fill up with good looking kiwi snowboarder types in the winter season so made a note to go back to those next time we're over.
It was great to really chill out there and feel like we were holidaying, on one afternoon the gods answered our prayers by putting a dj from one of the bars down on the promenade. He played a mixture of house and reggae music as the sun moved across the sky and behind the mountains. Generally it stayed really hot right until the last dregs of sunlight were gone so one night after a particularly nice spaghetti bolognaise Tina and I went down to sit by the lake and watch an amazing sunset, I even went in for a solo swim which turned out to be a bit of an emotional experience! The water was cold and refreshing but out in the middle of nowhere with only the sound of silence around me and flecks of gold and orange reflecting onto my face it felt pretty close to perfection.
On our last night we met up with a friend we'd made called Davie who turned out to be the nicest guy in New Zealand, we sat by the lake and he told us stories of the crazy things he and his mates get up to and then preceded to give us a big chunk of green stone (jade). He said it was a gift and being obviously touched by the gesture, said we would do our best to get a bit carved off to keep.
Tina and I left Queenstown on the 4th of Feb and joined onto the 'Bottom Bus' which takes us round the bottom on New Zealand starting in Dunedin. We then travelled through the Catlins wildlife area for an overnight stay in Invercargill and then up to Te Anau which is the gateway to Milford Sound and all the Fiord land areas.
Our first stop was Dunedin, a fairly small historic town with a student based population (this is where one of the 6 uni's in NZ is based). It wasn't very busy there as most of the students were still away on holidays but after being on the empty west coast for the last couple of weeks even this small increase in people seemed a bit intimidating and quickened the blood pressure...i'm not quite sure how i'll ever deal with London again!
There wasn't loads to do there but we were staying in the nicest hostel yet called Hogwartz which had a loose Harry Potter theme floating throughout the rooms. It was an old bishops house that had been converted and had a big black door to the broom cupboard with Gringotts painted on the front as well as 'Dobbys room' which was the laundry lol. There was also a cool mezzanine level for reading with beanbags and couches which felt a bit like being up in a hidden tree house...I like mezzanine levels because I like tree houses..I think i'm going to build one into my future house.
I met a guy in the hostel kitchen who told me there were Bikram yoga classes in town for only $10 and seeing as my body feels so unexercised and polluted with bakery goods at the moment I jumped at the chance to join him and get a work out in. Bikram yoga is conducted in a sauna type room in 38 degree heat, you run through a series of 30 different stretches and it's pretty challenging but i've done it before in London. The thing is...i don't think he knew what he was in for and when we got there the teacher said 'once you start the class you are NOT allowed to leave, the door is sealed' (you know these yoga types!).
So there we are in class with legs and arms contorted in weird positions and all water leaving my body when he goes white and has to lie down. The teacher wouldn't let him leave so the poor guy had to suffer on his back for the full 90 mins without trying to be sick lol, i told him it would be hard!
I also went to the local art gallery and really enjoyed an exhibition by an American photographer as well as spending another day on the beach in the strong NZ sun which burnt Tina and I pretty badly :(!
After 3 days we were ready to leave Dunedin and headed south through the beautiful Catlins area which is not only another stunningly beautiful piece of NZ but is home to a whole bunch of Antarctic type wildlife such as yellow eyed penguins, fur seals, sea lions and hector dolphins.
The bottom bus (which is only mini bus sized not the usual 50 seater monster bus) stopped at 'nugget point', a coastal point with a scenic lighthouse that Abel Tasman named after seeing the rocks underneath the cliff face glinting in the sun like gold nuggets. After a brief walk and yet more photos we parked up by the beach and got to walk right up to a sea lion who was just marinating on the beach. He looked kinda sleepy but as usual there was some cocky geek who wanted a close up photo and pissed the sea lion off by sticking a lens in his face so he reared up and starting grunting in a scary way, I think the guy nearly wet himself it was so funny.
Throughout the day we saw all the above wildlife in their natural habitat which was much more satisfying than any zoo and made me want to plan a trip to the arctic to start a seal rescue expedition or something!
Our driver Mike was hilarious, really, really dry humour, totally deadpan in tone and had a likeable geekness just like Alan Partridge. He made the journey pretty funny and informed us that our next stop was Invercargill, and I quote, 'the arsehole of the world'.
After our nights stay there we joined onto the southern scenic route to Te Anau stopping off at a green stone factory along the way. We managed to get the carver to examine Davie's 'green stone' to be told it wasn't green stone but the good intention was there so we bought a tiny piece of real jade and agreed we'd make it into a necklace when back in Queenstown for my birthday.
Te Anau was quaint but really only exists as a stopover for tourists heading to Milford Sound which we were indeed doing. We sat on the shingle beach for a bit, climbed a tree, all the usual things really. The next day we piled onto yet another coach and headed to Milford for a cruise around the area. There had been a lot of build up about it, everyone saying it's the 8th wonder of the world etc and yes, it was very beautiful...but...I feel i've seen other views that i've personally found more breathtaking in NZ. The drive there was spectacular in itself, defo worth doing but they need to lay off the hype a bit.
That evening we finished our loop on the bottom bus and headed back to Queenstown as that was where we were spending the 11th, my birthday!
It was so nice to return to a familiar place, there's so much change going on that some familiarity is comforting in a strange way. We had decided to push the boat out and upgrade for my birthday nights into a twin room, ooooooo exciting lol.
Our plans immediately began to unravel when reception told us they'd made a cock up with the bookings and that we might need to stay in a 'sealed off' dorm. What they didn't realise is that this was Tina and Doxie they were talking to and we wern't going to put up with that, not when we'd been looking forward to having this private room for weeks!
They palmed us off with a free beer for a while and then the manager not only upgraded us into a 'deluxe double' for the 2 nights, we got it at a reduced rate, BONUS!
You'd have thought we'd one the lottery or something but when Tina and I opened the door and saw a posh big king sized bed with thick squishy mattress and comfy bedding we thought we'd died and gone to heaven and started dancing around the room.
The good times kept rolling that evening as when walking along the beach we spotted a crazy little device motoring across the harbour towards us. It looked like a home made barge, a large floating square of wood, welded metal and oil barrels.
On the barge were people sitting on 3 old sofas and beanbags, a wood burner, bbq, sound system blaring out reggae and lots of little fairy lights wound round posts. It was the coolest thing i'd ever seen in my life and I wanted to be on it. As it happened we were on our way to meet Davie, our extremely cool new kiwi buddy and when we got talking he asked us whether we wanted to go hang on, you guessed it, his mate's home made barge!!!
All the plans we'd made for my birthday fell into place too and on the morning of the 11th we woke up in our amazing deluxe room and then headed out to town to buy the picnic lunch. It was the perfect weather to accompany our quiches and avocado salads which we washed down with a cold beer and then in the afternoon we headed up to the bead shop to put together our NZ necklaces, complete with the real green stone!
That evening we met up with Davie who bought us some cocktail teapots to celebrate and then took us to a tiny hidden gem of a club called Tardis which was playing reggae music to all the locals. The best bit of the night was when Davie jumped on the mic and started mc-ing, he was SO amazing and it was just an unbeatable spontaneous night.
We only got to bed at 5am and had to be up at 7am so it was fair to say we were shattered on the bus up to Christchurch the next day. It was a scenic drive but we only arrived into the city at 6am so didn't really have any time to explore it although it was better than what I was expecting. We bought the most amazing curry and went to bed early as had another horrible 6am start the next day.
The next and second to last stop was Kaikoura which was a fairly cute little seaside strip of shops, it's main tourist attraction being the dolphin and whale watching you can do in the area. We went on a really nice afternoon walk there but didn't have the nicest experience with our room mate which was a horrible old witch of a woman from Canada, really snooty and bloody weird to be honest. She insisted on having all the windows open so the room was freezing and then INSISTED on keeping the curtains open all night or I shall quote, "it'll feel like i'm in a prison".
After an emergency discussion meeting between Tina and I in the toilets we decided to stand our ground, she might have been 70 years old but we didn't care, there's always room for manners! When we returned to the room we closed our windows and curtains and ignored her tutting and protests from the corner.
At 6am, and no, i'm not joking Tina was woken up by the old bag hovering over her bed and drawing back the curtains with an almighty swish. What a freak!
So anyway, that was pretty much it for NZ, we had a 3am start (!) and flew out of Wellington and into Melbourne (via Sydney which was not fun in our sleep deprived state) on Monday the 15th.
I'm going to do a separate entry for the next bit otherwise it all gets a bit much. I try to keep it all quite minimal but
somehow they all end up like essays, sorry!...
How's it going? All ok in the uk? Any more snow at all? I'm sort of pining for some cold weather myself actually, I can't remember the last time I was cold and sleeping, eating and walking in the heat 24hrs a day is getting slightly unpleasant at times. Then again I bet if i was cold i'd wish for the opposite.
I've got wayyyy behind with the blog again so am trying at every moment to get it up to date but then we end up doing something else and it's a horrible never ending cycle of news stretching ahead of me!
We're now back in Australia and have been for a week, first to Melbourne and then onto the 'Groovy Grape' bus to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road. It was weird flying back into Oz, almost like returning home in way which was nice, but again, odd. The last 6 weeks seem to have come and gone slightly too quickly, a time warp of memories trapped back over in New Zealand. It's unbelievable to think that I had no plans to visit there when I left the UK...although I think perhaps the intention was always there.
So back to Queenstown, NZ...during our 5 days there (which we loved!) we spent a lot of time chilling out and treating ourselves to ice-creams and other goodies. For some reason Tina and I have a habit of turning the most simple task, one i'm sure many would accomplish in an hour by referring to the Lonely Planet, into an all day marathon which sucks all energy and brain power from us. The example here being our search for a hostel that had reasonable priced twin rooms that we could book out for our return to Queenstown on the 10th. We wanted to get away from the dorms for a couple of nights seeing as it was my birthday on the 11th and thought the upgrade would be justified.
Anyway, after 3 to 4 hours of traipsing around every single hostel in town and exhausting all possible options we decided on The Black Sheep (one of the first ones we saw) and booked ourselves in.
We tried to go out a couple of times during our first visit to Queenstown but it didn't really work out as there were really only two bars that got busy and they were catering solely for the backpacker crowd. I know that technically we are backpackers but there's only so many 18-22yr olds dancing around to chart music in togas I can take and i'd like to think I left them back at Bournemouth Uni!
There were a couple of cute wine bars (for us old biddies) but they were dead, we think they were the type that
would fill up with good looking kiwi snowboarder types in the winter season so made a note to go back to those next time we're over.
It was great to really chill out there and feel like we were holidaying, on one afternoon the gods answered our prayers by putting a dj from one of the bars down on the promenade. He played a mixture of house and reggae music as the sun moved across the sky and behind the mountains. Generally it stayed really hot right until the last dregs of sunlight were gone so one night after a particularly nice spaghetti bolognaise Tina and I went down to sit by the lake and watch an amazing sunset, I even went in for a solo swim which turned out to be a bit of an emotional experience! The water was cold and refreshing but out in the middle of nowhere with only the sound of silence around me and flecks of gold and orange reflecting onto my face it felt pretty close to perfection.
On our last night we met up with a friend we'd made called Davie who turned out to be the nicest guy in New Zealand, we sat by the lake and he told us stories of the crazy things he and his mates get up to and then preceded to give us a big chunk of green stone (jade). He said it was a gift and being obviously touched by the gesture, said we would do our best to get a bit carved off to keep.
Tina and I left Queenstown on the 4th of Feb and joined onto the 'Bottom Bus' which takes us round the bottom on New Zealand starting in Dunedin. We then travelled through the Catlins wildlife area for an overnight stay in Invercargill and then up to Te Anau which is the gateway to Milford Sound and all the Fiord land areas.
Our first stop was Dunedin, a fairly small historic town with a student based population (this is where one of the 6 uni's in NZ is based). It wasn't very busy there as most of the students were still away on holidays but after being on the empty west coast for the last couple of weeks even this small increase in people seemed a bit intimidating and quickened the blood pressure...i'm not quite sure how i'll ever deal with London again!
There wasn't loads to do there but we were staying in the nicest hostel yet called Hogwartz which had a loose Harry Potter theme floating throughout the rooms. It was an old bishops house that had been converted and had a big black door to the broom cupboard with Gringotts painted on the front as well as 'Dobbys room' which was the laundry lol. There was also a cool mezzanine level for reading with beanbags and couches which felt a bit like being up in a hidden tree house...I like mezzanine levels because I like tree houses..I think i'm going to build one into my future house.
I met a guy in the hostel kitchen who told me there were Bikram yoga classes in town for only $10 and seeing as my body feels so unexercised and polluted with bakery goods at the moment I jumped at the chance to join him and get a work out in. Bikram yoga is conducted in a sauna type room in 38 degree heat, you run through a series of 30 different stretches and it's pretty challenging but i've done it before in London. The thing is...i don't think he knew what he was in for and when we got there the teacher said 'once you start the class you are NOT allowed to leave, the door is sealed' (you know these yoga types!).
So there we are in class with legs and arms contorted in weird positions and all water leaving my body when he goes white and has to lie down. The teacher wouldn't let him leave so the poor guy had to suffer on his back for the full 90 mins without trying to be sick lol, i told him it would be hard!
I also went to the local art gallery and really enjoyed an exhibition by an American photographer as well as spending another day on the beach in the strong NZ sun which burnt Tina and I pretty badly :(!
After 3 days we were ready to leave Dunedin and headed south through the beautiful Catlins area which is not only another stunningly beautiful piece of NZ but is home to a whole bunch of Antarctic type wildlife such as yellow eyed penguins, fur seals, sea lions and hector dolphins.
The bottom bus (which is only mini bus sized not the usual 50 seater monster bus) stopped at 'nugget point', a coastal point with a scenic lighthouse that Abel Tasman named after seeing the rocks underneath the cliff face glinting in the sun like gold nuggets. After a brief walk and yet more photos we parked up by the beach and got to walk right up to a sea lion who was just marinating on the beach. He looked kinda sleepy but as usual there was some cocky geek who wanted a close up photo and pissed the sea lion off by sticking a lens in his face so he reared up and starting grunting in a scary way, I think the guy nearly wet himself it was so funny.
Throughout the day we saw all the above wildlife in their natural habitat which was much more satisfying than any zoo and made me want to plan a trip to the arctic to start a seal rescue expedition or something!
Our driver Mike was hilarious, really, really dry humour, totally deadpan in tone and had a likeable geekness just like Alan Partridge. He made the journey pretty funny and informed us that our next stop was Invercargill, and I quote, 'the arsehole of the world'.
After our nights stay there we joined onto the southern scenic route to Te Anau stopping off at a green stone factory along the way. We managed to get the carver to examine Davie's 'green stone' to be told it wasn't green stone but the good intention was there so we bought a tiny piece of real jade and agreed we'd make it into a necklace when back in Queenstown for my birthday.
Te Anau was quaint but really only exists as a stopover for tourists heading to Milford Sound which we were indeed doing. We sat on the shingle beach for a bit, climbed a tree, all the usual things really. The next day we piled onto yet another coach and headed to Milford for a cruise around the area. There had been a lot of build up about it, everyone saying it's the 8th wonder of the world etc and yes, it was very beautiful...but...I feel i've seen other views that i've personally found more breathtaking in NZ. The drive there was spectacular in itself, defo worth doing but they need to lay off the hype a bit.
That evening we finished our loop on the bottom bus and headed back to Queenstown as that was where we were spending the 11th, my birthday!
It was so nice to return to a familiar place, there's so much change going on that some familiarity is comforting in a strange way. We had decided to push the boat out and upgrade for my birthday nights into a twin room, ooooooo exciting lol.
Our plans immediately began to unravel when reception told us they'd made a cock up with the bookings and that we might need to stay in a 'sealed off' dorm. What they didn't realise is that this was Tina and Doxie they were talking to and we wern't going to put up with that, not when we'd been looking forward to having this private room for weeks!
They palmed us off with a free beer for a while and then the manager not only upgraded us into a 'deluxe double' for the 2 nights, we got it at a reduced rate, BONUS!
You'd have thought we'd one the lottery or something but when Tina and I opened the door and saw a posh big king sized bed with thick squishy mattress and comfy bedding we thought we'd died and gone to heaven and started dancing around the room.
The good times kept rolling that evening as when walking along the beach we spotted a crazy little device motoring across the harbour towards us. It looked like a home made barge, a large floating square of wood, welded metal and oil barrels.
On the barge were people sitting on 3 old sofas and beanbags, a wood burner, bbq, sound system blaring out reggae and lots of little fairy lights wound round posts. It was the coolest thing i'd ever seen in my life and I wanted to be on it. As it happened we were on our way to meet Davie, our extremely cool new kiwi buddy and when we got talking he asked us whether we wanted to go hang on, you guessed it, his mate's home made barge!!!
All the plans we'd made for my birthday fell into place too and on the morning of the 11th we woke up in our amazing deluxe room and then headed out to town to buy the picnic lunch. It was the perfect weather to accompany our quiches and avocado salads which we washed down with a cold beer and then in the afternoon we headed up to the bead shop to put together our NZ necklaces, complete with the real green stone!
That evening we met up with Davie who bought us some cocktail teapots to celebrate and then took us to a tiny hidden gem of a club called Tardis which was playing reggae music to all the locals. The best bit of the night was when Davie jumped on the mic and started mc-ing, he was SO amazing and it was just an unbeatable spontaneous night.
We only got to bed at 5am and had to be up at 7am so it was fair to say we were shattered on the bus up to Christchurch the next day. It was a scenic drive but we only arrived into the city at 6am so didn't really have any time to explore it although it was better than what I was expecting. We bought the most amazing curry and went to bed early as had another horrible 6am start the next day.
The next and second to last stop was Kaikoura which was a fairly cute little seaside strip of shops, it's main tourist attraction being the dolphin and whale watching you can do in the area. We went on a really nice afternoon walk there but didn't have the nicest experience with our room mate which was a horrible old witch of a woman from Canada, really snooty and bloody weird to be honest. She insisted on having all the windows open so the room was freezing and then INSISTED on keeping the curtains open all night or I shall quote, "it'll feel like i'm in a prison".
After an emergency discussion meeting between Tina and I in the toilets we decided to stand our ground, she might have been 70 years old but we didn't care, there's always room for manners! When we returned to the room we closed our windows and curtains and ignored her tutting and protests from the corner.
At 6am, and no, i'm not joking Tina was woken up by the old bag hovering over her bed and drawing back the curtains with an almighty swish. What a freak!
So anyway, that was pretty much it for NZ, we had a 3am start (!) and flew out of Wellington and into Melbourne (via Sydney which was not fun in our sleep deprived state) on Monday the 15th.
I'm going to do a separate entry for the next bit otherwise it all gets a bit much. I try to keep it all quite minimal but
somehow they all end up like essays, sorry!...
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