Ah, the last of Oz

The last few pictures of Oz include a croc (we saw a few) and an altered road sign - Banksy in Oz? After this, we went to the Great Barrier Reef and went snorkeling and scuba diving. We saw black tipped reef sharks, sting rays and lots of coral and fish. It was amazing but no underwater pictures just yet, they are waiting to be developed. The Great Barrier Reef was our final stop in Oz and then it was on to Fiji.

Surfers Paradise and nearby....

Well although Surfers Paradise was a little like Magaluf (bit disappointing and not very Oz) there were still some beautiful areas nearby, such as Coolongatta and Burleigh Heads. The first photo is of a free beach party that is held every Sunday with fire throwers and live music. Unlike the UK there is no charge to attend and no health and safety officers. Everyone just sits around and enjoys a few drinks - lovely. The last photo is of a sun down where we sat and watched the sufers until it was pitch black. Two mad surfers were still out there when we left (after dark). Ah, the lovely east coast....

Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island.....

More Fraser Island pictures....

Rainbow Beach & Fraser Island

This is Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island, East coast of Australia. In the first photo, you may be able to see a white campervan going over some terrain - this is what we navigated in our 4WD. It was a bit scary but a good laugh. Fraser Island is one of the only places where Dingos are isolated enough to breed and keep their numbers up. The last photo is of a camp site we stayed at (Rainbow Beach). We had a lodge by the pool which was cheap but sort of luxourious! Lovely!

Byron Bay

Byron Bay - Backpapers central. They say it has 5000 residents and 5000 backpapers, this could be true. It has a reputation as being very 'hippy' but we found it to be more modern and varied. It is one of our favourite places in Australia. There are loads of independent shops and no McDonads; KFC; or other chains.

The photos are of: our campervan which we drove from Sydney to Brisbane; then a hire car with a hire surfboard on it; me surfing; the main street and a campervan with drying clothes all over it! Anything goes in Byron.

Hamilton Island, Whitsundays

Most of the Whitsunday Islands are uninhabited. The most developed one is Hamilton Island which is small but has a Marina, a few restaurants, a few shops and two hotels. No cars are allowed on the island so everyone uses glof buggies to get around. For the lucky few who own a holiday home there, they seem to have posh buggies with alloy wheels on them! We hired a buggy for the day and it only took about twenty minutes to drive round the whole island. Still had time to stop for a spot of golf and a dip in the pool before getting back to our home on the water.

Whitsunday Sailing....more photos.....

We Are Sailing

So this is the boat we hired for one week to sail around the Whitsunday Islands. It was 11 metres long and could accommodate eight people (at a push) but just had our big bags instead. It was called Divocean and after a four hour briefing, we were on our way! Paul got in there as Skipper and I was First Mate.

The first two nights were a bit noisy so we didn't get much sleep. We kept getting up to check that we hadn't drifted off of our anchor. After this, the next five nights were fine. Three of them were spent at two different Island marinas and the others were spent out at sea anchored up.

We sailed around approximately ten islands in the week and saw some beautiful sights. This is Tongue Point which overlooks Whitehaven Beach. The beach is five miles long, white sand, blue sea and voted one of the best beaches in the world. Lovely!

We saw fish, turtles and small sharks.

V Festival

V Festival: 4 April at Melbourne

Upon arriving at Melbourne there were a few adverts about for V Festival - a one day event, with tickets left. I had a look at who was playing and dragged Paul to Ticketmaster where we got two tickets for only 70pounds each - which is very cheap for a great day out! We saw full sets of Duffy (good voice but all the songs are very similar); Elbow (fantastic); Razorlight (surprisingly brilliant); Kaiser Chiefs (great of course) and the Killers (again, great of course). We also saw a few songs from Snow Patrol, Madness, The Kills and The Human League between stages. There were about 20 000 people at this festival which meant that it was not at full capacity and there was loads of room - so for most of the bands we got right near the front. Great day out. What an unexpected bonus!

Sydney

Top Left: Paul watching Rovers on the internet on our balcony.

Top Right: Paul wining at the Star Casino

Left: Jo surfing at Manly beach

Right: A young aboriginal performer

Here: The view from our apartment

Well we are now in Sydney and have rented a flat for 28 days for our base. It is a little old fashioned inside but the location and view are fantastic! You can clearly see the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. The weather here has been mixed (with some rain) but mainly sunny and usually warm at the least. We have been to a few of the local beaches, such as Watsons Bay and Manly. We also paid a brief trip to Bondi Beach which was a bit disappointing so we go to the other ones now. Manly is where we have had a couple of surfing lessons, which is great fun. Very tiring but great once you get to stand up for a bit!

We have been on the Sydney tourist bus, to the art gallery and one of the museums. We have also been to a Hip Hop Dancing Competition and the Hoopla Festival - both very good. The great thing about Australia is that they seem to put on loads of festivals and community events, with loads to do.

We have found some great pubs and restaurants. One of the best bars is called the Opera Bar and is part of the Opera House. It has a huge courtyard area where you can sit outside and have a drink whilst listening to live music - they have bands on every day from about 2pm. Great atmosphere and a short walk back to the apartment.

Paul plans to walk across the Harbour Bridge (the actual arches of it) but I wont be doing that as it is very high. Loads of other stuff to do before moving on. Sydney is a great place with a good mixture of old and new, very vibrant.

First week or so in Oz

bush fires

Well hello everyone. I am glad to see that we have four followers to our blog, especially my mum with a photo of her in 60s fancy dress. Good choice. Anyway, we arrived in Melbourne to a warm and yet unpredictable climate. We were staying in a lovely apartment in an area 5 minutes out of the city centre, called St Kilda. It would seem that St Kilda is a very ‘cosmopolitan’ place, a polite way of saying that there were lots of dodgy characters there who liked a drink before 9am. After three days we decided that we wanted to move on and so hired a car. We drove the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide (about 650miles) and had about four overnight stops along the way. We stayed in some lovely seaside places and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

We have seen some beautiful sights, such as the Twelve Apostles, waterfalls and completed a tree top walk which was rather scary. In all that driving, we probably only passed about ten cars a day. The roads are empty and the attractions are too. You also don’t get ripped off with having to pay for car parking at every place you can imagine. We went to my favourite wine vineyard, Jacobs Creek, where you could have a free wine tasting of unlimited wine (Paul loved it) and then buy some cheap bottles if you wanted to.

The wildlife is great here, we have seen wild monkeys, koalas, kangaroos and parrots.
I tried to feed the parrots but they got a bit carried away and two jumped onto my shoulders to get to the food. We have stayed in some lovely places, from a 20 pound a night room above a pub to some spacious apartments. No complaints though!

A little story to finish with, Paul and I went to a Wildlife Park where you could feed the kangaroos. All was well until a big kangaroo (about 6 foot when stood on hind legs) blocked my exit through a gate until I gave her food. I gave in, got past and thought that was the end of it. Said kangaroo pursued me and started nudging me for more food. She was getting a bit aggressive so I threw my bag of food to Paul to buy myself some space. She bounced over to him and started nudging him for the food so he tried the old “Shoo, go away, you are not having any” and pointing. Kangaroo then gripped his t-shirt with her front paws, jumped up and kicked him, whilst holding on to him for leverage. There was no where to go so he dropped the food for her and we both ran off laughing. That is until a native told us that they can rip your stomach open with their front claw. Lucky escape then!

We are off to V Festival tomorrow which for the pricely sum of 70 pounds you get to see the Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Elbow, Razorlight, Snow Patrol and so on. Bargain!!