QLD - Final Stretch

When back in Bris, John mentioned that Sasha had given up booze for lent, so we got chatting and decided that as this is not something we normally do, Marc would give up any kind of fried potato such as chips and crisps and Ev gave up chocolate and cola. Although it has to be said that Marc lasted just a few hours as we had KFC for dinner and Ev lasted 3 weeks. However after some more chatting, John and Sasha came clean with the real truth. Sasha had to give up booze for another reason - they were expecting their 1st baby!! – so happy for them!

Our last week in Oz went by quite quickly. John and Sasha were away for a bit at a wedding so we went shopping at the markets before heading to Indroo (philly) for dinner at the Pig & Whistle and cinema to see Ghost Rider. Next day we headed to the Sunday markets and bumped into some people we met and Janelle’s birthday bowls – we’re beginning to feel like locals now!

Most of the week was spent planning for Asia and catching up on some blogging with the highlights of the week being another trip to the gold class cinema, dinner at a lovely Thai restaurant with Matty, Caroline and the kids and another popping round to Dave’s house to celebrate his birthday with some cake – yum.

mmm Gold Class
 

Our last weekend in Oz we were invited to spend with Charles and Debi (Ev’s 2nd cousin). They had arranged everything for us, but wouldn’t tell us what was planned or where we were going. Charles asked us to meet him Friday lunchtime in Brisbane centre, where he picked us up and we headed back to his house to meet up with Debi. We had a quick tour of their super nice house, making us jealous of their cinema room :) before heading off to our secret location – Coolibah - one of the beach resorts along the sunshine coast. They had arranged a self-catering apartment and Debi put on a nice spread in the evening whilst we sat around drinking and chatting.

On Saturday, they took us out to Eumundi as we were keen to go to the big market they had on Saturdays to pick up some local arts and crafts as souvenirs and presents. Marc had a mini-scare when he went to draw cash as the machine took his card. With only 5 days to go before leaving Oz, a lost card now would be unlikely to be replaced before getting back to the UK, and more importantly, Ev would be holding the purse strings. Luckily the post office was open (it was about 5 minutes before it shut for lunch) and whilst they said they couldn’t access the cash point the women called some people and managed to get the card back – phew!

We met Charles and Debi’s friends for lunch before heading out to Martaville, which is in the mountains, for a look around the local craft shops and had a drink taking in the breathtaking views. We then headed back to the Coolibah, for a stroll along the esplanade and watched the kite surfers do their stunts in the bay, before heading to the hotel for a swim, take away and DVD.

On Sunday we headed out to Noosa and caught a ferry over to the North Shore. Charles took us for a beach drive, which was good fun – a shame we can’t do this kind of thing in the UK, but the pebbles and groynes would ruin your car! We parked up and had a beer, looked at the jellyfish being washed up and enjoyed the sunshine.

the best way to drive

Marc, Charles and Debi

the best place for a ice cold beer
 

After the ferry back, we had to wash the salt off the car, it’s a pretty clever setup as there is a stop off were there is a pay machine to use the spray hoses to wash your car. We then stopped for lunch at the harbour where we found a cute Broncho’s baby grow for Johnny Junior. We had a great time with Charles and Debi and this was a fantastic way to spend our last weekend in Australia.

They dropped us off in Brisbane centre, where we spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the shops. We checked out some of the SLR cameras Charles recommended but we need to decide if we want to get it here or risk being able to find it cheaper in Asia but without any of the guarantees. John and Sasha picked us up and we went to Michelle and Pete’s for dinner – Pete is a top chef and cooked us up a lovely lamb spit roast.

We leave Oz on Tuesday, so spent Monday sorting out some boxes to send home. This was a major hassle as our boxes were too big and the post office wouldn’t accept them, so we had to unpack and repack into smaller boxes that we had to buy from the post office. We’ve enjoyed every minute in Oz (except the parcels) and hope to come back one day….

QLD - Gemfields to Bundy

After a luxurious nights sleep in a cabin, we headed off on our next long drive for our second visit to Bundaberg. We went there in November to see turtles laying eggs on the beach, and we wanted to go back and see some hatching. As it was a long drive we split the driving, Ev doing the first 450k. Marc took over once we hit Bruce Highway and after about 30 mins, when heading down hill, the car picked up a bit of speed... just as an undercover cop car went passed and he quickly circled round and pulled us over. By that time we were going back up the other side of the hill so he didn’t buy the down hill excuse, nor the poor confused tourist approach. Marc was given a breath test and we got fined £150 or the equivalent of $10 for every km over the limit (25kmph over). It was so fitting that we only got caught speeding on our first and last drives in Oz!

When we arrived in Bundy, we knew just the place to camp - Turtle Sands, the same campsite we stayed at last time. It’s nice camping on the beach, but as we found, there is little shelter from the elements here. The wind was blowing a gale when we started setting up, and ironically for our last night of camping we needed to use every bit of equipment for the very first time. Every guy rope and peg was needed to make sure we didn’t blow away.

The turtle watching was just as great an experience as the first time round. We had a bit of a nervous wait as we were in the 3rd viewing group. The hatchlings only hatch when the sand has cooled to a night-time temperature, and as it was a cloudy evening, the guides weren’t sure if it would cool down enough. The first turtles didn’t hatch for a couple of hours, when group 1 got called off and then shortly after then next hatchlings broke free. In the meantime we were shown some interesting clips about the nature reserve and had a Q & A time with some of the biologists. Whilst we were waiting round we also got to see a mummy possum with her baby clinging to her and some giant green frogs that came out to visit us.

  Mummy & baby possum

Famous Green Frog

As the 1st hatchlings were high priority loggerheads they were all collected up tagged, weighed and checked over by the research team. When they were done they were to be released at roughly the same spot to where they broke free from their nest. So we were lucky to be called out so see them being released and even better, we were allowed to hold some of them. It’s so cute to see their little flippers working over time! So how to get them into the big ocean? We had to point all our torches on the sand in the direction of the sea as the turtles then think this was the reflection of the moon on the ocean. Their instinct is to head to this light rather than the sound of the waves. So we were told to form a line from the hatching point to the sea and shine the torches on the ground so the turtles moved towards the light and through our legs. One by one the turtles made it to the sea and were whisked away by the waves. Of course, there were stupid ones who didn’t want to follow the light and whilst we moved them back into line, we don’t expect they made it too far out to sea as the survival rate of these hatchlings to full adults aren’t in their favour! On our way back, we had to abruptly come to a stop as we were told a Loggerhead had come ashore to lay eggs, unfortunately there were some very loud tourists who kept taking pictures and scared her off before she was settled, and hopefully she tried again later that evening.

Cute little turtle

So tiny!

Follow the light

Where the magic happens, little baby turtle make their way to the ocean only to return years later to lay their eggs and so the circle continues...

Next day, we just couldn’t leave Bundy without a trip to the Ginger Beer factory, and we picked up a few GB treats to keep us going for our last week in Oz.

We then headed back to Brisbane; this also meant that we had now come to the end of our driving and camping chapter of our travels. Whilst there are so many organised coach and hostel combo tours for travellers and we may have missed out on some of the traveller social life, we think we had the better deal with hiring a car and camping. This gave us much more flexibility as we saw so many things and never really knew what each day would bring us.

QLD - Gemfields

Being Valentines day it was a day of romance and excitement. After a 400km drive and scaring some cows, we arrived at Rubyvale to find our fortune. We did a tour of some old mines where our guide was some crazy old bat called Fran, who had clearly spent too much time in the shafts with only herself for company - well, she did have her rag doll friends Eric and Bob who gave her someone to talk too. Luckily they were deaf ;)

Us with Bob

The excavation tunnel

After an enlightening tour, we scanned the jewelry store, before fossicking for our own treasures. We got a bucket of dirt, which we had to sieve and rinse a handful at a time. Once dried, we then picked through the remains looking for a sparkle and glint. We did find quite a few chippings, but nothing with a decent clarity, colour or cut! Marc was hoping on finding a valentines day present here ;) We were now hooked on fossicking, so got us a bucket of dirt to take back to Bris...

We struggled to find somewhere to stay, but eventually found somewhere in Emerald just before they closed. As it was a special day, we upgraded from a tent to mobile home for a few luxuries. We managed to find a nice restaurant for dinner, where we swapped presents - a ring for Marc and earrings for Ev (which we had picked up from the hot beach in NZ)

QLD - Road Trip

We've decided to take a road trip to some of the National Parks we missed out on on our way down to Brisbane the 1st time round - to Carnavon and the Gemfields. It's quite a long way to our first stop, so we picked up the hire car early doors. When picking up the car, we mentioned we were going to Carnarvon NP and the customer service rep laughed and said, "well, that's as far as you are going to get before you run out of fuel" Turns out the petrol stations become very scarce inland - every 800km if your lucky! - so we had to make sure we filled up our little car on every opportunity.




The first driving stint was going to be an incredible 800 km! Just outside of Roma, about 2/3rds of the way, we hit a really bad hail storm. We could barely see the front of the car let alone the road in front of us, so we just kept driving, slower than norm and even slower after we saw a kangaroo hop across the road in front of us!


The best view during the storm!!




The calm after the storm...



At about 6.30pm we reached our destination and set up camp as soon as possible, and not a moment too soon as just as the last peg was hammered in, the next rain storm arrived!
As it was raining, there was not much else we could do but make dinner, and it seemed like everyone had the same idea. We managed to get a space at one of the stoves and make our special tomato pasta, yum....


Next morning we set off from the Info centre at 9am for our 14km hike through the gorge. You end up crossing the river about a dozen times. Marc being Marc, he had to make the 1st splash - I think by the end we were even ;)




Along our walk we came across these little fury caterpillars crossing our path, we almost didn't see them but couldn't resist taking some pics.




The moss gardens were really interesting to see and quite a climb to get to them. The water runs down the side of the cliff face into the river and as it's so damp and shaded the moss grows very well here. I must say it was a relief to find this area being so cool as the hike so far had made us really hot and it wasn't even midday yet!





We kept overtaking and then being passed by two girls along the way and we all ended up at the Art Gallery. The girls had arrived there before us and we found out that they were going to camp at Big Bend tonight. They didn't seem convinced by the authenticity of the paintings on the cliff face and weren't the friendliest of people we had met so far on our travels. Even so, we still enjoyed looking at the rock art and trying to figure out what it all meant. We discovered a box with a book in it for visitors to write their thoughts in, so this seemed to shed some light on some of the carvings.





We were going to visit the Amphitheater next but it was closed so we decided to visit the waterfall and have some lunch before heading back to the info centre.



Arriving back at the info centre at 3pm and as it was getting pretty hot we decided to stop off at the rock pools, but with it being low season the water reeds were in full force and the pools looked very swampy so decided to give it a miss and opt for a cold shower back at the campsite.


As it was still early, we walked up to the campsite view point and shortly after arriving we heard a bit of a commotion and discovered that down in the valley a roo fight brewing. It was very scary hearing them yelp and hop after each other and kick about, but as we were quite high up, we felt a little safer.

In the campsite there were a few wallaby's and roo's scattered about and they are a little tamer so it's nice to see them so relaxed. We then headed to the river to try and spot another platypus but no luck here. Instead we opted for an ice-cream under the trees and then tried to try find some enchina's but still no luck.



During the night another thunder storm hit the campsite and we could hear the English boys in the tent closest to us fumble about to get the tent pegged down and put the cover on. We on the other hand were quite relived that the storm had come as the humidity and heat was becoming unbearable.

Since we didn't walk and hike enough yesterday ;) we decided to trek up Boowinda Bluff... before leaving the camp site Marc had a brilliant idea and managed to sneak our cooler box into one of the empty cabins at the back of the campsite, he he he

Then as we walked along the base of the cliff we saw a lot of kangaroos and wallabies. They looked like they didn't have a care in the world and on one occasion we stopped and just watched them and they in turn watched us for a bit too.




The climb was pretty tough and we probably didn't think it through properly, but as we're only here once, we may as well make the most of it. There was so many steps to climb up as the route to the top was between two cliffs.





We did have to watch out for the spider webs that streached across the paths as there are some very large & colourful spiders around and being bitten by one would be the last thing on our list of things to do in Oz.

Once at the top we were rewarded with amazing views over the canyon/gorge, there was a lot of mist hanging about at the top of the surrounding mountains as we were in the middle of a huge valley so the views were restricted somewhat. We did have to be careful as there weren't any guard rails to stop us going over the edge and also we didn't want to go too close to the edge as you never know how stable the cliff edges are.

QLD - Brisbane: The Return

Our first week back here was fairly quiet - catching up on blogging time and loaning books from the library to prepare for our trip to Asia.


Also, good to catch up with John & Sasha. They are now living in Ipswich, about 30 mins outside of Brisbane - they have just bought a Queenslander style bungalow, which is a made from wood and raised on stilts, giving a space under the house for storing the BBQ and DIY tools. It has raised decking going from front, round the side, and nice decking out the back good for BBQs. Due to water shortages they can only water the garden on certain days, so are looking to buy a water tank, but there is something like a six month waiting list to get one installed.





A highlight of the week was the visit to the XXXX brewery in town, courtesy of John and Sasha's birthday present for Marc. We got told some interesting facts about beer and got a bonus 4 free beers at the end (though Evelyn traded one of her beers in for a coke;) We got a "free" glass as a souvenir. John picked us up after, and did a BBQ with Dave and Mel in the evening.




Next evening we went to watch Lawson (John's nephew) race his motorbike in a local competition. It is quite a challenge for these 7-8 year olds to race around - it isn't the racing, but when they fall off, the bikes are too heavy for the kids to lift and they need help to get back up again. We hoped Lawson wouldn't fall off, but in his last race, he was 3rd and wanted to get passed the slowcoach in front. They both took off a jump at the same time, and both landed in the same spot and knocked each other over. Luckily both were OK and just a bit shaken.


Sunday was Janelle's birthday (met her on a Croatia holiday), so we joined her for barefoot bowls. Bowls is generally regarded as an old fuddy-duddy sport, but the Aussies have the ability to turn anything around by the simple addition of cheap beer. It was a fun time, though we had to watch out for the bull ants. Evelyn found they packed quite a bite, and she felt like her toe had broken. Marc thought such a little thing couldn't hurt, but for the 2nd time this trip he misjudged these foreign nasties and was also hobbling around soon enough.






In the evening we went up to Mount Coo-tha for some twilight views of the city

NZ - Coromandel Peninsular

This was our last day in New Zealand, so we wanted to make the most of it, so headed to Coromandel Peninsular where they had a hot water beach – typically it was raining, but not enough to deter us ;)

First, we went for an energetic 2 hour walk along the cliffs to see Cathedral Cove and the various rock formations.

You can only go to Hot Water Beach at certain times – 2 hours either side of low tide. At this time, the natural hot springs filter through to the beach surface and you can hire a spade, dig a hole, which then fills with warm water you can sit in. We were worried we might not be able to find the right spot where the hot springs were, but as it turned out, the problem was finding the space not location. The beach was pretty crowded, as the hot water springs are only 50 meters wide so everyone was crammed in.

We looked at which people looked the warmest, and then started digging. You have to be quite particular about where you dig, as one spot can be cool water but 50cm to the right can be scalding. Lazily, we thought we’d take one of the pre-dug empty holes, but it soon became clear why these were empty as they were cold. We then dug our own baby hole where we could find a space, and got a bit warmer. Our timing was good, and luckily people in a giant pre-dug hole were leaving and offered us their place. No sooner had we jumped in, then about 3 other couples jumped in and one women was hogging the warmest spot – it was a bit hot for her though and she turned lobster pink ;) It wasn’t long after that we too began to simmer – in the main stream it was really hot.

We could hear the occasional yelp - as the tide was coming in big waves were breaking down the barriers to the front line of holes, so people were getting cold ocean water in their holes ;)

After being here for a fair while, we too had turned lobster pink and a bit wrinkly. To cool down Marc charged into the ocean, crashing into waves, but whilst the sea was cold it didn’t have much effect. We then went with Evelyn’s cooling tactic and brought Ice Creams – much more sensible ;)

Anthea’s parents kindly offered for us to stay the night as they lived close to the airport, and we had a crazy 7.15am flight. So we headed back to the city where lasagne and crumble were waiting. We packed up another 20kg box to send home – how we managed to accumulate so much stuff on our travels is beyond us! Thankfully Anthea posted the box off for us the post office wasn’t open at 8pm ;)

4.30am wake up! Argh, shouldn’t have done so much hiking round the cliffs yesterday! We had what felt like a luxury flight back to Auz, as we were supplied breakfast – something our last few flights lacked.

Big thanks to Andrea, Mike, Dave (& families) for homing, feeding & watering us ;)

A real shame to leave New Zealand as we would have liked to see more of this beautiful country. We will be back again one day…

NZ - Auckland

We were busy getting lost in Auckland, trying to find the drop off point and meet Anthea & Mike. When we called Anthea to get directions, spookily enough we had just over taken her on the highway.

When we got to the depot, it was closed, and we had had to drop the keys in this flimsy postbox. We thought anyone could access the post box, the keys had the car reg on, and the car was parked next to the post box. We dropped the keys in, and as an experiment, tried to break the keys out again, but gladly couldn’t. Besides, this is New Zealand and not Liverpool ;)

We went back to Mike and Anthea’s place – They live on a deer farm. You get some great views, with deer walking in front the sun setting over the sea.

As we were here for 5 days, which wasn’t long enough to do everything, such as Bay of Islands, as this was too far to drive. Still, we made the most of our time here. Anthea kindly lent us her car, as she had a work car and Mike was going away for a few days fishing and hunting in Queenstown.

The next day was spent in Auckland city, wandering around all the tourist shops (all run by Chinese) looking for souvenirs. We came across Nandos and had lunch, and tried the New Zealand dandelion & burdock drink. We had a wander around the docks, and watch people do controlled free-fall from the Auckland Tower.

Afterwards we went for a drive and stopped of at a cute little suburb, Ponsonby, and decided to have a walk around. We stopped in at another touristy shop before having a drink at one of the up-class pubs – surprisingly enough the football happened to be on.

As we were invited round to Mike’s parents house for dinner and to stay the evening we made a move. Mike’s mum is from London and she made us a lovely dinner, we drank wine and reminisced about life. As we dinned upstairs we thoroughly enjoyed the amazing view over Mission Bay.

Anthea invited us to join her as she was meeting friends for a DVD night. This turned out to be a real fun evening, with a few drinks and catching up We almost felt at home, doing something normal and taking our minds off the fact that we were travelling.

Next day Anthea showed us one of the craft markets to continue our search for souvenirs. As always anything we brought ended up being for us rather than family ;) Some real nice stuff, which would look far better in our cupboards than families ;)

Athena then went off to do her own thing and we headed back to Mission Beach for the Antarctic aquarium. This had a penguin enclosure and shark tunnel (not together), something we’d wanted to see for ages. After, we found Starbucks, and had our usual Chai tea lattes on the beach.

Anthea played guide again the next day, and took us for a tour around the peninsula. We went for a walk along the black sand beach with the dogs, and took a trip up to the old lighthouse. Then headed down to Graham beach for a little swim with the dogs. You could see Auckland city from across the bay.

The afternoons entertainment was quad biking – Anthea and Mike have one on their farm for checking on the deer paddocks, so we went out for a spin. Marc went zooming off into the distance, under clear instruction to take the gate on the right. In all the excitement he went for the open gate on the left, and startled a few deer and made Anthea chase after him. Oh Dear!

We went on somewhere away from the deer, and had good fun zooming about. Anthea, showing her skill, went up to the top of the hill, which involved going over a sandbank. This looked easy and as Marc couldn’t be out done by a girl & being all macho, decided to go full steam ahead. As Marc was having his fun, Anthea & Evelyn sat on the side of the bank chatting. After a while the girls realised they couldn’t hear the engine of the quad and Anthea reckoned that Marc got stuck. The girls chuckling to themselves decided to wait and see how long it would be before Marc’s head popped over the bank to ask for help – and no sooner had the girls decided this, Marc popped his head over the mound looking rather sheepishly :)

When Evelyn & Anthea finally reached the quad, they packed out laughing at the sight of the quad being wedged between sand and a fence, with poop splattered all over Marc & said quad…

It took some muscle – from the girls not Marc ;) to get it unwedged and Marc almost rolling the quad, was saved by Anthea yet again. Throughout Marc kept a brave face, laughed it off and continued his adventures (minding the big cow splodges :)