Australia : Newcastle & Sydney

Amy :

Newcastle/Stockton – (7th Feb to 12th Feb)

After many people advising us to stay clear of Newcastle as it was just another big city we decided to take Pud’s advice and donder over to see what it was like.

As we’re not big city people we opted for Stockton which was a little island off Newcastle and could be reached by the Ferry. This was one of the nicest places we’d stayed. We hired a bunkhouse in a campsite and had a wonderful few days there. We took in the local sights, the main trip being a 12km walk along the beach and sand dunes to an old ship wreck. Gaging a distance of a two hour walk from Stu we thought no problem at all, some water and a banana each would do. Boy were we wrong this almost took 5hrs in the blistering heat (see attached photo). We did see some amazing marine life, some odd typical Aussie fisherman and some posh dudes getting their 4×4 stuck in the sand which was amusing.
Newcastle itself wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be either. There were loads of wee places to catch a nice lunch or drink and everyone seemed very friendly.
And to keep Stu happy the beaches were pretty awesome as well.
I felt like I had a small child with me when we went to the beach as I couldn’t relax until I knew he was safe ont he sand again. The waves in Oz are massive and I always worried that one would take Stu away. Unfortunately they didnt…LOL…

Sydney (12th Feb to 15th Feb)

This was our last stop before heading back to NZ and what a great time we had. We climbed the Sky Tower. Got a bit history on Sydney. We also did an awesome jet boat ride. This took us round the harbour and further afield, bouncing off gigantic waves. It got too scary that one couple had to be dropped off at a bay until we finished the ride. They just couldn’t handle the pace!!!
It was quite a sad time in Sydney as this was where our Oz Journey had begun. Neither of us could believe that when we arrived back in Sydney our big adventure would come to an end. The whole three months of travelling about just flew by. What a great time we’ve had, it will be one we’ll never forget.
Especially leaving Sydney airport as the check-in staff weren’t going to let us leave as we didnt have our terms and conditions of our Kiwi visas!!! I’ve never been told that you cant leave the country even although our Oz Visas were at an end?!? go figure.

Well all I have left to say is, if you want to travel you should. It’s a life changing experience and one you’ll never forget. Thank you Stu for making our trip away so fantastic….where to next?????

Australia : Canberra & Wollongong

Stu :

Canberra (31st Jan – 3rd Feb)

After enjoying our fix of small-town Australia it felt about time to get back to the safety of the big cities! So back on the train and Eastwards to the capital city of Canberra. Everything I head heard and read about Canberra indicated that it was a relatively boring, purpose built kind of city. Surely not we thought……oh yes indeed ! My word this city is boooooring. Now don’t get me wrong. The lake in the middle of the city is all very nice (see attached photo) but everything is so….functional. There is no city centre to speak of so the city really has no heart and just seems to merge from office to shop to home to office. What made it even more frustrating is that the city was designed to use circular streets instead of a grid setup. This made it really confusing to travel around so much so that we were wandering around making confused noises and were stopped by an elderly chap who kindly enquired if he could help. We asked him if he knew where such and such a street was and he said “yeah sure – follow me”. It was at that point that we noticed his shades and white stick…..talk about the blind leading the blind !

I have nothing really of worth to say about Canberra so I won’t pretend to try and make anything up. We did however find a nice Irish pub that sold a cracking pint of Kilkenny so that was a bonus.

Wollongong (3rd – 7th Feb)

After a couple of weeks away from a good surf beach we decided to head back to the coast and visit Wollongong which is a beach town 80kms South of Sydney. I liked Wollongong. The city centre wasn’t the nicest and looked as though it wound benefit from a bit of a face-lift but there was a nice feel to the place. It had no pre-conceptions of being a big city and seemed to concentrate on the more laid-back surfy lifestyle.

The motel we were booked into for a few nights was only a couple of blocks from a great surf beach so I found myself nipping down for an afternoon session of body surfing most days. I just love the surf beaches they have over here. I could really get into that scene if only Wellington had a decent surf beach to speak of.

Anyway – after a couple of chilled days walking along the beaches and enjoying our surroundings Amy fancied jumping on the train to visit Nan Tien Buddhist temple nearby which is the largest temple in the Southern Hemisphere. I have to say this was a cracking place to wander around and you couldn’t help but adopt a calmness of being….even in a spiritual heathen like myself. That being said a juicy steak would have been a welcome addition to the veggie-only temple restaurant. Alas the closest I got to some wholesome meat was a rather large black hair in my noodles…..yum.

On our trip around Oz we have been unable to carry many food extras like salt, sauces butter etc with us due to weight etc so we have found ourselves “stealing” salt, pepper and sauces from local cafes. True to form I stuffed a handful of salt and pepper into my pocket as we were leaving the temple café. 10 minutes later I found myself bare-footed (they make you leave your shoes at the door) wandering around the main temple hall. It was then that I had to summon all of my inner strength to avoid yelping at the top of my voice as I stubbed my toe on one of the statues representing the Buddhist Gods. Kharma for stealing the salt ? I think so…..

Australia : Melbourne & Wagga Wagga

Melbourne (23rd – 29th Jan)

After a less than enjoyable 4 hour flight from Perth to Melbourne we finally arrived into the city we were probably the most excited about seeing. I say less than enjoyable flight for two main reasons :

1. Even though it was a 4 hour flight no food, entertainment or niceties were provided which made the flight a thirsty and long one !
2. Due to the ridiculous size of Australia we crossed 3 time zones during our flight so even though we left Perth at 9pm we didn’t arrive into Melbourne until 5am the next morning.

Nevertheless we finally made it but most of our first day was spent getting over a sort of mini jet lag due to the time difference. Once we were “back in the game” we headed into the city but unfortunately, as with most of the last month’s travelling, the weather was damp to say the least. So much so we were unable to enjoy most of the outdoor sites that Melbourne has to offer until the last day of our visit.

Never mind though, we still had a cracking time in the city and going up the Eureka Tower (the world’s highest residential building) to view the city from 300m up was a highlight. On our way there we were lucky to pass some dude rollerblading but using 3 mongrel dogs as a kind of makeshift husky sled team. He was bombing along the high street at about 40kms per hour screaming as he went. Certainly caught everyone’s attention and brought a wee smile to our faces. Those crazy Aussies!

Anyway – other than a drunken night involving cheap beer, a jukebox filled with 90s Manchester music and some ridiculous “baggy” dancing courtesy of two drunken Scottish visitors currently residing in New Zealand there’s not much more to say about Melbourne other than nice city and I’d quite happily move there. Oh, and St Kilda is a particularly nice seaside suburb although passing the Australian national footy manager (Pim Verbeek) wandering along the promenade with his top off is unfortunately the memory I’ll retain from that particular day trip. Nasty…..

Wagga Wagga (29th – 31st Jan)

After our brief visit to the State of Victoria it was back on the train and North into Inland New South Wales. After a brief overnighter in a wee town called Albury we finally arrived in Wagga Wagga (pronounced Wogga Wogga). The Inland New South Wales is filled with wee towns like this that are a bit of a left over from the Gold Rush. Not much really happens but I kind of like these smaller towns as you feel you are really experiencing Australia. Albeit our first experience of small town Australia courtesy of Wagga Wagga was to pass the local school still smouldering after being burnt to the ground by a pupil. As our taxi driver put it…..”he got himself into a wee bit of bother over that”. Oooh – the wee scamp.

We had pre-booked a couple of nights in a campsite called Wagga Beach site. What made us curious was that the fact that inland Wagga Wagga’s closest beach was 5 hours drive East so the use of the “Beach” in the campsites name was an interesting one. Anyway – all was revealed when we turned up to find that the campsite was in fact situated next to the river that had the largest sand bank beach in New South Wales. It was a cracking wee campsite with amazing views over the river. Without a doubt the highlight of the visit were the local possums. Every night from 7pm onwards you could step outside and hand-feed possums quite happily (see photo attached). We went through about 4 loaves of bread in the few days we were there. Happy days, although I will throw in a note of caution. With so many curious possums it’s easy to stand beneath a tree looking up watching the emerging possums make their way down for a feed. Now as any creature of this Earth tends to do the first task upon waking is to relieve the bladder……yup…….Stu beneath a tree…..looking up…..mouth open with awe at the overall experience…..eeek. I am glad to say however that I was alert enough to jump to the side just in time to avoid a possum golden shower ! Phew.

Australia : Cairns & Perth

Cairns (19th – 22nd Jan)

Well when they say Cairns is a very tropical climate they aren’t lying. It was scorching here and to make it worse it was unbelievably humid. We were so glad that we only needed to spend two nights in the Campervan before having a few luxury nights in an air-conditioned Motel! The campsite we stayed in for the first two nights was awesome. It was like a Butlins type site with lots of things to do including a outdoor movie screening which was great apart from the mozzies eating us alive as usual :O) I think the highlight was hearing a small boy complaining to reception that there was a snake at the villa he was staying on. Well after hearing that we were extra careful with coming and going in the dark from our van. Thankfully we didn’t encounter any deadly snakes LOL. After a sad good bye to Charlie our van we didn’t want to move from our AC’d room. This was pure heaven. As this was our first time in Cairns we devised a plan where we would leave the room around 2ish hoping the heat would die down but it didn’t. We were around 30 minutes from the CBD but had a lovely walk along the promenade which entertained us with funny looking Mud-Skippers and signs that Crocs inhabited the area. Again no signs of Crocs. I am sure the Aussies lie about most of these creatures living here as we haven’t seen anything yet!

Perth (22nd – 29th Jan)

Then it was a lovely 6hr flight to Perth for us. Can you believe we were closer to Wellington in Cairns that we were to Perth! Just shows you how big Oz actually is. We arrived around 1.30am into Perth and got straight into a cab to our Hotel. Stu was most impressed by the 24hr self check in at the Formule1 Hotel we stayed in. All computerised and worked perfectly. I think it must have been tiredness and slight jet lagged that made us laugh so much about this simple but effective check in system. Then it was head down for a few hours before an Annan reunite with Pud and Kari took place in the morning. The O’Donnell’s have moved over to Perth from Carlise/Annan to live and we had pre-arranged a wee roadtrip with them. This was an awesome week away. The laughs were non stop especially when we noticed that we were driving along with the car boot window open :O) I don’t know how these Annan boys passed their driving tests!! Honestly Pud – always remember to check if any lights are on that aren’t supposed to be…..
We basically did a road trip South of Perth and went through Margaret River, Augusta and Denmark. It was like a proper holiday with the kids. Kari and I sunbathed and wandered a bit and the boys jumped around the sea and played with their football. We also managed to take in a Rainforest Treetop walk. You can guess by the name what that entailed I’m sure. The views from the top were breathtaking. I just dont know how someone thought that it would be a good idea to build a bridge through the rainforest and then how they managed to do it!! ’suppose that’s the Aussies for you….
We also got our animal fix on a beach on Augusta and saw a pod of Stingray’s swimming around the bay. They were amazing things to see in the wild but we all felt a bit apprehensive about getting to close to them especially after what happened to poor old Steve Irwin…RIP Steve.
After a thoroughly enjoyable trip away with the O’Donnell’s we quickly realised why they wanted us with them. They were of course moving into their new apartment and needed a hand moving all Kari’s clothes, bags and shoes. This woman is worse than me :O) Their apartment is an amazingly modern set out close to the city centre and the River where we celebrated Australia Day. Can you believe we watched 35 solid minutes of fireworks. It was truley an amazing display so much better than the new year ones we’d seen in Brisbane.
Our last day in Perth for me was spent in the apartment as I was hiding from the sun. Somehow, me, Stu and Kari all got burnt after spending a day at Cottisloe Beach and I came out the worst. I am now paying for my stupidity of sleeping on the beach and peeling something rotten. Note to self hide if the sun it out!

Australia : Whitsunday Islands, Mission Beach & Atherton Tablelands

Whitsunday Islands (13th – 15th Jan)

We arrived into Airlie Beach after a couple of rainy days……and the weather got worse from here on in ! Our main objective here was to get out on a cruise to do some snorkeling off the surrounding reef around the many islands in the area which marks the beginning of the “Great Barrier Reef”. We done just that but unfortunately we ended up getting wetter on the boat than we did in the water…..such was the glorious down-pour throughout the day. Hey ho….

We still had a cracking time snorkeling and saw some superb tropical fish and reef. Unfortunately no-one else seemed to be up for catching some fish and sticking them on the barbie. Spoil sports. The only downside to the snorkeling was the ridiculous stinger suits that they made us wear. Between November and March its classed as jellyfish stinger season along the whole of the West Coast of Queensland so unless you fancy some nasty paralysing stings you have to wear these all-in-one lycra suits. Not the most snazzy outfits as the photo attached testifies. To be honest I’m wondering if this may not be a conspiracy as I didn’t see one jellyfish whilst in the water. I think the tourist companies just like to have a laugh at us all in these ridiculous outfits.

It was on this cruise that I realised that I am being haunted by Rod Stewart throughout this trip. At every single stopover (and I mean every) I have been plagued by Rod Stewart songs and videos. He’s everywhere. And going with form the captain decided to put a DVD on the TV whilst we were travelling back to shore and you guessed it……Rod Stewart live ! I mean come on. Keeps Amy happy though as shes happy having a wee sing-along but I just find myself reaching for another VB beer to dull the pain.

Anyway as I wandered around the boat (anywhere away from the TV) I got chatting to a woman who turned out to be from Castle Douglas and had family in Annan. Yet more evidence that us Dumfries and Galloway do all we can to get away from the area !

Back to the campsite and we were in the camp kitchen and got chatting to a local lad who was……how can I put this politely…….thick as mince. He was a definite yokel but a pleasant enough chap. Anyhoo……..we’ve been noticing through Tropical Queensland that the toads are massive ! Turns out these guys are actually cane toads and are destructive to all animals indigenous to Oz as they have toxins that kill pretty much anything that tries to eat them. As such it’s the done thing in Queensland to kill any that you see. In fact some smaller towns have “fun days” that climax in a cane toad massacre with the winner being the one to bring most toad corpses to the table. All good gun. Anyway……to prove the point we were talking to the yokel lad about fishing (seemed to be our only common ground) and all of a sudden he darted over the table and grabbed a broom. Then proceed to bash the living crap out of a cane toad that had haplessly wandered into the kitchen. As you can imagine Amy enjoyed that experience ! And with that we were on the road again

Mission Beach (16th Jan)

Mission Beach is a beautiful wee Tropical beach to the South of Cairns. We stopped in here for an overnight stay to split the trip up a bit. As we were driving there we put the radio on and heard that Airlie Beach (where we had been the day before” had been cut off due to floods and people were trapped in the town. It stayed this way for 3 days. Talk about leaving a trail of destruction in your wake !

As the rain continued to pour the heat began to rise causing a less than comfortable 36 degree rainy spell. I’ll never again utter the words “ooohhh…..its muggy today”.

We stayed at a beach campsite and even though it was raining it was still hot enough to go for a swim. The beach here had stinger nets to keep the nasty jellyfish away. Unfortunately due to the flooding even the ocean around the beach had become a reddy browny colour with all of the erosion nearby so we didn’t spend to long there.

Amy wasn’t feeling to great (no wonder considering the weather) so she had a lie down and I went of wandering. I done a wee rainforest walk hoping to spot a cassowary (bizarre looking prehistoric birds of the emu family) but had no luck. I did however get caught up in a massive cobweb in an Indiana Jones styleee. Not very pleasant and had me suddenly scampering back along the track swatting at my back as I went.

Atherton Tablelands (17th & 18th Jan)

Next was on up to the Atherton highlands to the West of Cairns. It was good to get into some mountainous coutryside as most of our trip thus far had taken us along the coast. The countryside surrounding the Atherton region is not dis-similar to much of New Zealand. Its very green and lush with waterfalls everywhere. The windy uphill roads certainly gave the campervan a good test on its final stretch of the trip. It passed thankfully as mobile phone reception left a lot to be desired.

After the delights of the highlands it was on to Cairns to part company with the campervan that had served us well. We certainly left our mark on it over the 2 weeks……or at least it smelt that way anyway !