Wendy & Gillian Down Under
2004 - 2005
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Photo Gallery***updated 18.12.04
7th March 2005
KIA ORA from New Zealand
That means - Hello, welcome. Again, we have neglected our site but hopefully this brief update will give you an idea of where and what we are at. We had a great Christmas, unfortunately NOT at the beach as it was pretty cool and drizzly all day!!! We COULDN'T believe it, we had scorching sunshine the whole week leading up to Christmas day and when we opened the small curtains in Edna on the 25th we were GUTTED!! However, we spent most of the day with the Lebonese man Wendy worked with Tony and his family which was lovely. Hogmanay was AMAZING..........right at the harbour bridge! We couldn't have got closer if we had tried (we kinda landed there by chance heehee). We sold Edna on the 29th January - It was a sad day but we did MAKE $500 so that cant be bad! We finished at the peaches a couple of days after the sale and hired a car to travel down south again and relax. We had a day in the Capital, Canberra which was good to see. From there we drove across to Batemans Bay and finished up in Kiama (where we had been when the parents were over) for a few days.
We stayed at Tony and Mary's for a couple of nights before flying to Melbourne to stay with a friend (Jason) and catch up with another (Lisa). We met them both when we were in Port Douglas. Victoria definately was the best state for scenery and coastlines, it was gorgeous. The Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road was definately the highlight - they were breathtaking. We had a great time with our mates and will hopefully be able to take them around Scotland if and when they come over.
We went back to stay with Tony and Mary for a night before flying over to New Zealand on the 21st February. We flew into Auckland (North island) and within 24 hours flew to Christchurch in the South (on people's recommendations). We hired a car for the duration and headed West to Hotitika. We drove from there down the west coast to Queenstown stopping off at Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers. We didn't hang around too long as it was Freezing!! The roads and lakes and mountains etc were awesome - such a lovely drive. We spent a few nights in Queenstown (New Zealands adventure capital) but unfortunately just watched some of the activities - Bungy jumping, rafting and paragliding etc.
From there, we drove South to Dunedin stopping off at a couple of places along the way. They say Dunedin is like Scotland but to be honest, we didn't really think so, it was only the street names that were named after places in Scotland!
We then had a couple of nights in Timaru before heading back to Christchurch for another few nights. We DID manage a game of golf which was BRILL - SSOOO stiff it was unbelievable, definately have to practice a bit when we get back.
We have really enjoyed our two weeks here - totally different to Oz but lovely to see. We fly to fiji tomorrow, Honolulu on the 13th and Vegas on the 19th then home to bonnie Dundee just in time for one of Wendys best friends wedding on the 26th :-)
Thanks again to Jim, Belinda,Tony and Mary and Phil who made us feel so welcome and looked after us during our time in Dural, Sydney.
See you all soon, looking forward to catching up with everyone and seeing our families again.
19th December 2004 - 5.00pm
G'DAY MATES....WE'RE STILL HERE!!! Sorry we have not managed to update you on our travels for quite a while, we have been very busy surfing, sunbathing, shopping, fishing, spending time with our families and currently, working again! Briefly, following on from our last entry, we stopped of in a town called "Eumundi", about 10kms from Noosa and worked as part of a small team picking strawberries! We worked there for 3 weeks from 6.00am - 3.30pm saving money to help us on our way down to Sydney. We were fortunately "saved" when Gerry, the manager of the motel we had been working at in Port Douglas, phoned and asked if we could fly back up and look after the motel so he could go on holiday for 10 days. Obviously, we jumped at the chance (sure beated picking berries)! On returning back to Brisbane end of October, we set off down the coast, visiting many places, notibly Byron Bay, Ballina, Coffs Harbour and Port McQuarie. Wendy's Mum, Aunty and Cousin arrived into Sydney early November so we spent a great 2 weeks travelling around and seeing the sights with them, then the day they left, Gillian's arrived in. Again, we had a fab time, seeing the sights... AGAIN!!!!heehee. Edna did us proud driving everywhere, she had been a bit crook the last few weeks, however, we bought her a new clutch on Friday past and she is like a new woman, she goes better than ever now. We spent loads of money over the last 2 months so the day after the folks left, we hit Sydney on the lookout for some work. Surprisly, Christmas seems to be a very bad time of year to get work so we left a bit deflated.....As usual though, we didn't stick, the next day we had landed ourselves a job.........picking and packing PEACHES!!!! We are currently LIVING AND WORKING on a peach farm in a small town called "Dural", 20 minutes North West of Sydney. It is hard and hot work but we are determined to stick it out till the New Year. We have always wanted to see the Sydney Harbour Bridge fireworks display on Hogmanay and staying in the job means we are able to do that. It is very expensive to stay anywhere in Sydney, also, everywhere is full so we had been wondering how we were going to manage the 31st...thankfully, we are sorted now! We have had lots of invitations for Christmas which has been lovely, some Austrailians celebrate Christmas on the 24th!! so why shouldn't we :-) We are joining a guy called 'Phil' and his family on the 24th for Christmas Dinner. He lives in a rented house on the farm (and very kindly lets us use his shower and house etc)... and on the 25th, we are having Christmas Breakfast with 'Toni', his wife, 5 children and 11 grandchildren!! (Wendy works for Toni on the farm, carrying his boxes of peaches to and from the tractor and picking the lower peaches off the tree's). In the "avo", we are hitting the surf for the traditional Aussie Xmas, opening a few beers and firing up the BBQ. It's very hard to believe it's that time of year here, its SOOOO hot and not many decorations up around the towns. Edna is in the festive spirit though, she has Christmas lights all around her roof heehee. Our plans from January to March are to either take Edna to Melbourne, or sell her in Sydney :-( and get ourselves to Melbourne some other way! We have made friends with people from Melbourne and Ballarat and would like to see them before we leave. We are also going to try to fit in a visit to Ayres Rock, Alice Springs and Tasmania, all before we fly over to New Zealand on the 4 March 2005!
Well folks, we hope you enjoy reading our update and we hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and all the best for the New Year. We'll be seeing you before we know it!!
23rd September 2004 - 4.36pm
HI everyone. A wee update on our journey in Edna so far........................ She's absolutely brilliant....we're having an absolute ball in her.....brill fun. We left Port Douglas on Friday morning and had a night in Atherton in The Tablelands b4 heading down the Coast. We stopped off at Mission Beach for 2 nites which woz brill. The beach woz gorgeous....clear water, blue skies and sunshine all day, then at nite we saw the most amazing sunset - it woz beautiful....the pinks in the sky were amazing. After Misson Beach we headed to Townsville, but didnt like it so much there.....it woz an Industrial town and not really very much to see so we drove about an hour down the road and stopped off at Ayr for the nite.....that woznt that great either....totally dated....shops were ancient hehe. After Ayr we went to Airlie Beach (we stayed there for 3 nites. Its woz really nice....like a mini Ibiza....lots of backpackers, with a great atmosphere. There woz a really nice beach down at the front but the majority of the people sunbathed at The Lagoon which had a HUGE swimming pool in the centre of town. We went on a cruise to 2 of the Whitsunday Islands - 1st stop woz at Hamilton Island which woz really nice - lots of nice little boutiques and restaurants....there's no cars on the Island so they rent out golf buggies for the day. We didnt take one tho as they were wanting $45 for 2 hours!!!!! PFFFFT!!! bugga that!!!! so we just walked round. We stopped there for 2 hours before heading off to Whitehaven Island. On board ship we got an amazing BBQ with grilled steaks, burgers, sausages, fish and loads of different types of salads & fruits....so nice. Whitehaven Island is by far the best beach we've seen yet. Looked like how you would imagine Paradise to look like....absolutely stunning.....silca sand (totally white and when u walked on it it squeaked hehe) with crystal clear waters. We're totally got a bit burnt....put loads of 30+ SPF cream on but it woz roasting hot. We stayed there for about 2 1/2 hours before heading back to Shute Harbour. It woz so funny coz when we were sitting having lunch 2 girls sat next to us and they started speaking away and guess wot.....they were from DUNDEE!!!!!!! Couldnt believe it of all the people to sit next too we sat next to Dundonians LOL!!! They were really nice. They've been in Sydney for the last 9 months and absolutely loved it there. They were 25, went to St Johns High School and one of them knew loads of people Gillian knew.....small world eh!!!! We headed further down south to Rockhampton....it was about a 6 hour drive....a bit long but Edna did well. She's a wee bit gutsy on the petrol but we've sussed it out that if we sit at 90kms/per hour she doesnt go thru as much....but its a bit of a minta coz everyone keeps overtaking us. One thing for sure....we'll deffo not get a speeding ticket!!!!! Ach its fine tho coz it means we see loads which is great and we're not in a hurry anyhoos so its fine. From Rockhampton we went to Hervey Bay...stayed there for 2 nites then headed down to Noosa. Hervey woznt how we'd imagined it. We were going to go to Fraser Island but it worked out too expensive for a day trip so decided not to go. We stayed a nite in Noosa....looked for employment but no luck so decided to head down to Brisbane...on the way down we spotted a strawberry farm just at Eumundi (20kms from Noosa). We went in asked if they had any work - think our Scottish accents worked again hehe...seemingly they've been turning people away, so now we're official berry picker/packers!!!!! hehe. Its hard work...start at 6am and finish at 3pm!!! We're in agony...our backs and legs ache and its really hot too! Not too worry tho....quick cash for 3 weeks work hehe
Hope everyones had a good summer. We'll keep you updated on our travels in Edna :o)
We would like to introduce you all to our new travelling companion, Edna (pictures above).....She is an older model campervan (1977) with loads of style and character - she's a beauty. She has a fridge/freezer and a cooker with a gas stove, oven and grill (which is great - we can cook our Sunday roasts in the Van hehe). We bought her on Tuesday from a guy from Cardiff who is heading home next week - he was very upset seeing her go but he knows she is in good hands now. She was already named Edna when we bought her :o) She is a Nissan E20 - Pop-Top - seats 5, sleeps 4. She came with loads of extra's, a huge awning, 3 man tent, BBQ, 2 fishing rods and takle, A SURFBOARD!!, inflatable mattress for the tent, pots/pans, camping chair, oil lamps, frisbie, surveillence camera and video (dont think it will work but we'll try - spy on our neighbours heehee, hairdyrer, fan, toastie machine, heater (dont think we'll be needing that now though), storage box, gerry can, water tank, tool kit and box, digeridoo (nothing like as good as the one we bought mind you) etc etc We've spent every spare minute cleaning her out and pottering around with her - stopping for quick lunches and teas!! We keep finding wee things such as a nice long mirror, a mini rugby ball and a bright pink recorder!!! I think we will forget the sunbathing for the next few days - we are just wanting to get our old girl all ready for her travels. Today Gerry & his brother helped loads checking the engine, water tank, fridge (Gerry managed to get the fridge working off the gas & also the battery which is a huge bonus - means that its always cold, even when we're driving) and cooker. They even sprayed her wheel trims silver...makes such a huge difference, looks like shes got alloys now - and we didnt think she could look any better :o) We are planning to leave here next week - start our journey down the east coast. We are going to go over the tablelands, spending a few nights inland beside some famous falls and national parks. We will eventually come out at place called Innisfail which is about half way down the coast from Brisbane. We will be visiting Mission Beach, Arilie Beach, The Whitsundays, Fraser Island, Harvey Bay and Noosa before staying in Brisbane for a bit - hopefully do some work for a few weeks there to keep us going for a little while. Our biggest news ever is our families are both coming over to Sydney in November (Wendy's Mum, Aunty Jean and Cousin Jennifer and Gillian's mum and dad) We cant wait to move on from here, especially now with Edna and the thought of seeing everyone in November at the end of our long journey down is just amazing.
Congratulations to Jackie & Steve on the safe arrival of their beautiful little girl....Lauren Katie. Delighted to hear that you're all doing well :o) xxx
Tuesday 3rd August - 9pm
WOOHOO - we've reached the 1000+ hit mark on our website :o) We hope you're still enjoying following us on our travels hehe.
Sorry we've left you in suspense since our last update re our exciting adventure of 31st July (esp Mr & Mrs Farquharson!!). We were booked to do a 14,000ft "Legend" skydive down in Cairns. After lots of discussion though, we decided not to go ahead with it just now as we're heading down the Coast at the end of August and are hoping to buy a car or campervan rather than going by bus or train. A skydive is definately on our "to-do" list and there's plenty more opportunities further down the Coast. We felt that our main priority at the moment was buying a car/campervan and the cost of us both to do "the jump" nearly covers one!!!
Gerry (our manager) is really generous to us and gives us a shot of his car whenever we need it, which is cool. Last Monday he took us all to the Low Isles (in his speedboat) which is a little island about 30mins from here. It was absolutely brilliant on the Island; we all went snorkelling and saw some amazing fish. We actually saw more there than we did when we went out with Aristocat to the Great Barrier Reef. The Low Isles is still the Great Barrier Reef?there’s just not so much corals but there’s plenty of fish there! We swam next to a HUGEEEEE turtle?it was brilliant. We also saw loads of Barracuda’s (which look like little sharks...we totally pooped our pants!! hehe) and huge parrotfish. We stayed at the Island for a couple of hours before heading back. The next day we were invited to play golf with Gerry and 5 of his friends (a 40th birthday). We played at Mossman Golf Course which is about 30mins from here....not the best course in the world but was great to have a hit again. The weather was brill too....cant beat a game in the sun followed by a cold beer :o)
The weather has been absolutely amazing here the last few days. We went through a little bad spell (still in the high 20's though!!), but suppose we cant complain it is the Aussie winter after all hehe!
Well folks, we're away to dry off our beach towels ready for tommorrows sunbathing stint :o) Tatty-bye W & G xxxx
Saturday 10th July - 9.30pm Hey guys ?we have a bit of updating to do so I hope you have 5 minutes to have a read?. We moved into the house which is attached to the motel a couple of weeks ago, its really nice, its got Sky TV, DVD/Video player, a big living room with a nice blue leather settee and a kitchen with a cooker?.we’ve not cooked with a cooker since we left home, we’ve just been using a frying pan and a pot to cook with so it makes such a difference having a cooker and a grill. We share the house with Lise and Lisa (two 18 year olds from Victoria, Australia) and Matt and Hayley (23 & 25 year olds from Edinburgh). We get on really well with all of them. We all work really hard in the mornings just wanting to get the job done and get back up for lunch and then to the beach for the afternoon. We also do all the laundry ourselves so as you can imagine, the washer and dryer sometimes goes well after we have finished the rooms (sometimes till 9PM)! We also cover reception when the manager’s not around (mostly at nights if we are sitting in anyway) The reception work is ok, its pretty good chatting to people from all over the world!! Gillian was asked for directions over the phone the other day and the girl couldn’t understand her accent so she hung up heehee. We checked a couple in today and guess where they were from…………..Fintry in Dundee hehehe. We always forgot to say that when we first landed in Oz, we were served from someone from NEWBIGGING?.2 miles from Monifieth I think it must be?.it was quite unbelievable but she wasn’t too fussed!! We’ve also have a couple of shifts in the Ice-cream shop at the top of the road which is fine, it has computers with Internet access and also rents out DVD’s and videos. Its cool coz we get internet free and half price ice cream and DVD’s. Not sure if we’ll get anymore shifts as its not as busy as they thought it would be (it’s the school hols here, but its still not that busy) but we’re not that worried if we do get shifts or not. We get our rent free in the motel which is saving us loads of money so that the money we earn at the Ice-cream shop is just a little bonus (sweetie money hehe). We are both getting a bit of a belly, I think it’s all the bread and toast we are eating ?and of course, the half price ice-creams and shakes we get now at Wicked (Ice cream shop)! Nightmare ?the thick shakes are amazing. We haven’t tried a smoothie yet but are definitely tempted! We hired a car last week on one of our day’s off and went up to Kuranda (a small village in the rainforest ?about 1 ?hours South from here). There is a sky rail and scenic steam train runs to it too but we are going to do that later. Previous to going to Kuranda, we went into a didgeridoo shop in Port Douglas to have a look as they are so nice and sound amazing; anyway when we were in the shop we got speaking to the guy who was working there. He spoke to us for nearly an hour!! And honestly, Gillian and I thought he was never going to shut up…he was telling us that he’d just bought a brand new Mercedes car and that he owned a music company in Germany and all the time we were thinking to ourselves that he was just blethering rubbish. After him talking for about an hour he asked us if we could look after the shop for him while he nipped out to the chemist and we honestly thought that Jeremy Beadle was going to jump out from the room behind us hehe. We couldn’t believe that we were standing in the middle of this shop with around $500,000 worth of stock in it, and we were like “What are we gonna do if a customer comes in?!!?hehe. When he was out at the chemist he left us a CD to listen to and we discovered from the cover inside the CD that he did actually own a music company and that it was him that made the CD. The CD was didgeridoo music but in a dance kinda way. He’s played with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in the Royal Albert Hall and other locations throughout the world?.so it turns out that he is quite famous hehe. He played the didgeridoo for us and we stood there with our mouths wide open…he was absolutely brilliant…the noises that he made with it were awesome. He gave us a signed copy of his CD for looking after the shop which was brill hehe. We told him that we were interested in buying a didgeridoo so he invited us up to his other shop in Kuranda as it was better than the one in Port Douglas. So when we headed up to Kuranda last week we popped into see our “famous friend? Marshall, he showed us round his shop etc. It was AMAZING. It was shaped like Noah’s Ark with the most beautiful flooring. It was so full of didgeridoos and aboriginal artwork. We saw a really nice one and it was reduced by $80 so we decided to get it. It’s so cool and it’s got really nice paint work on the bottom of it. Marshall had promised us another one of his CD’s (which he signed) and he also gave us one of his “How to Play the Didgeridoo?CD’s which was good. We got our picture with him and have exchanged email addresses which is nice. We brought the didgeridoo back with us so that we can practice with it for a few weeks (We are dying to learn to play it so that we can give you all a tune when we come home…hehe. We’re going back to Kuranda in a few weeks to send it home coz its too big to carry around with us. We’re also wanting to do a Hot-Air Balloon Trip which is from Kuranda too, so we’ll probably do that on the same day ?the pick up is about 4.30AM or something so we catch sunrise. It is expensive just like everything else but suppose it’s a once in a lifetime experience so will be worth it. We’ve also been on another couple of trips too; we went with the manager’s friend (Jason) to the Daintree which was great. The Daintree is about 1 hours drive north of here. We went on the river cruise which took 1 ?hrs and saw lots of crocs etc ?it was nice ?really shallow but we didn’t see any crocs in the water, just muscles ?the crocs were just on the shore bits. We did see a couple of snakes and big brown birds that looked like eagles ?they were too quick for a photo unfortunately! We also went to Cape Tribulation which is on the same road as the Daintree but you turn off and head for a ferry before getting to the Daintree. Cape Tribulation was gorgeous, it’s the only place in the world where the Rainforest meets the Coral Reef. Unfortunately the day we went it was raining so we didn’t see it in its full glory but was still beautiful to see. We definitely chose the best time to do the dive and snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef, the weather has been much more variable recently (mind you the last couple of days have been brilliant), especially at nights we are noticing it much cooler ?(sweaters on). I think we’ve done pretty much all there is to do in Port Douglas and we’re starting to get itchy feet to move again so, we’re thinking about maybe leaving here at the start or middle of August and start heading down the Coast. We’re going head down to Brisbane, stopping off at Airlie Beach, Whitsunday Islands (theres 78 Islands and its supposed to be absolutely gorgeous there too), Fraser Island, Hervey Bay and Noosa, not sure how long we’ll spend in each place, just depends on what the places and weather are like hehe. Then from Brisbane we’re going to fly probably over to Alice Springs and Ayers Rock (Centre of Oz). We’d previously thought about going to Alice Springs and Ayers Rock but it was going to work out really expensive so we just kinda thought to ourselves that it was going to cost too much and kinda just dismissed it, but are definitely going to go now, everyone says it is in there top 3 trips so now we’re really excited at the thought of going. We can’t come all this way and not see Ayers Rock hehe.
We were going to stay in Port Douglas til about September but we’ve been here since the end of May and if we were to stay here til September that would be nearly 4 months that we’ve been here and we’ve only got 10 months in Australia and it would be silly to stay in one place for so long when there’s so much more to see in Australia. I don’t think we realised how big Australia was til we came but it’s HUGE!! It’s something like 7 times bigger than Britain hehe. We went to the Habitat Sanctuary, a zoo just along the road from where we stay. It’s a cool wee place with koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, different species of birds and ducks, crocodiles and frogs, and you can buy bags of food to feed the kangaroos. It’s so cute, they feed out of your hand and they’re so gentle when they take the food. We donated money to “save the koalas?and got a nice pic with one ?very very soft and so sleepy ?how cute??
Well guys, im sure you will have read enough for one day. We will be back on the 31 July hopefully with 2 photo's and news of ........????? We hope you are all well and enjoying the summer. Byeee xxx Monday 14th June - 6.15pm G'day, we've added a couple of pictures from the start of our travels....we'll change them quite regularly so that you can see where we've been etc. We've been working at Quattros (Restaurant to the Links Golf Club) but are packing it in as the guy who is supposedly the "Manager" is horrible to work for. The longest serving member of staff has lasted only 4 weeks so doesnt really say much for his managerial skills!!! We worked Saturday & Sunday from 2pm til 3.30am as there were a couple of weddings, one of our jobs consisted of moving heavy furniture (ranging from solid wooden chairs to antique bureaus and sofas) from the club outside....then bringing it in....then taking it back out!!!! and of course he stood and ordered/watched whilst we sweated it out!! Mind you he did try to move one table and nearly had a heart attack!! Our arms are aching today and Gillian has loads of bruises on her legs from where the chairs kept banging against them!! It was never mentioned in our job description that we were gonna be "furniture removal people" His wife isnt nice either mind you no wonder living with him! hehe We got on really well with the other staff and actually had a laugh at his expense....some of the stories they were telling us were really comical....cant really understand why and how he is still there!! He has no teeth, worn the same tee-shirt, shorts and shoes for 2 weeks and probably has not had a shower for longer than that!!! (bloody stunk!)....and this is a manager of a 5 star resort...the resort/restaurant staff dont eat there, they go into town for lunch etc! We're not scared of hard work but we've never experienced or heard of working conditions like that. We've been offered housekeeping work at the apartments we're in, starting at 9am and finishing at 12pm 5 days a week and in return, getting our room rent free...so that's cool. We're starting next week which is fine, gives us time to practice doing "hospital corners" with the bedsheets!! hehe :o) Weather is still great even although its the aussies winter...we're reaching between 26-29 degrees here which apart from Darwin is pretty much the hottest place.....ah this is the life hehe Who knows wot we'll get up to next week....we might do a scenic steam engine/skyrail tour from Cairns to Kuranda (a village in the middle of the rainforest) We'll keep you updated as usual hehe ;o) Gonna go now coz we're addicted to Neighbours and the Oz Big Brother.....its nominations night 2nite so cant miss that one hehe...feeling like the locals now...even occassionaly sound like one :o) P.S.....we've got a wee pet in our room called Izzy....picture to follow soon hehe Monday 7 June - 3.55pm HAPPY BITHDAY MUM MILLER - HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY
Thursday 3rd June - 9.49pm After the excitement of the G.B.R, we had a chilling day fishing last thursday. We hired rods from Dougies hostel and bought frozen prawns for bait n went to the public jetty. It was absolutely roasting hot. It was SO funny, when we got there we realised we didn't have a clue what to do...luckily enough after about 10 - 15 minutes of struggling to just put the prawn on the hook, a local fisherman pulled up in his boat. He must have felt sorry for us and offered us some help. He showed us how to tie the hook properly and also how to put the prawns on heeheee. Five minutes after he left, we were into our first catch. G sweating, vigorously reeling it in as fast as her hands could go, shouting "THIS IS SUCH A HUGE FISH....ITS SO HEAVY!!" We waited anxiously to see wot kind of "shark" woz on the end of the line and when it finally came to the surface we couldn't believe our eyes, our catch woz a.......broken bottle of Castlemaine XXXX with a consolation prize of a tiny little fish inside hehehe it woz SOOOO funny. After that we did actually catch some - 8 in total...quite big ones too hehe It was horrible taking the hook out of their mouths as they wriggled about before putting them back We didnt keep any as we felt sorry for them!! We only stayed at the Jetty for a couple of hours as we were getting fried!! We've found a shop round the corner from where we're staying that hires rods so we'll deffo be going fishing again :o)We've been invited out for a days fishing from the guy who helped us with our hooks. He has a boat and said that we were welcome to join him. We moved accommodation on Saturday to a self-catering apartment. The guy who owns them is giving it to us for the same rate as we were paying at the hostel which is brill. We've got our own shower and kitchen - its great...makes such a difference!! And its only a stones throw away from the beach and a 2 minute walk to the centre :o) We hired a car on Tuesday and Wednesday. We had a few odds 'n' ends to do in Cairns on Tuesday and on Wednesday we headed to Mossman and Cape Tribulation. Mossman is only about 30kms north of Port Douglas. It has the most AMAZING rainforest and gorge...everything is so green! The trees have the weirdest shaped trunks! The waterfalls and waterpools are beautiful, the water is so clear. We didnt swim in the waterpools as there were signs saying that it was dangerous as the currents were strong etc. Unfortunately it rained the whole day, but it didnt make a difference in the rainforest hehe. We walked around the 2km circuit which took about 45mins..it was so nice. We had to walk over a suspension bridge to get from one side to the other and when we got off our legs felt like we were still on it for the rest of the day hehe. The village of Mossman is mainly "abo" inhabited and the place looked centuries out of date. It was really bizarre! To get to Cape "Trib", a $20, 75 yard "ferry" crossing over the Daintree River is the only way. It took an hour to drive to and the roads were so horrible....total bends all the way up!! The viewpoints were unfortunately a bit wasted as it was so cloudy and rainy. When we eventually got to Cape Trib we were quite disappointed, it wasnt really what we expected it. The beach was beautiful (even in the rain) and there were a few boardwalks which we could have done, but other than that there wasnt really much else there. Its the only place in the world where the coral meets the rainforest. We were lucky enough to find a small piece of "brain" coral...we'll deffo make room for that in the rukky's. We also took a picture of a HUGE clam but could hardly lift it so we deffo wouldnt manage that in the rukky!! Our last piece of news this week is that we have both got part time work at"The Links Golf Club" behind the bar. We'll keep you posted with how it goes...not wanting to say too much yet as its early doors and there may be work at the Pro Shop once they start getting busy in a couple of weeks. Gonna sign off now as we've gotta be up at 5.15am to start at 6am tommorrow!!! Night night for now G & W xxxxxxxxx 26th May 04 - 9.52pm Hey folks, we are now in Port Douglas, moved here on Saturday and are absolutely loving it. Its a seaside holiday resort with 2 really nice golf courses. Port Douglas is just one hours drive north of Cairns and in the Tropical Rainforest...it has actually rained a couple of times since we got here but the weather is still fantastic, around 29 degrees every day. We are staying at Dougies Backpackers Resort which is good, its got a swimming pool, TV/games rooms and bar and is not far from the main centre. Dougies rent bikes so its perfect for going in for shopping etc. We're planning on going to the golf courses looking for a job, fingers crossed - its coming into their busy golfing season so hopefully they'll be looking for 2 young enthusiastic golfers like ourselves hehe - we would love to stay here for a little while. We liked Cairns but every second shop in the town sold tee-shirts and souvenirs, tourism has definately taken over! As we mentioned before, Cairns doesnt have a beach so we took a couple of bus trips to Palm Cove and Yorkeys Knob, the beaches there were really nice, but when we were at Yorkeys Knob its was really windy and we got covered in sand so we didnt stay there long! When we were in Cairns we had a shot of a didgeredoo, it was so funny. You have to kinda blow your lips gently to make a noise. Gillian and I were absolutely killing ourselves laughing, but we did manage to make a little sound through it! Now the best bit so far..........We had the most amazing day today. We went on a snorkelling and diving trip to the Great Barrier Reef. We boarded "The Aristocat"(have a peek)at 8.30am and headed for the Great Barrier Reef. It took 2 hours to get to our first stop...The Swallow Reef, here we got briefed about our dive by the staff who then put us in groups. Gillian and I were totally hyper at the thought of doing our first dive. The staff talked over hand signals for when we were underwater and also a few safety precautions we had to take with our breathing equipment. We then got kitted out with our weight belts, our diving jacket and oxygen cyclinders (just about as heavy as our rucksacks!!) at this point there was no heading hehe!! We went down 15 metres and were underwater for around 25 minutes. It was absolutely awesome, a really strange feeling but totally amazing. The fish and coral were out-of-this-world. We had to pinch ourvselves as we couldnt believe we were diving in the "G.B.R" - the greatest Marine Park in the World!!! WOOOOOW :o) We then sailed for about 15 minutes to another Reef called "The Playground Reef". Here we got kitted out with our snorkelling gear and went on a tour of the Reef. The tour guide was brilliant, he would dive right down to the bottom of the seabed (without any breathing equipment on) and bring different types of corals up. He also brought to the surface a HUGE black slug!! Honestly it was bigger than a shower loofah!! and when you touched it it left a resin which looked like blood! Snorkelling was BRILL fun, we were able to touch the fish and guess what......WE FOUND NEMO hehe There were loads of Nemos along with so many other different types of fish, all weird shapes/colours and sizes. The corals were also beautiful, their colours ranged from white to vivid purples and blues. On board we got a really nice buffet lunch with a cheese and fresh fruit platter as we sailed back home under the clear blue skies. To finish our brilliant day, we went to The Catcus Bar & Grill and had huge plates of chicken fajitas and a chilled Castlemaine XXXX We're going to hire a car for a day next week and head to Mossman and Cape Tribulation. Mossman Gorge seemingly has little waterpools that you can swim in and Cape Trib is the closest place to the "G.B.R" so who knows we might have another dive hehe! Well folks thats about all our news for now, we hope tommorrow will be another roasting hot day as we're going fishing hehe G's dad is so jealous ;o) ANNIE AND STEVE BEST WISHES FOR YOUR BIG DAY ON SUNDAY. WE'RE THINKING ABOUT YOU BOTH LOADS. CANT WAIT TO HEAR ALL ABOUT IT - love W & G xxxxxxx 19th May 04 - 9.35pm Hey guys, we are now in Cairns and its absolutely roasting!! 28 degrees and not a cloud in the sky :o) Our tans are now starting to develop, much to our delight. We are having to wear factor 20 suntan lotion coz the sun is so strong! We are staying in the centre of town in a hostel called Caravella 77. Its really nice with its own saltwater swimming pool, which is perfect for cooling down in. Cairns has a nice centre with plenty shops. Its quite bizarre coz its right at the sea but it has no beach! Fortunately we can hop on a bus and get a beach just a few kilometres up the road. We're moving up to Port Douglas on Saturday for one week, which has a famous 4 mile beach and are planning on doing a bit of snorkelling/diving in the Great Barrier Reef when we're there. The tours are quite expensive, but we cant come to Cairns and not see "The Reef" and do a bit of snorkelling/diving. The locals are really friendly and laidback..they dont do anything in a hurry. Its really funny coz everyone here either walks about in their bare feet or in their "thongs" (aussie for flip-flops). We decided that we had to fit in with the local attire and bought ourselves a pair of thongs.....only wore them for about 20mins and our feet were agony!!! loads of blisters!! So we're now covered in sticky plasters between our toes hehe Hmmmm....not so cool huh!!! There's about 6 or 7 golf courses in the area so we're going to go round them to see if there's any jobs going. If not, we'll just have a few games!! They rent clubs....Callaway irons and ERC drivers....wot more could we ask for. Well thats about all our news for now. Signing out. Away to get a half price neck & shoulder massage from a stall in the indoor Night Market :o) G & W xxxxxxxx
16th May 04 - 2.35pm The last 5 days have been BRILL :o) We hired a campervan on Wednesday (felt like Thelma and Louise hehe) and drove up North, stopping off in Geraldton for one night, before heading further up north to a place called Kalbarri. Kalbarri was really nice, it was a little seaside village, with a really nice beach. The weather was a lot warmer up there, so we managed to sunbathe for a few hours. We'd hoped to go up to Monkey Mia, which is supposed to be absolutely amazing, dolphins and whale sharks come onto the shore to be fed and you're free to swim with them. Unfortunately, it was too far for the time that we had as it's not recommended that you drive in the dark as the kangaroos get mesmerised by the cars lights and they jump out in front of the cars etc. We decided that it was best just to go as far up as Kalbarri (493km from Perth) then slowly head back down to Perth. We covered 1063 kms in 4 days, which was quite a lot of driving (the roads aren't like ours...and there's not much to see between towns, even the towns aren't much to write home about hehe) but it was well worth it and we had such a laugh. We felt like we were official members of "The Campervan Club" as everyone who was driving one waved as they went passed hehe. Everyone is so friendly and laidback, the locals always ask how your day is and thats just walking past them in the street! :o) We've dropped the Van off now and are heading to Cairns tonight....YIPPEE cant wait as the weather is supposed to be so nice (its not been that nice here only been around 21 degrees and had quite a lot of rain, had the most amazing thunder and lightning storm last night) Our flight is at 10.30pm, so in the meantime, we've booked into a really cool hostel which is just about 10/15mins away from the airport. We dont get into Cairns until 4.30am (9 hours ahead of you guys back home) but the hostel which we've booked into are letting us into our room when we arrive, which is cool ;o) They're even going to refund us our taxi fare from the airport hehehe
We spoke about going to Ayers Rock/Alice Springs, but have since decided not to go as its so expensive to get there. It would cost us around $2000 to get there with just a 3 day tour. Its a bit of a bumma coz we feel that its a shame to come all this way and not see Ayers Rock, but who knows, there's still the opportunity of going from the East Coast if we change our minds. Once we find our feet in Cairns we'll update the site to let you know how we're getting on ;o) Bye for now W & G xxxxx
7th May 04 - 3.15pm Thats us been in Oz over a week and we're having an absolute BALL so far :o) seems like we've been away from home for ages, and yet each day passes so quickly. Unfortunately we've only 2 nights left at our "luxury" apartments, and have booked ourselves into hostels until next Wednesday. We're staying in a newly built hostel in Northbridge for 1 night on Sunday, then head to a little beach town called Cottlesloe, where we're staying at The Ocean Beach Backpackers hostel for 2 nights. From there, we're thinking about heading to Alice Springs/Ayers Rock then over to Cairns. 3rd May 04 - 12.33pm (still 7 hours ahead of GMT) We are now in Perth Australia and trying to find our feet. We stayed in The Sullivans Hotel for the last few nights and are moving on today to self-catering apartments, right on the waters edge....overlooking Swan River and over to the City. Perth is a beautiful city with lots of little bistros and street entertainment. We're planning on staying here a wee while and having a few day trips to Rottnest Island, Fremantle and hopefully swimming with the dolphins. Campervans are not that expensive so we may hire one for a week and travel up north to Alice Springs/Ayers Rock...but we'll see what the other alternatives are first. Its great as there's free buses within the City which run every 15 minutes, and also a lot of people cycle their way round too. The weather is gorgeous here...shorts and tee-shirts during the day, although at nights it does get cooler (still better than Bonnie Dundee tho! hehe). Away to grab some lunch now. Hope you're all well :o) 25th April 04 - 9.50pm We've just arrived in Singapore after 4 days in Bangkok! So HOT here...90 - 100 degrees!! Our hotels have been really posh.....total 5 stars!!!
Bangkok was good, our hotel was out of the centre but very nice. The smells on the street were quite something else!! The locals did their cooking on the streets in pots and pans then cleaned the plates with dirty water on the side road YUCK!! needless to say we didnt eat there hehe!! We went to 3 City Temples where we saw The Golden Buddha, The Reclining Buddha and The Marble Temple, we also went to the Grand Palace....it was absolutely roasting and we didnt realise that we had to wear shoes which covered our feet and long trousers/skirts, so they provided us with lovely black socks, shoes and a wrap-a-round skirt!! This was on top of what we were already wearing!!! The buildings at the Grand Palace were beautiful - so different to ours (unfortunately we didnt have a camera). We also took a boat ride on the Canal, it took us through little wooden shacks where the locals live....unbelievable poverty!! Felt sorry for them!! We also went to a street market at night and had a shot on a Tuk Tuk.....totally pooping our pants hehehe was good fun tho.
Singapore looks really nice and safe we've not ventured out of the hotel as its 9.15pm and tired from flight etc, cant wait to see it in the daylight 2mo - We're gonna go to Sentosa Island by cable car tommorrow, and have a wee shot on the MRT. Thanks again to all our family and friends for their overwhelming generosity and good luck wishes. We'll miss you all loads....remember to keep in touch with all your news when we're away hehe. Our route is Bangkok, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Honolulu and Las Vegas. We hope to keep our website updated regularly for you to follow us on our journey through Oz. The above "Arrow" link is for the Hit Counter only. It is not related to our page.
We've been to Freemantle (Freo) on the train. It actually wasn't what we'd imagined, but was still good to see. We ended up in the prison......well not actually in the Prison!! We took a guided tour. We were totally shocked to discover there had been 2 Roy's and 5 James Miller's that had been deported from Edinburgh and Glasgow between 1850 - 1930's!! (hopefully none of our distant relatives hehe).
We went to Rottnest Island by ferry yesterday to do some serious sunbathing, we're sticking out like "sore thumbs", esp when we walk past "the Abo's". Talking about Abo's there are 4 in our block and they are quite unbelievable. They've been flown esp to Perth on training courses and are the real outback bush-tucker Aborigines. They are scared of civilisation, our food and are actually ill with this way of life. They are used to eating guana and grubs, and one girl who took ill only wanting to be cured by a Witch Doctor!!!
We've made our first major purchase....we bought a digital camera to capture all the sights we are seeing, but I dont think we'll call ourselves "David Bailey" quite yet!!
Watch this space for some of our photos (once we get used to the camera). Tatty-bye for now.....G & W xxxxx
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