Goodbye Aus, hello 'land of the long white cloud'

Our last day in Aus was a great send off. We went to Bondi for a few hours followed by a few ends of lawn bowls at Coogee lawn bowls club. My bowling was unfortunately not up to scratch, couldn't quite get my length right. Definitely not used to the speed of the greens in Australia.

To top it off we had a fine sunset BBQ at the beach starring Aussie lamb and some Kangaroo sausages.

It was sad once again to say goodbye to great friends, but we have had an awesome time in Aus, and when we come back in august for Monikas wedding, hopefully the weather will be better and we'll get to do the things we couldn't on this trip 

Australia day

Well we started the day off on Maroubra beach for a surf and headed to Darling harbour for the evenings celebrations with Mark & his mates. They do know how to celebrate in Aus and the fireworks display which reportedly cost AU$1m went on for about 20min left my jaw gaping and ears ringing. Truly amazing. 

On our way home that evening after some quiet beers and not so quiet Jaegermeisters we had to rescue this girl who had just been beaten up by her boyfriend. It was quite disturbing and we called the police to come and speak to her. Hopefully they managed to catch up with the guy.

The party moved seamlessly onto Mark's apartment unfortunately I'm under oath not to divulge the details of the evening. We did have an extended day lazing on the sofa with an Australia day hangover, an unbelievable waste of time!

Sydney extension

Susanne & Rhys managed to catch a cold or some sort of Aussie flu from the evening at the movies, but Rhys being a Kiwi, was able to shake it off. Susanne however, was forced to take some days off work. They not so strong this side of the Tasmin sea.

Great news is that we extended our stay in Sydney till after the weekend to catch the great weather we're currently having.

One great thing to do in Sydney is the Coogee to Bondi walk. It goes along the coastline giving you spectacular views as well as a great workout. After 3km up and down stairs, you deserve a rest on Bondi beach and today did not disappoint, so we stayed there till dusk enjoying the unusually quiet beach and great waves.

I did attempt to run this route later in the week but soon realised I'm not quite as fit as I was on the start of the this trip. Not happy :(

TBC

Susanne orgainsed us tickets to this open air movie screening opposite the harbour bridge. It was showing 'Charlie Wilson's War' (Julia Roberts), so I was not going to miss it come rain or shine. Sadly we got the rain, so for a few a few hours everyone sat in the drizzle enjoying a great movie while I ogled Julia. Definite highlight of Sydney so far.

We also managed to hook up with Mel & Alan and I got to get a little practice with the baby. I do love a cute baby smile, but when they cry, could you please take them the hell away. Alan does have the most bizarre way to him and his humour is a little off the wall, so there is never a dull moment. Their house does have an unbelievable amount of mozzies flying around at night, so when I was sleeping I was forced to do the face slap once they landed on me. Very sore, but very successful.

A week off traveling

After hard constant traveling, it was good to get to get to Sydney and relax  for a while. Our first day we never even ventured out of the house. It obviously never helped that Aus - India test match was on as well as the Aussie Open tennis. I was also catching up on the blog and Celia was tucked into Anthony Kedis' autobiography which i must definitely read. Those guys were on so much drugs and truly demented. It's quite sad, but I find it hilarious at the same time. In the one section they were so wasted on some drug that they thought watermelon would clear out their system, so they bought loads and loads of watermelon and ate only that for weeks. Too funny.

The first weekend we managed loads, great pizza with Mark, John and Catherine. Hillsong Sydney with Bobby Houston, as well as a surf at Manly beach. The weather is a bit up and down but so far not bad.

Sydney here we come

Had some great coffee this morning at 'Frothy Coffee' on the lakes. What a view and I could have stayed there for many hours more. 

We tried our hardest to fit another nights good camping in before we got to Sydney, but by the time Celia had packed  the tent up and I had come back from my run on the beach, the rain came back with vicious force. Everywhere we went was waterlogged so we laughed it off and headed for Sydney for a visit with Rhys & Susanne.

On the way we stopped off at the tallest tree in NSW which lead you through this 'enchanted'  forest which had these mini Wallaby / Kangaroos running around. The tree was big as the label said, but there is something underwhelming about looking at a tree, no matter how many hundred meters tall it it. 

We did not posses a Sydney map, so when we arrived we were completely lost. Driving over the Harbour Bridge was fun though. Eventually after negotiating a couple toll roads we found the center of town and the most expensive parking lots in the world.

Rhys and Susanne have a lovely place in Coogee and after dropping off our bags, we headed out to eat some Thai. I'm loving the restaurants in Aus as the majority of them are BYO (bring your own booze) and you can get merry at a fraction of a price. 

A bit of tranquility

I went for an epic run down the beach today all the way to the northern head where I could watch the surfers ripping it up. I also saw this massive fish leap from the water past the rocks. These things I like to wake up to!

Celia & I went for a swim later that morning then took some pretty good surf pics before we had to head down south again.

What an awesome day of weather we had and when we finally pitched our at Booti-Booti National Park just a bit past Forsters, the sky had an inviting braai colour to it. Not being one to turn down an invitation, we stopped off to get some meat and I got a new pair of 'thongs' - Australian flip-flops, next door at the same time.

We had a great BBQ and I went down to the beach afterwards to watch some guys fishing and to drink the last remaining XXXX.

This has been the most beautiful campsite we have stayed in so far. Perched on the back of a 7 mile beach and flanked by forest covered cliffs, you cannot ask for much more (no dolphins this time). Well maybe I'd ask for the drizzle to go away that started up again.

The silver screen

With the rain coming down we headed for Coffs Harbour and to see Emerald beach as there are meant to be Kangaroos running around on there. I guess they were also sick of the rain as the beach was sans Kangas. We did find an ultra modern campsite in Coffs Harbour though, so through the relentless rain we pitched our tent and came to the executive decision to head for the movies.

As  fortune would have it (thank you Lord), the only movie starting in the next hour was 'American Gangster'. I got my obligatory popcorn and coke, opting on this occasion for the packet of M&M's mixed in with the popcorn(thanks Allister V for introducing me to this tasty treat) and enjoyed one of the great films i have seen in the last year.

When we got out the rain had ended for a while but would return again throughout the night finding ways through the porous base of our tent.

A few observations I have made today that i would like to share with you:

1. We need to return this hire car, my trainers and dirty towel have made it stink
2. You are not really Australian unless you have three surfboards on your roof rack and 3 fishing rods strapped next to them  
3. I miss the road trip music we used to listen to as kids with my parents. I promise to get some Frankie Lane, Queen, and Cliff Richard for our next road trip (not quite sure how Celia will feel about this)

The rain is back

We heard it was coming & now we knew our last few days of sun we're a total fluke. When the weather is like this and you are traveling somewhere new, it doesn't spoil the experience, it just makes you more reluctant to do anything.

So after the hundredth beautiful beachside town we landed at Byron Bay. This legendary town would surely inspire some life into us.

Not happening...

We drove around a while and saw the the amazing bay and lighthouse, but now it was time to find a place to camp. Ha.. this place has been booked up for months. The reception staff we basically laughing at us. Fortunately we lucked out and from a good piece of advice ended up at Broken Heads Beach caravan park. Despite the rain, this place was beautiful and out tent site had an unrestricted 180deg view of the ocean. This was also prime camping real estate at $44 a tent site for the night... jaw dropping.

Down at the store where we stopped in to pick up dinner, I finally caught my first glimpse of of the famous Kookaburra from Australia. What a sighting too, a pair of them laughing away and posing so fantastically on the tree branch for the camera. Well pleased!

Gold Coast

The Gold coast was a blur.. seriously. We spent half a day looking for the Billabong factory shop in Burley but laughed that off and headed on south. We did see some great places beyond Surfers Paradise though. Just short of Coolongata or that general area are some great beaches and BBQ spots on the beach. Did I tell you that in Aus there are free BBQ's on 99% of the beaches and parks. We stayed the night in Tweed Heads and it was fantastic. Again a great campsite just back from the estuary - what more can you ask for? Maybe some dolphins at sunset.. oh yes, they were there too sharing the break with the surfers. They spent hours dancing around in the waves and we spent hours loving the place and wildlife.

Tweed Heads is also on the border of QLD & NSW which have an hour time difference between them. The NSW(halers) and the rest of the coastal states are always saying how backward QLD(ers) are so they never could adapt to daylight savings. If it's any consolation we could never apply it in South Africa either, too much confusion!!

It kind of reminds me of living in London when the clocks go back and you get an extra hour partying at night.

....anyway

So we're still in Brisbane

It's Sunday and we're still in Brisbane. Dunno how that happened.... we were only meant to stay night.

We felt at home though and Bruce & Anne have a lovely family. They really understand eachother and the kids are so well behaved but at the same time a ton of fun. No idea how they do it.

Yesterday Bruce & I took the boys Josh and Senan to the public pools while the women shopped (Celia's delay tactics). I had so much fun looking after them, but it was hard not to spend more time with Senan who is fearless and just wants to be crazy the whole time. 

We watched "The Heartbreak Kid", Ben Stillers latest installment. He is unbelievably funny. You have to watch it, if only for the hilarious bedroom scenes which are cringeworthy funny.

Happy wife - happy life

Write that down.

We met up with Marcia and Jason today. But first. This morning Celia, Anne, Josh & Senan, who are Annes sons went for a walk through Mt. Coot-tha reserve. Dog came along too so it could yap at strangers. The walk was going along peachy until this Maltese (dog) startign yepping like mad. There weas no one else around so we stopped to see what the deelio was. as the only grown(sort of) man in the group, I took my spider web breaking stick and edged forward (dog still yapping - but louder). I glanced over to my right and not more than a yard away was, in my eyes, the most venomous snake I had ever laid my eyes on. Whether it was venomous or not is inconsequesntial, but I'm claiming a 'Brown snake', equals highly venomous. For all of us it was quite a scare, but for Celia "John Varty - even when I get the shakes I get the shots" dos Santos. She wanted to get right behind the thant lens and hammer away at the shutter. Great news for all involved, the snake went its own way, confused I'm sure by the dogs incessent barking. Hail the mutt!!

Back to Jason & Marcia. So we went with them to the Koala sanctuary and this was to be the greatest day in Celias life bar none. The reserve was great. Saw some sheep dog herding, fed some more kangs, saw my first kookaburra (sadly in a cage) but the icing on the cake was Celia holding a Koala. The look in her eyes as she held that animal was one of absolute pleasure. A pleasuse I did not even see in her eyes when we said our vows on our wedding day. The tears were close to flowing...

The picture is great though, looks like the Koala is holding her boob :)

Unfortunately it was time to say goodbye to our good friends, Marcia & Jason. Till when I am not sure. We'll try again in the week, or maybe in August for Monika & Jeremy's wedding.

The Gabba

We explored the Glasshouse mountains for a couple hours and set off for Brisbane. On the way I heard there was a Twenty 20 cricket game on at the Gabba that night. It's not quite test cricket, but i'll take whatever I can get. We went to the internet cafe in town and snapped up a pair of tickets, made some calls and headed to see an old friend of Celia's from home(Germiston).

What happened next i could've probably predicted. Celia & the girls got chatting and on the wine, so cricket for her was a non starter, I had to find a new cricket partner. Enter stage Bruce (Anne - Celia's old mates husband) and Piet (another wine and gossip widower) to head off to the cricket. I'm not going to bore you with all the highlights of the match, but Queensland thumped Tasmania with a solid, aggressive batting display quickly enough to allow us time to catch dinner when we got home.

Oh and I have to tell you about Celia's mate Iris who ended the evening with one of those sports breathing plasters on her nose while we were chatting at the dinner table. You have no idea, I nearly wet myself. Who does that? It could be the funniest moment on this trip to date. Apologies if she does actually have breathing difficulties, but please warn me next time so my beer doesn't actually come out of my nose.

Home of the croc hunter

Finally managed to get an Aussie adaptor for our electrics at the "Big W". Unforfortunately we had nowhere to charge it before our next great adventure at Australia Zoo, crikey!

All hyped up, I barely flinched at the "Out of Africa" priced entrance fee. It's for Steve I thought. Celia couldn't really shut up about the Koalas, but I don't blame her, when we did see them they were bloody cute.

I saw my forst Komodo Dragon ever. Pretty intimidating with its teeth and its size, i was thankful it was behind half an inch of glass.

Oh yes, back to the Koalas. We arrived in time for their performance about their habitat, diet and the whole spiel... They are just unbelievably cute and after the show you can give them a pat. Celia will never wash that hand i'm sure. I just can't wait to get my teeth into a Koala burger!(just for you Chris)

The rest of the zoo was pretty cool. Loved the wombats as I had never seen them before, they're huge. Went to see the croc show and birds of prey show but left them both wanting more. It might be the strict health and safety laws in Aus, but the shows in SA (not South Australia) are much more interactive and all rounf more interresting. Having said that, the facilities in Australia Zoo are second to none. The "Crocoseum" where they have the croc shows can seat about two thousand people, and the elephant enclosure has its own forest where they go after working hours. Maybe they goto make "trunk" calls?.... you see what I did there.. the elephants have trunks. I know that was a dreadful joke!!

We decided to camp out in the Glasshouse Mountains after the zoo, and oh yes my camera battery did die halfway through the zoo, but I did manage to get 300+ Koala pics and Celia feeding Kangaroo pics.

the mountains were amazing to see after so much coast and there is a whole story behind them which you can read on Wikipedia. Here we stayed at the worst campsite to date. It was basically a farmer that wanted a quick buck so he called his backyard a campsite. I did manage to hear my first Laughing Kookaburra though which sounds a lot like a monkey. Can't wait to actually see one.

To soften thr blow we went to the local villiage and bought some great Aussie lamb, beef sausages and pork ribs, you swear we were cooking for 10. To wash it down, some aweragely priced Aussie red (screwtop essential).

The rain that evening helped us to sleep and it was the forst good rain since we had camped. Our $39 tent passed the waterproof test with flying colours. Great success!!

Sunshine coast

Well the sunshine coast was living up to its name so far and Maroochyadore (I think thats how its spelled) looked spectacular. We manged to negotiate the traffic as it was starting to get busy here in the sunshine coast. did I tell you we have the lastest Renault Megane as a rental car. Doesn't even have a key, just a card and a start button. I could easily have one of those.

The campsite was great if not a little expensive, $32 for a a piece of grass we can put our tent on seems a bit off the mark. The campsite was right on the beach, so after the tent was up Celia and I went for a romantic stroll on the beach. The wind was howling , but it was still beautiful to be out there. We made a quick stop in town to try find an adaptor plug for the camera which had a battery that was fading faster than you can say 'Zuma'. No luck, Celia would have to show some restraint with the picture taking.

Met some well travelled Aussie men who gave us some pointers on where to go and where not to. Tehey said we should skip the entiregold coast and just pick some towns along the was like Noosa, Lennox Heads and Tweed Heads. Still loving the camping!

On the road again..

So with some tears and a couple big lumps in our throats Monika, Celia & I left Bundaberg. Monika for Spain, and us for wherever the sun will shine.

First stop, Hervey Bay. This is a great little place with beautiful beach and easy access to Frasier Island which has this massive Dingo colony on it. Unfortuately as they were asking over $160 each for a day trip there, it was a little out of our budget and we had to settle for a view of it from the bay.

We really struggled to find somewhere to stay that was affordable. No luck, so we enjoyed some cheese and crackers with leftover wine on our bed. The next day we took a drive down the bay to the Urangan pier which is by far the longest I have ever been on standing at close to 1km? This is a great spot for fishing as the locals were pulling in buckets of Breem while the Pelicans used their natural nets to pull some out themselves.

Now leaving Hervey Bay we saw an outdoor store (my favourite) so we stopped in to take a look and walked out after 20 min with a 3 man tent, 2 sleeping bags and some ground sheets. Job completed.

We camped our first night in Tin Can Bay which was like lying in a sauna. We first had a braai and a few VB's which went down a treat in that weather. When we were done there it was time for dominos and I gave Celia a right whipping which left her sweating and begging for mercy. I swear it was about 60deg in there.

We were awoken by the blinding sunshine which was perfectly timed to get us up to go and feed the dolphins. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that is why were were staying here. They have these estuarine dolphins which come most mornings for an easy feed. It was really fantastic standing there in the water with this dolphin handing him a snack. It was a great experience although this particular dolphin that we fed had been attacked by a bull shark a few weeks earlier and had a huge chunk out of its tail and dorsal fin as well as teeth marks all over its body.

One to never forget

I know it happens every year for about 3 months in many countries of the world, and no I am not talking about the Super 14, but the turtles laying eggs and hatching at Mon Repos turtle rookery near Bundaberg. It is truly amazing to have the opportunity to see this in action and to all that have not experienced it, I am about to give you a running commentary.

If you are lucky enough to have some turtles come to lay eggs on the evening you are there, they (the staff, not the turtles) call you down to the beach in groups keeping well away from the turtle which has by now started to dig the hole for its eggs. We now crept up behind it and watch it dig with its hand like rear legs trying to be careful not to scare it. When the hole is deep enough, the turtle lays up to 120 eggs which are about the size of a Titleist golf ball, but worth heaps more. Once it has laid about 20 eggs you can move around the turtle and watch it from any angle as they get so relaxed and into the whole laying thing that they'll hardly ever stop.

When it was done it covered up the hole so well that if we never marked it, we would have never known it was there. Fortunately for us we got an extra bonus that night as the turtle had layed the eggs too close to the shore line and due to the storms they were scared it would be washed away so we had to carefully excavate the hole again and move the eggs to a safer position. They asked us to all help in this moving operation, but what they never saw was that I slipped two eggs into my pocket. What a steal - real Loggerhead turtle eggs. I had them for breakfast the next morning fried on toast and they tasted okay, I still prefer chicken eggs and they aren't that big so you need more than two for a meal. It's just something I can now tick off my things to do in life list.

Really people I am joking, turtle eggs... you are meant to have them boiled, not fried on toast. No seriously - they were placed safely back in the hole with their siblings so they could be eaten by foxes and dingos.

As luck would have it, my memory card crapped out, so I don't have any pics of us with the turtles... aaaarrrrggghhhhhhh

Man down

So the next 5 days in Bundaberg were a bit of a blur, loads of rain broken by sections of sun and some XXXX. That's not four kisses or quadruple x as Celia calls it, but four x, the great Australian beer. By now i was horribly sick and house bound, the infections on my mosquito bites permeating my entire body resulting in high high fever and the sorest throat in the world bar none. I'm not overreacting, promise! Fortunately this Austrian girl we met in in India gave us some anti-biotics and i started double dosage. My parents convinced I have malaria, begging me to go to the hospital at the same time or i will die.

Well I didn't die and my fever went and I felt strong again for the first time in a long time, just in time as the sun made an appearance for us so we headed down to the beach for some fish and chips. Have a taste of the Australian sun, it's a killer and not to be messed with. Dunno how they killed the ozone here, but it makes a huge difference and getting burnt in 5 minutes is a simple task which Monika can profess too achieving on one of these days.

Spending time at home with Mon and Jeremy also gave us chance to see how things work in Bundaberg. Jeremy showed me round his Chevy that he built up with some mates which Monika enjoys revving the hell out of. He is also busy altering a car and controls so that he can drive it, it really is fantastic and a super ingenious plan which will give him loads of freedom he doesn't have at the moment. We also went to see the venue that Monika and Jeremy went to book for their impending wedding, Fairymead house. It's a smashing place and the cheapest venue hire ever. The guy reckons the price has stayed the same for 12 years. That's commitment!

Our final night had to come and Celia and I had booked a very special outing to go see the Turtles at Mon Repos turtle rookery, seriously can't wait!

Bundaberg here we come

Really disappointed that there was no New Year celebration on the plane, so Celia and I had a couple Singapore Sling's, some Baileys(for Celia), red wine and a beer or two and our own little new year party was well under way. It sadly only lasted about 15 minutes as I was coming down with something so I curled up under my comfy Singapore Airlines blanket and dozed off.

We were now in Brisbane on Australian soil for the first time, well sort off.. We had to get through customs first. They managed to single Celia and I out somehow, and put our bags through the biggest x-ray machine i have ever seen. From there we were escorted to bag checking area where they probed us with questions about what we were carrying to such an extent that i became completely paranoid. They swabbed our bags for drugs and had the sniffer dogs all over us for about a half hour. What an experience. When they were done they sent us off on our way with a smile on their face... unbelievable!!

We jumped in our hire car and sped off to Bundaberg to see Monika and Jeremy on his birthday. The storm of all storms had hit Queensland, tropical low pressure systems that they had not seen in 15 years, great!! We made it there though and had an awesome day getting to know Jeremy and his friends. Bundaberg seems like the town that time forgot and reminds me of my earliest memories of going to coastal towns in SA.

Oh yes, they also have a great rum distillery which would be making a fair bit of money from me and surprisingly Celia over the next few weeks i'm sure.