Tuesday 10 June 2008
Beautiful New Zealand
Hi!! Hope everyone is well? We are having a fantastic time in new zealand! The weather is very cold but that just adds to the beautiful scenery with the snow capped mountains! Our last blog was from Melbourne. In melbourne we didnt do loads but we did go to a neighbours tour and a neighbours party!!! It was sooooo much fun! We got to meet susan and Karl kennedy (what legends!!) Stingray, Michelle Scully and Steve parker (a new bloke neds brother!!) Karl kennedys band played and it was just so much fun!! WE LOVE NEIGHBOURS HAHA!!! Me and becks went up the ulreka tower at night to see the city lit up which was very pretty! Oh and laura also got picked out the crowd by a street performer to take part in his show it was very funny!!! He was a gymnast which is quite bizarre because she was to!!! We met back up with rob in melbourne so the four of us are back together now untuill the end of NZ. We went to the casino a couple of times but we are so tight with our money we just watched others loose!!!! haha! On 17th May we flew into Christchurch NZ. The weather was a bit of a shock VERY cold! (well compared to what we were used to!). Our first night in christchurch was amazing went to a really good club where we saw people we met in Aus so that was good! Our hostel is right next to a cathedral called canterbury Christchurch cathedral which not surprisingly is twinned with canterbury cathedral in England! On the 20th started the kiwi experience our first stop was Kaikoura which means to eat crayfish!! We were only there for one night we had a trip to swim with dolphins but it was cancelled as the sea was to rough, so insted we went and visited the seal colony had the best fish and chip dinner then went to a pome pub quiz (obviously run by a english person pome stands for prisoner of mother england and aus and kiwis call brits pome's!). Next day we left for Nelson on way there we stopped of for some free wine testing at the marlborough vineyards (a massive group of backpackers given free wine!! Good times!!). In nelson we stayed for 3 days we done a trek that led the the centre of NZ and visited the field where the very first rugby game was played! After Nelson left for Westport. On way stopped of at lake Rotoiti where there is a famous kiwi pic of people jusmping of end into the lake now normally in summer it would be lovely but it was freezing but me and nat were determined not to let that stop us so we jumped in!!! It was so cold it was hard to breath in the water!! We also went to buller gorge for jet boating! Was a lot of fun and again got very wet! After westport left for lake mahinapua. On the way we stopped off at cape fowlwind and toronga bay for treks and also pancake rocks which is rock formations which resemble stacks of pancakes! Lake mahinapua is home of the poo party!! Its called a poo party as many people cannot pronounce the name of the place which the ending is pronounced 'poo' and the kiwi experience arrange a big fancy dress party called the poo party we stayed at a pub that has the oldest publican in NZ he is over 80 years old! He fed the us best bbq dinner with massive steaks, venison stew and loads of pastas and salads! The theme for the party was anything beggining with 'P' becki went as a policewoman and me and nat went as a pair of pink pants!! We got pink wrapping paper and cut them out in the shape of pants and decorated them we then tied them together and put it over us so we were stuck together all night!! haha. It was a really funny night. Next day we left for Franz Josef On the way there we stopped of at a museaum however me becks and nat went to do our skydive! It was absolutly amazing we flew over fox glacier and mount cook and mount tasman. It was so beautiful then we jumped out the plane!! The next day we done a full day hike on franz josef glacier it was amazing going through ice tunnels seing blue ice and all the different formations! It is a very unique glacier as it is in the middle of a rainforest so technically should not be there!! The next day we left for Wanaka stopped of at lake matheson with has a beautiful reflection of mount cook and also the blue pools and waterfalls! After wanaker we arrived in queenstown!! whooo!!! We love queenstown the home of extreme sports and amazing nightlife!!! This is where Laura and Rob signed up for the thrillogy (3 bungee jumps) the kawarau bridge bungy which was the very first bungy ever, the ledge bungy which is the only bungy where u are harnesed around your waist so u can do anything of the ledge and the Nevis the highest bungy in new zealand (134 metres 8.5 seconds freefall and within top 5 highest in the world!!!) We done them on seperate days to keep the excitement!! We had the best time doin the bungees becki and nat think Laura is weird because she didnt really get nervous at all only a bit on the ledge because she decided to do a somersault of the end!! Rob has now done 6 bungee jumps in aus and NZ. We also went on a day trip to milford sounds which is one of the most beautiful places in NZ where u go on a cruise through the sounds. However it was so foggy we didnt see anything!! haha but we did get an amazing free buffet lunch! We also went to an underwater observatory in milford sounds. After Queenstown we left to go back to christchurch. Here we meet up with two friends from home kris landegg and dan herbert. We had the most amazing night it was so good to meet up with people from home on the other side of the world! After our night out we managed to get 2 hours sleep then it was up early to catch the bus to Picton then the ferry to Wellington in the north island. Here we had a slight panic as we forgot to book accomodation and the all blacks were playing ireland so most hostels were booked! Whilst on the internet looking for places to stay we were asked if we wanted to be extras in a film!!! How kool is that! Anyway we all said yes so we got free food and alcohol. The funniest thing is Laura and Natalie wer asked to do a speaking part!! (we are rubbish!!!) Heres the funniest thing the film was about a dog and me and nat had to talk to the dog!!! yes thats right talk to a dog!! haha it was so much fun but so imbarasing! we were all in the party scenes dancing and stuff! The director of the film was the sound editor for lord of the rings! The next day we picked up our campervan!! Its a bit of a beast! It has a double bed and a fold out double bed a kitchen, toilet, shower,. We have all had a go at driving its really easy just have to remember how wide long and tall it is!!! We have decided to freedom camp so not use campsites first night we slept in tongario national park village next day we drove around the national park through mordor (used in lord of the rings). We also went up to whakapapa ski resort. We spent that night in Taupo. Today we spent all morning in Taupo natural miniral hot springs the water was 40 degrees. Air temp is approx 10 degrees. We then craters of the moon walk which is where geothermal activity is so it looks like the earth is smoking! Pretty amazing! In this spot u can also feel mini earthquakes as it rests on two tectonic plates! After this we went to Huka falls waterfall. We are leaving for Rororua tomorow after we spend the morning in hot water lake!! On saturday we have tickets to see the all blacks play england in Auckland. WE ARE VERY EXCITED!!!
Thursday 1 May 2008
NATS ANNOUNCEMENT!
While Rob and I were in Brisbane together we had time to think about our travel plans! We were going to go to tazmania for 3 weeks in a campervan but after research realised it was a bit expensive....also because of the fact i couldnt bare to be parted from my amazing friends who are like family to me now! We decided to leave 3 weeks earlier than planned and go to new zealand with laura and becks on the 17th may!!!!!! We are all very exited now and we might get a camper van in the north island for 2 weeks! Rob is in cairns at the moment doing diving and us girlies are leaving tonight for sydney! bye for now, lots of love to everyone x x x
Wednesday 30 April 2008
Halfway through Oz!!!!
Whitsunday Islands
We started our Whitsunday Islands 3 day tour on the 2nd of march. It is a tour of the group of 74 small Islands off Airlie Beach on a sailing boat. On our first day we sailed into the protection of the islands where we stayed for the night. The water was so calm it was beautiful. We helped with the sailing and put the sails up, we actually learnt a lot about the boats we could so be skippers!!!!!! In the morning we went to whitehaven beach! This beach has been rated the second best beach in the world. The sand is pure white and is 99.9% silicone! This means it is as fine as flour and you can polish your silver jewellery with it! The sand also stays cool unlike other sand thats gets really hot this is beacuse it reflect the sunlight back up so when walking on it it squeeks and you have to be extra careful with suntan lotion as the rays are reflected back up onto us! The aboriginies call it whispering sands as the squeeking sound like it is talking to u! Clever sand!!! We had to wear stinger suits in the water as there were lots of jellyfish around and got in the sea for a bit but it was freezing! That afternoon we went to the most amazing snorkelling site Hook Bay, we saw hundreds of fish and the coral! It was very beautiful. The next day we also snorkelled at Mantaray bay which again was very beautiful but absolutly swarming with jellyfish and Natalie managed to get coral stuck in her knee. The skipper was really good though and got it out with tweezers!! We were really sad to leave the islands as we had a fantastic time. Laura and becki also booked a dive on the great barrier reef and nat came for the snorkelling after three attempts at gettin there (the boat had to turn around for two days as weather was to bad) we finally got there and the dive and snorkelling was amazing we saw a family of nemos with baby nemos so cute! We left Airlie beach for a town called Agnes waters the town of 1770. The town was named after the date that captain cook first arrived. In 1770 we done a wave sunset kayak whcih was so much fun its like surfing in a kayak whilst at sunset. We alsdo done a surf lesson the next day which was so much fun and harder than the surfers make it look! Laura and Nat also done scooteroo which was a tour of the town on harley davidson style motorbikes the tour lasted 4 hours and we watched the sunset on the beach. Very beautiful we also saw wild kangaroos on the tour. We left 1770 for Rainbow beach to start our Fraser island three day self drive safari. Fraser island is the biggest sand island in the world and a national park. On the first day (we had a group of 11 people and a four by four car) we visited lake mckenzie which is a fresh water lake. Its the highlight of fraser island the water is so fresh yu can drink it. We then set up camp. The next morning we visited a shipwreck which has been on the beach since 1935 and then went to Indian head where u can climb a cliff and watch out of shraks and mantarays. Fraser island is strictly no swimming as the water is shark infested. Unfortunately we didnt see any sharks but they were around as others did! We camped on the beach that night and had to cook burgers and sausages with water!!!! Was funny! On fraser island there are loads of dingoes which are wild dogs that can be aggressive. we had four come into our campsite that night and we had scratch marks on tent the next morning where they had tried to get into our tent!! Quite scary! On our last day we visited Eli creek which was pretty and rainbow gorge which is a sand dune which has loads of different coulour sands, black, white, yellow and orangey red sand. The next day after arriving back form Fraser island we were meant to do a kayak with wild dolphins but the sea was to choppy so it had to be cancelled.
We left Rainbow beach for noosa heads. In Noosa we visited Australia zoo home of the crocodile hunter! It was the most fun day the zoo is amazing and the tributes to Steve Irwin were so sad! He is a legend! We watched the croc shows in his famous crocoseum. There was a wombat called laura!!! (i see the likeness!!!!) The zoo has many workers who bring the animals out so people can touch and hold them they even bought tiger cubs for a walk. We loved the zoo!! We also done a noosa everglades canoe trip. It started well but about half way in our canoe to the camp site it absolutly poured down and didnt stop for two days!!!!!!!! We were drowned rats even our tent leaked so we were laying in puddles. On our second day we thought we would risk the weather and try and do a walk which led up to a sand dune where you could see a really good view. However again it poured so we ended up having a picnic in the toilets and heading back to camp again looking like drowned rats!! We thought our canoe would sink at one point as the back was flooded!! haha!! We did have fun though with our group just a shame about the weather! After leaving Noosa heads we went to Brisbane for 4 days. Here we met up with Rob and he told us all about his trip in western australia. We liked Brisbane but it is just a big city so not loads to do apart from shop!!! We left Brisbane fr surfers paradise which we all really loved! The beach is so pretty but surrounded by high rise buildings its quite strange to look at! Everyone is so friendly in surfers we really enjoyed it. We had another party bus night out there which was sooooo much fun!! The clubs in surfers are really good!! We went to wet and wild theme park which was really fun!!! We went to Byron bay from surfers paradise Yesterday we done a tour to a hippy town called NIMBIN it is the strangest town ever. It looks like it is stuck in time as all the buildings are wooden with old hippy men singing outside!! Nimbin in aus version of amsterdam!! We also visioted a hippy mans botanical gardens and Minyan falls which it a waterfall on top of an extinct volcanoe. Was really pretty. Today we are doing a lighthouse walk which leads the to the most easterly point of australia and tomorow we leave for sydney. Pictures will follow as this computer doesnt allow photos to be uploaded!! xxx
We started our Whitsunday Islands 3 day tour on the 2nd of march. It is a tour of the group of 74 small Islands off Airlie Beach on a sailing boat. On our first day we sailed into the protection of the islands where we stayed for the night. The water was so calm it was beautiful. We helped with the sailing and put the sails up, we actually learnt a lot about the boats we could so be skippers!!!!!! In the morning we went to whitehaven beach! This beach has been rated the second best beach in the world. The sand is pure white and is 99.9% silicone! This means it is as fine as flour and you can polish your silver jewellery with it! The sand also stays cool unlike other sand thats gets really hot this is beacuse it reflect the sunlight back up so when walking on it it squeeks and you have to be extra careful with suntan lotion as the rays are reflected back up onto us! The aboriginies call it whispering sands as the squeeking sound like it is talking to u! Clever sand!!! We had to wear stinger suits in the water as there were lots of jellyfish around and got in the sea for a bit but it was freezing! That afternoon we went to the most amazing snorkelling site Hook Bay, we saw hundreds of fish and the coral! It was very beautiful. The next day we also snorkelled at Mantaray bay which again was very beautiful but absolutly swarming with jellyfish and Natalie managed to get coral stuck in her knee. The skipper was really good though and got it out with tweezers!! We were really sad to leave the islands as we had a fantastic time. Laura and becki also booked a dive on the great barrier reef and nat came for the snorkelling after three attempts at gettin there (the boat had to turn around for two days as weather was to bad) we finally got there and the dive and snorkelling was amazing we saw a family of nemos with baby nemos so cute! We left Airlie beach for a town called Agnes waters the town of 1770. The town was named after the date that captain cook first arrived. In 1770 we done a wave sunset kayak whcih was so much fun its like surfing in a kayak whilst at sunset. We alsdo done a surf lesson the next day which was so much fun and harder than the surfers make it look! Laura and Nat also done scooteroo which was a tour of the town on harley davidson style motorbikes the tour lasted 4 hours and we watched the sunset on the beach. Very beautiful we also saw wild kangaroos on the tour. We left 1770 for Rainbow beach to start our Fraser island three day self drive safari. Fraser island is the biggest sand island in the world and a national park. On the first day (we had a group of 11 people and a four by four car) we visited lake mckenzie which is a fresh water lake. Its the highlight of fraser island the water is so fresh yu can drink it. We then set up camp. The next morning we visited a shipwreck which has been on the beach since 1935 and then went to Indian head where u can climb a cliff and watch out of shraks and mantarays. Fraser island is strictly no swimming as the water is shark infested. Unfortunately we didnt see any sharks but they were around as others did! We camped on the beach that night and had to cook burgers and sausages with water!!!! Was funny! On fraser island there are loads of dingoes which are wild dogs that can be aggressive. we had four come into our campsite that night and we had scratch marks on tent the next morning where they had tried to get into our tent!! Quite scary! On our last day we visited Eli creek which was pretty and rainbow gorge which is a sand dune which has loads of different coulour sands, black, white, yellow and orangey red sand. The next day after arriving back form Fraser island we were meant to do a kayak with wild dolphins but the sea was to choppy so it had to be cancelled.
We left Rainbow beach for noosa heads. In Noosa we visited Australia zoo home of the crocodile hunter! It was the most fun day the zoo is amazing and the tributes to Steve Irwin were so sad! He is a legend! We watched the croc shows in his famous crocoseum. There was a wombat called laura!!! (i see the likeness!!!!) The zoo has many workers who bring the animals out so people can touch and hold them they even bought tiger cubs for a walk. We loved the zoo!! We also done a noosa everglades canoe trip. It started well but about half way in our canoe to the camp site it absolutly poured down and didnt stop for two days!!!!!!!! We were drowned rats even our tent leaked so we were laying in puddles. On our second day we thought we would risk the weather and try and do a walk which led up to a sand dune where you could see a really good view. However again it poured so we ended up having a picnic in the toilets and heading back to camp again looking like drowned rats!! We thought our canoe would sink at one point as the back was flooded!! haha!! We did have fun though with our group just a shame about the weather! After leaving Noosa heads we went to Brisbane for 4 days. Here we met up with Rob and he told us all about his trip in western australia. We liked Brisbane but it is just a big city so not loads to do apart from shop!!! We left Brisbane fr surfers paradise which we all really loved! The beach is so pretty but surrounded by high rise buildings its quite strange to look at! Everyone is so friendly in surfers we really enjoyed it. We had another party bus night out there which was sooooo much fun!! The clubs in surfers are really good!! We went to wet and wild theme park which was really fun!!! We went to Byron bay from surfers paradise Yesterday we done a tour to a hippy town called NIMBIN it is the strangest town ever. It looks like it is stuck in time as all the buildings are wooden with old hippy men singing outside!! Nimbin in aus version of amsterdam!! We also visioted a hippy mans botanical gardens and Minyan falls which it a waterfall on top of an extinct volcanoe. Was really pretty. Today we are doing a lighthouse walk which leads the to the most easterly point of australia and tomorow we leave for sydney. Pictures will follow as this computer doesnt allow photos to be uploaded!! xxx
Tuesday 25 March 2008
The three girlies hit OZ!!!!
Hello everyone!!!!
Hope you are all well and that you all had a lovely Easter!! So us three girlies are back together again, and are now experiencing the wondeful world of OZ!!! We arrived in Oz on the 17th March in Alice Springs as all four of us had booked an Ayres Rock Trip for two days one night!! Nat and Rob arrived slightly before us but we all met up at our first hostel Heavitree Gap! This was a really nice hostel and our first hands on experience of the 'real' outback!!!!! Had a really early start the next day 4:45am!!!!!!!!!! We travelled for 3 hours to our first stop which was called Kings Canyon. When we got here the weather was around 38 degrees which was HOT HOT HOT!! We were only allowed to do the short walk round the canyon because of the weather which was a slight dissapointment. Laura got attacked by flies as she cut her leg!! There were sooo many flies all the time and they always buzzed around your ears and nose not very nice at all!!! We all really enjoyed it here and were all looking forward to getting to Uluru (Ayres Rock). We faced another 3 hours from Kings Canyon to get to Uluru and we had to hurry to catch the sunset. We finally arrived at our campsite and the first thing we did was watch the sunset which gives the illusion that the rock changes colour which was really impressive!! We had the best night in our campsite, first we had a proper Aussie BBQ dinner with sausages, steak and salad (veggie burgers just for Nat!!). After dinner we all had the oppurtunity to sleep in authentic Aussie Swags (a mattress attached to a sleeping bag that you can zip completely up!) under the stars. This was a totally amazing night as you could see soooooo many stars and even the milkyway, they were so clear we could almost touch them. Another early start as we wanted to watch the sunrise at Uluru, this was another amazing sight as was the base walk that we did after the sunrise! The rock was so impressive and we all got a little snap happy, Laura got so excited she had to hug the rock! We werent allowed to climb the rock as it was a pretty scary and dangerous route up with only a rope to pull yourself up! we didnt realise how vertical it was and apparantly over 30 people have died attempting to reach the top! Even daredevil Laura decided that she wouldnt be able to do it!! After we left Uluru we visited Kata tjuta which was another huge rock but very different to Uluru as it is made up of 36 different boulders! On the 5 hour jouney home we stopped to look at the salt lakes, this is where Nat decided to swallow a fly!! or it decided to make home in her tummy!! The next day Rob caught a flight to Melbourne (nat was very sad to be leaving him after sooo long :( where he was going to go camping with some Aussie mates and us girlies caught our flight to Cairns!
CAIRNS- Arrived at Gilligans on thursday night and had our first experience of sharing a dorm which was quite exciting!! The next day was Good Friday and the whole of Cairns turned into a ghost town. Everything had shut, we werent allowed to drink or buy any alcohol only if we were having a meal, they wouldnt even let us have a coke!!!!! So quiet night for us!! Saturday night was far from quiet we booked ourselves onto a party bus which was amazing over 150 people were on this double decker open top bus and it took us too 5 different bars around Cairns! We met some amazing people that night. We also saw hundreds of bats that night (Becki was not too impressed) we never new Cairns had sooo many and they were huge!
The next day (sunday) we had booked a Cape Tribulation trip which took us on a river cruise along the river Daintree, a baby croc, a 5 metre croc called scarface, a tree python and some owls. We then did a rainforest walk which was really interesting, we saw some weird looking trees and some massive golden orb spiders which were bigger than our hand!! We also visited Mossman Gorge which was like a waterfall which you could swim in! We then visited Cape Tribulation which is a beach where Captain Cook first landed and lastly we visited Port Douglas, which is a small rich town. Our tour guide for the day was called Lisa and was off her rocker and made the day very amusing! Monday night we had another good night at the Woolshed. This is where we witnessed England actually win something...we came first in GOlDFISH RACING!!!! haha was quite an event! Wednesday we left on the Greyhound ( OZ bus ) our first stop was Mission beach and we stayed here for a few hours. It's a really nice beach and we watched some skydivers which got us all excited about doing our own one! We also saw wild dolphins and swam in the stinger net, the water was lovely and warm (stinger nets are huge nets set up which allows us to swim safely and not get stung by the hundreds of jellyfish that swim in the seas) on every beach they have loads of warnings about the marine stingers and have constant supply of vinegar on all beaches. We then carried on travelling and spent the night in Townsville. We planned to stay here but then saw brochures about Magnetic Island and it sounded a really nice place to visit and we ended up staying here for 2 days!
The island reminded us of Thailand as it was so tropical! Our first night we stayed at a place called bungalow bay where they had a koala sanctuary in the grounds. Here we were able to hold a baby croc called Barbie, a carpet python (which Nat stayed well away from), cockatoos (Becki stayed well clear of these birds), lizards ( Nat became one with the Lizards!) and a koala called Dexter. Laura was the only brave one who held everything!! The next day Laura and Nat had a lovely time riding horses for 2 and a half hours through woodland and the bush and there were lakes, creeks and streams which the horses rode through. They managed to do a trot and a canter (Becks is very impressed). They then rode on to the beach where Becki met them to take photos as they rode the horses right in to the sea (geared up in stinger suits) this is where they did tricks on the horses, like around the world and a back somersault of the horse into the sea! Nat didnt do these tricks but Laura was a pro!! Then we decided to do the fort walk (something to do with world war 2) which is a 1 hour n half trek up to a lookout where you can see the entire island. We did this walk at the totally wrong time of day (midday) it was all up hill and all 3 of us were really really really sweaty!!! (YUK) we did see some wild koalas which made up for some of the sweatiness. That night we went to Australia's own full moon party (which was a total rip off of the famous one in Thailand!) This was another really good night, we even met some ppl we had been on the party bus with in Cairns! We also bumped into people that had seen us in Thailand (Koh Phagnan, Koh Samui) Singapore and now Oz (its a small world). This night Becks decided to get as many pictures of different hats as she could ( I got 24 different hats in total not too bad).
On Saturday after only 2 hours sleep we got the Greyhound to Airlie beach (6 hour journey) at the moment we're just relaxing here. Preparing ourselves for Wednesday when we go on our 3 day sailing trip round the Whitsundays which will be really good!
Hope you are all well and that you all had a lovely Easter!! So us three girlies are back together again, and are now experiencing the wondeful world of OZ!!! We arrived in Oz on the 17th March in Alice Springs as all four of us had booked an Ayres Rock Trip for two days one night!! Nat and Rob arrived slightly before us but we all met up at our first hostel Heavitree Gap! This was a really nice hostel and our first hands on experience of the 'real' outback!!!!! Had a really early start the next day 4:45am!!!!!!!!!! We travelled for 3 hours to our first stop which was called Kings Canyon. When we got here the weather was around 38 degrees which was HOT HOT HOT!! We were only allowed to do the short walk round the canyon because of the weather which was a slight dissapointment. Laura got attacked by flies as she cut her leg!! There were sooo many flies all the time and they always buzzed around your ears and nose not very nice at all!!! We all really enjoyed it here and were all looking forward to getting to Uluru (Ayres Rock). We faced another 3 hours from Kings Canyon to get to Uluru and we had to hurry to catch the sunset. We finally arrived at our campsite and the first thing we did was watch the sunset which gives the illusion that the rock changes colour which was really impressive!! We had the best night in our campsite, first we had a proper Aussie BBQ dinner with sausages, steak and salad (veggie burgers just for Nat!!). After dinner we all had the oppurtunity to sleep in authentic Aussie Swags (a mattress attached to a sleeping bag that you can zip completely up!) under the stars. This was a totally amazing night as you could see soooooo many stars and even the milkyway, they were so clear we could almost touch them. Another early start as we wanted to watch the sunrise at Uluru, this was another amazing sight as was the base walk that we did after the sunrise! The rock was so impressive and we all got a little snap happy, Laura got so excited she had to hug the rock! We werent allowed to climb the rock as it was a pretty scary and dangerous route up with only a rope to pull yourself up! we didnt realise how vertical it was and apparantly over 30 people have died attempting to reach the top! Even daredevil Laura decided that she wouldnt be able to do it!! After we left Uluru we visited Kata tjuta which was another huge rock but very different to Uluru as it is made up of 36 different boulders! On the 5 hour jouney home we stopped to look at the salt lakes, this is where Nat decided to swallow a fly!! or it decided to make home in her tummy!! The next day Rob caught a flight to Melbourne (nat was very sad to be leaving him after sooo long :( where he was going to go camping with some Aussie mates and us girlies caught our flight to Cairns!
CAIRNS- Arrived at Gilligans on thursday night and had our first experience of sharing a dorm which was quite exciting!! The next day was Good Friday and the whole of Cairns turned into a ghost town. Everything had shut, we werent allowed to drink or buy any alcohol only if we were having a meal, they wouldnt even let us have a coke!!!!! So quiet night for us!! Saturday night was far from quiet we booked ourselves onto a party bus which was amazing over 150 people were on this double decker open top bus and it took us too 5 different bars around Cairns! We met some amazing people that night. We also saw hundreds of bats that night (Becki was not too impressed) we never new Cairns had sooo many and they were huge!
The next day (sunday) we had booked a Cape Tribulation trip which took us on a river cruise along the river Daintree, a baby croc, a 5 metre croc called scarface, a tree python and some owls. We then did a rainforest walk which was really interesting, we saw some weird looking trees and some massive golden orb spiders which were bigger than our hand!! We also visited Mossman Gorge which was like a waterfall which you could swim in! We then visited Cape Tribulation which is a beach where Captain Cook first landed and lastly we visited Port Douglas, which is a small rich town. Our tour guide for the day was called Lisa and was off her rocker and made the day very amusing! Monday night we had another good night at the Woolshed. This is where we witnessed England actually win something...we came first in GOlDFISH RACING!!!! haha was quite an event! Wednesday we left on the Greyhound ( OZ bus ) our first stop was Mission beach and we stayed here for a few hours. It's a really nice beach and we watched some skydivers which got us all excited about doing our own one! We also saw wild dolphins and swam in the stinger net, the water was lovely and warm (stinger nets are huge nets set up which allows us to swim safely and not get stung by the hundreds of jellyfish that swim in the seas) on every beach they have loads of warnings about the marine stingers and have constant supply of vinegar on all beaches. We then carried on travelling and spent the night in Townsville. We planned to stay here but then saw brochures about Magnetic Island and it sounded a really nice place to visit and we ended up staying here for 2 days!
The island reminded us of Thailand as it was so tropical! Our first night we stayed at a place called bungalow bay where they had a koala sanctuary in the grounds. Here we were able to hold a baby croc called Barbie, a carpet python (which Nat stayed well away from), cockatoos (Becki stayed well clear of these birds), lizards ( Nat became one with the Lizards!) and a koala called Dexter. Laura was the only brave one who held everything!! The next day Laura and Nat had a lovely time riding horses for 2 and a half hours through woodland and the bush and there were lakes, creeks and streams which the horses rode through. They managed to do a trot and a canter (Becks is very impressed). They then rode on to the beach where Becki met them to take photos as they rode the horses right in to the sea (geared up in stinger suits) this is where they did tricks on the horses, like around the world and a back somersault of the horse into the sea! Nat didnt do these tricks but Laura was a pro!! Then we decided to do the fort walk (something to do with world war 2) which is a 1 hour n half trek up to a lookout where you can see the entire island. We did this walk at the totally wrong time of day (midday) it was all up hill and all 3 of us were really really really sweaty!!! (YUK) we did see some wild koalas which made up for some of the sweatiness. That night we went to Australia's own full moon party (which was a total rip off of the famous one in Thailand!) This was another really good night, we even met some ppl we had been on the party bus with in Cairns! We also bumped into people that had seen us in Thailand (Koh Phagnan, Koh Samui) Singapore and now Oz (its a small world). This night Becks decided to get as many pictures of different hats as she could ( I got 24 different hats in total not too bad).
On Saturday after only 2 hours sleep we got the Greyhound to Airlie beach (6 hour journey) at the moment we're just relaxing here. Preparing ourselves for Wednesday when we go on our 3 day sailing trip round the Whitsundays which will be really good!
Saturday 15 March 2008
Darwin Australia, Kakadu National Park!
When me and rob got to the airport i had my bag searched at customs! although we think it might have just been for their training purposes, not sure! they searched my bag completely taking everything out and then they found my badges that i got to put on our rucksacks, which are wrapped in newspaper which we think is why they searched. Anyway darwin is such a pretty little town, it has a main road with mostly bar/restaurants and seating areas outside and other shops down it, it is about 35degrees here! its tropical this time of year is the end of the wet season so not as much rain but is perfect for our trip to kakadu! because the flood plains are smaller and not completely flooded waterfalls and roads, but then with the wet there is more wildlife and wetlands and plenty of crocs mate! we went on a jumping crocodile tour! it was a cruise down the adelaide river, so beautiful. There are crocodiles and marshlands down and off the river. The crocs know the boats now they come out if they here it (sometimes as they are shy animals and they have to be very hungry) and they hold sticks with string with meat at the end and splash it in the water the crocs watch it for a while and then they lift the stick so they have to jump for the meat and u get a fantastic view of the croc! the biggest one we saw was 4 meters long! but they can get up to 6 meters usualylly if they are old. we learnt about the history of crocs in oz. and then we went to a snake farm and rob held a black headed snake really ugly thing, i just stood tkaing loads of pics! then we went on our four wheel drive adventure! which drove over 3 rivers, the adelaide river, mary river andsouth alligator river (called that coz of something to do with explorors to oz as there are no alligators in oz). there is 3 bridges which go over each river, we drove over each bridge, at this time of the year all rivers were submerged! and on some parts the river overflowed on the road but the 4wd made it through! we saw a rare type of heron birds feeding in the river which there are also crocodiles in we couldnt get out of the car incase the crocs jump out as they can jump very quickly and fast and to the side! we had lunch in the park. then our leader told us a story about a tribe "waramol" who are now extinct because of the arrival of white men in (the coal mines in kakadu which take up 2thousand km of the 20 thousand km national park) they needed the aboriginals to work for them in the mines, and as they could not offer them money, food or land they offered them opium, alcohol and cigaretts. basically this is evil in their culture but eventually it took over the tribe which culture of hunting etc quickly fell apart and there was only one person "baramundie charley" who did take any opium and he was the last survivor. as the culture is that when the tribe dies, the knowledge stays with the tribe and goes back into the land forever, as only people who gain the respect of the tribe can know about them. he did not say hardly anything about the tribe but he did do aboriginal rock art of the stories that were important to the tribe to preserve the stories forever was most important to him. some of the paintings we do not know what they mean, it can only be guessed at. they are so beautiful, some are 20,000 years old. 2 paintings baramundie charley said were done by the spirits the meemee spirit, if this is true it wud be up to 50,000 years old which skeptics and some scientists say is impossible as as the painting was done in white paint it wud not be able to last that long as white paint is the least durable. there is one of a gun which is 150 years old when white man arrived in kakadu killing the animals. there is also x-ray rock art which is e.g a fish skeleton and insides to keep knowledge of how to kill and eat food etc, then there is decoratiove such as head wear, and detailed, and descriptive which is art that tells the story of a significant event in their tribe. but it also tells moral techings for the tribe. there is also handprints which are left by visiting tribes who may need food from other tribes land, or generation hand prints., tere is one rock that has 85 hand prints on it (generational) as it is everytime a boy turns to man his handprint is put on it. They would put the paint in their mouth and spray it out like spray paint. We also learnt about kinship laws as incsest was very wrong to them and forbidden in the tribes. They carefully planned who to marry by keeping generations in their mind, as no written language and it was never recorded by baramundie charley who beleived it dies with the tribe. Then we went to nourlangie rock, which was beautiful. Out of a group of 12 people only 4 people made it to the top, i was the only girl to make it to the top! We camped in "yellow water" we had nice tents. Where we were camping was right next to one of the rivers where crocs are found. Our leader once got in the river for fun and pulled out a 2 meter baby croc! he was crazy!we drove in the moring and it took us 2 hours to get to Yurmikmik in kakadu. We went to the marrawal plateau the area of stone basically, huge stones! cant really describe, and we went trecking for an hour to find a waterfall, we went through kurramundie creek, to get to motar car falls and motar car falls creek! A HUGE WATERFALL! We all got in and had a swim! it was pure freshwater you can actually drink the water is a it is so pure.we had to climb over huge rock boulders to get there. We then went to another waterfall that one was a bit dirty water only because there were trees roots in the water as they grew up from the lagoon at the side. that one was called marlins rockhole which is not on the map as they dont want people to know about it! but everyone seemed too! it was funny as i took a pic of the sign outside the waterfall area which said caution crocodiles!!!!!! but our leader said he doubted there would be in that bit coz they wouldnt go over rocks they preffered marshlands! at this point we were right at the south point of kakadu and had to drive way back up north of kakadu to get transferred back to darwin. on the way back we stopped for petrol and there was a wallaby (a smaller kangaroo) at the side of the road. as everyine was waiting at petrol station, i snuck over there and got so close to it i just sat there while it munched on grass and i took pics of it, it was a young one and was so cute!!!!! then rob came over and got close but it got scared and hopped back into the bush! that was amazing to be so close to wildlife. then on the way to see termite mounds in the bush our group leader got out his diggeredoo and played it while driving!!!!! he was very good! slightly scared, but the roads are so straight that it wasnt hard for him! then we saw termite mounds which were huge!! and learnt about them. then our leader started eating them saying they tasted like pepper! yum yum! haha rob had one so did a few others. we took pics of each other by the mound. then justin the group leader went into the bush looking for green ants to eat saying they tasted like lime!!! he came back and ate a few then so did a few others and rob did it was funny. While waiting for our transfer 4 wheel drive back to Darwin our leader played the diggereydoo for us, he was so good at it! We leave tommorow for Uluru Alice Springs!
Singapore!
Mine and Robs last day in Singapore was amazing, in the words of Steve Irwin "Singapore Zoo is the best Zoo in the world" and it sure is!!! It is like no other zoo i have ever been too as the animals are so free. They are not in cages at all, aprart from the snakes and there are some animals that cant be totally free. It is such a big zoo and as you walk around it feels like you really are walking around the jungle as it is set pretty much in the jungle! There is even a lake there that is so big you can hardly see the other side, it is so beautiful. We saw polar bears which are kept in an ultra cool tank with a big pool to swim in, and asian elephants which we saw bathing in a huge pool. We saw monkeys baboons orang utangs giraffes, tigers , lions (which were practically walking around the park) i was a bit cautious! And there is an australian outback section so they even had kangaroos! They had a reptile section with frogs in it and snakes, this lead to a bit about the environment which explained about how the worlds jungles are under threat and the animals in them as some are close to extinction. There was an amazing part of the zoo which lead to a jungle experience! It is a huge jungle area under a canopy so you are enclosed with all the animals! There were brids and all kinds of little critters that kept brushing past me! then it lead up some stairs to the top of the canopy where there were parrots flying around and there were bats hanging of the top of the canopy. We videoed it as some bats were fighting! We left the zoo as it started to rain like a monsoon and had to rush back to our hostel to get the flight to Darwin!
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