Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to our friends and family worldwide!! Nick and I thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with our Aussie Family!! From GIGANTIC Christmas Crackers (it was almost larger than Iris!!) to silly hats, it seems Santa finds silly things in all parts of the world to keep the laughter going through the Christams season!! Jay and Melissa arrived on the 24th and the fun began!! From a wonderful sunny day and sitting out on the patio with festive drinks (Jay's quite the mixer in this regard!!) to Nick entertaining us with his use of the Australian dictionary! Yes, "chook" is in the dictionary and yes it is a chicken!! The entire evening was capped off with an exceptional meal cooked by Jan and carved expertly by Keith!!

With our full stomachs, we crawled into our beds and enjoyed a restful sleep. The crazy antics began shortly after we awoke and found lots of pressies under the tree!!

The very cute reindeer sightings really did make everyone's day!!

The next day - we went to Melbourne and enjoyed a boat ride along the Yarra River to Williamstown. We had lovely fish and chips and ended it all with an ice cream. Even though Nick declined the offer of ice cream, he did well helping me with mine!! The entire visit with our Aussie Family has been amazing!! We have been truly spoiled and wish we never had to leave! Alas, today we depart for Sydney. We are driving from Kilmore to Sydney and catch our flight to Auckland NZ on Saturday. Nick and I will be counting the days until we can return to our Aussie Home. We wish you all a Happy New Year and all the best in 2009!! We'll be adding more blogs soon on our excellent Murray River Camping Expedition soon!! Koalas, Huntsman spiders and more...stay tuned!!

ROADTRIP!!

So after extending our stay in Airlie for 2 extra days, we finally decided to rent a car and go exploring!! Nick was sad to leave our little oasis as he had made a few friends along the way. Two cockatoos would visit in the afternoon and actually took crackers from Nick's hand. I stayed inside and took pictures as I'm a little "scaredycat"!!
Our roadtrip destaination was north. On our way we stopped in Bowen and checked out the Giant Mango. We determined it was almost as large as the Big Apple in Canada. Sadly though, no mango pies were sold! (Do they make mango pies here? Nick feels they would be too mushy!!) Bowen is a very old fashioned small town that was used for the set for the epic film, Australia, currently in theatres.
In Bowen, we stopped at various beaches. At Horseshoe Bay, we walked in the rocks and the surrounding water. I found a fiver in the water at the same time Nick found a 50 dollar bill!! Thank goodness for plasticized money in Australia. I noticed that a few people were climbing the rocks and wondered if the money had fallen out of their pockets so we asked them and sure enough once they searched, they were short a 50 dollar bill and a 5 dollar bill. (We didn't tell them what was found beforehand.) So Nick and I were happy to have made their day! Nick decided to climb the rocks afterwards and I kept a lookout for any extra cash he might throw my way!! ha ha







We arrived into Townsville and walked along the Strand which is a large park along the ocean. It was quite windy so we didn't go swimming. We decided to have a greek dinner and call it an early night. The next day we walked to Flinders Mall - a pedestrian street with shops but is currently under a great deal of construction. Nick tried to visit a barber but no luck! On our way to Reef HQ, we stumbled upon some interesting sights. Nick favoured this chair over the other one - I wonder why? Dad is always pointing out the interesting insects that Australia has so we thought we'd send along this picture of a spider we saw overhanging the street. We quickened our steps when we passed underneath!
Nick and I really enjoyed visiting Reef HQ - we spent the entire afternoon here! It is the world's largest living coral reef aquarium!We saw all types of fish, coral, eels, sea snakes (yuck!), and even several types of sharks!! Nice to see them behind glass and not visiting us while we snorkelled!! We also saw giant versions of the remoras that tried to stick itself to Nick's leg in Thailand. The entire experience was fascinating.
Here is the sea turtle in the predators section. We have many pictures to share.
Finally - Liam and Rowan would have loved what happened when we were leaving the aquarium and Nick managed to get a picture of it. That scary shark from Finding Nemo came after me - good thing Nemo and Dora were there to distract him for me!!
We finally got back on budget and stayed in a backpackers hostel last night. We got great deals on dinner $6.50 each at Molly Malone's and Nick and I were content to be back in an irish pub on a Wednesday night!! (Thanks to the Casey Clan for making us aware that the nachoes still taste great at The Toucan!!)

Lazing about in Australia!!

Following our adventure in the outback, we went to Sydney for 2 days. Actually it was only supposed to be for one but our flight was cancelled to Brisbane and Jetstar put us up for the night with dinner - awesome deal!! It has given us some faith in the airline industry once again. We visited our favourite restaurant for mussels and beer at the Bavarian Beer Cafe in The Rocks area. A lovely evening!! Our bonus day in Sydney saw us enjoying the Christmas displays and we got to take the train in from the airport area. I especially loved the story of the four elves in the David Jones store display as shown. Nick was incredibly patient as I acted like a kid taking so many photos of the working puppets in the displays!

The next day we arrived in Airlie Beach and stayed at the SeaStar Apartments (same location we were at 2 years ago). It was great to have a kitchen to make our meals, a swimming pool to relax in, views to enjoy and finally - and most importantly - laundry facilities!! After a day by the pool and catching up on our sleep - we did a tour of 3 islands in the Whitsundays including Whitehaven Beach. The winds were quite high so the cruise was rather interesting! While on Whitehaven Beach, we saw a catamaran with the interesting name on it - Scarlett!! Nick pointed it out to me and I was wondering if someone was there to pick us up for our own private charter - ha ha!! We then went to Hook Island to do some snorkelling.

After donning the wonderful yet oh so sexy stingersuits - we were off into the waters. The crew fed the fish while we snorkelled among them. It was cool to have the fish come right up to your mask and check you out. As usual, we were some of the last people to leave the water to get back onto the boat for the ride back to Abel Point Marina in Airlie Beach. Before leaving though, Nick had to check out the hammock and decided he would be content to stay here for a few hours!
Once back on the boat, we celebrated a good day by having a VB!!

Life in Australia!!

Nick and I are certainly enjoying being back in Australia!! Who would have thought we'd be back so soon after our last trip. This time we started off in Perth but sadly could not stay since we had to get to our booked tour in Alice Springs by the 6th of December. (We'll be back to Perth one day - we hope!!) The 3 day tour of Uluru-Kings Canyon was amazing!! We started off at 5:45 a.m. and Steve - our wonderful guide - gave us a warm welcome!! We hopped into the cool (literally since it was already quite hot) vehicle and picked up the rest of the group. The over 400 kilometre drive to Uluru was a wet one since we managed to the 1% of the visiting population to Uluru that gets to see a rainstorm in the desert!! Thus the music "it's raining on the rock played about throughout the drive" - compliments of Steve!! Steve's enthusiasm for the wet weather actually got the rest of us excited too!! The drive was unique at times since the road was covered with water and Steve drove us through it like a pro!! I was a bit apprehensive at times but all was fine!! Our first day consisted of a stop at the camel farm, Uluru and all its bits and then finally ending up at the campsite for night. Uluru was a site to behold and we walked around most of it. We were very lucky as the rain occurred before and after but not during our walk. The culture centre was also very informative and Nick and I wished we could have stayed longer to check it all out more thoroughly. After this, we headed to watch the sunset on the rock with champagne and nibblies - quite a nice way to end the day!! The campsite had a permanent cook shelter available and we set to work on dinner straight away. Luckily it was part of a larger campsite so shower facilities and all were available. The night was not as clear as we would have liked and thus tarps were put up to ensure some shelter from the rain that was sure to appear. AND - sure enough - at 2am - the rains came!! A small tsunami appeared out of nowhere and pretty much soaked the campers under the permament shelter. Nick and I and another couple, Andy and Michelle from Nottingham, UK (great mates!!) were under the other tarp and got wet too but not nearly as bad as the others. In fact, Nick slept through the entire thing!! After this, 4am came very quickly - the time Steve awoke us to get ready for the sunrise. We departed the campsite leaving our wet swags (a large canvas type bag that zips up both sides and has a flap that closes at the top (the better to keep snakes and spiders out of I guess) ) and sleeping bags behind - hoping they may dry in the time of our return.



The sunrise was beautiful - but I think most of us enjoyed the wonderful coffee and tea to wake us up!! After this, we went on a hike and Steve told us about the geological history of the area (plate tectonics, geologic eras, folding, faulting - all that juicy geo stuff that I love!!) so needless to say - it was a wonderful day for me!! The views were magnificient - beyond description - which I know sounds corny but it is true! That afternoon - we had lunch and dried out our swags - even managed a quick dip in the pool that was required with the hot outback sun beaming down at us in full force!! The rest of the afternoon consisted of driving to Kings Canyon - around few hundred kilometres - things are not that close together in the outback!! But on this drive - I actually saw a wild camel just walking about in the bush to the side of the road!! I should mention though that Steve decided that we should have a true Aussie experience so he purchased a kangaroo tail to roast on the fire that evening. The tail was 3 feet long and frozen - he gave it to Nick to hold onto and he put it on top of the water cooler. In the heat of the day - it did not take long for the tail to thaw and thus start to lean over the sides of the water cooler. Yes, what a sight to see!! We arrived at our campsite which was extremely secluded except for the millions of flies that decided to welcome us as we departed the bus. We viewed a beautiful sunset and began dinner on the campfire - veggies, chicken, rice, dampa bread (yummy) and of course the kangaroo tail. Steve first burnt off all of its fur then wrapped it in tin foil and placed it deep into the coals for a few hours!! After dinner we put our swags around the campfire and crawled in - exhausted yet satisfied from a wonderful day - and looked in wonder at the thousands of stars overhead!! In no time, the quiet of the night fell in.



The final day - we woke up to a great Aussie jingle - "Tie me kangaroo down mate"!! It was a nice way to wake up at 5am to see another beautiful sunrise!! Most of us jumped up and got started while others needed a bit of Spice Girls inspiration - yikes!! After breaky and tidying up, we left for Kings Canyon and went on a 3 hour hike through the canyon. Nick enjoyed a cool dip in the Garden of Eden - I dipped in my toes and took pictures!! We also got to take a few Priscilla - Queen of the Desert pics!! Another fantastic day and we were sad to leave the area as we travelled back to Alice Springs. Nick and I certainly picked an excellent tour and were even luckier to have Steve for our guide!! Amazing!!

The amazing race!

Leaving Perth this aft for Alice Springs. Yesterday was an adventure. Every flight we took was a squeaker, but we always managed to be on the plane! We've never seen so much airport chaos in our lives! First, in KL, we jumped the queue to get through immigration, only to discover it was going to take over an hour for our luggage to come through! Good thing our flight to Singapore was late, or we never would have made it! So after arriving late in Singapore, the flight attendant announced the wrong local time - we thought we only had 45 minutes to get to our next flight, and we had to pick up our luggage and re-check in, and go through immigration again! Fortunately, our flight was delayed by a half hour, so that gave us some breathing room. But then, the line-up to check in to Qantas flights was jam-packed, and not even moving! Turned out they were doing a 'system upgrade' to improve customer service, except it wasn't working! With minutes to spare, they pulled us out the line, took us into one of the premier lounges, and checked us in from there. We had to run through the concourse to get to our gate! And wouldn't you know it, then we sat on the plane for at least a half hour waiting for a couple who had been shopping, and left there passports in a shop, and were running all over the airport looking for them! So we didn't arrive in Perth until nearly 3am! We were exhausted! When we finally got to the hotel, we asked the clerk if they had a 'morning rate', and he was nice enough to give us a bit of a deal since we were going to be there such a short time!
Anyway, we're on our way to Alice Springs. Hope we have a good sleep tonight - we get picked up at 5:45am tomorrow!

Some Highlights from Bangkok

Nick and I managed to get a few days in Bangkok at the beginning of our adventure in Thailand. We visited the popular weekend market where everything in the world you can imagine finding is definitely there!! The sure size of the market really surprised us and we wandered through the countless stalls for hours!! I could have went crazy with shopping but, like the rest of the trip, have remained very conservative.

The next day we went on the ferries throughout the river to travel to various locations in Bangkok. Some of the stops were overwhelmed with water and we had to walk on benches to get into the area. It was quite unsteady but we balanced ourselves well as people walked in both directions across the benches. The water did subside but then the rains came so the water rose once again!!

The various temples we visited were amazing!! Nick was much more adventurous than I and he climbed them right to the top whereas I stayed closer to the bottom and took the pictures!! The reclining buddha was quite the sight and we would like to report that no his feet were not smelly!! It was exciting though as the security officers took out a pickpocketer while we were there - they took him down outside - a little bit of a ruckus!! A police officer came along and said "nothing to see here - more along now..." Nick and I got a chuckle out of that!!

So visiting Bangkok was a great adventure and we are disappointed that we never got to go back on this trip!!