G'day!!
As always we would like to apologise for our poor blog rate and as you can probably tell we're now on a different continent!
To pick up where we left off, the sailing trip we booked around the Bay of Islands was brilliant! The sun shone all day and we were once again followed by a pod of dolphins however this time we were joined by tiny penquins! As this was our first experience of sailing we weren't able to help apart from pulling ropes to get the huge sails up! It was a highlight of our trip in NZ!
From there we hit the road and did 90 mile beach by which time unfortunately the weather had turned so no sunbathing for us. When we got to Cape Reinga (most Northerly point) we could barely see the lighthouse which was only 10 metres away becuase of the fog.
Our final stop in Auckland was somewhat damp! It rained none stop for two days but we still walked the City and saw the sights.
Next was our flight to Melbourne which we shared with the Melbourne Rebels super 15 rugby team. Not quite sure how they fitted in cattle class as they were massive and made Paul feel puny even at 6 ft 2 and Alex's drooling certainly didn't help!!
We arrived in Melbourne to brilliant sunshine and blue skies and spent the first day or so seeing the city in sweltering heat. Unfortunately the weather turned towards the end of our time and during the 2 days we spent down in St Kilda (a beach suburb of Melbourne) we spent a sum total of 5 mins on the beach just to get a picture, in our raincoats, to prove that we'd been there!
We also met up with a couple of friends whilst here, Mike Silcock (randomly at school with Alex and University with Paul) and Corey Owen who worked with Paul for a year. Was really good to catch up with both of them and had a good night each time.
We then rented our second campervan of the trip from a company called Spaceships. When we say campervan, think bright orange Toyota people carrier with no back seats, so cramped but also cheap which key!! One redeeming feature was that they'd named the van Quagmire which Paul found amusing (as will the rest of the goats)!
Unfortunately we had a couple of problems with Quaggy along the way which led to Alex referring to it as "that stupid goat van!".
From Melbourne we headed out along the Great Ocean Road which was stunning, although the weather wasn't the best we still managed to get on the beaches a couple of times as well as spotting our first Koalas and Kangaroos of the trip. In fact at our last campsite, we stupidly left some food cooling before going for a walk on the beach, only to return to find a 7 foot kangaroo trying to tuck in, fortunately he was more scared of Paul than Paul was of the kangaroo and scarpered but amazing to see one close up!
We then headed back through Melbourne and along the coast towards Sydney. Again the weather wasn't brilliant, so whilst Paul was quite happy to postpone his ginger "suntan" Alex was less so. We did see some brilliant coastal scenery though on the way through Victoria and the Southern part of New South Wales.
We arrived in Sydney and headed to our campsite over the harbour bridge and headed out to see the sights. We both couldn't quite believe we were seeing things such as the harbour bridge and Opera House in the flesh but was spoiled somewhat by there being only about 3 hours of sunshine for the whole 4 days we spent in Sydney so no picture perfect blue skies for us unfortunately (we're sure you're all really sympathetic to our "problems"!!). We did however head to Bondi beach for a surf lesson, courtesy of early 30th birthday presents from Paul's parents and sister, which was great fun. Although the lesson started in the rain, fortunately the sun came out which improved Paul's mood somewhat, as predictably he only managed to stand up once in 2 hours (only for about 3 seconds and certainly not in control) whilst Alex took to it like a natural. Great fun though and something both of us definitely want to have another go at!
Following this we did the coastal walk from Bondi to Coogee which a number of people had recommended, and although tired after the surf lesson, it was definitely worth it as the views were stunning and the rain just about held off.
After a few days in Sydney we headed out to the Blue Mountains. Unfortunately it was raining again so, although they're called the Blue Mountains because of the haze of Eucalyptus oil that comes off them we'll have to take everyone's word for it that they're actually blue as all we could see was cloud! Real shame as it was something we were both looking forward to seeing.
We'd had enough of the bad weather and decided to drive North until we hit sunshine! We ended up having a walk on the beach in Newcastle (nothing like the town it was presumably named after in the UK - given Paul's heritage we'll leave you to decide which one he preferred!). After that we drove further north and spent the night near Elizabeth Beach and Blue beach which were stunning when we saw them in the morning light. We then headed via Port Macquarie to spend the afternoon and evening at South West Rocks. The beach there was great, golden white sand and we had a relaxing (and rare) evening out at a Mexican restaurant in town.
Up early again the following morning to head further north. We drove through Coffs Harbour and had some time on the beach (in the sun too) and saw the world famous "Big Banana" which was disappointingly small! We stayed the night in Angouri, near Yamba which apparently's famous for it's surf, although it seems every town on the east coast seems to have award winning surf beaches!
Our next highlight was Byron Bay where we had yet another afternoon on the stunning beach and another night out. On recommendation from Louise (Paul's sister) and a few others, we headed to the world famous (or should possibly be infamous) Cheeky Monkeys. We thought travelling would be about experiencing new things but we possibly didn't think our first wet t-shirt competition would be one of them!! The place was rammed, probably a mixture of the cheap drinks and "entertainment", and the winner was from Essex (some may say predictably but we couldn't possibly comment!!).
Suitably hungover, we then headed to Brisbane to drop off "the stupid goat van", where we're currently staying. Since then we've recharged our batteries somewhat as well as wandering Brisbane and we've booked our Fraser Island, Whitsunday and Uluru tours which has left us a little poorer to say the least!
We'll let you know all about it once in Cairns in a couple of weeks, by which time one of us will have said goodbye to their 20s!
Hope everyone's well and we've not bored you too much with these ramblings!
Alex & Paul x