Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
So I know that we have been a bit slack of late with the blog and so I thought that I would give you a brief run down of what we were up to in Australia. Unfortunately we were only there for 2 months and so everything was a bit hectic.
We arrived in Melbourne on the 11th April and spent a couple of days looking around and taking in the sights. It was quite a difference to being in New Zealand with loads of people and lots of hustle and bustle. Whilst we were in Melbourne we were lucky enough to be wondering around aimlessly (as we have a habit of doing) and came across the filming of a scene for Ghost Rider 2 with Nicholas Cage. Tony was very excited and we saw Nic Cage himself doing a couple of takes of a scene.
Our star spotting didn't stop there, oh no, the next day we took the classic Neighbours tour and visited Ramsey Street. It was very cheesy and great fun! As part of the tour we got to meet a star of neighbours, who turned out to be a guy named Mark Rafferty who played Dr Darcy several years ago. Of course we were just as star struck as yesterday! (I didn't know who he was but the closet neighbours fan TW did).
After leaving Melbourne we headed to Phillip Island, which is famous for some Pengiuns, but which we were visiting because it had town names like Cowes and Ventnor.
Apparently when the Island was discovered the man who discovered it thought it looked like Cowes on the Isle of Wight so named it Cowes. Any way it took us almost all day to get there as the transport was rubbish and there were only two ferries a day, but it was a nice peaceful respite to the bright lights of Melbourne.
Next we got an overnight Greyhound to Canberra (oh how I love the Greyhound!) and spent a few days visiting all the free government buildings and took a tour of Parliament House. We also visited the National Archives which had an exhibition about people who immigrated to Australia in the 1940's-1950's and by chance I was able to find the records they held of my Nan who had immigrated to Australia in 1943. This was fascinating to me.
After Canberra we were off to the big smoke and arrived in Sydney on the 21st April. We spent a couple of days doing to the tourist thing and saw the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. Unfortunately I felt a bit cheated as the weather was wet and overcast the whole time we were there, I had always been led to believe that it was always sunny here.
Despite the weather we had a great time and one of the highlights was that we got to see 50 Cent in concert whilst we were there. Yes thats right 50Cent!
On the 25th April it was Anzac day (a public holiday to commemorate the armed forces) and so we went to Caringbah in the suburbs of Sydney and spent the weekend with Susie and Triz (oh and Barne the dog). They were great hosts and showed us the real Aussie way of life with a BBQ and a game of lawn bowls!
When we left Susie and Triz we picked up our fist camper van and headed up the east coast to Brisbane.
Having the camper was great and a welcome relief from the stinky disgusting hostels we had previously frequented. After our camping experience in NZ we found that the camp sites had much better facilities and were cheaper. Unable to convince Tony to sleep in a Tent with all the snakes and spiders of the Oz countryside we opted for a van.
We reached Brisbane on the 7th May and spent a few days looking around. Brisbane is a really nice city and there are loads of things to see. We also managed to get to another concert and saw the Stereophonics. It was a great gig in a really small venue which I swear was full of half of the population of Wales!
From Brisbane we went to Surfers Paradise for a few days where unfortunately we met up with my cousin Dan from NZ who once again led us astray and we spent a couple of nights out on the town.
Tony didn't have a very good time in Surfers Paradise either as firstly Chelsea lost the league (he! he! he!) and he lost his glasses! We went to Movieworld for the day and he thinks that they must have dropped out of his pocket on the Scooby Doo ride (which we went on about 5 times!).
He did get his glasses back the next day from lost property but they were so scratched that he can't see out of them!
After Surfers we headed back to Brisbane to pick up another van and made our way north to Cairns. We stopped along the way at lots of coastal towns and had a slight detour along the Capricorn Highway to the town of Emerald where we got a taster of the outback. We also (finally) saw some wild Kangaroos.
Once at Cairns we said a sad farewell to our van and spent a couple of days in a really lovely hostel (which was a relief) called Tropic Days.
Whilst in Cairns we went on a day trip to the Barrier Reef and once again I began to feel sea sick on the way out. Unfortunately it was worse than Fiji this time and I was very sick.
Determined to get out in the water I made an effort to snorkel at the first place but had to come in halfway through to be sick again! I had more luck at the second snorkelling place where I wasn't sick and I found Nemo! Aside from the clown fish we also saw lots of lovely and amazing fish. It was well worth the sickness!
- comments