Australia - Catch Up

Hi,

We are so sorry that we have got so far behind on our blog. We have been writing individual blogs for every place that we have been to, but with very limited internet to be able to put them on the blog. When we do manage to get the internet the speed is so slow that it take an age to put the blog online.

We have discovered that we now quite a few to put online, so to enable us to get the blog up to date with everything that we have been doing we have written this shortish blog with a summary of what we have been up to at each place. Please don’t worry though we will be able to tell you all about each place in more detail when we get home.

Noosa:

Noosa is a lovely up market seaside town on the Sunshine coast. We decided to make this one of our coastal stop overs as we work our way down the east coast. We arrived late on Monday afternoon. We were staying slightly outside of town so we decided to take a walk into the town to see what was on offer. We found the most beautiful bay and beach and a hell of a lot very posh restaurants. As the sun set we headed back to the van to cook a nice meal before heading to bed. In the morning we work to another beautiful sunny blue skied day. We had read about Noosa national park which is situated on the hill tops overlooking the coast line, so decided to give this a go. We walked up to the park and were told about all the wildlife that we could see including Koalas, Dolphin, Sharks, Whales as well as all sorts of Birds and Insects. I'm pleased to write that our curse of failing to see wildlife continued and we didn’t see a thing. Once we had finished the walk we went to get a hand made ice cream before heading back to the camp to have dinner and sleep. Unfortunately during the night I had the most horrendous cramps in my stomach, so bad that Amber had to play Ambulance driver and drive me to the hospital where I was diagnosed with Gastroenteritis. A fantastic way to finish Noosa.

Noosa Beach

Views from walk in National Park

Gold Coast:

Not a planned stop but after finding out that some friends from University were in the gold coast it seemed silly not to stop and have a beverage or two with them. It was great to see Charlotte and Liz again and a night of drinking and kebabs made it a night to remember.


Byron Bay:

The true backpacker destination and one that we really wanted to visit while in Australia. Having missed all the whales during their ‘Great Migration’, we were told that we could see them if we went up to the Lighthouse on top of the cliff. We decided to take a drive up there and sure enough out at sea you could see the Whales as they travelled past Byron Bay. The following day we went to the beach and had a picnic. Sadly the weather was horrendous and this was quite short lived. We went to have a look around the town and could see instantly why this was a massive hit with backpackers. Very hippy with lots of VW Campers. Needless to say that I was in my element looking at all the vans. Our hostel was designed for the hippy, with a double decker bus in the back garden and massive TeePee for people to stay in.

Byron Light House

Part of Byron Bay

Armindale:

See Armindale Blog with Waterfall Way.

 Canberra:

The next major stop on our journey was the capital of Australia Canberra. This is fairly young capital, only celebrating its 100 birthday later this year. We arrived early in the morning and decided to head straight for the Australian Mint. It was incredible to see the process that goes into making all the money in Australia. Not only did this mint make the money for Australia but is also employed to make money for most of the South East Asia nations. They also made the Olympic medals for the Sydney 200o games. After the mint we went to see the National War Museum. This truly is a very moving  place to visit and learn about the conflict that Australia has been involved in. It was so good that two days latter we would return to do a full tour of the museum. In particular it was very interesting to hear about the ANZACS.

National War Museum

The following day we wanted to do the typical tourist attractions and paid a visit to the Australia House of Parliament. We were lucky enough to be visiting on a day when the house was actually sitting. We managed to get some tickets thanks to a old security guard who slipped us two tickets. It was fantastic to watch and hear all the banter that takes place. Overall Canberra is a nice city but because it is a purpose built it didn’t really have a city feel to it. Its nice but I don’t think we would return in a hurry.

New Parliment House

Melbourne:

We booked into a campsite for four nights and boy were we glad that we did. Melbourne is a very European city, represented by all types of cultures and architecture. There is so much to see and do in Melbourne that we really could have stayed here a week. On the day we arrived Amber was desperate to have her hair cut so this was the main priority. After her treatment we went o see Chinatown. This road is filled with Chinese restaurants, lanterns and smells delicious with all kind of characters trying to get you into their restaurants. We opted against a Chinese and instead went to the CBD and aimed for an Indian restaurant that had been recommended by the tour book.  Boy were they right, the curry as amazing.

Chinatown

Our second day saw us really trying to see the city. We got in early and our first stop was the Queen Victoria Market. This really is a market beyond all proportions. Anything that you can think of that can be sold, I’m pretty sure that you will be able to find it. Next stop was the Victoria Parliament building where we had a tour and was told about how state government works and how it is different to federal government which we found interesting after Canberra. After the Victoria Parliament, we jumped on the free tram that loops around the CBD. We opted to get off at the Docklands and had cake and coffee overlooking the harbour.

Victoria House of Parliment

Mr Speaker for the day

The third day saw us visit the set of Neighbours. Not only did we get to see ‘Ramsey Street’ but also got to visit the set of Lassiters. It really was more fun than we thought it would be and at least we can now say that we have been there. That was Amber's choice of activity and so to make things equal I decided to take her to Albert Park home to the Australian F1 track. Later in the evening we went to St Kilder where our bad luck with wildlife continued. We went to see the famous Blue ‘Little’ Penguins that live in the rocks / beach around the harbour. There are meant to be hundreds of them but on the night we went we only managed to see two. Still, better than none.

Ramsey Street (Neihbours)

Celebrating at Albert Park (Asutralia F1)

On our last day in Melbourne we went to go and see the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) and ended up on a tour of the stadium. As a cricket fan this is an incredible experience. I can only imagine the atmosphere when the Ashes are played there in front of 80,000 people. They also have a Sports Museum at the ground however this is predominantly about Australia’s sport history so we found this a little boring. Feeling hungry we went back to Chinatown where we found a lovely all you can eat (within an hour) and started to tuck in.

MCG

Top two Bowlers and Batters at MCG

Great Ocean Road:

Leaving Melbourne was hard as there was still so much we wanted to do. However what laid ahead was just as special. We decided to drive along the Great Ocean Road, which every year is voted in the top 10 drives in the world. The road really is incredible and not only does it drive along the very rough coast line in the cliffs, but also goes slightly inland and see’s some of the Rainforest. One of the highlights was stopping to see the  Twelve Apostles which are giant pointy rocks that have been carved out of the land by the ocean.



The Twele Apostles

 Adelaide:

Arriving in Adelaide we were shocked to find that where we had booked to stay in our campervan was literally a small run down car park located just off a street in the centre of the city. We were only staying for three nights as we were using this as a stopover before beginning to venture into the Desert. Adelaide, compared to other cities in Australia is very small. Quite modern, with lots of shopping centres. We decided to pay a visit to the food market in the centre of town before heading to the Hays Chocolate factory and having a tour. Once we finished in the city we went to the Barossa Valley where we had a tour around the Jacobs creek Vineyard and Amber managed to do some wine tasting. I personally tried a little but I was driving after Amber had been so kind and let me drink when we were on the rum tour a few weeks earlier.

At Jacobs Creek

Since Adelaide we have been to the centre of the desert to visit Uluru and Kings Canyon. This however can not be summarised in a paragraph so we will write a blog about that which will soon be up.