Thursday 18 June

Had a leisurely breakfast with our hosts and then said our farewells. Today we were travelling to Brisbane, just an hour away, for our last night in Aus. On Alan’s suggestion we parked at the end of Brunswick Street and took “The Cat” into town. The Cat is like a water subway which travels along the Brisbane River stopping for a couple of minutes at various places along the bank. The riverside houses were, of course, all beautiful and expensive but helped pass the time away looking at them. Most had a wharf for their boat as well. We got off at the city’s centre stop and had a walk through Queen Street. Lorraine couldn’t get over the number of people that were about. It was lunch time and looking down onto the Queen Street Mall it looked like an ant colony with all the movement. I couldn’t get over the number of people on their cell phone. It seemed like every second person we passed was talking on their phone. It was a change from Auckland or Wellington where every second person is texting.

Lorraine and I decided we couldn’t live in a city like this. Everyone seemed to be in a rush, their eyes were all focussed straight ahead and there was absolutely no smiling or laughing. Only saw the occasional friendly face but no one looked you in the eye. A far cry from home where everyone says hello and there is little to no rushing.

After some lunch and a brief shopping expedition in Myers we decided we had had enough of the big city and made our way back to the car and headed off to Auntie Noeleen’s. Bought fish ‘n chips for tea and after a couple bottles of wine hit the sack early.

Friday 19 June

Up at 5.30 am to give us enough time to return our rental and catch our 9.30 am flight. I was just as well we left a bit earlier than planned as I had a bit of trouble following the commands of our GPS. I became confused when a “veer right” ended up to be a complete 90-degree turn so ended up on a motorway instead of a main road. This didn’t happen just once but twice before I got the knack of the commands. Another time the change of direction came so quick I couldn’t make the turn as a following car was right up my backside.

We did manage to get to the rental depot at 6.40 am only to find it closed so we had to wait around for 10 minutes before some one arrived and opened up. We then had to wait a further 10 minutes before they would shuttle us to the airport as there was another car due in needing the shuttle. While 10 minutes does not seem a long wait it certainly was as we were both hanging out for a cuppa and wanted to get on with things. The 10 minutes felt like an hour. This experience only furthered our resolve to only use airport based car rentals in the future.

At the airport it seemed harder to get out of Aussie than get in. First we had our cabin bags weighed. Both were overweight so we had to take things out and carry them. We did this until we went through the security when we packed everything back into our bags. At security Lorraine was spot-checked for drugs and also had her hairspray taken off her. It was too big to be allowed even though she had carried it with her on all the other flights we had taken. Finally got our cuppa about 8.00 am but by that stage we were both over it and did not enjoy like we should have.

Some last minute shopping, macadamia nuts etc, then onto the plane. Service on the plane was crap with only 3 stewards catering for us 150 or so peasants in cattle class. The seats were so close together my knees just about touched my chin and at one stage there was about a 20 minute wait to go to the toilet. Apart from that the flight went quickly and we were excited about getting home.

It was fine but cool in Auckland. Collected our bags, went through customs quickly only to end up having to wait in a queue for 30 minute checking in our bags for the domestic flight. It was only 30 minutes because a number of people gave it away, deciding to take their bags to the Domestic Terminal to check them in. If Air NZ continues to cut staff to save money in this recession we will be changing airlines for future trips.

Back in Gisborne, we were met by Katie, Morgan and Mikayla as well as Chris and Rose. It was nice to see familiar faces, it really made us feel at home. After what seemed ages talking with them we finally went and collected our bags and went home. The house was nice and warm thanks to Katie who had lit the fire earlier. We both unpacked filling the washing machine twice with all our laundry and Lorraine handed out the pressies to the kids.

So endth out two week visit to Aussie. It is back to the humdrum of winter and work. Can’t wait for October and the Cook Islands!!!!

Tuesday 16 June

Well it is time to say goodbye to Cairns. We have really loved our time here and in a lot of ways wish we had a few more days. Not that it is a consideration but this is one place we could live if we ever decided to move over to Aussie. The 27 degree winters are appealing though I don’t know if we could cope with the summer heat and rainy season.

It was a 4.45 am wake up to catch a 6.20 am flight to the Gold Coast. I yawn every time I think of these early morning starts. Flight was good but guess whose cell phone slipped out a back pocket and was left on the plane?? You’re right it was Lorraine – Yeah right. It was me. Fortunately I realised it soon after we got off the plane so I was able to track it down fairly quickly. However we ended up keeping 10 people waiting in the Rental Firm’s Minibus for about 20 minutes. I phoned just in time as the driver was about to leave the airport.

If there is one thing we have learnt on this trip, it is to use a rental firm that has a depot inside the airport. It took us over an hour to collect our rental. First the shuttle then a wait as one person processed about 4 people before us. (He did in order of arrival and since I had left my cell phone…..) It was really frustrating as it was cold in their depot and we were hungry. We thought we would get breakfast on the plane but it was one of those discount flights that you had to pay exorbitant prices for any food you ate.

Our next frustration was the new GPS. It was totally different from the one we had previously used and wouldn’t accept Monique and Glen’s address and sent us off to a Panorama Drive that was miles away from where we wanted to go. On the lucky side we worked that out before we had gone too far. After some food and coffee, to get our brains into gear we worked out where we were and how to get to where we were going. We had actually stopped only a few kms from our destination and we were there in no time.

Driving along The Panorama we were seeing great views and huge houses. Lorraine commented at how beautiful the next house was and it ended up to be our home for the next two days. Glen had done a great job on the house and while there was still some work to do they had just put it on the market for a cool $2.4M. It had 360degree views, one side to Surfers and the sea, the other the water reserve and native bush. The house was all windows so there was a view from every room.

It was great to catch up with Monique, Glen, Sandy and Alan. Alan took us first to look at Blair’s house. This house was huge. It could comfortably sleep 27 people. “The Wings is a $3.4M mansion. It had everything you could think of including two kitchens, ensuites in every bedroom (8 I think), Billiard Room, Study Swimming Pool, Tennis Court and Gym. It was its own Cluedo Game Board!!
We then meet up with the others and had lunch together. Alan and Sandy took us on a Tiki Tour of the area. It was amazing to see all the apartment high-rises scattered around the place. We stopped at a new hotel that had a foyer area that was just unbelievable. We took a couple of photos of each of us lounging around like we we guests. As if ……

It was home after this to a really delicious home cooked meal. The kitchen was so big, four people could easily work in it preparing the meal without getting in each other’s way. They invited one of their neighbours, Bill a fair dinkum Aussie bloke, to join us. He was quite a character and added a bit of colour to the conversation.

Wednesday 17 June

Went shopping at an outlet mall. It was the shopping we had been looking for throughout the trip. This was the first time we actually found clothes cheaper than NZ and spent most of the day and money there. On a sad note though, the evening before there had been quite a major fire there that had gutted three shops. While this may seem minor when there were another 120 on offer but the Fire Department had closed all shops nearby which included a Rodd and Gunn outlet my favourite clothing shop and it was the only one I had seen in all of Queensland. Oh the pain. Mind you I think Lorraine was quietly quite pleased as the clothing there is quite expensive and I can go a bit overboard when in one of their shops.

Alan and Sandy were off to see Simon and Garfunkel in Brisbane so we just had dinner with Monique and Glen. We went to their local, a golf and country club for which they apologised for it not being very posh. We had to constantly assure them we would rather have gone their then somewhere posh. The place really was down to earth and I was in heaven!!! It had a TAB, draught beer on tap, (A first since leaving NZ) good quality steak meals and a Quiz Competition starting as we finished our meal. What more could I ask for?

Monday 15 June

Helped Tarsha get her car back on the road. Took a couple of hours while we went from insurance agent to transport authority to home and back to transport center. It was good she was able to get her car back on the road so getting to work would not be a problem. Once we got that all sorted we were off to Port Douglas.

Once in the area we carried onto Mossman and up into the Heritage Park there. We went for a little walk in the bush that had lookouts of the river and gorge. Some nice sights and it was good just to have the walk. Big signs by the river warned against swimming there but that didn’t stop a group of kids. About 10 of them were enjoying the cool waters.

We then travelled back into Port Douglas for lunch. It is a quaint little town with lots of eateries and specialist type shops. We had a look around and then went to the beach.

On the way back Lorraine mentioned we should stop and have a look at the Crocodile farm we had past on the way. Throughout our time in Australia she constantly said that we needed to see these creatures. However when the opportunity presented itself there was a change of mind and heart. Suddenly it didn’t matter and we really don’t have enough time. Anyways since she suggested the stop I decided we would do it and sort of pushed her into the park by paying the entry before she could say no.

In the park we watch one of the rangers do a small presentation on snakes. He had a large python which he wrapped around the shoulders of a 13 year old volunteer. Entertainment at its best. Once that segment finished he brought out a Interior Taipan snake which he told us was the most poisonous of the snake family. While he talked about it, he had hold of its tail and the rest of the snake moved around a prod like pole which he held in his other hand. I found that I stopped listening to his talk and just focused on how close the snake kept getting to him. One time he actually brought it within a foot of his faced.

Next was onto a boat and out into crocodile infested waters. We saw heaps of them. On the bank sunning themselves, in the water swimming towards the boat, there were about 18 altogether in the man made “lagoon”. At one point he feed one and had it jump out of the water right in front of where we were sitting.

Our last event at the farm was to watch a croc being feed. This was quite an amazing experienced as the croc was not doing exactly what the ranger wanted him to do. A number of times the rangers had to stop his banter and move really quick to avoid the advancing croc. It was such a adrenalin rush watching the cat and mouse game the two performers acted out while they tried to out wit each other. Fortunately the ranger won. The croc did a death roll, jumped right out of the water and even had a lunge or two after some real fresh human. This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.

We had dinner with Tarsha and as it was our last night we went to the Night Markets to buy a few pressies and have another massage. This time we were experienced, so it only cost $15.00 each for the massage. No extra costs of patches this time!!!!

It was sad saying goodbye to Tarsha at the end of the night but as we were leaving really early we would not be seeing her in the morning.

Friday 12 June

What a great feeling it was waking up and knowing we were not traveling another great distance in the van. No Willie Nelson interfering with my thoughts or doing my head in.

Today we went off to Kuranda a small ex hippie village in the Tablelands known for its markets and wildlife displays. We had booked into a package deal that had us picked up at 9.00 am and taken to the Skyrail, a gondola that stretches for 7.5 kms from Cairns to Kuranda. It starts at close to sea level and its highest point is 545 m. There are two stops along the way that offer some spectacular views. At the first stop we had only just got off the gondola when we saw a snake about 2 metres away from us. Got a pretty good picture of it. The second stop offered views of Barron Falls a quite an amazing sight.

Lorraine being afraid of heights spent most of the Skyride looking down. I had to describe what could be seen or show her the pictures I had taken. She also had to sit on the side which was away from looking up hill. Throughout the trip it was tempting to rock the cabin to and fro but the look I was getting told me my life was not worth even thinking about it.

Safely in Kuranda we looked through the markets but bought very little. Tried to haggle at one stall offering a lady $20 for a little dress she had for sale at $25. We had seen something similar at $19 in the city market. The lady claimed she wouldn’t make enough profit if she sold it for that price with the recession and all. In the end we just walked away so instead of making maybe $5 profit she made nothing. Aussie logic I guess. Lorraine did buy herself a pair of opal earrings for the huge sum of $10.00.

To return to Cairns we hopped onto an old steam train. We bought the Gold Class Ticket for this part of our trip. It was well worth the extra expense as we were totally spoiled; Food, free drinks that were forever being topped up and window seats. Took plenty of photos but most did not turn out as I just wasn’t fast enough to get the view before trees got in the way. The train also stopped at the Barron Falls but on the other side of the gorge so more photos were taken. We also stopped at another set of falls that were equally as spectactular but the train was to close to be able to take a photo that showed the whole length of them.

After the train trip we were dropped back at our caravan park. We then through some careful negotiations that included a phone call from NZ meet up with Tarsh. We then went out of the main part of town to a place called Sizzlers for tea. It was one of these places you order a main but everything else is self service ie soup, entrée, salad and dessert. The meal was good but the restaurant was freezing. The three of us shivered throughout the meal. I don’t think the people of Cairns no how to handle temperatures in the low 20s as they still had the aircon going full bore.

Saturday 13 June

A designated shopping day! Picked Tarsh up at 9.00 am as arranged but didn’t get on our way until 9.40 am. Forty minutes of shopping time lost. Started off at an outlet mall. Then it was into Cairns CBD to a discount Pharmacy that had extremely cheap fragrances. Central Plaza with its 150 or so shops was the next destination. The shopping lasted until nearly 5.00 pm and at the end there were three very weary shoppers. Not a lot was bought but there certainly was a lot of looking and walking. The best thing about the day was knowing that we had done, completed, finished, ended our Cairns shopping until the need to visit the Big W was mentioned as something to do on Monday.

We dropped Tarsh off at home as she had a 30th Birthday to attend. Next on the day’s list was dinner with Eric, Lorraine’s cousin. We went to a place in the Pier Complex that specialised in steaks and we all order seafood?!? Lorraine’s dream of eating Tiger Prawns came true. She had a plate full and enjoyed right to the last bite. It was good to catch up with Eric over a very tasty meal and a few drinks. He was very pleased with his move up from Brisbane and felt he should have done it years ago. He was especially rapt getting out of working night shift. After dinner we had a walk along the harbour side. It was really alive with lots of people out and about.

This is our last night in the camper van. It has been quite a good experience, mainly positive, but there were a number of things we would change when we do it again.

I wont miss the early morning bird noises. I used the word noise because that is exactly what they are. There is no sweet melodic sounds coming from the Aussie birds. No sweet sounds like those of the tui or fantail, just arrogant squawking of crows, loud laughter from the Kookaburra and screeching from some other bird. I wonder if there is any relation to this and the personalities of the people from each nation?

Sunday 14 November

Said good-bye to our home of eight days. It was quite a frustrating morning really. When we picked up the van we were told that it would take an hour when returning it. It took a grand toal of 15 minutes. So we ended up stuck at the depot for nearly 90 minutes waiting for the Car Rental firm to pick us up. They were 15 mins late and then we were a further 30 minutes at their depot waiting to be served. It was becoming quite nerve wracking as we had booked a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef and time was getting on. It was nearly 12.15 pm when we finally were in our car and we had to pick Tarsh up, park the car and get to the terminal by 12.30 pm. So what did I do in our rush??? Turned a street to early on our way to Tarsh’s losing us another 5 minutes. The pressure was no on!! I dropped the two of them off to pick up the tickets and started looking for a park. I finally got to the terminal at 12.55 pm, five minutes to spare, breathless, hot and bothered.

The ferry trip was about 50 minutes out to Green Island on the Barrier Reef. Tarsh was not looking the best, she was in recovery mode from her arty the night before. She had shown a noisy Aussie female just how good the kiwi gals are when it comes to shots and sculling. Anyways once the boat got into the rolling sea, Tarsh’s eyes starting rolling and she made a hasty run to the toilets. Unfortunately for Tarsh but fortunate for the seagulls she didn’t quite make it and had a technicolour yawn over the side.

Once on the island we went for lunch. As it is a Heritage Park everything is protected the birds are quite friendly to a point of being cheeky. They have no fear of humans what so ever. I had a filled roll on the table and one of the birds jumped up on my knee and when I wasn’t looking attempted to steal my roll. It would have got the whole thing if I hadn’t grabbed it in time. As it was it took off with quite a big chunk of bread for its efforts. It sort of reminded me of the film The Birds and I started telling Tarsh about it.

A few minutes later Tarsh was talking (any one surprised here?) and had a chip dangling from her fingers. One of the bird jumped up and sole the chip. It gave Tarsh such a fright she screamed which in turn gave Lorraine a fright so she screamed and both of them nearly fell off their chairs. Everyone at the nearby tables had a good laugh on their account. Tarsh, once she got over the initial shock laugh so hard she had tears running down her face. Lorraine and I weren’t far off from doing the same.

When then spent the rest of our time on the island sitting on the beach and enjoying the sunshine. Oh the stress of being on holiday.

We took Tarsh home and then checked into our hotel. After 8 days in the campervan we felt spoiled with the space and looked forward to sleeping in a real bed. The room had sea views and large sliding doors that open to shaded balcony. Oh the stress of being on holiday!

I cant seem to get Willie Nelson's song "On the Road Again" out my head which is absolutely terrible as I don't like Willie Nelson.

We got away early with our sights firmly set on Cairns. Arrived about 5.30 pm after once again a noneventful drive. It took 1950 kms (plus all our NZ travel) for Lorraine to finally make a positve comment about my driving!!! Of course I had two aids to get me through the trip, GPS and LWE (Lorraine's Watchful Eye - it never left the road!!).

On the way we detoured off the main road and stopped for a couple of hours at Paronella Park. It was quite an amazing place. Very scenic with a castle, and some wonderful views. The place was built in the late 1800s, early 1900s and would have been a real marvel in its time. The site was voted as the Number 1 "Must See Places" in Queensland. It was really worth the stop and I took plenty of pictures which I will add to blog later.

Once we had settled and cooked tea we walked the 4 kms into town and went to the Night Markets. Not the biggest of markets but plenty to look at. To finish we decided each of us would have a $15.00 head, neck and shoulders massage. The two chinese who work on us were so concerned at the tightness of our shoulder sand neck muscles that they talked into putting these special pads on our back for 24 hours. This basically meant our $30.00 massage cost $100.00. But it was worth every cent as we are both feeling much better for it. I think after all those k's in the van's very upright seats had caused us to tighten up.

Tomorrow we are off on a train and gondella and will be catching up with Tarsh. Should be a great day.

A day away from driving. Went for a walk to the shops to pick up a few things then drove into the town itself. There is not a great deal of Bowen, infact one horse town would be an exageration. We could not find a cafe for a coffee and places to eat were few and far between.

Went out to the information centre on the outskirts of town and collected a few brochures to help us decide on our next stop. We are very quickly running out of days and want to make the most of them. Bowen is known for its mango production. Hence the connection to the photos.

Spent the afternoon reading and relaxing at our camp site. This is by far the nicest place we have camped. The lady at reception is excellent and very helpful. We asked to change sites because the one we used last night got very little sun throughout the day, she obliged without the slightest worry. One small observation - we have been given one key between us to get into the toilets. There are separate entries for men and ladies so visits have to be coordinated. I notice there is a seat outside the ladies but not the mens. I can only presume that it is always the men who end up having to wait for their other hlf to finish!?!

Planning to get away early tomorrow and head all the way to Cairns. It seems most of what we want to do is in that area so, once again we will be having a long drive. The good part is this will be our last big drive and will only have short trips from then on.

Monday 08/06/09

Decided on doing a big drive today. Got away on time but disaster struck as we were leaving the camping ground. The camp had a gate across its entrance and we had to pay a $10.00 deposit for a key. So as we were leaving we used the key and went through the gate and went to park the van in the visitors park while we collected our deposit back. I decided to park in the shade, a bad decision!!!!! As I pulled in , very slowly I might add, there was a huge crunching sound and the van came to a sudden halt. I had jammed the van under a bough of the tree, that was going to provide our shade. Even though the bough had been cut back I still managed to jam our satellite dish between it and the van. The result, a damaged roof and no satellite dish so no TV. Unfortunately I do not think we are insured for that sort of accident.

After that exciting start the rest of the trip was long and boring. There is virtually nothing to see other than great open expanses between the major towns. I have learnt very quickly to keep the van filled with diesel as it can be up to 200 kms between service stations. We travelled the 650 kms to Rockhampton arriving there about 4.30 pm after being on the road for 8 hours.

Thinking we were quite clever we punched in the name of a Camp site into the GPS and followed its directions. Foolish us after 20 minutes we ended up in the middle of nowhere and not a camp site in sight. So we had to start over and ended up virtually back where we started. This meant we went through a police checkpoint twice. The cop recognised us and let us go through but looked a bit dubious when we claimed our GPS got us lost. Yeah right!!

The saga continued when the second place we loaded in was just a big empty space. In the end we just booked in a place we saw earlier. It was now 5.15 pm, it was getting dark and we were tired and grumpy and to make matters worse we had no alcohol. Watched the Wimbledon DVD.

Tuesday 09/06/09

Up early and on the road by 8.00 am. Once again we thought we would do a big drive and so we could stay put all day Wednesday. The drive was good. We were both amazed at the vastness of the countryside. We had one bit of straight road which was at least 12 kms long. From Rockhampton it was nearly 180 kms before we found a place to eat. We had a brief stop in Mackay, shopping before heading off to Bowen.
Arrived about 3.30 pm and our GPS was right on today as we found our camp first time without drama or wrong turns.

Our GPS is quite an interesting tool. You punch in where you want to go and then a very calm female voice starts giving you directions. “drive 700 m to round about. Take second exit” etc. If you take a wrong turn it just quietly says “recalculating” and gives out new directions. If you don’t follow these new directions eventually it just shuts down and wont speak. Typical woman eh? Don’t do what she tells you to do and she just shuts up and sulks!!!! (Except for Lorraine of course.)

Looking forward to a day without travel.