Crocs and Cairns: Final Week in Oz

After our rainy week in Armpit Beach we were eager to get north as fast as we could. So we hopped the bus up the coast- four hours to Townesville, which was beautiful but also far too rainy- stayed a night, and bussed another five hours to Cairns.



Cairns was bustling with thousands of tourists preparing for the Ironman competition that weekend. Ewan and I pretended we were part of the elite athlete packs and went for a few morning jogs along the waterfront...but there were a few key differences. (ewan claims it was mainly just his leg hairs that tipped 'me off - the ironmen are remarkably hair free and aerodynamic.)



As we were at the end of our Oz trip, we were feeling a bit worn down from all the travel, and wanted to get as much Aussie beach time as possible. So we put our faith in the weather forecasts (hard to do after our years in seattle!) and booked a studio in one of the northern beaches at Trinity. The first day was pretty disappointing, rain, doom and gloom. We were convinced that mother nature was getting back at us for all our ridiculously good weather up until the final week and a half, and we were not happy about it.

But the sun came out in full force on Sunday and the most difficult decision we had to make for the next two days was whether we wanted to move from the beach or head to the pool. Tough life.



We were leaving for Singapore on Wednesday, and decided we had to get one more Australian experience in the books before we left forever. We'd already snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef and gone sailing, so we opted for a visit to some of Australia's land based animals this time.



The crocodile far was awesome- hundreds of meat eating, salt and freshwater crocs just waiting for someone to fall over the side and into their swamp. Our colorful Aussie wranglers laid on the croc jokes left and right, and we loved every inappropriate and corny minute.



The "saltys" are even more dangerous than their American counterparts, the alligators, because they don't discriminate any body of water. Freshwater, saltwater, it's all fair game. These guys survived the dinosaur era for a reason - their jaws snap with up to 3,000 lbs of pressure, they can hold their breath underwater for up to four hours and they can survive without eating for up to two years. Ridiculous.



We also got to hand feed some of the country's gentler animals, the Casaway birds (giant rainbow colored emus), wallabys, kangaroos and koalas.

We were excited to move on to Singapore, but knew we'd miss the Australian lifestyle. Sun, beaches and bbqs, and the distinctly Aussie laid back attitude.

On the way to the airport the next morning we shared a van with an older Australian couple who'd been visiting Trinity beach for more than 50 years. They chatted with the driver about how much times have changed, and how built up the area had become. The husband remarked how he remembered hunting for rabbits back during the war days, which got them all going on all the different animals you could eat in Australia. (there are no vegetrians here!) Kangaroo meat was delicious, the government really should let people hunt them more since they aways ran over their gardens and farms anyway. Crocs were one of the most beautiful meats, somewhere between a fish and a chicken. Shark was good, rabbit tasty... Basically anything that moved you could eat. But they drew the line when it came to flying foxes. You never know what diseases those bats had these days.

Some good ole fashioned Aussie rules to live by.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Armpit Ailie Beach and sailing Summertime

We left Brisbane at the perfect time - we'd enjoyed three straight days of sunshine, and the weather was just about to take a turn for the worse. It's a 17 hour bus ride on the greyhound from Brisbane to Airlie Beach, the next stop on our itinerary. And while we entertained the idea of roughing it on The bus for a straight day and a half... We decided our sanity(and our 8 month marriage) was well worth the upgrade to plane tickets!

A mere 90 minutes later and we were safe and sound on Hamilton Island. When we checked in for the flight, Virgin handed us each two boarding passes. We weren't quite sure what the second was for until we arrived- our second leg was a boat trip to the beach! Ewan was thrilled and spent the hour layover snapping pics of any boat, plane, or seaplane that came within a ten mile radius. In the interest of time we'll spare you those...



We'd thought we had sneakily beat the bad weather, but it turned out the nasty spell followed us (and the entire east coast). Airlie Beach is a bit of a pit stop on its own- its the gateway to the picturesque Whitsunday Islands, and not much else. There's an esplanade packed with backpacker hostels, backpacker tourist agents, and backpacker bars. And every third window had a "to let" notice, a sign of the economic times for tourist destinations. We were only supposed to be there two nights, but as the weather went from bad to worse, we had to rebook our thursday sailing trip for Sunday. That meant an extra four nights in the armpit that we weren't thrilled about.






Since we'd covered the town in about a day and a half, and figured out that anything we wanted to do to get us out of Airlie would require lots of cash (which we didn't have) and great weather (which they didn't have) we swapped the hostel we were scraping by in for a deal on a nice apartment outside of town. We spent the better part of the day waiting to hear whether we could rebook our boat, and went from apartment complex to complex trying the honeymoon card to see what kind of deals we could get. Dad, you would been so proud! We ended up talking the Whitsunday Vistas into giving us a nice one bedroom apartment for a steal, and waited out the rain with a king bed, soaker bath, full kitchen and washer and dryer (gasp!) all to ourselves. Yes, i know... We are such backpackers.

Even with the nice digs, it was a brutal wait to see if the weather would clear. These were definitely the low points of the trip this far, and we werefar too excited when Sunday rolled around and the rain clouds rolled out! Finally, we were off!

We'd booked a three day two night sailing trip onboard the Summertime -It was a bit pricier than most of the boats,but we were keen to avoid the party boats (imagine 20 nineteen year olds filling waterbottles full of vodka) and our friends had done the same trip last year and highly recommended it.

An hour into the sail and we weren't so sure this trip was a good idea. The captain warned us that the weather was still rocky, and he wasnt exaggerating. Summertime pitched side to side for the next few hours, leaving everyone in front soaking wet from the waves crashing over us, and anyone in back puking over the sides. (luckily I was wearing one of those nerdy seasickness patches my dr. Had prescribed... Lifesaver!)



Finally we reached calmer waters and one of the most pristine beaches we'd ever seen - White Haven. We laid out our towels, donned our stinger suits and waded into the crystal clear water. We also finally got to meet our fellow sailors, as this was the first chance to make conversation other than "are you alright? Oh, you just want me to move so you can puke..."

Our cabin mates were a great bunch. We had some scots, some Aussies, and a few Norwegians who rocked out in a Metallica tribute band together. One of them was massive and had a braided goatee. It was an interesting (and fun!) bunch.

The next day we woke up to glorious sunshine, and spent the day snorkeled in several different barrier reef spots. We saw turtles, huge Maori fish and even a baby shark! Later that night after dinner, we were all sat on the deck sipping our drinks when goatee man spotted a dolphin swimming off the bow of our boat. Turns out he liked the squid that was attracted to the light on our boat, so we spent the better part of an hour running from side to side as the dolphin swam around the bow. The crew was below deck putting a slideshow of the day together, and knew we had spotted him because off the "dolphin effect" - all the tourists pitching the boat side to side as we took pictures. Whoops :)







The third and final sailing day we woke up to rain and grey clouds, which made for another rocky ride back to airlie beach! But everyone was smiling by the end of it and we all met up at a bar in town that night for a final pint together. The Whitsundays were definitely worth the dreary wait, and ended up being one of the highlights of our trip so far!






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Chilling out in Brisbane

In Brisbane we traded in Hank for a few nights in a hostel. It wasn't a tearful goodbye, as we were more than ready to ditch the van after another week of constantly being on the go. Australia is so much bigger than we'd imagined, and yes, perhaps we should have heeded the advice of our friends who'd done the trip before us and given ourselves more time to do the drive... But honestly after four or five coastal towns we were thrilled to be back in a bustling city!






We dropped off Hank in the morning and made our way slowly into the heart of Brisbane on foot. The walk was gorgeous, and we took our time getting to the hostel by stopping at the markets and checking out several live artistic performances along the way. On the plus side we found an Australian travel book for Ewan so he could learn more about that Aussie history we keep meaning to get into. On the minus- it was a Bill Bryson book, and he turned out to be very obsessed with all the critters, large and small, that could kill us in Australia. So now everywhere we go, ewan spouts out four or five facts about seemingly harmless animals that can kill us before I can say "damn you Bill Bryson!"- it's all kinds of fun.



Our hostel ended up being a surprising score- it was just a 10 minute walk from the city and the riverfront, and there was a separate guest house for the three double rooms with a shared kitchen and living area to ourselves! We met a lovely Irish couple that was in the same boat as us, traveling around before going back to work and the real world. We also met a young Danish couple who were using their government-issued 900 euros a month salary for being students, to travel during their break. What a life.


The hostel was also only a five minute walk to the local rugby stadium, and it just so happened that the Queensland Reds were playing the night we checked in! So the four of us set out to the game sporting any red we had. The Dutch didnt know a Thing about rugby, and ewan only knew a handful of rules, so we became the default experts for them. Not sure that was entirely healthy for anyone but we had a great time explaining the parts we knew and making up anything we didn't. Queensland slaughtered the South African opponents and I finally figured out what a scrum is- all in all a great night!



The next day we explored Brisbane's beautiful riverfront by bike. This time we were sure to get locks on the bikes, and made sure to stay close in case any queenstown thieves were about. We checked out the man made lagoon - beach street-and soaked up the sun while it lasted. That afternoon the weather took a cloudy turn, so being the cultured couple we are, we visited the musuem of modern art Queensland and pretended to understand the abstract sculpture displays on the guided tour. We lasted an entire two hours before ewan's restless leg syndrome kicked in and we had to leave.






That night we went for a drink with the Irish couple, John and Emma, and ran into Ewans old mate Pedro from UK Elite! I thought it was an incredibly random sighting, but ewan assured me that running into Pedro in a bar anywhere is anything but coincidence. The more we travel the smaller this big ole world seems!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Byron Bay in the off season

From all our research (30 mins on google and the lonely planet) Byron was meant to be quite the party/hippie scene of the east coast. Which really doesn't mean much, since that's what we've experienced from most the towns along the way!



But Byron in the offseason didn't really live up to the people watching rep we'd heard about. Most the backpacker bars were sleepy, and the beach was the first ewan agreed was too cold to swim. So instead of getting our tans on and beach bumming like we'd planned, we went for a tramp to the Byron lighthouse. It was a gorgeous walk, packed with tourists. All kinds of tourists, too, from buses of Japanese groups to these guys sharing their passion for weed with the world. There's the Byron spirit we'd heard off!







Two days in Byron was more than enough for us, so we hit the road to Brisbane with a few extra days to spare. On the way we stopped off at mt. Warning to get our sweat on, and do some hiking through the rainforest.



The hike started off a bit weird. We'd heard it was a challenging trail, ending with a steep chain climb at the top, so we were expecting the warning signs and usual notices. But we didn't expect the sign at the beginning explaining the trail was a sacred Aboriginal Site, and the local tribes ask that no one climbs it. We weren't sure whether to keep going, or turn around... But other hikers assured us that the trail was fine to do, and not to be put off by the warnings. We decided this time to press on, but figured we should really do some more reading up on the issue.



We felt weird about doing it... But the hike was fantastic. Sure enough the last climb had us scrambling up the side of the rocky mountain on our hands and knees, using a metal chain to keep from slipping down. We passed an older hiker on the climb and stopped when ewan recognized the accent he was swearing in- we'd met another Geordie! This guy was a retired cop from Newcastle and relocated to Australia in the 1970s. We had to get a photo.




Just goes to show, you can find a Geordie everywhere!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPa

Pit Stop in Port Macquarie

Two years ago Ewan was best man in our friends Al and Kat's wedding back in England, and while he was off performing his duties, one of Kat's bridesmaids used his hotel room for her son's nap time. Nicole lives in port macquarie, and so ewan wanted to make a quick stop to see how his little friend was getting on.(and Nicole, of course!)

We picked up our second camper van from Jucy, a company we'd made lots of fun of in new Zealand, but due to the Australian budget constraints we were under were forced to eat our words and rent one of their "penthouse" vehicles. If the britz was Howie jr., we decided the Jucy was the hick cousin no one talked about but whose presence was undeniable. You can see how inconspicuous "hank" was roaming the streets out of Sydney up the coast...




We stopped for a night at a backpacker campsite some friends recommended for the wildlife. Unfortunately the most abundant wildlife we encountered was of the mosquito variety, and we spent most the night squashing the lil buggers. We made up for it in the morning though when we got to meet Joanna, the owner's pet kangaroo!






A few hours drive and we were at Nicole's house in port Macquarie. Oliver was now 3, and had a little brother, Xavier, who immediately took a shining to us, and our shoes. We spent the night catching up, playing with the boys and figuring out the rest of our east coast trip.



We took off early the next morning, stopped at the local koala sanctuary to check out how more of ewans babies were recovering (he's now adopted baby fur seals, kangaroos and koalas ).



We then went for a spur of the moment dolphin viewing trip in the harbor. Both guidebooks and locals touted the area as the best spot in oz to see the dolphins, and once we heard the stats for sightings from the captain, we signed right up. The boat went out more than 600 times a year, and missed seeing the dolphins an average of 8 times. Ewan did however take a swim in the boats boom net much to the enjoyment of the rest of the boat who decided the water was too cold!



Unlucky for us, we were one of those eight boats. But we did get a great day for sailing, and saw tons of seagulls... Which is almost as good. Almost.





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The Manly Side of Sydney

After the whirlwind that was New Zealand, we decided against most of our fellow travelers' advice and chose to stay in Sydney longer than the token three day tour. And we were so glad we did!



The extended stay was all due to the hospitality of Ewan's friends Kathryn and Loz. These lovely Geordies put us up, fed us and directed us in all the right directions. We thoroughly took advantage of the free accomodation and wonderful company. Although Loz quickly latched onto ewans habit of pointing out every giant spider in the city, we somehow managed to become friends. This laid back Aussie attitude must be catching...



The Browns live in Manly Beach, which is a beautiful 25 min ferry ride away from the harbor and far enough away from the hustle and bustle of the city, but in a lively neighborhood of its own. Despite the masculine name, Manly Beach made much more of an impression on us for its feminine qualities... Mainly the 6' tanned modelesque women who overran the beaches. It only took us a day on the beach and a drink at the local pub that night to realize Sydney and Manly Beach could be in our near future. (80 degrees on a fall day? Yes, please!)



The next day we took in the tourist sights on the hop on/off sightseeing tour bus. Even though we knew how touristy we looked, we couldn't stop taking photos of the opera house.With the water glistening in the background on a sunny day, it's even more gorgeous than we expected.



We stopped off at the busy Chinatown district, and walked the rest of the way back to circular quay and the harbor to get our heads around the city's layout. Sydney's green spaces and public parks would put seattle to shame, and we spent most the afternoon wandering around and soaking up the sun.

That night we met up with Kathryn and Loz in town at British chef Jamie Olivers new restaurant in town and had the best meal out since leaving Seattle.




The next morning we hopped the tour bus again, this time to famous Bondi Beach. We did the tourist walk along the coast, and spent half our time checking out the natural scenery, and the other half gawking at the people on the beach. This guy taught his dog to head a soccer ball back to him... Which was how I lost ewan for a good 15 minutes!






Besides transport to bondi, the hop on bus gave us a few facts on the local history. Inbetween some horrendously corny jokes, We learned that this seaside pool had a very exclusive swim club membership. To become an "iceberg" you Have to swim there every sunday for four continuous years!


All in all we were pretty impressed with Sydney, and are seriously trying to remember the downfalls to an 80 degrees-in-fall climate. (i have to keep thinking of the spiders!) but London has all that... Right? :)





- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Sydney

Fergbergers and thieves part 2

After playing detectives and cursing Queenstown all day, we were excited to see our friends and go out for a few pints. (finally!) chris and Emma came in Friday night, and wouldnt you know it, they landed a camper spot right next to us.

We hit the town for dinner and ended up at queenstowns most famous restaurant- the home of the Fergburger. We'd all heard the hype, and ewan, being the burger lover that he is, wasn't expecting much. But the Ferg was amazing. It was bigger than our heads!





We spent the next two days taking long walks through the scenic parks, along the waterfront and just hung out. On Saturday we took the touristy Gondala ride and raced on the way down- Chris is even more afraid of height than ewan, and Emma's even more competitive than I am...which made for an interesting day!






It was amazing having some familiar faces around, even if we'd only met Chris and Emma a month ago! We were sad to leave them, but I'm sure we'll be seeing more of them when we're back in the U.K. This summer!

Next stop: Sydney!




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad