On the Road to Adventure

Photos, More Photos, and then a few more Photos!

smelix — Wed, 13 May 2009 14:13:00 GMT

I cant be dealing with putting all of my photos on here and on facebook, and i promised other people they would go up on facebook, so now that ive finally gotten around to putting some pictures online im going to use this entry to keep links to all of my photo albums relating to this trip on facebook so anyone who wants to can hop on over there and look at them!

Ok here goes (for all you technophobes you just need to click on the name of the album you want to look at..)

Becoming a Sydneysider (Aus)

A sunny Christmas with the Evans (Aus)

Eleven People..One Four-Wheel Drive and ALOT of Sand (Aus)

The Whitsunday Islands and the After Party (Aus)

A wet, wet season in Cairns (Aus)

Around Waimate with the Kennedy's (NZ)

Girls and Boys getting down on the Farm (NZ)

Hunting to Hounds in New Zealand (NZ)

Skydiving over the Fox Glacier (NZ)

The Start of the New Zealand CamperVan Adventure! (NZ)

The Crazily Cute Catlins! (NZ)

The rest of the Southern Scenic Route (NZ)

The wild west coast (NZ)

Feb and March in Brief...

smelix — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 21:06:00 GMT

So for those of you who may have suspected i have fallen off the bottom of the earth, im afraid it is not so. I am still in New Zealand and have spent the last 2 months staying with the Kennedys in Waimate, South Island. I found these guys through the Helpx website and they are fab, basically i stay with them and get my accomodation and keep, in exchange for excercising their four horses and getting them fit for hunting. Its a really nice way of doing things because it keeps the costs down for me, and you get to experience life in a proper new zealand family rather than just doing the touristy stuff, and of course i get to ride which doesnt seem to much like work to me.

Im not going to bore everyone with all the details, but i have really enjoyed it, and came to stay with these guys for 4 weeks at the start of feb and am still here in the middle of april. I am however leaving tomorrow with Jen to start exploring the rest of new zealand and am VERY sad to be leaving. In fact im almost sadder to be leaving these guys than i was to be leaving home at the start of my trip.

In my time at the farm i have milked cows, been trusted with a chainsaw and cut an stacked firewood, been trusted with a hedge trimmer, trimmed the hedges stood on the back of a quad bike, raced around the farm on the back of the quad bike, held a kids birthday party, made horse jumps, clipped horses, put up fences, drunk alot of beer, eaten lots of yummy food, annoyed Richie as much as i can, and of course ridden several ponies!

Jen arrived back in new zealand on the 7th April and after a extended flight time as she discovered she was flying tokoyo - christchurch - auckland - christchurch and the stupid airline wouldnt let her off the first time she arrived in christchurch. I hitched a lift up to christchurch off one of the stock truck drivers and met jen at the airport where we picked up our campervan and headed home to waimate. Spent a couple of days riding the ponies and then took jen off for her first hunt in nz. Not an entirely succesfull day as we had one horse that wouldnt jump, one horse go through a jump and one horse go lame, but still fun and banter was had.

Today we started our official travels and completed a lovely drive round the lakes and up to mount cook, we made it back to waimate in time for dinner as the loop ended up half an hour away. I have come to the conclusion that this is how travelling should be, seeing the sights and then coming home to your dinner on the table, a nice big comfy bed and a hot shower. However sadly this is not to be and for the forseeable future i will be confined to a campervan.

Kia Ora New Zealand

smelix — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:14:00 GMT

I should start this entry with a warning.. there may be a substantial amount of horse anecdotes in the next few entrys.. it will become clear why this is over the next few lines...

So after a long days travelling from cairns to sydney and then sydney to auckland we arrived in New Zealand. After emerging from the airport cluctching out New Zealand Dollars we started to look for the bus we had been told we should get to our hostel, after alot of gormless wandering we were informed that the bus stops running at 2200 and it was now 0030, so we hopped into a surprisingly cheap shuttle bus instead. We soon discovered why it was so cheap when we were the last stop and it took them over 2 hours to deliver us to our hostel instead of the half hour it should have taken.

We got a little bit overtired and silly and once we had checked into our hostel muchly annoyed everybody else in the room as we attempted to make our beds, without turning the light on because we didnt want to disturb anyone , and instead stubbing our toes and ending up giggling very loudly and disturbing them lots. As you can imagine we were very tired and so we overslept, we didnt mean to oversleep, only when we had read the review in lonely planet of our hostel we had thought the were exagerating when they discribed our hostel as a windowless box,but no it really was a windowless box. As a consequence of this we had both woken up several times that morning and assumed it was really early as it was still dark, when i eventually looked at my phone to check the time it was 1300!!

We didnt see much of Auckland as we were busy sorting out all the boring stuff reachingg a new country involves like buying a new sim card, stocking up on shampoo, copying photos to CD etc etc. Had a nice early bed time to prepare for my 0430am start the next day.

Dragged myself out of bed at some ungodly hour the next morning and made my way to the airport feeling rather less than awake and certainly not looking my best. My sprirts rose quickly though when i discovered i was on the same flight as an entire argentinian rugby squad. yum. A quick trip to the ladies and i was looking and feeling considerably perkier! After a pleasant few hours with the rugby boys i arrived in Christchurch airport and settled down for the 5 hour wait for the bus that would take me to Waimate. At somepoint during this wait my spirits began a slow decline but i comforted myself with the thought that this was not aslong as i had been forced to wait in sydney for Kate to finish work, and that i only had a 3hour bus journey ahead of me rather than the 12 hour bus rides we had to endure during our last few weeks of Australia!

I arrived in Waimate at 1830, and was dropped off at what appeared to be roadside cafe in the middle of nowhere and completely abandoned. The bus driver enquired if i was walking the rest of the way, a joke not taken in good form by me, as i was wondering where on earth i had ended up. After 2 Months of the OZ backpacker circuit being alone completely in the middle of the countryside was a bit strange. Shortly though my saviours arrived and Hayley and Annie picked me up and returned me to civilisation.

Once we arrived at the farm i was introduced to the family, Hayley and Richie (Mum and Dad), Annie (7), Cara (6), Whiskey, Bailey, Snoopy and Woody (my charges for the next month - the horses), Pearl and Mouse( the kids ponies), Zena and Butch (the dogs), Jerry and Monkey (the cats)and of course the 1200 cows that make the money! I swiftly settled into my room and revelled in not having to share it with 12 other people (you dont realise how much you miss wandering around naked until you cant do it anymore) and having a double bed again (i did my best starfish impression for several nights. The deal was sealed when i peaked out my window and noticed the hot tub - here was a place i could stay!

So i have the four horses to get fit which means alot of riding, on the first day i rode about 30km, on the second day i could barely walk! My muscles hate me and i want to curl up in bed, but im being fed and watered in exchange for looking after the horses so my guilty conscience forces me out the door. There have been some funn incidents like me forgetting the name of the road i need to ride down and getting lost so i have to turn round and ride back the way i came when weve already been out for over an hour (the horses are suposed to be ridden for an hour each day) or when i fell off Whiskey (the old sensible horse) because i was daydreaming but im not going to go on about them because i have them written in the journal for my memories and they would probably bore anyone else. From now on lets just assume that unless i has been peeing down with rain, i have been riding.

It took a few days for my muscles to forgive me, probably not helped by the girls insisting on taking me for a bike ride or two, but eventually they did and then JP and Richie took two fo the horses away for a weekends trekking, i was left with only one horse to ride, so us girls decided to make use of getting rid of the boys and went siteseeing and shopping!

Friday was a national holiday.. Waitangi Day (the day a treaty was signed between the english and the maori) so the kids were off school and we decided to head out north to Timaru for a wander down the beach (caroline bay) and some shopping. Whislt there we managed to find the cutest little 3 week old minature foal who was quite content to sleep on Caras lap

so we stopped to play with him for a while, before grabbing chish and fips to take upto white horse hill where you can see over all of waimate, towards the hunter hills to the west, and to the sea in the east.

Saturday morning i was up and riding before brekkie as we had a busy day ahead. Today we headed south past Omaru to the Moreaki Boulders (some huge perfectly spherical boulders on the beach)

and then it was back to Omaru for lunch in the city gardens and then off on the "Lakes Loop" This was beautiful scenic drive made all the better by coming from 13 degree low cloud cover into 27 degree bright sunshine in the mountains. We drove past lake waitaki, lake aviemore, lake benmore, and lake ohau before stopping in Twizel for a swim in the balicly cold town pool. It was 20degree in the water, and i got laughed at when i complained that in england i go in the sea in 18degree water in a drysuit with thermals underneath, definately NOT in a bikini.

After we left Twizel we drove past lake pukaki and stopped at a salmon farm where we fed the fish, and i was very naughty and got the girls wet my throwing the food just in front of them, and the fish were doing huge tail flapping jumps splashing them. Whilst there we picked up a tasty fillet for tomorrows tucker. We then continued on round to lake tekapo, as we were driving round we had the most picture perfect views across the lake to mount cook (new zealands highest peak.)

And then Hayley vowed to show me what cold really is as we dipped out toes in the waters of lake teakpo which consist primarliy of melted snow off the mountains! We then drove up to Fairlie where the boys trek was based for a couple of beers and a few hours banter before getting the kids home to bed.

I was shocked by how barren it was up in Mackenzie country , on the farm here its very green because of the irrigation but up there it was just empty, bare, yellow and charred looking. It gets so hot up there in summer and so cold in winter that nothing lives there and it looked much more how i had imagined australia would look than the picture i had in my mind of NZ.

The last couple of weeks have been spent around the farm, i went to the pub with sune and JP which was an experience as we were the only people in there and they decided to kick us out and close up at 2130 so we relocated to their house for more drinks and i was introduced to the 'springbok' a south african shot of peppermint liquer and baileys. And i have learnt how to milk and did a milking session of herd 2. Oh my god, it is back breaking work, and as they have a rotating platform i was struggling to get the cups on fast enough and sometimes ended up chasing cows around the platform. Was a lot of fun tho and Hayley took some pictures of me doing it so ill get them up as soon as. I was looking very dashing i must say sporting overalls, wellies, a huge apron, special sleeves and a large quantitie of cow shit.

I really am loving it here though and cant believe im leaving in just over a week, Hayley and Richie dont want me to go and if im honest i dont want to go, but i have comitted to go to the trekking stables so ill give it ago and Hayley and Richie have been warned that if i dont like it ill be on the next bus back,and ill also definately be back to take to horses hunting!!

The Dregs of Australia...

smelix — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:40:00 GMT

So i left Australia almost 3 weeks ago and im only just getting round to completing my description of our australian adventure. Disgraceful. Ill pick up where i left off at the start of our second day in the Whitsunday islands...

After having such a small amount of sleep the previous night i slept most of the way to whitehaven, and was awoken by Freya to the sight of reputedly one of the top five beaches in the world, and pretty nice it was too.

I didnt think it had quite the same WOW factor as Lake McKenzie, but maybe im just becoming immune as we have seen alot of beautiful beaches on this trip. We had to wear some particularly attractive stinger suits as its Jelly Fish season,so once we were in the water we were staying in, there was no way i was struggling in and out of a wet wet suit, i do enough of that at home, after a few hours of playing about we were about to retreat back to the boat for lunch when we spotted a little reef shark in the shallows, not the typical shark scenario as we were all following it trying to get a better look whilst it swam away, rather than vice versa as you would expect. Once back on the boat we put up the sails and headed for the dive site. Luckily for us this day was the opposite of the day before with bright sunshine, and everyone got burnt in some amusing patterns from where they had been sat on the side of the boat. The hand print on kates leg was my favourite.

Once we were at the dive site i was eager to get in the water so did abit of snorkelling whilst waiting for my turn, and saw an eagle ray. Sadly it was the most exciting thing i saw that day, ive seen more in english waters and in better vis so was more than a littl bit disappointed with my first experience of Australian waters. After we had managed to get everyone back on board without losing anyone we headed off to Hayman island, this is the most exclusive resort in the Whitsundays with suits costin up $200,000 AUD a night. Needless to say riffraff like ourselves were not allowed to set foot on land so we anchored up in a sheltered bay for the night. The nights entertainment was somewhat depleted from the previous nights antics, however Laura, James, Shaz and myself still managed to put away vast quantities of goon, whislt playing the name game. You may note here that i suck at the name game however my faculties were still intact enough to notice when James attempted to use "Gari Baldi" as a person. Bedded down on deck for the night and slept peacefully untill Fiona woke me at 6am to inform me it was starting to rain, so relocated downstairs for another couple of hours sleep.

Emerged later to discover there were loads of bat fish off the side of the boat so considered doing a second dive until the wind picked up and i couldnt be bothered to pay for another dive in shit vis (they will turn me into a warm water diver yet!) so just opted to snorkel. Had a slight snorkel related incident (there was no mouthpeice) much to Ryans amusement that "a dive instructor hadnt thought to check her kit before she got in the boat" but that was soon rectified and i saw a turtle and play with lots of parrot fish. Just as we were about to leave, the wind which had so considerately picked up and ruined the vis for snorkelling decided to drop again so we had to head for home under motor! Check out the video Renee made of our whitsundays adventures.

Made it safely back to Airlie Beach, at whic point Shaz and I had the great idea that we should change our buses so we got the 0245am bus straight from the boat return party in the pub, Jen as less than enthused by this idea, being the sensible kinda girl she is, but i soon managed to persuade her so after a quick shower at Shaz's hostel the drinks began to flow.

Just before 0200 we relocated ourselves from the pub to the bus stop, only to discover our bus was an hour late, so i slept on the floor then on the bus. Jen and I finally reached Carins at 1300 and made our way to the hostel for a few more hours kip. This was Australia Day so we felt we ought to be out doing something, but we were cream crackered so just claimed our free meal from the hostel and went to the movies to watch "Australia" as we thought that was suitably Australian to do on Australia Day.

We did really very little on the 27th except sleep and explore the night markets where we discovered a 40min massage for $15.. Bargain. Whilst looking for the night markets we wandered past the harbour, there was one of those huge P&O cruise liners in port and a discussion followed about whether or not it was bigger than the Titanic. We couldnt agree so eventually decided to go ask the ships security, they informed us it was 60m bigger and for some reason we heard laughing as we walked away.. Jen doesnt beleive them and is going to Wikipedia the size of the Pacific Sun and then size of the Titanic.. ill let you know the results!

The next morning we were up early once more for a trip to the Outer Barrier Reef, we got to Harrison Reef kitted up and hopped into the water, just me, the guide and a newly qualified OW lad, he was down to 70bar after 20mins so the guide took him bac to the boat whilst i played with a turtle and then we continued with the dive, the reef here was much more what i had been expecting from australia, and i saw 3 turtles, although i still dont think there was as much fish life as in Egypt. Had a chilled out lunch and wasnt going to do a second dive but after abit of coersion and the promised that if we didnt see sharks my guide would cut his arm off to attract them i paid up. Sure enough 5 mins into the dive we saw a beautiful 2m white tip reef shark, which swam around with us for about 5mins. Absolute magic. I could have made my guide cut himself because he swam straight past the Shark without noticing it and i had to point it out to him. But im a nice girl so i didnt! Got back from the dive and went snorkelling with Jen and saw another eagle ray. Good stuff. made better by an embarrasing incident for one of the dive instructors on board when a jelly fish swam up his boardies and stung him all the way round his legs, groin and butt... quite amusing for the rest of us as he locked himself in the toilet with the vinegar. Saw Shaz for dinner that night and had a few drinks before retreating to the hostel for an early night before our early departure for Cape Tribulation the next morning.

We headed north for an hour or so then stoppedd for brekkie at which point Jen discovered she had forgotten her purse. What is she like.. It was quite a good trip, we went on a cruise up the Daintree River and saw a little Crocodile, and then went on a Rainforest Walk where we learnt alot about the ferns etc and saw a Dragon lizard

We had lunch by the beach and then drove down to Mosman Gorge stopping along the way for photos of Alexandra Heads and Snapper Island. The gorge was very pretty

and swimming in the river was amazing especially when a tropical rain storm began

until we realised all our stuff on the bank was getting VERY wet, so we ran back to the toilets to change, where we discovered a huge (as big as my hand) golden globe spider

We then headed back to Cairns via Port Douglases amaing ice cream shop with 42 different flavours of ice cream. Whilst it was a good day i did feel like a i spent most of the day on the bus and had very little time at the places we stopped. I think a better way to do it would be to hire a car and stay there overnight and it probably wouldnt cost much more between a few of you. Of course we returned to the night markets once we got back to Cairns for another massage!

Our last full day in Australia was throughly unproductive, we slept late and then discovered the Aboriginal Centre we wanted to visit was miles away and extortionaly expensive so finished australia in the way we had spent most of our time, wallowing in the lagoon.

A most incongrous although very fitting end to the first part of our adventure!

Rain, rain go away come again another day!!

smelix — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 11:20:00 GMT

As i write this im sat in our hostel in Cairns looking out the window at monsoonal rains, with the knowledge that a big storm with gale force winds is winging its way towards us. I knew when we decided to come to cairns that it was the wet season but i was expecting short torrential downpours not continuous rain. But im gettin ahead of myself, this entry should start on the morning we left Airlie Beach to sail the Whitsunday Islands, a morning which also included rather alot of rain!

After putting our bags in Storage we wandered down to the marina to meet our boat "Apollo", the rest of the gang we would be spending the next 3 days marooned with and the boats crew, Ricki - Skipper, Ryan - Deckhand, Harry - Dive Instructor, and Freya - Cook. Unsuprisingly yet again there were a disproportionate amount of Irish on board, but in general we were pretty internation with people from holland, switzerland, germany, canada, and of course the english. Unfortunately someone had forgotten the "no bannanas on board" rule and as soon as we set foot on the boat the heavens opened and pretty sharpish we were all decked out in some very attractive yellow waterproof jackets and complaining that this didnt look much like the pictures the travel agents had used when selling us the trip.

The masses decided we should head to Hamilton Island (a five star resort) for the afternoon where we could enjoy the cocktail bars out of the rain, typically as soon as we arrived at hamilton, and Harry found and removed the offfending Banana, the skies cleared to beautiful sunshine. All the same we disembarked and Jen, James and I managed to hitch a lift on the back of a golf buggy (there are no cars on the Island) over to the resort and so we arrived just in time for happy hour. The others who had been forced to walk arrived in dribs and drabs afterwards. In queensland there is a law that once you have started drinking you are not allowed in the sea to dive and snorkel, our crew had told us at 9.45 that morning that there would be no diving or snorkelling because of the weather so we had all cracked into the goon (for the uninitiated goon is, the very cheap, pretty disgusting, wine in a bag, thus we were delighted to find happy hour at the pool bar and took full advantage of that until funds ran out and we were forced to reconvene on the boat for some more goon! As you may imagine the rest of the day gets a little hazy around hear, but it consisted of getting to know each other and the crew a little better. I eventually fell asleep at 230am, on the deck because the bunks made me clastrauphobic,so was woken before 6 by the sunrise with a very fuzzy head. Felt much better after a hot shower and we headed off to whitehaven beach......

TO BE CONTINUED...

Ive run out of time and have to go to the airport, but will continue this saga from New Zealand!!

Another mammoth update.

smelix — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 11:20:00 GMT

Well if you got throught the last update im impressed, ive been terrible at keeping this up to date because whenever we have been online we have been trying to sort out jobs for new zealand and that seems to take up the entire hour. Luckily i am also keeping a written travel journal with abit more success at keeping it up to date than this as i dont need a computer, so when i do eventually get around to updating this i can remember everything that we have been up.

So the last time i wrote we had been running around Byron Bay for the day and were about to get a bus to Brisbane, and so i pick the story up from our arrival in Brisbane.. It was somewhat late at night and we were somewhat exhausted having had a very long day.. so you can imagine our dismay when our taxi driver couldnt find our hostel, and we had no number to call them. After rather alot of driving up dark streets with the meter running, we finally found it, however there was no-one there to let us in, we did eventually manage to contact the owner and he came and resued us but it was not the best start to our day. Our time in Brisbane was really quite relaxed, we did a walking tour of the city and saw lots of historical buildings and went to a really interesting muesum about the life of the convicts. They built a windmill in brisbane and then when they realised its not like england and there wasnt enough wind to power it they put the convicts on a treadmill to power it.... that would of got rid of any excess fat pretty sharpish, and they 14 hour shifts, made me tired just thinking about it. We spent several hours wallowing in the "town beach" which was like a giant paddling pool and jut what we needed to cool us down. And they we got all spiritual and went to the carnival spirtitual. I am now considerably better informed about yoga, idian dancing, sword fighting, drumming, and of course the meaning of life. I did concluded however that it may take me quite a few lifetimes of imbalance to achieve true spirituality. We have also been doing an awful lot of walking and went out to Mount Coot-ha where you can see over all of brisbane, and did a walking track through the forest to a waterfall, with the aim of playing in the waterfall to cool down once we had completed the 5km walk there in the blistering heat. Im sure you can imagine my dismay when we reached said waterfall and there wasnt even a drip of water in it, hot sweaty and disenchanted we made our way back to the city very much ready to relocate to a seaside town.

The next days our prayers were answered and our travels took us to Maroochydore, which for those who were in egypt i can only describe as australia's Dahab.. very chilled out, slowly slowly and totally my kind of place. From Maroochydore we went to Australia Zoo for the day (steve irwins love child). It was an odd type of zoo as there werent all that many animals there, but all the animals that were there were very interactive, so we fad kangaroos and elephants and cuddled koalas. I want a koala, im sure i could fit one in my bag to bring home, so if anyone wants to start growing me some eucalyptuse for it to eat id be most obliged. I was meant to be going to do a dive on the HMAS Brisbane the next day but was outraged to be told it was cancelled due to bad weather when it was 30deg with a light breeze. They would never go diving in England, our good weather is there to bad to dive!!! The rest of our time in Maroochydore was very laidback, playing in the surf, wallowing in the lagoon, watching live bands, eating BBQ's and sitting in the hot tub at our hostel! Scrumptious.

All that good work chilling out was undone though in one swift move. To get up to Hervey Bay,to leave for our trip to Fraser Island, we had to get a bus back to brisbane, and then another bus up to hervey bay, it turned out this bus went via Maroochydore, so 7 1/2 hours after we had left we were back in maroochydore only considerably more tired and stressed. Once we arrived in Hervey bay we consulted the trusty Lonely Planet to find our hostel, decided it didnt look to far and set off from the bus stop lugging our bags. The LP was deceptive and 40mins later we were still walking. If ever i doubted that i had packed to much stuff this walk forever dispelled that notion. When we did evenutally reach our hostel we discoverd that we didnt know where we were staying the next night, but were exhausted so resolved to sort that out in the morning. I awoke refreshed and revived in the morning only to be thrown into a state of panick when after several phone calls i was told we werent booked onto a trip to Fraser Island and there was no space available for 4 days, and that we had no where to stay that night. Fortunately after i gave our booking agents a severe ear bashing they fixed all this and we relocated to the lovely Beaches Hostel. Spent the majority of the day recovering for this upset and just when i was feeling good again my camera decided to commit suicide, so i was forced to run, and i mean RUN, to the camera shop, arriving 1min before it closed, and buy a new camera before we left at 630am the next morning!

For our fraser island trip we were put into groups of 11, given a 4wheel drive landrover and sent off to the ferry. We offloaded from the ferry thinking a whole load of fuss had been made about nothing regarding how bad the roads are... well when i say roads i should clarify i mean sand tracks, about 15mins away from the ferry we discovered what they meant when it took us 50mins to drive 8km!!! We managed not to get stuck tho a reached Lake Mckenzie. I dont know how to describe this place, all any of us could say when we reached the shores was WOW, its one of the places that you see amazing photos of and think it cant really look like that, but it actually does!! We lazed around there for far too long and then had abit of a panick when we realised you have to drive up the beach to reach our campsite and the tide was coming in and if we didnt get a shift on we would be stranded. So trusty Jen got behind the wheel and with her experience of driving tractors we fairly flew down to the beach and left the other 2 cars for dust, in fact we flew so fast we managed to stop and ses the creek at central that is so clear you cant hardly tell if there is water in it, and the shipwreck on the beach, before reaching camp and putting up the tents and having a few drinks.. clearly not enough drinks as i had a horrible nights sleep! Up at 6am the next day and off to Eli Creek which is like the Blue Lagoon in Iceland in that the low pH water is really good for your skin, and you start at the top and float down to where it meets the sea, we then raced up the Beach past the pinnacles of coloured sand to Indian Heads where we saw sharks, manta rays, dolphins and turtles swimming below us, we then walked over to champagne pools, basically a giant rock pool where jens foot decided it had enough and cut itself to shreds. We went back to base camp for alot more drinks and i managed to fall over trying to give jen a piggyback to the tent to keep her foot clean... i dont think me landing on top of her helped. And we got absolutely soaked because we refused to leave the beach until the eski full of drinks was light enough to carry easily. Did not want to get up for the last day on fraser, but 6am swa me taking down the tents and then we headed off to lake wabby, which is like an oasis in the middle of sand dunes... all you can see is sand. Got abit worried about crocs but it wasnt them that nearly killed me it was the walk back up the dunes to the car! We then voted to head back to Lake Mckenzie for a dip before catching the ferry back to Hervey Bay.

The morning we got back me and jen were both up at 5am with food poisoning so our bus ride to 1770 wasnt particularly pleasant, but the hostel when we got there was fantastic, we had the dorm to ourselves and our own bathroom - which was probably a good thing from the points of view of the other residents. We spent most of the next day recovering our strength and exploring. However this place was TINY so there wasnt much to explore. Yesterday we felt better so went and did a surf lesson for a few hours... the instructor wasnt my idea of an australian surfer, he was about 60, bald, beer bellied and lycra clad. but he was a bloody good instructor and apparently if i was to commit to surfing i have the possibilty of being very good. We left 1770 on the overnight bus last night at 1945 and arrived at Airlie Beach at 0715 this morning after an hours delay spent sitting in a car park whilst they fixed our coach at 1am! Totally knackered now so chlling for the day and set off for 3 days sailing around the whitsunday islands tomorrow morning!

Finally Updating this thing...

smelix — Tue, 6 Jan 2009 19:44:00 GMT

Well apologies for not updating this in weeks, i have not only been running around like a headless chicken, i have had no internet for some of the time so been unable to update unless i go to macdonalds and steal there free wifi, if i do that i feel bad for not buying anything, so have eaten more macca's in the last 2 weeks than i have in the last 5 years!!

well we left sydney and went back to kates house in bathurst on the 19th, we then went out that saturday night for a night of silly dancing with kate and sarah. on the sunday me and kate went back to sydney to go and watch sydnet play perth in the football, officially sydney are by far the better team, but typically they lost 4-0 with one own goal and another that i could of scored, and there latest expensive new purchase missed spectacularly. Me and kate didnt really care we were having far too much fun booing and shouting along with the rest of the crowd to be bothered by the outcome. The next day we went indoor rock climbing which was great fun aloth boy did i hurt the next morning. We then went back to bathurst for christmas with the evans family.

It was and experience to be sure,and one i would love to repeat in the future. We started off christmas eve with the first of the family arriving and lots of eggnog and very bad snging of carols. Christmas morning started at 6am with steffi and nat runnning around the house ringing the christmas bells, i have never seen such a huge pile of presents under one tree and i was chuffed to discover aussie santa had remembered me.... more family arrived and we had christmas lunch then more presents, then played paddock golf then morrre presents.... awesome.... me and kate got kicked out into a tent for a few nights but i cant say i minded i could lie in the tent with the sides open and look at the stars.. this was all well and good until the 27th when we returned from town to find the worst storm they have has in the last 5 years, bo and jules tent got blown away but mine and kates held its own with the stuff just getting a tad damp...

On the 28th we went into sydney and picked up jen and then came back to bathurst, we spent the next few days letting her recover, playing paddock golf, messing about in darrens pool and visiting katoomba in the blue mountains. The views there are just spectaular, youre going through this little normal town and then bam the ground falls away in front of you into this beautiful gorge. We went back to sydney for new years and watched the harbour bridge firworks from vaucluse. we ahd to be there at 3pm to get a good spot.. an afternoon/evening sat drinking in the park in 30degree heat... its a hard life :-)

The 2nd was the start of jens whirlwind tour of sydney and we did darling harbour, the fish markets, swimming and fish and chips at watsons bay, beach and shopping at manly, syndey tower, glebe markets, the rock markets, pancake on the rock and jen walked harbour bridge all in two days. On the evening of the 3rd we said a sad goodbye to kate and the family and caught the overnight bus up to coffs harbour.

onve we arrived in coffs we dumped our bags and went on a hunt for breakfast.. it was a much longer hunt than expected..we'd got a little to used to sydney and couldnt believe everywhere was closed because it was sunday. we eventually managed to find not only breakfast but also the beach so a lovely chilled day was had recovering from our long journey finished up with watching the dark knight at an open air cinema... luckily ive seen it before as i think i spent most of the film asleep. The next day we went and played glow in dark mini golf... words cannot describe the joy of that and then we went to pet a porpoise pool.. to be honest i was expecting it to be abit of a let down but they actually let you interexct with the dolphins and seal and we got seal and dolphin kisses... we have spent today in byron but i cant tell you about that because the internet is closing so until tomorrow when we hit brisbane!!

A sydneysider..

smelix — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:37:00 GMT

well havent i been a busy little bee over the last few days.. admittedly i did spend the first few days doing very little other than getting my bearings of the city...

i cant remember what i had been doing in the last blog so forgive any repetition..

on fridy i took a ferry down to watsons bay and had some lovely fish and chips, supposedly the best in sydney, and they were that good that they could have been, i had a little wander around watsons bay with the intention of going for a walk round to one of the other bays to get the ferry back, however the weather thwarted my plans with a huge rain storm and after getting throughly soaked i gave up and headed for home and a day spent on the sofa looking at the rain pouring down and watching silly films whilst getting over the last of my jet lag.

We compensated for this on saturdy with a ram packed day, starting off with a few hours wandering around Glebe markets, they were heaven but i managed to restrain myself to only purchasing a few small items ans not the chest of drawers and huge photoframe that i really wanted, and compfrted myself with getting the stall holders cards so i can mail them in once im rich. We then went down to the Rocks and wandered around the Rocks markets for a while with a lot of posh touristy stuff and then had pancakes on the rock... scrumptious... we then missioned off to bondi junction shopping centre for a few hours wandering around there and then had a drink up at the "food court" which had beautiful views over the harbour, not your usual shopping centre food court thats for sure. After a few hours there we came back for Carols in the Park accompanied by several bottles of wine, dips and cheese and lots and lots of silliness from me and Kate...

After nursing my hangvoer for several hours on sunday morning, i moved across to my hostel and then disappeared off to Bondi beach for a few hours chilling in the sun. Once i got back i discovered that the hostel is primarily occupied by chinese people who dont speak english, so no prospective wanderers for me there.

Yesterday another busy day, i went down to the fish markets, wandered around darling harbour, walked across pyremount bride the worlds ever first electric swing bridge, and then to the aquarium. where i was totally awestruck by the sharks and decided my mission in life is too see as many types of sharks as possible.

Today i lounged on the beach at Manly, and was going to do the sydney walk but decided walking 10km was far to much effort and resumed lounging on the beach.

Tomorrow i learn to surf.. wahooo!

My First Proper Day in Sydney..

smelix — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:35:00 GMT

after lots of hangning about in the park yesterday i went and hung about in the station where i met lots more lovely friendly people and then met up with kate.. we went over to her grandmas house for a family dinner for her grammys birthday,i had a great time they are just like our family and taking the mick out of each other. i throughly enjoyed doing proper australian stuff, not just touristy stuff.

After a lovely nights sleep with a very cuddly big black cat, i set off to be a proper tourist, Karen took me down to harbour bridge and then i meandered round the botanical gardens took lots of piccies of the opera house and bridge (see the album - there are tons) and wandered slowly back getting my bearings of the city.. i also got an aussie phone so if anyone feels the desperate need to contact me the number is +61 422797335. Tomorrow i will get off my butt and do proper stuff and see the city!

Gallery: The start of Sydney!

smelix — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 22:14:00 GMT

One has arrived...

smelix — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 11:37:00 GMT

Well after my lovely long flight i have arrived in Sydney and not managed to get myself into any trouble yet despite my best efforts to the contrary.

The flight was ok, had a nice man next to me on the flight to bangkok who offered me sleeping pills, but my mummys voice came into my head telling me not too take drugs from strange men so i declined, plus i was slightly worried id still be out for the count when we hit bangkok. The next leg of the flight wasnt quite so pleasant but i made it. Then they proceeded to lose and then find my rucksack in the space of half an hour, apparently im so special theyd put it somewhere extra safe with 3 other bags, but had forgotten to tell anybody else about that, so id already filed the lost bag report by the time they found it. Drama averted, i wasnt looking forward to starting this trip without my bag!

Made it into the centre and found myself a spot in park where i plonked myself in the sunshine on the blanket i pinched for the flight and spent 5 hours reading my book and people watching. Its great there were lots of old people doing tai chi, i think i may go and join them another day, oh and got invited out on my first date of the trip by an old toothless kiwi guy who was nice enough to chat too but got quickly dispatched when he suggested we go for coffee.... eventually the sun got too hot and i had to come in search of suncream (possibly the ONLY thing i didnt pack), having a quick play on t'internet, going to find some lunch and the retreating back to my spot in the park till Kate finishes work...

Not the most exciting of entries, but im here safely, and totally knackered from the time difference so sitting in a park is about as much energy as im willing to expend today... Much love xxx

Jeez Louise

smelix — Sun, 7 Dec 2008 10:40:00 GMT

I sound like a right moany mary in that last blog and it totally isnt how i felt, more exuberantly happy but too snowed under to show it.

We are now back in St Albans and im already missing the seaside, but soon ill be by the sea on t'otherside of the world.Yayness..

Last night we went to see Mamma Mia, what a great show, especially considering how well its relates to my mum and mines own story ( well not totally but the similarities are suprising!) and then ate lots of yummy food. Today has been running around getting ready for the "Clark Christmas" which is happening tomorrow and isnt really very christmassy as we are having all my fave foods, scallops, fillet steak, banofee pie, mince pies, and danish rice pudding... Yay for lots of scrumptios deserts.

Im pretty sure i have packed WAY too much so im considering unpacking taking some out and then repacking, but im doing my usual stress that ill take out the one thing ill really want once im gone. I know it isnt important but im silly like that.

Im so excited about seeing Kate although still have no idea where im headed from the airport so ill probably be wandering around sydney for a few hours complete with backpack. This trip is certainly going to be interesting when you consider just how bad we are at planning stuff. to be honest im amazed we got as far as this...

only 2 sleeps.. whoo (haha what a total geek i am!)

Time Flys...

smelix — Wed, 3 Dec 2008 11:42:00 GMT

Well im due to fly out to Sydney on the 8th Dec and it just feels like time is rushing forward to that date and im being left behind struggling under a mountain of things to do. I've definately decided that buying a house just before leaving was not the best idea i've ever had.

We completed on the flat on Monday and it is gorgeous and i love it, however attempting to sort out everything that goes with a new house, plus everything that goes with a long trip abroad is making me feel rather snowed under. I wanted to see people before i go and i feel like i have run out of time, i want to spend time in the new house but everything i need to sort is at the old house and i cant be there doing that and playing in the new house at the same time.

Im also stressed because i managed to delete ALL my photos off my laptop the other day, so its off with a computer man hopefully being fixed but he hasnt inspired me with confidence. i think i can get most of them back but its a huge faff and taking up extra time i dont have right now.

We are leaving Weymouth on friday to head up to St Albans for the weekend and an early christmas with the family, Its also mums birthday on thursday and we are taking her to see Mamma Mia at the theatre in London on friday which she doesnt know about, so yet again rather than spending my last few days chilling out spending time with people before i go i think ill be running around like a headless chicken! Ah well all fun and games...

Gallery: Camp America 2006

smelix — Thu, 7 Sep 2006 10:06:00 GMT

NJ, NY, Orlando and LA

Gallery: Camps International 2004

smelix — Wed, 1 Sep 2004 12:00:00 GMT

Community Project and Coral Reef Conservation