updates and underwater pictures

So we've had some requests for some stories of the unpleasant nature. I can only guess that those requests stem from the need for a laugh or sheer, honest jealousy. Either way, I thought I would oblidge. :) I do have to preface this with the fact that there haven't been too many unpleasant or bad situations on the trip (and I hope I don't jinx us by saying that) so there's really not too much to report. So, to better entertain you, I've included some of our underwater pictures from the rented digital camera we had at the Great Barrier Reef! Here we go...

Worst Accommodation... Has to be Backpackers By The Bay in Airlie Beach - DON'T STAY THERE! Aside from the rancid smell wafting out of the kitchen area and filling up the whole common area, the place was just not clean and there is obviously no one really in charge or else they don't care b/c the whole place needed work and major updating. On top of that, we had a roommate who didn't smell so good. I think his feet were the main problem - it makes my lip curl just thinking about it! Nice guy but WOW, those feet were something else!!! He also said (and I quote) "This is the best hostel I've stayed in!" Hmmm...

Insects... Flies are very abundant in parts of Australia, especially this time of year. We encountered numerous ones in the Blue Mountains (where they apparently nest and millions hatch around November each year!) and quite a few between Adelaide and Melbourne. Think swarming around your head, landing on your face and anywhere up to 20 or so riding on your back at any given time! Not fun! We also had lots of spider webs across our faces on our walks through the Daintree Rainforest. Eeew!

Bad Weather... I probably shouldn't even mention this b/c we've been blessed with so much sunshine on this trip, but our drive along the Great Ocean Road was accompanied by less-than-perfect weather. The drive is a very scenic one along the Victoria coast and instead of bright, sunny days like we expected, we were met with much cooler temperatures and rain. We really felt like we were back in Ireland!!!! Not the weather we expected or hoped for!

More Bad Accommodation... We had the opportunity to stay in a beautiful cottage in Apollo Bay along the Great Ocean Road but the price was about double what we had been paying so we opted for the more affordable option which was crashing in a room above a bar (w/ live band). Pretty dingy set-up but the bathrooms were surprisingly clean and the band stopped playing around midnight... I guess it looked worse than it actually was.

Worst Food... I apologize in advance to all of our Aussie friends but Vegemite has to be the one! I think you have to be Australian to have a true appreciation for it... or else sheer determination to like it!

Aside from the above, we've been quite lucky and have really been enjoying ourselves. We're in Melbourne now and I'll have to do another post to fill you in on our Christmas and New Year's activities - none of which will make the "worst" list!

I'll try to do a better job in the future of including these "bad" experiences in our posts. I'm sure it will make for more interesting reading!

Oh yeah, and one more suggestion from our good friend Rob in Bath was a favorite drinks list. So here goes...

Thailand - Chang Beer (minus the Chang-Over), Tiger Beer, Buckets and Coconut Milkshakes (recovery from the beer and buckets)
Australia - Coopers Ale, Cascade Premium Lager, Samuel's Gorge Shiraz and if you like a nice buttery Chardonnay give Golding Lenswood 2005 Chardonnay a try - pretty yummy!

More to come soon...

Hugs & Kisses,
Renee & Chuck

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our friends and family! We're thinking of you all and hoping you're having a wonderful, safe and healthy holiday season!

Love,

Renee & Chuck

beaches, rainforests and wineries... oh my!

Wow! I can't believe it's only 7 days until Christmas!!! I have to say the lead up to our first hot Christmas has been good! I'm not sure I could get used to it though, but fun to experience at least once.

Let's see, it's been awhile since we've been online so I have a lot of recalling to do. We did make it up to Port Douglas after Cairns and had a relaxing day and a half there. We just laid out and did some swimming in the netted area at the 4 mile long beach. Because of the stingers in the water, you can't swim unless there's an area netted off and guarded by lifeguards. Luckily there was such an area in Port Douglas b/c it was very hot and we just wanted to get in the water. The temperature of the water was so warm too! It was like bath water. I never thought the ocean could get that warm since it's so big, but apparently it does in Northern Queensland! Port Douglas is a very pretty town too with a nice selection of restaurants and a pretty marina. Mom and Dad - it would be a perfect place to retire on a boat... :) We saw lots of pretty ones in the marina, there were even a couple for sale!!!

After Port Douglas we headed up to the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest living rainforest in the world. It was beautiful country up there and we stayed at the Crocodylus Village right in the middle of the rainforest. Everytime we set foot out of our cabin we encountered a different and new type of wildlife. It was amazing! We saw several Boyd's Rainforest Dragon (there was one that hung out on a tree next to our cabin for an entire day), some Pademelons (like small wallabies or very small kangaroos) eating next to our cabin and we saw a couple of Lace Monitors. We also went on a guided night walk and saw all sorts of cool bugs and spiders as well as a 5 foot Amethystine Python. It was very cool and a totally new environment for us!

From Daintree we headed south for the Whitsundays and made a stop on Magnetic Island for a night. It was a beautiful island and we were able to do a little snorkeling (after a very long hike!) with stinger suits on. That's one thing we've found frustrating about the Queensland coast in the summer - there are tons of stingers (some that are very small and deadly) and it's so hot that all you want to do is get in the water but you can't b/c of the stingers. You have to swim in pools or designated swimming areas which takes a bit of fun out of it. But, we've made the most of it and so far so good!

We drove on to Airlie Beach from Magnetic Island and did a day trip out to the outer Barrier Reef to do some snorkeling. That was a real highlight b/c we saw sea turtles and a couple of reef sharks! We were even able to touch the turtles shells and I touched ones foot. They are so graceful underwater and so beautiful! We wish we could have seen more sharks but even a quick sighting seemed to satisfy us. It was an excellent day out on a smaller boat with only 9 of us diving and snorkeling so it was just about perfect!

We moved on from there to Hervey Bay to join a 2 day, 1 night trip to Fraser Island. Fraser is such a unique and amazing place! (I'm trying to think of different descriptive words for all these places we've been b/c they are all so amazing, excellent, beautiful, etc!!!) For those of you that don't know, Fraser is the largest sand island in the world. It was formed by sand being deposited over millions of years and is now quite large. There are about 400 people that actually live on it today. Because the island is all sand, you are only allowed on it with 4WD transportation b/c literally EVERYTHING is sand, roads, beaches, roads on beaches, etc. Since we were on a tour, we rode around in a huge 4WD coach bus - it had 20 gears! It was still a very rough ride and quite the adventure. The landscape on Fraser is so unusal and unique. We walked through a rainforest, visited several freshwater lakes, drove along 75 mile beach (it's actually a national highway!), hiked across a sandblow (it's a sand dune w/o vegetation - think big open desert!), and swam a lot. It was an amazing side trip and I would highly recommend it to anyone who makes it to Australia! We also spent a few hours at the famous Lake McKenzie and it was like an afternoon at the spa - complete with a dingo (she just made a quick appearance on the beach, had a sniff around and a dip in the lake and then wandered off)! The sand at Lake McKenzie is all silica based and is so fine. It's like the exfoliating ingredient used in beauty products. So, at the suggestion of our tour guide, we all sat in the shallow bit of water and rubbed the sand all over us until we were nice and soft. And the water is quite acidic w/ a pH balance similar to the conditioner we all use in the shower. So, as we boarded the bus to go back to Hervey Bay, we were all nicely exfoliated with really soft hair! :)

After Fraser Island, we drove the rest of the way into Brisbane to catch our flight to Adelaide. We've been in Adelaide for the last 1 1/2 days and we've been staying with our friend Kristin (who we met in Dublin - she recently moved back home to Adelaide) and her parents Gayle and Trevor. What great hosts they all are - we feel quite spoiled!! We did a self-guided winery tour yesterday through the McLaren Vale and stopped at 4 wineries along the way for some wine tasting and a lovely lunch. It was an enjoyable day out and we discovered some new little gems we'll have to try to find once we're back home! Today we're going to head to one of the local beaches for some more sun and sand - can't get enough of either!!! - and then we'll start the drive to Melbourne tomorrow via the Great Ocean Road. It's supposed to be a beautiful drive and we're really looking forward to the coastal scenery along the way.

I will try my hardest to put up another post before Christmas but if I don't get around to it, Merry/Happy Christmas to everyone and we wish you a Happy and Healthy 2008 too! We send our love to everyone and for those of you counting the days until we get home, we are now officially past the halfway mark of our trip so we'll be seeing you before you know it!!! Talk to you all again soon!

Love to all!

Renee & Chuck

(Pictures from top to bottom: Hang Gliders on the way to Port Douglas, Beach at Port Douglas, Four Mile Beach, lookout on the drive to Daintree, Boyd's Rainforest Dragon, Pademelon, Amethystine Python, Moheno shipwreck on Fraser Island, Champagne Pools on Fraser Island, Lake McKenzie, Kangaroo Crossing sign)

our first taste of Oz

So we left Thailand on the 28th of November and arrived in Sydney around 6:30am on the 29th. It was a long flight and I wasn't nearly as impressed with the food on our Qantas flight this time, but nonetheless, we made it! We had a crazy shuttle driver who took us to our hostel and I'm thankful we actually arrived alive!

We stayed in Sydney for 4 days and had a great time there! We made it out to Bondi Beach and Manly Beach, visited the zoo (where the highlight was being very close to a mama kangaroo and her 8 month old joey) and saw the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House and the Botanical Gardens. Sydney is a very cosmopolitan city and it was a big change for us after being in Thailand. It was a nice change although our traveller attire saw us denied entry to one or two places. It's always good to be able to flush toilet paper and count on there being flushing toilets and soap in bathrooms. :) We stayed in a hostel for the first time on our trip and after calling home last week, we now know that the idea of staying in a hostel and sharing a bedroom with "strangers" is a foreign concept to some of you. :) What can I say, this trip is a learning process for us all!

We headed to the Blue Mountains via train last Monday. The Blue Mountains are actually a series of canyons that are filled with eucalyptus trees which give off a blue hue in the air, and that's where they get their name. We only had about a day and a half there but we enjoyed every minute of the clean, fresh air and peaceful surroundings. We did lots of hiking (7 hours one day) and saw some beautiful waterfalls and wildlife including some black and white cockatoos.

On Wednesday morning, we made our way back to Sydney and flew up to Cairns. And WOW is it H-O-T up here!!!! It's amazing we're in the same country! Queensland is much more tropical than New South Wales and it's incredibly humid and in the 90's here. All we can force ourselves to do is seek water. And since you can't swim at the beaches of Cairns (due to a high jellyfish population and the presence of crocs), we found a pool yesterday and organized a dive trip for today. The Lagoon (the name of the pool) was cool, it had a sand "beach" on one side and the water was like bathwater - perfect for me, a little too warm for someone else! :)

We just got back from the dive trip after getting to dive 3 times at the Great Barrier Reef. This diving thing is so cool and I highly recommend it to anyone who gets the chance to do it! Even if it's just a fun dive to try it out and then you can get certified later if you like it that much. We saw lots of coral reefs and many, many fish, including Nemo!!! Unfortunately, we didn't see any sharks or turtles but the dives were still excellent. Someone in another group on our boat saw a Tiger Shark and a Reef Shark so we know they were near, but unfortunately we missed them. I guess we got spoiled in Thailand with seeing a Whale Shark on our third dive! Now we expect to see them all the time! We hired an underwater digital camera for the day and our pictures are being burned to a CD now so hopefully by the next post I can put some of those out here for you all to see.

We're thinking of renting a car and heading up to Port Douglas, the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation for the next few days but no plans made yet. We'll then be making our way down to Brisbane for our flight to Adelaide on the 17th of December. I've posted a few pictures and I'll try to send more via email soon.

Enjoy and you'll be hearing from us again soon!

Renee & Chuck

xoxoxo

(Pics from top to bottom: Bondi Beach, Sydney Opera House, kangaroo w/ joey at Taronga Zoo, us and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, me and the Three Sisters at the Blue Mountains, Chuck at Echo Point in the Blue Mountains, Blue Mountains lookout)