15.09.10 Spring Skiing - Thredbo

We headed south to Thredbo to catch some snow with Gina and Lucas. Not sure what to expect we were pleasently surprised by the white slopes and blue skies. After generous loans etc from friends we were fully kitted up for the snow, me on my speed skies and charlie on his board.

We eased ourselves into it on the green slopes but quickly headed to high noon, the world cup run and the super trail. I acted as photographer while Charlie and Lucas hurled themselves sky high on every lump and bump (sometimes coming crashing to the ground!) The skiing was well interspersed with mountain hot chocolates and beers.

Loved it!

By the time we drove back on Sunday every muscle in our bodies ached.

02.09.09 Sydney

So we are a bit late on this but we did have an awesome time in Sydney! We were straight into it when we arrived - off the plane (into the cold..) to meet Charlies Australian family and then straight to the Opera House to watch the Mikado ( a play which scarred me at Primary school but I feel I am over it now!) It was a fantastic introduction ( and re intro) to Sydney.

Could the rest of the week match it? With Charlie as my personal tour guide how could it not...We went to Palm beach (Home and away) which was beautiful, I can instantly see the attraction of living in Australia. We were excited to see quite a large snake on a rock there and hurried to the internet to see how poisonous it was - it was a common green snake or something equally boring sounding - how disappointing!

In the city we visited the architectural and the art, the entertainment of Kings Cross and the drinking establishments, meeting up with friends of Charlies from the past. Our first drink was at Summit bar, a revolving bar on top of a tower - great views of what we would visit over the next few days.

And what made the whole week was how welcoming the family were.

Cairns 24.08.09

A bizarre place, possibly the free dinners we got with our accommodation (in a smelly loud club) put us off at first and the fact that I had kind of forgotten that Cairns is backpacker party town central. However such good timing you’d think we’d planned it, we arrived in Cairns in time for the yearly city festival which meant we got free stuff including jazz, massage and manicure, art gallery entry amongst other things. DIVING DIVING DIVING had become the main focus for Cairns as we had decided to opt for the highly recommended and more expensive Pro Dive 5 day Padi Open Water course, 2 days in the pool and then 3 days and 2 nights aboard a boat. Definitely the right choice, I think one of the best things we have ever done.
We had two days doing theory and pool diving to learn some of the basic skills necessary before embarking on our 3 day trip on the barrier reef, it took the first couple of dives for us both to feel comfortable 18meters under the sea and get used to ‘equalizing’ (which wasn’t helped by recent colds) as you went deeper. Such an amazing sport; we saw sharks, turtles, sting rays, Nemo, trumpet fish, sea cucumbers and enormous bumphead parrotfish… oh and some coral. The night dive was spectacular if slightly eerie especially when your torch lights up the evil looking eyes of a 2 meter grey shark! The weirdest thing is being back on land and still swaying slightly after two days… land sickness!

20.08.09 Alice Springs and Puli Rock

Due to our wonderful planning we allowed ourselves just enough time to do Darwin and central Australia at a sensible pace, unfortunately we hadn’t realized it works out a lot cheaper doing an organized tour to Puli rock than a one way rental car or bus. This meant that the only tour in Alice Springs that was affordable and went in the right direction for our schedule was fully booked… thanks to Imre our friendly local (Norwegian we think) tour agent we managed to reschedule our flights and get on the ‘Rock Tour’ the next day. Three days walking around rocks and two nights sleeping in ‘swag bags’ under the stars at £150pp is believe it or not a bargain in comparison to the other tours on offer.. and although not sure about the bag thing we both really enjoyed it and sleeping under the stars was one of the highlights.
Kings Canyon was awesome, truly amazing geology and a very hot three hour walk, this was our first true taste of an organized tour and reminded us sometimes it is good not to do everything on your own – the guide was really informative and friendly, we crammed in loads of activities without feeling rushed, Gioia was convinced to sleep under the stars where sleeping in a car had previously been rejected, the food was awesome (my first real chilli con-carni in four months) and we met some cool people. Next on the tour was Kata Tjuta (Olgas Rocks) where we managed to see some rock wallabies before heading to the big daddy itself Puli rock (Ayers rock). Both were amazing and I even got tubed in a rock formation. We decided not to climb Puli rock to respect the local Aboriginals wishes and considering how many people fall off and die doing it each year. It seems things are getting better but it is amazing how royally screwed over the aboriginals have been since the arrival of white man in Australia, they are slowly having land returned to them but for example Puli rock (very sacred to them) it would seem has been returned but only on the agreement that they rent it back to the government… mmm sounds like they didn’t really get it back at all. I could ramble on for ever here but I’ll resist and merely suggest a visit is worth the cost – I was dubious until I got there but it ended up being one of the highlights of the trip so far.

17.08.09 Darwin

More Kakadu national park than Darwin, we arrived at 5am, got a taxi to the rental office and picked up our ‘Mitzibishi Colt’ 2 person berth campervan and what a beaut she was. The park was beautiful and we saw birds, crocodiles, aboriginal art work and attended a few very well organized and interesting ranger talks, walks and events – we even had a go at painting a Barramundi and a long necked turtle in the traditional Aboriginal style. It really was a treat being able to cook for ourselves and NOT having to eat in boring restaurants anymore, bizarrely it is cheaper to eat out in Asia than cook for yourself! The huge long straight roads, the clear blue sky, red brown of the earth and fairly sparsely populated area was also quite a contrast to Asia’s denser population, hazey skies and bumpy roads. Easy access to clean toilets, food and accommodation was also a welcome relief.