Thursday 13th August

I had booked myself onto the Stray bus, which is a hop on-hop off bus for backpackers in New Zealand, and got picked up at the unsocial hour of 8am! We drove to Mount Eden, which is an old volcano crater on the edge of the city, and got views of the city and natural harbour. Auckland kinda looks like Sydney, but with English weather!

view of the city

We then headed south east out of the city towards Hahei, our destination for the night. We had a quick lunch stop, and another stop for a bit of tree hugging, which was meant to bring good luck

good luck hug

On the drive to Hahei, we were given chalk pens and got to draw pictures of each other on the windows of the bus so that we could learn each others names. We made it to Hahei at about 3:30, where we checked into our hostel before going on a walk around cathedral cove, which was a really nice walk, but a bit on the windy side! The walk took us down onto the beach, and through some archways. We also did a bit of climbing on the rocks, as they were really nice to climb on.

our bus group

We then headed back to the hostel for a group barbeque, cooked by Skins, our bus driver. The dinner was massive, we had steaks, chicken, sausages, green lipped mussels, sweet potato chips and salad. We spent the rest of the evening playing cards, which reverted into drinking games involving cards, and then into some really silly drinking games, but they were really funny.

The next morning we were back on the bus at 8, with a few people feeling slightly worse for wear after the previous night. I was fine, and even had time for porridge before  getting on the bus. The weather was pretty horrible, so there wasn’t much to see out of the windows, so we all napped for a fair bit of the journey. The drive was quite long, but we stopped for a while at Bridal veil falls,

bridal veil falls

where the water cascading over the edge is meant to look like a veil. It then started raining so we got back ont he bus and stopped for a late lunch in a pub in Raglan, before heading to the hostel, which was on the coast (we had driven all the way across the country, and were now back on the east coast). It was still light when we got to the hostel, so we had some time to play on the aerial runway they had there, and on the assault course, but it was a bit slippy so we skipped a few bits out! It was then dinnertime, and we cooked a stir fry which was tasty. After dinner we went out looking for glow-worms which we found ont he side of the road underneath the overhanging rocks. The evening was quieter than the previous night, and we were in bed relatively early.

Day 3 on the Stray bus started with a 2 hour drive to Waitomo. Waitomo is famous for its caves, so obviously, we went caving! I did a trip called Haggas Honking holes. First we had to get kitted up in wetsuits and jackets, with wellies and helmets that were massive. We also had a practise using the belay racks before getting into the caves. Once we were in the cave system we did a 25m, 10m and 8m abseil down waterfalls, which is quite difficult when the rope is really heavy, and you have to feed the rope through to let yourself down! We also got lowered (rather quickly) down a 4m waterfall, where we then had to go under the waterfall into a small hole before swimming (well, pulling along the floor) out to a larger part of the cave, where we turned our torches off to look at the glow worms. We also got  a marshmallow thing and some orange squash before heading back up to the surface.

Getting back up to the surface consisted of an easy climb up some rock before climbing up two rather rickety ladders. Eventually we made it back to the surface, but were confronted by a rather sleep looking hill back up to the hut where the changing rooms were – it felt like such a long way!

After getting changed, and getting the feeling back into our feet, we had some lunch and then headed to Maketu, our stop for the night. We were staying in a traditional Maori house, which consisted of a kitchen and dining room, and then a large meeting room. We had a traditional style hanghi meal, of fish which had been caught earlier that day, with sweet potato and vegies, followed by Pavlova and jelly (maybe not so traditional). After dinner we went into the main meeting room to watch a traditional ceremony that would have taken place between two neighbouring tribes, to assess if the tribes were friendly or not, and we were given the name Ngati Stray. We then did a traditional greeting of touching noses before watching some traditional dancing and singing.

Ngati Stray

We then got a chance to join in, with the girls learning poi and the boys learning the hakka. We learnt a dance routine to go with the poi, along with a song. The bit I found most difficult was remembering to swing the poi and my hips at the same time! We also learnt how to do ’scary eyes’ which is meant to be off-putting, although we normally couldn’t do it without laughing! We then watched the boys do the hakka, which they got really into, but did end up with bruises on their thighs the next day from all the slapping of their legs!

'scary eyes'

We spent the evening playing cards and sitting around. We stayed in the main room on mattresses on the floor, but it was really nice as we got real duvets!

We had the luxury of a bit of a lie in the next day, but we were woken to the sound of Abba! After breakfast we headed off to go zorbing.

I was in a zorb with fiona, and they partially fill it with warm water before we jumped in and were zipped up before being pushed down the hill. We started off standing up to get ourselves going, but quickly fell over, and were just in a pile at the bottom of the zorb until we got to the finish.

Zorbing!

Getting out of the zorb was soo cold, so we had to make a quick dash to go and get changed before heading to Rotorua for lunch. Sadly, th weather took a turn for the worse, so we didn’t get to see much of the volcanic activity, as it was too wet to go to the bubbling mud pools. Instead, we went for lunch at a little cafe. We then started the drive south towards Taupo, our destination for the evening. On the way we stopped at Hakka falls, which is one of the largest volume waterfalls in NZ, with over 240 cubic metres of water going over the falls per second.

Hakka falls

 

We arrived in Taupo in the evening, and went shopping for supplies (mostly kiwi chocolate) before having dinner of chilli con carne back at the hostel. We chilled out in the hostel for the evening as it was still raining, and spent most of the time playing cards and drinking beer. I also got my uni results back, so had a celebratory drink for passing the exams.

Day 5 and we woke up to not hear the sound of rain! As it was raining the day before, we couldn’t skydive, so we had our fingers crossed that the conditions were going to be good enough to do the skydive. We arrived at Taupo airport, and although it was quite windy, we could go ahead with the skydive. I signed up for the full package, which included getting a dvd and a tshirt. We got kitted up into our jumpsuits, but I was in the second group, so had to wait for what felt like ages before I could do my jump. Before getting into th plane, I was given a lifebelt (we were lumping over lake taupo – so just in case) and met the guy who I was jumping with who was called Benny. He then gave me a safety briefing before getting my harness sorted.

Benny and I in the plane

 

Eventually, I was in the plane and there was no turning back! It took about 10 minutes to get to 15,000 feet, which felt like ages! Jumping out of the plane wasn’t that scary, as I just had to sit there, and let myself be pushed out. Free falling was really wierd, because as you fall out of the plane, you lose all sense of direction, and then it doesn’t really feel like falling as you’re moving so fast, so the only thing I could see was the cloud coming a bit closer. Once we had got through the cloud, at about 5,000 feet and after a minute of freefalling, the canopy was released and it was a nice descent back to the ground. I got a really good view over lake taupo, and National Park, where we were headed later.

skydiving

After getting over the excitement of skydiving, and watching our DVDs on the movie screen, we were back on the bus heading to National Park, which is the backdrop for some of the scenes in Lord of the Rings.

checking out the snow in august

Once in the park we went up to the top of the snowfields to have a look around before heading a bit further back down the mountain to do a 2 hour hike to a waterfall. The weather turned out to be quite warm, and the wind dropped heaps, so the walk was actually really nice. We stopped at the waterfall, and filled up our drinks bottles as the water is really clean.

behind the waterfall

 

After getting back from the walk, we had a quick snack on the bus, followed by another short walk down to where a scene had been filmed with Gollom in front of the waterfall with the ring. Sadly, the weather took a turn for the worse and it started raining again, so we went back to the bus.

The hostel we stayed in for the evening was amazing. It had massive open fires in the living room, and a hot tub in the middle of the courtyard where we sat and looked at the stars, as it turned out to be a really clear night in the end.

The final day on the north island was pretty much an express journey down to wellington. We stopped to look at a giant carrot on the way

giant carrot

Once we reached Wellington, we went to the Weta cave, which is the company that did all the special effects for the LOTR films. We watched a video of how the made the models and did some fo the special effects before looking at some of the models used in the films.

Gollum

We spent the evening walking around Welligton, where I bought myself a new hat. We had dominos for dinner, and then went to the bar under our hostel, where we played bingo and I ended up winning a $50 bar tab, so we all had a few more drinks before turning in for the night, and the boat journey in the morning.

 

 

I woke up at about 12, feeling a bit ill and tired from the late night. I had a wander around the city, and bought some food before stopping at a little sushi restaurant for a late lunch. I then wandered around for a bit more of the afternoon before going back to the hostel for dinner. I also booked myself onto a bus to get around the country, and planned my days for the rest of the time, as I had to book myself onto busses. In the evening I met up with Mark from network, who had just done an expedition in China with the scouts, and was in NZ visiting his sister. We went out for a drink in a bar on the waterfront, and had really yummy pineapple and mango crumble.

The next day in Auckland I woke up mildly earlier than the previous day, had a lazy brekkie and then headed to the Auckland museum. The museum was quite interesting, as it had lots about the volcanoes that surround the country, and the history of its earthquakes. Random fact – they had an earthquake about 3 weeks before I arrived in the country and it moved the whole of the south island 30cm closer to Australia, throwing out all the GPS systems. I spent the afternoon internetting, and spoke to some of the Aussies still back in the RMIT village, which was really good. I went to see harry potter in the evening, which wasn’t that good before heading back to the hostel for dinner and an early night as I was still feeling a bit under the weather. The evening was quite uneventful until one of the guys staying in our room came back in, and was sick all over the room, causing us to have to change rooms at about 1 in the morning – not what I wanted when I had an early start planned!

4th – 12th august

I headed to noosa on the greyhound bus, which was pretty uneventful, but I did get to see the last half hour of the film cool runnings. I arrived in noosa at about 3:30, went to the hostel and checked in before checking in for my kayaking trip. I then went shopping for heaps of food for kayaking, and then I went back to the hostel for dinner before sitting sat the hostel bar with some of the girls from my room (not drinking goon though – couldn’t quite face it after fraser!)

I was up early the next morning, as my pick up was for 8am. I got on the bus to be told that people had dropped out, so there were only 3 people leaving on the trip that day, which was me and two german boys. We arrived at the storeroom, and picked up our barrels to put our clothes in, tents, burners and all the other gear that we had to take with us. We then drove to the beach where I had my final ice cream (its was about 9:30 in the morning, but I wasn’t going to have an ice cream for 3 whole days!!) before getting a boat over to the other side of the river, to the information centre.

At the information centre we had our briefing, and were given maps of our route, before being left on our own. We had a three person open canoe, and as a practise we paddled around the island next to the information centre, I was sitting at the back, and the seat was slightly higher than the other two seats the boys were on, which meant that every time they moved, I felt like I was about to fall out of the canoe, as we were sitting rather low in the water. After about half an hour, we arrived back at the information centre, which was quite quick considering we managed to get a bit stuck in some shallow water about halfway around the island, so had to get out and walk pulling the boat for some of it.

After arriving back at the info centre, we loaded up the boat, and it was packed!! We had no legroom, and the tents were balanced rather precariously on top of the barrels, so any sudden movements and they would have fallen off! At about 11:30 we set off for the campground. We had a paddle around, and paddled around some of the estuary before getting to fig tree point, which was our stop for lunch. We set up lunch on a picnic bench, and heard a rustling in the bushes, we waited to see what it was, and it was a rather large and ugly looking goana, who had obviously noticed that we were there, and was after our lunch. We  were sitting at the picnic bench, and the goana decided that it wanted to come over and try to smell my feet (not sure why…) so we all ended up sitting on the table, as they can get quite vicious if they feel threatened.

After lunch we had a lazy paddle of about 5km to the campground, which we made take about 2 and a half hours, as we floated for most of it. We also took a detour to see lake como, which looked like a big lake, but we did see some bushfires. We arrived at the campground at about 3:45ish, and unloaded the boat before setting up camp. I then had a sneaky nap for half hour, by which point the group that had left the previous day had got back (we camped at the same place for both nights) It was about 5pm by this point, so was starting to get dark, which meant it was dinnertime! I cooked myself some pasta and sauce with bacon and veggies, but I kinda overestimated the amount of pasta I needed, but ate it all anyway. I then had a caramel slice for pud, as they were on offer in woolies when I was shopping. We sat around for the rest of the evening, where it got quite chilly, especially as we weren’t allowed a fire as we were camping in a national park. We headed to bed at about 10pm, which felt like it was much later than it actually was.

We woke up at 7 the next morning, as the other group were packing up to leave. We had brekkie, I had porridge, which was much needed as it was rather chilly as the sun hadn’t come up and made everything warm yet. We left the campground at about 9ish to paddle upstream to campsite 3, which was 6km away. The paddle took us about an hour, where we had a quick snack break before starting the 6km walk up the hill to the cooloaba sandpatch. We then walked around the sandpatch for a while, before finding some shelter from the wind and having lunch. It was then a walk back across the sandpatch, and back down the hill to the river.

The paddle back felt like it took ages!! We were really tired, and so kept having rests, so the paddle probably took about twice as long as it did on the way there.  I was also sitting in the middle, which was heaps more work than sitting at the back, but was more stable. We made it back to the campground at about 4:30, and sat around for a but with the other group that had arrived before I cooked my dinner of chilli and rice. Bedtime was about 9:30, as it was even colder than the previous night.

Our final morning started at 7, with the aim of leaving at 8. We left almost on time for the 6km paddle back to the information centre. The paddle was pretty uneventful apart form the german boys deciding that they really didn’t like canoeing that much, and speaking to each other in german for most of the way. We got to the information centre at about 9:30, where we were picked up in the boat to take us back across the lake to the mainland. I got to drive the boat on the way back, which was pretty cool. It was then a matter of cleaning and drying our gear before getting dropped back at the hostel at 11:30.

I showered and sorted myself out before heading into noosa for the afternoon. I met up with alex m, who was up in queensland for his masters research. We spent the afternoon together sitting in the sun before going out for dinner, as we were both too lazy to cook! We then went to a bar afterwards that did oyster shots, ie a bloody mary shot with an oyster in it. I can’t say I liked it too much, but it was interesting. I was shattered, so it was an early night back at the hostel.

The next day I checked out of the hostel and drove down to Brisbane with alex. We stopped at a few beaches along the way, all of which were really nice. We also stopped at a really random pub on the side of the freeway – Oz seems to have heaps of them! That evening we didn’t really do much, and I was feeling ill, so it was another early night.

Sunday we went to dreamworld, which is a big theme park on the gold coast, which is about a 45 minute drive from Brisbane. The theme park was really quiet, as its considered winter – but i was still quite happy walking around in shorts and flipflops! The good thing was that there were hardly any queues – so we got to go on everything. The best ride was called wipeout, which is like an extreme version of ramases revenge at chessington, as it tilts sideways and was heaps of fun.

Monday 10th – the day I left oz.

We had a bit of a lie in and packed before going into town to close my aussie bank account, giving me enough money to buy some breakfast! We then drove towards Morton bay and Scarbourgh, where we wandered around the beaches and sat in the sun. We had an early dinner of Morton bay bugs with chips and salad. Morton bay bugs are like giant crayfish, but are mean to taste more like lobster. IT was then time to head o the airport, as Alex was heading back to melbs and I was off to Auckland. We arrived at the airport and for once there were no queues, so we sat in the bar for a bit, using up the last of my aussie dollars. It was then time to catch my plane, and I went in with heaps of time, but then was randomly given an explosives test, which took ages, so causing me to nearly miss the plane as everyone else was really early for the plane.

I arrived in Auckland at about 1am local time (3am aussie time) and had a far amount of queuing at the airport, followed by customs that wanted to check that I wasn’t bringing any mud into their country on the bottoms of my boots, so I had to get out every pair of shoes for them to look at. They also split open the seams on my juggling balls to check what was inside them – I wasn’t impressed, especially as the tried to stick the split back together with a little sticker!

Eventually I got to the hostel a about 2am local time, and collapsed into bed.

30th July-4th August

My second day in 1770 was pretty action packed. In the morning I had a surf lesson at the beach, and I was told that I had really good paddling skills – just needed to work on the surfing bit! However, I did manage to stand up quite a few times, none of which were captured on camera. At the end of the lesson, we all got a certificate for safe surfing level 1, and we were all very proud of ourselves!

surfing!

It was then back to the hostel for lunch before going on a kayaking tour around the beaches of 1770. IT was quite sunny, and the water looked sooo clear! We were in double sit-on kayaks, and I was sharing with our tour guide. Her dog also came along for the journey, and sat on the front of the boat like a little figurehead! We kayaking about 2km to the viewpoint, where we could see the landing place of Cook in 1770 (how the town got its name) On the kayak back we stopped to watch the sunset with wine and cake.

where captain cook landed in 1770

And then my camera met its end.

I then went back to the hostel for dinner before going to the one and only pub in 1770 with some of the girls in my room. It was a bit of an old man pub, but we met up with some of the others that were in our surfing lesson, and sat around for a bit, listening to the questionable people playing on open mike night. We headed back to the hostel at about midnight (where the hostel provided a courtesy bus service – which was thought was very nice of them so we didn’t have to walk for 10 minutes in the dark!)

It was an early start the next morning, as the bus came at 6:30 – and it was on time! I was sitting with about 5 other people I had met on my surf lesson, so after a nap, we sat around chatting for the 6 hour journey. We arrived in rainbow beach at about 12:30, where I checked into my hostel and had another nap.

At 4  I had the briefing before fraser island, where we were also put into our groups that we would be sharing a car with. There were 11 people to each 4×4. After the briefings, we went shopping for food for the 3 days, and managed to spend $220! But we did have heaps of food. After shopping we went back to their hostel for some dinner and getting to know each other. We ended up sitting about in the bar until about 10:30, where my feet got really cold, so I decided it was time for bed.

So, we all met up at 8:30 to start packing up the 4×4s for fraser island. We had to check that everything was there, and then load all the food into crates and eskies before putting everything up onto the roof of the car. The back was filled with 6 crates of beer, and about 7 boxes of goon under the seats! Eventually we set off at about 9:30 to go to the hire place to get further briefings. We collected our maps and itineraries, along with a few other bits a pieces and then were on our way to the barge to get to the island. We decided to travel as one big group with the two cars, so then had to wait for the others.

We drove to the beach with no problems, but as soon as we hit the beach it was rather soft sand, and the other 4×4 got bogged, and had to be rescued by a tour guide driving a bus, who drove it across the beach for them. We also decided that it would be best to get out and walk, so we ran behind the car onto the barge. We made it onto the island without any further issues, and then had about a 90 minute drive along some very bouncy roads to lake MacKenzie. We had lunch before getting our swimming stuff and heading to the lake. The lake was amazingly clear, and looked awesome! A few of us jumped straight in and went for a swim, and the water was soo clear, it looked like you could stand up, but in fact it was about 5m deep! We stayed at the lake until about 3, and then drove along some very bumpy tracks to get to our campground for the night. The journey was pretty funny, as every time we went over a bump the guys would start cheering at the girl melissa who was driving.

We got to the campground at about 4, and set about finding a place to camp, eventually we found a spot that was big enough for the 8 tents, and not too close to other people. Once we had got the cars unloaded and the tents up, it was just about dark, and time for dinner of spag bol. We had about 3kg of pasta between the 11 of us – and there was heaps left over, although we did manage to eat an awful lot of it!

We then spent the rest of the evening chilling out, sadly without a campfire, as there are big fire restrictions on the island. We went to bed at about 11:30, as it started to rain.

We woke up at about 7 the next morning to the sound of rain, so no-one really wanted to get up. Eventually the rain eased off a bit, although being in a rainforest meant that we still got dripped on every time the wind blew. We had breakfast and loaded up the cars before getting going at about 9ish. We headed back out to the beach, and drove along the beach for a while before heading inland to Lake Wabbi. The lake had a 2km walk in, so we took lunch with us. To get to the lake you walk across a massive sandblow, which is where the sand has been blown in from the beach creating massive sand dunes. We reached the lake, and were rather warm so jumped straight in , and the water was freezing! The lake was at the bottom of the sand dune, so was quite well shaded, espcially where there was a rainforest on the other side! There were also catfish living in the lake. After having a quick swim, it was time for lunch, where we started with normal sandwiches, and then reverted to crisp sandwiches when the cheese got a bit too sandy.

It was then time for the walk back to the cars, and another 20km drive along the beach to our campground for the night. We got to out campground a little bit before 2, as we weren’t allowed to drive on the beach after that time due to the tides. It was spitting slightly when we arrived, so we set the tents up as quickly as possible. Thankfully, the sun came out, and we went down the beach a bit to play some volleyball. We played 7 on 7 volleyball, with some questionable rules, although we did start rotating players when we remembered! We stopped playing when it started to get a bit chilly, and started on the goon.

We started cooking dinner at about 5, just as it was starting to get dark. We were told that there would be a barbecue, so we bought burgers, but there wasn’t one, so we had to fry them instead. We had about 60 burgers, and heaps of salad between the 22 of us, so we ate pretty well. By the time dinner had finished it was dark, and we sat around chatting and drinking. The irish lads built a fire so we spent the rest of the night around the fire, listening them singing irish songs. Being int he middle of the beach, there was no toilet block, so we had to dig a hole in the sand dunes. We were also told to go in groups, in case there were dingos around. So going to the toilet became a bit of an expedition, with about 5 of us going together, and finding a spot along the sand dunes.

We eventually headed to bed at about 11ish, as we were too lazy to collect more firewood.

We woke up at about 6:30 and it was clear and sunny. For breakfast we had heaps of scrambled eggs, bacon and sausages along with cereal. We were far more motivated to get moving as it was sunny, so were ready to get on the beach at 9. I got a chance at driving the car, and it was really fun. I drove for about half an hour along the beach. Driving was quite easy, apart form when driving through soft sand, where the wheels pretty much had a mind of their own! On the drive up the beach we stopped at the maheno shipwreck before continuing up to indian heads, the most northerly point we were allowed to drive to on the beach. We walked up to the top where there were some really nice views, and then it was back in the car for the 60km drive along the beach back to the town of Eurong.

The drive was ok, as it was along the beach, and apart from a close encounter with a plane that was going to take off as we were driving along, it was quite uneventful. W stopped in Eurong for lunch before going along the inland track back to the barge. We got on the barge at about 2:30 back to the mainland.

We then had to unload the cars and clean all the stuff before getting back to the hostel for a much needed shower! We then all met up for dinner before going back to the hostel bar for a drink. We all headed to bed at about 11, as we were all shattered!

Today I’m getting the bus to noosa, where I’m off kayaking int he everglades for a few days.

Phew – updates finished!!

21st-29th July.

My days in Cairns were spent mostly chilling out at the lagoon (the beach isn’t great for swimming in), and doing washing. I also got all my travels down the east coast booked – the most planned I’ve been on my trip so far!

I spent 2 days in Cairns and then got the greyhound bus to Townsville, to get the ferry to Magnetic island. I got to the island at about 3 in the afternoon, so got an hour of sitting on the beach in before it got too cold; when I then chilled out before dinner at the hostel.  I spent the evening at the bar with a guy I had met on the bus and a girl, also called Daniela from my room. We all headed to bed pretty early after a late night and an early morning.

The next day we got the bus to the north of the island where we did the forts walk, which took about 2 hours. The walk was pretty easy, and we saw a koala sleeping in a tree!

sleepy koala

The views were pretty nice, but the weather was hot, and we didn’t really want to be looking at the beaches!

We then headed back to the hostel which was right on the beach, and spent the afternoon lazing around on the beach. I then showered and had some food before catching the ferry back to the mainland. Sadly, the greyhound bus was running an hour late, so I was sat at the ferry terminal for about an hour and a half, which was pretty boring.

I eventually arrived in Airlie beach at about midnight, and checked into my hostel before going to bed.

It was another early start in the morning, I had to drop my bags off at the boats office before heading to Abel Point marina to catch the boat that was my home for the next 3 days. So after sorting out my stuff into the little bag I was given to take on to the boat, it was off to the marina. We got on the boat at about 8:30, and as we got out of the harbour, it got really windy, and mostly remained that way until we got back to the harbour! Our boat was called the Derwent Hunter, and it used to be used to ship stuff between Sydney and Hobart, and between Darwin and Indonesia before being turned into a tourist boat. There were 19 of us, and 3 staff. We sat up on deck as we got out of the harbour, and then as we got out into the ocean, we were shown to our rooms, and how to use the marine toilet! My bed was in the galley, along with two of the staff, called Abbey and Hewie. The beds were pretty small, but being rocked to bed at night was quite nice! As we got away from the harbour, we got to help hoisting the sails, so we set sail to whitsunday island.

the derwent hunter

The sail was really fun, but a bit on the splashy side due to the wind – and we all given some very attractive bright yellow raincoats to wear!

We did a short walk on the island, up to the viewpoint over one of the best beaches in the world, before going down to sit on the beach. We didn’t go swimming as it was a bit too chilly, but spent our time catching some rays, and sitting on the really fine sand (its 99% silica – so really pure sand) It was then back onto the boat to find a place to drop anchor for the night, and a bit out of the wind.

whitsunday island

One we had stopped for the night, we were shown where we had sailed, and then some of the fish we were likely to see whist snorkelling. We also got shown the fish we were having for dinner! Dinner was fish with rice and vegies. We then spent the evening sitting around, and we saw a dolphin swimming around out boat. We also got to poke some algae, which glowed in the dark when we mixed the water with the bargepole.

We woke at sunrise the next day, as the portholes in the deck let in the light. Also – once one person was up, everyone seemed to wake up! We had breakfast of toast, fruit and cereal (I was convinced to try toast with honey and vegemite – not going to have that again!) before heading out to our first snorkelling point. On our way, we saw a whale swimming alongside our boat, but I didn’t get a chance to take a picture, as it was only coming up for air.

The first snorkelling beach was called Pearl beach. We snorkelled straight off the beach, and saw heaps of coral and fish, especially when they started to get fed! It then got a bit chilly, even though we were in really thick stinger suits, so we headed back to the beach to warm up before getting back on the boat. We then had lunch before going to the next place for snorkelling, called Black Island. We got into the speedboat, but were too lazy to go all the way to the beach, so just jumped off the boat. While snorkelling we saw a turtle eating his lunch, along with some ugly looking eels.

jumping off the front of the beoat

When we got back to the boat, we got to jump off the side, including some frontflips, one of which I epically failed at, and landed on the top of my back. We also got to walk right out along the front of the boat and jump off the front. It was then time to put the sails up again, and head to a less windy point for the night. We watched the sunset from the boat before rugging up to attempt to escape the wind. We had lasagne and salad for dinner, but most of the salad blew over the side of the boat! We then sat around for a while and did a bit of starazing, as it was much clearer than the previous night. It remained really windy for most of the night, so we turned in early to escape the wind!

It was another 7am start, and after breakfast we headed to one foot island for some more snorkelling. We also walked up the island, which was the most exercise I had done in a few days! The island got its name from when the tide comes in, a small area of it becomes really thin, so you can only have one dry foot!

Once we were back on the boat, it was time for lunch and the sail back to the marina. So we hoisted the sails for the last time before sitting back and enjoying our last few hours sitting in the sunshine on our boat.

We arrived back in the marina at about 3:30, and headed straight to cold rock for some awesome ice cream. Once you pick an ice cream flavour, you pick some toppings and then it all gets mixed together – yummy! I had white chocolate ice cream with chocolate fudge pieces and raspberries. After icecream I picked up my bags and checked into my hostel for the night. I showered (my first one in 3 days!) and chilled out before meeting up with some of the others form the boat for dinner. However, it got to about 9pm, and we were all so tired we went to bed!

Th next day I got a bit of a lie in, I got to wake up at 9! I packed and had some brekkie before checking out of my hostel and then had th day to kill in Airlie beach before getting the overnight Greyhound bus to 1770. My day in Airlie was spent mostly lazing around the lagoon, and browsing the touristy shops. I spent the evening at the bar with some Dutch girls that were also getting my bus.

The night bus was delayed by an hour, so I didn’t leave Airlie until midnight. We eventually arrived after a rather chilly night on the bus at about 9am. I did some food shopping before spending most of the day vegging out on the beach. This evening I had dinner at the hostel, where they also did some really nice crepes wih chocolate, cream and banana; and just doing some internetting now before going to spend my evening sitting around the campfire.

So its been a week since the last post, so I thought I should probs write about what I’ve been doing.

I left Alice springs last tuesday, heading north to Darwin. I was on a tour with the company called Groovy Grape. We left Alice at lunchtime, and joined the Stuart highway (incidentally, its the only road we were on for the whole trip to Darwin! – no navigation required!) we drove 400km to the Devils marbles, where we arrived just before sunset.

devils marbles

We managed to get a bit of rock climbing and jumping photos in before watching the sunset.

jumping at devils marbles

We camped for the night in Warhope, which is the tiniest little roadhouse in the middle of nowhere. We had a bbq for dinner, and the rest of the evening was spent in the pub, playing pool.

I slept really well, but morning came far too quickly with the 6:30 wake up, and it was sooo cold when I got out of my swag! After a quick breakfast we were back on the Stuart highway, with a stop for Elliot for lunch, but apart from that, the  700km drive up to Mataranka hot springs was pretty uneventful, and I think all of us slept for a fair bit of it! On the way we stopped at the Daly Waters pub, which is a really random pub in the middle of nowehere, but its made its name by people leaving clothes/shoes/flags/money/other stuff which they display on the walls.

We arrived at the hot springs at about 4ish. The first pool we went to was concrete, so didn’t look that much like a hot spring, but there were heaps of massive spiders! The water was a nice 32°C, so wasn’t so fun to get out! We then went for a bit of an explore, and found a crocodile (only a freshie – so no need to worry) sitting near the side of the river.

freshie!

We could also go swimming in this river (not that near the croc, and they don’t attack anything bigger than fish anyway!) so obviously, I had to jump in and have a swim. The river was a lot colder than the hot springs, but there was a warm channel where the hot spring water met the river water.

swimming in the river

We then headed back to the minibus to head to another of the hotspring pools. This was more of a river, and was much less concrete. We swam downstream, and saw a kingfisher along with even more spiders. There were also heaps of bugs as we swum down the river, and I’m pretty certain I ate one! Swimming back against the current wasn’t so fun, as we didn’t realise quite how strong it was!

It was then back tot he campground, and curry and rice for dinner, followed by an early night!

We woke up before sunrise to have another swim in the hotsprings, which felt so much warmer in the cold of the morning! However, the run back to the minibus to get changed wasn’t so fun!

the hot springs at sunrise

We then drove for 45 minutes to the Cutta cutta caves, which were formed a very long time ago. Cutta means stars, and cutta cutta means lots of stars. The stalagtites in the caves are formed of calcite, which sparkles in the light, giving the illusion of stars.

We then drove for a few hours to get to Edith falls, where we had hambugers for lunch, followed by a swim at the waterfall, where we also climbed up the waterfall and explored the lakes and other smaller waterfalls at the top of the big one.

edith falls

There was also a cave that we could swim though, which was really cool. We left Edith at about 3 to continue our journey to Darwin. We stopped off in Adelaide river for a quick drink in the pub, which had the buffalo from crocodile dundee in it. We eventually arrived in Darwin at about 6:30, where I had a quick shower, dinner and then an early night.

I spent friday in Darwin, where I had a nice lie in, which was slightly hampered by the icelandic air con in the room! I then did some tour and flight booking, and sat around the pool for lunch.

I spent the afternoon walking around Darwin, which is another city with not that much to look at. It also doesn’t have beaches you can swim in, due to the crocodiles, so I went back to the pool for a swim and a relax. I spent the evening chilling around the pool with the girls in my room, and packed for my kakadu trip.

We all had to wake up early in my room, as all of us were on different tours. I had a highly healthy milkshake and orange for breakfast before getting on the bus to kakadu. Out tour guide’s name was Dan, and he looked like Russel brand after a shower and a haircut. First we drove to adelaide river, where we had a jumping crocs cruise, where they get the crocodiles to jump out of the water to get a bit of meat hanging from a pole.

jump crocodile - jump!

We saw some really big crocodiles, which look really impressive when they jump out of the water. We also got to hold a snake, and look at some other snakes. (they also gave us free breakfast before we got in the boat, which was a nice touch)

python!

After getting off the boat, we headed to a roadhouse to stock up on drink for the trip, and an icecream before driving to the national park. The road we drove down was pretty bumpy, but wasn’t too bad as we were in a massive 4×4 minibus. We stopped for lunch on the side of a river, and spent lunch getting to know each other, and watch people drive though the river. We stopped off to look at some rather gigantic termite mounds, which were rather big.

termite mound

It was then back on the bus, to collect  wood for the fire, and then we headed to the campground to put up the mozzie tents and drop the trailer off. We then stopped at the resorts pool for a quick swim to cool down and wash off the dust from the wood.

We then headed further into the park to see some aboriginal rock art, and we were told some stories that were used to educate the aboriginal people in how to behave, and the consequences of what would happen if they didn’t do what they were told, such as being beaten to death by a giant yam (ie a sweet potato, if girls went out into the bush on their own)

On the way back to the campground we stopped at a billabong that was used as a set in crocodile dundee (yet another reference!) and watched the sunset there.

i can't remember its name - but a billabong

We then headed back to the campground and cooked a dinner for kangaroo and buffalo sausages with vegies and mash on the fire. We spent the rest of the evening sitting around the fire, and attempting to play the didgeridoo, which is a lot more difficult than it looks, mostly cos it sounds awful and we all kept laughing! We also did a bit of stargazing, and found the emu that hides in the milky way.

We were woken up at about 5:30 to the sound of Dan making brekkie. We had toast that was cooked on the fire and cereal. We then headed down a really bumpy track to Twin falls, where we got a boat to the beach, where we then had to climb over a few rocks to reach the waterfall. Sadly, we couldn’t have a swim as there were crocodiles in the water. We stayed there for a while, and then got back on the boat and back in the van to take us to Jim Jim falls, which wasn’t actually running.

twin falls

The walk to Jim Jim falls was only 1km, but took quite a while as it involved jumping form rock to rock, and a bit of scrambling over rocks. We finally reached the beach and jumped in the really cold water, which was soo nice! We then swum round to the plunge pool, which was massive! It was about 100m long and the same wide. Obviously, we swum all the way to the base of the waterfall to check out the rock on the other side, before doing the long swim back again. I was lazy and swam back on backstroke, which was sooo much easier than the head-up frontcrawl I did on the way out!

We then scrambled back over the  rocks and got back to the bus for lunch. After lunch we went back to the pool to chill out for a few ours in the sun, before heading back to the campground and watching the sunset over the billabong next to our campground, complete with beer in hand!

Dinner was jacket spuds cooked in the fire, with lamb chops and vegies, we spent the rest of the evening sitting around before going to bed pretty early.

We got a bit of a lie in on the third morning – only to be woken up by the crows making heaps of noise, and the kites stealing the leftover bones from the plates we had left out from last nights dinner.

We took our time over breakfast and then headed to Barramundi gorge, which was amazing. The water was soo clear, and was really nice to swim in the sun. I borrowed Dan’s goggles, and we spent ages swimming though 3 different underwater caves. We then headed to the lower part of the gorge for some more swimming. It was then lunchtime, where we surveyed the damage of the previous nights mosquito biting, I think I had over 50 bites in total!

barramundi gorge

It was then time to head back to Darwin, where we got back to the city at about 6:30. I showered, managing to get most of the mud from the previous few days off my feet – the only problem was that my towel was so dirty, I didn’t really get that clean! I had a quick dinner before packing all my stuff and falling into bed at about 9:30.

Today was an insanely early start, with my alarm going off at 3:15, as I had to be at the airport for 4. I slept through most of the 3 hour flight to cairns. I checked into my hostel, and have spent most of the day chilling out, and booking my travels down the east coast.