Sailing with Siska

A day later we arrived in Airlie beach, the home of a stack of sailing boats waiting to take backpackers to paradise. Ed and I booked ourselves on to Siska, a Maxi yacht of about 80ft and began the sail to the Whitsunday islands.

The weather was above 30 degrees, a welcome change after Melbourne's cold and wet winter.

Ed helping out.

As day turned into night we settled into our beers and goon bag of wine (box of wine), a good job, as the night brought choppy waters and the unwelcome sensation of rolling from one side of the boat to the other. Thankfully the weather was beautiful once again the following morning and we were able to visit Whitehaven beach. Gorgeous as you can see.

After two days and one night on the boat we were more than ready to arrive on dry land. Bloody hell Queensland is hot! Guess we're not getting much sympathy from you guys.

Diving at the S.S. Yongala

After a short (ish) flight we found ourselves in Townsville, Queensland. An hour or so in a rather smart rented car we were at Alma beach, the home of Yongala dives. A night in the dorm, a fairly late start and we were off...

Half an hour on this speed boat and we were at the renowned diving spot of the S.S. Yongala, a wreck dive that is considered to be within the top ten dive sites in the world. The Yongala sank in about 1911, it was discovered in the 50s and is now owned by the local museum. It is also the grave site of over 50 people. Pretty incredible that we were allowed to visit with 10 others.

We went on two dives and each time saw an incredible amount of wildlife. The difference here to other dives we had been was the fact that most of fish were massive! It was not unusual to have a fish the size of you float on past. AWESOME!

During the first dive we checked out the fish and admired the false reef that had formed on the ship.

Ed getting up close and personal!

The second dive consisted of looking a bit more of the wreck. Truly amazing to figure out the portholes, decks, lounge rooms, bathrooms...and then to wonder what in the hell happened to the people...the life rafts were never used.

Towards the end of the second dive we met this ray...absolutely huge!!

As you can imagine, we had a ball!

Living the quiet life in Tasmania

Over the last two weeks we have been living the quiet life in Tassie, a stunning state of Australia and one that usually people miss out.

Day 1
We arrived in the morning, picked up our tiny rental car and headed for Port Arthur, a gaol of the late 1700s. We quickly booked ourselves on the night tour and allowed ourselves to be scared silly by visiting one of the most haunted houses in Australia. Ed was an amusing sight...beanie pulled down well over his forehead and eyes glued to the floor, if there were ghosts there, then he was determined not to see them! It was good fun.

Day 2
We checked out Port Arthur by day, not quite as scary and hit the road once more. Visited some Tassie Devils and checked out a few secluded spots. The scenery was gorgeous.


Day 3
Having arrived at Coles Bay the night before, we were ready to visit the renowned Wineglass Bay at Freycinet National Park. After powering it up the hill we reached the look out. Wow. We headed down to the beach collected a couple of shells and took the long walk home.
Day 4
We travelled up the East coast of Tassie to St Helens, passing many many

beautiful white sandy beaches along the way. St Helens showed the most life out of everywhere we had been to so far. The fish and chip shop closed at 6pm!

Stuck for things to do, we went looking for tourist entertainment, and boy we weren't disappointed. Stuck between a cheese factory and some waterfalls was priscilla, the beer drinking pig. What a porker!



Day 5
Wilderness time. We hired some camping gear, in the form of tent, trangia, and firewood and headed out to the bay of fires

a selection of secluded coves and beaches, voted by someone, sometime as being the second best beach in the world. It was special, but I've had better!

A lovely day spent fishing, well dropping a line in the crystal clear water, and drinking beer. Mange tout.

Day 6
Drove to Launceston (pronounced there as Louwanseston - convicts!). Lots of very young mothers with prams, reminded us of Southmead in Brissle. Enough said.

Day 7
Drove to Cradle Mountain, more walking, but also surprisingly snow !



Then on to Strahan (pronounced Strawn). Had the best fish and chips ever here - blue eyed trevella.

Day 8 & 9
Spent a couple more days in Stahan. (mainly due to our cabin having a tv so guaranteed to watch the rugby final.) Over the next few days we enjoyed relaxing and taking a sail on a yacht called storm breaker, made all the better by a Crayfish lunch.


Day 10
On this day we found ourselves in Dover, a seaside spot not far from some thermal springs. The accomodation took a dive for the worse here!



Day 11
Took a drive to the thermal springs which turned out to be a glorified outdoor pool. Thankfully the clouds parted and we were blessed with a bit of sunshine for our dip. Too be honest, it was a little like an English summer with Dad's pool cranked up to 30.


The afternoon brought on a visit to the Tahune forest and the tree top walk.

Very windy!
Day 12
A quick visit to Mount Wellington in the morning and then on to Hobart our final stop.


Day 13
Back to Melbourne for final farewells.

Tassie was great, a little quiet for our tastes but a truly beautiful place to visit. Now we're looking forward to the excitement of the East Coast. We're flying to Townsville tonight. X

Just to keep you in the picture...

We have now left Melbourne after a lovely eight months. We thoroughly enjoyed living in this amazing city and have excellent memories to take with us...

* Bimbos and their $4 pizzas and other cheap eats on Bruswick Street * AFL at the 'G' * Heaps of animals to play with * Sparkling wine that's cheaper than the 'house' * Victoria Markets
* Culture - theatre, concerts, festivals, comedy... * Carlton Draught * The Melb'orphans' - they know who they are! and of course the BIG engagement! We are sad to leave, but are looking forward to spending time together, appreciating lie ins once again, seeing new places and generally having a good time. We will keep you up to date of course! Looking forward to hearing from you on the road. xxx

Everybody Needs Good Neighbours

You can't come to Melbourne and not do this (well Ed obviously can, he said he would rather eat his own eyes than come and see Ramsey Street)...thought I would just share a couple of moments with you. Neighbours has never been as big over here as it was/is at home, it was therefore that I headed off in a minibus loaded with Poms to visit the famous street. Meeting Dr Karl and watching a re run of Scott and Charlene's wedding were the highlights here!

The Tourist shot!

A little cuddle with Karl Kennedy


The Street.

Finishing up...

Jobs are reaching or have reached an end...couldn't do the tele sales thing anymore though, finished up a couple of weeks early on that one! May my name forever try reaching the top of that ladder!

The Yarra Valley

For my birthday a group of us headed out to the Yarra Valley, the wine making region of Victoria. We went on a tour bus from the centre of Melbourne and headed out into the valley. We visited three different winerys, one of which was the Australian equivalent of Moet et Chandon. Lush!

As you can imagine the day progressed swimmingly. After arriving back in Melbourne we headed for the park to guzzle more champers and then went on to a Thai restaurant on Brunswick Street. This was topped off with a couple of water pipes on Lygon and finally bed. What a fabulous birthday. To make it even more perfect the sun was shining and the views of the valley incredible. The only down side was turning 29!

Snow Patrol

Melbourne seems to be hosting a magnitude of muscial events at the moment, most of which we will miss. Thankfully we were still here for Snow Patrol, which we went to see last night. WOW! They were incredible. The blog site has also decided that we are able to upload video now so maybe this one will work!

Thought we'd try and keep up with the technology!

Going...going...BonGO's GONE!

Well, things are certainly moving on here...with only one month left in the 'real' world we are having to sell up, move out and cancel the life that we've started in Australia. How much bloody paperwork???!!!

This morning brought on the sale of the Bongo. Half the price we paid for it but thank goodness we got something! Tried for $3000 but in the end had to cut my losses and managed to get him to pay $500 more than he wanted to (this was our actual asking price), as I was signing the sale contract we both looked at the oil leaking out of the bottom and I was relieved that it's now his problem! Must say that I felt sad saying goodbye to it though. The Bongo has been a fine friend who has provided us with many wondrful memories.

Bye Bye Bongie!

Not much excitement for me this weekend. Ed's out on the lash, he left the flat at 4am this morning to watch a Rugby match and will return sometime after our house inspection tonight. Not visualising a pretty sight!

Hope you are all well and look forward to hearing from you some time soon. xxx

All Good Things Come to an end...

Friday was my last day at the zoo, thought I should share some final moments with you...

Marmot the Carpet Python

Australia's unknown Tree Kangaroos

AT LAST a baby Koala

Baby possum. How cute is that!

Boa

I had great fun working at the zoo, did loads of things that I never thought I would be able to do...handled and touched loads of animals, went behind the scenes for elephant feedings, training of tiger cubs, met a rhino up close, not to mention getting over (ish) my fear of snakes, I also managed to teach science to A Level students. Not bad!

Over the next few weeks I have to look after animals of a different kind...here's just three of them!

Turning 30!

Last weekend saw Mark turn 30, what a better way to accept the wrinkles than heading down to the local bowling green.

Mark

Ed turned out to be a cracking shot

My technique left a little to be desired!

Birthday Cake Time

The evening ended with another trip to the Waiters Restaurant...we love them but I think that they have had more than enough of us after 3 rowdy trips! On Sunday Mark, Paul, Ed and I headed out for breakfast, the boys then headed to the footie followed by drinks at the pub.

Monday was the start of a three week placement I have at a local school, hard work. Nevermind, soon enough we will be able to leave work behind us once again. Determined not to stop the partying despite the work, Claire, Cindy and I headed off to a fashion show being hosted in the Victoria Markets. We had a top night...needless to say,

with free champers, I was not on top of the world come Tuesday morning!

Just a couple of shots to show you the randomness of the evening!