Well hello again! It's
unlike us to be posting again this soon we know but as we're leaving
Australia and jetting off for Auckland later on today we figured we
should probably let you know what we've been up to the last couple of
weeks so we can try to stay vaguely up to date rather than posting
retrospectively once we're back in England.
We know we gave you a
brief itinerary of what we'd been doing so this is mainly to add a
bit of detail and provide lots of pretty pictures!
Our first day out of
Brisbane we went to Australia Zoo, (home of the late Steve Irwin)
where we made sure we saw all the Aussie creatures we'd missed,
including Echidnas, Kangaroos, Wombats etc. And we also saw a rather
spectacular crocodile show, some extremely well trained tigers and
even hand fed elephants!
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| Us at Lake Mackenzie |
Next day we woke up
bright and early for the trip to 'Rainbow' Beach (the guidebook
mentioned 74 shades of sand but we only saw evidence of white black
and grey). After staying the night we headed off to Fraser Island,
the largest sand island in the world, complete with a 75 mile long
beach which also happens to be an official state highway! We were
booked onto a 2day 4WD coach trip (think bright pink coach crossed
with a unimog) which took in the main sights such as famous Lake
Mackenzie, rainforest walks, freshwater creeks, rockpools big enough
to bathe in and nature spotting (we saw rays, a turtle, eagles and of
course lots of dingoes). Unfortunately it was very wet and windy so
our pictures aren't quite as picturesque as the brochures but we had
a great time nonetheless.
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| Paddle Boarding!! |
At Hervey Bay where the
Fraser tour ended we spent the night before continuing up the
Queensland coastline on a 12 hour overnight coach to Airlie Beach
(despite all there is to see, the downside to the size of Australia
is how long it takes to get anywhere). Airlie is where all the
Whitsunday Island sailing tours depart from, we arrived at 9am had to
check in by 10am then had most of the day to wander around before
setting sail at 4pm for a 2 night trip onboard a 12 berth, 14 foot,
catamaran. Thankfully we'd actually managed to get some sleep on the
coach so weren't too zombie like, unfortunately though the weather
caught up with us making for a choppy sail from the mainland out to
the islands and I (leah) discovered I'm somewhat more prone to
seasickness than I'd anticipated! Still, after the 2hour trip out we
moored in a calm bay had dinner, got some sleep and woke bright and
early for our first snorkel which actually made it all worth it. The
clarity of the water and colours and diversity of both fish and coral
were spectacular, it was Mat's first time snorkelling but he got
right into it! Later in the day we visited iconic Whitehaven Beach
and were 2 of only 3 brave enough to put a damp wetsuit back on in
order to try paddle boarding. We then went sailing again moving to
Hayman Island where we moored. Another snorkelling session in the
morning was well rewarded by some sunshine and the presence of Manta
Rays on top of all the other amazing fish. In case you don't know I
can tell you first hand that they're absolutely huge! They're
harmless but it got the adrenaline going when a couple were swimming
straight at you all the same! Later in the day we went for another
snorkel somewhere turtles had been sighted, Mat momentarily came face
to face but I didn't (yet). After a couple of very action packed days
we sailed back to shore for a nights sleep on land before our next
leg.
From Airlie we caught a
coach up to Townsville (the delayed service we wrote the last blog
on!) from where we got the ferry over to picturesque magnetic island.
There's not an awful lot on magnetic island but that was kind of the
point, it was somewhere to chill for a day or two before heading on.
We stayed in a cute little cabin at the YHA and spent our time
wandering along the beach and through the bushland along the
coastline to a gorgeous sunny bay where we intended to snorkel.
Unfortunately though geniuses that we are we completely forgot about
the tides and by the time we got into the water the reef was only
covered by a few inches of water so we just went back to reading and
sunbathing in the end and enjoyed the sunset on the walk home! Next
day we just got ice cream and wrote postcards at the beach before
getting the ferry back to the mainland and boarding our last
Greyhound service up to Cairns. |
| Through a glass bottomed boat |
Cairns exceeded our
expectations. We'd heard it was a very small city and there wasn't
much there except for the reef trips but we've found that it has a
friendly, relaxed vibe and plenty of places along the esplanade to
grab a drink or bite to eat. The hostel's nice too and we had an
awesome experience on our boat trip out to the Great Barrier Reef. We
were on a smallish boat (only 26 people) which ploughed out to
Arlington reef where we were the only boat, initially the weather was
a bit dull but cleared up as the day went on and once you're
underwater the clarity makes a bigger difference than the weather
anyway! We were in the first group to go on a dive, with another
couple and an instructor, for Mat (and the other guy) it was his
first experience scuba diving so we had a basic briefing and the
instructor promised to hold onto and guide the beginners then we got
suited up and straight into the water alongside the boat to get used
to the equipment and hand signals. It was very choppy at the surface
which made it very hard to hold yourself still and was a bit scary
initially but once we were a few metres under it improved a lot and
all agreed it was amazing. We did take an underwater camera but
haven't had a chance to get it developed yet so no pretty pictures
I'm afraid but take it from us that the reef's reputation is well
deserved and it really was every bit as spectacular as the postcards.
Bright and varied fish and corals and it all looked close enough to
touch because of the underwater perspective. We saw plenty of nemos,
3 turtles (finally I can check the box!), and even a nurse shark
resting on the bottom and it was so exciting! Mat agrees that even
though diving isn't as relaxing as snorkelling (being an unnatural
environment you feel somewhat out of control!) it was well worth it
for what you see as there's no other way to get the same viewpoint.
The next day we rented
a car and Mat drove us from Cairns up into the Daintree rainforest
where we got a wildlife spotting river cruise. We saw Herons, Birds
of prey such as owls, Kites and a Jailbird, lots of snakes and of
course saltwater crocs, the biggest of which was easily over 2metres!
We then spent the evening relaxing in Port Douglas, a famous winter
holiday destination amongst Aussies- it's 25° and sunny
here whilst it's 14° and
rainy in the south. Most of the next day was devoted to the beach and
more postcard writing before heading back to Cairns to get ourselves
sorted for the flight to Aukland this evening!
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| The view on the return journey to cairns |
We'll try to send some sunshine your way and will keep you updated on our travels through New Zealand.
Aussie love,
Leah and Mat :)
