Plans changed slightly when i got here and we decided to tour the country with a bit more freedom so we bought a Toyota Hiace Campervan. Its 20 years old but runs really well and has everything you need (double bed, fridge, cooker, sink, power sockets, wardrobe etc.) Its great we love it and its the best way to travel round Oz and there's loads of other travellers doing the same thing.
After Carianne arrived on 10th Oct we spent 10 days in Sydney which was cool. We got an apartment in a little suburb called Kirribilli which overlooked the harbour bridge and opera house. Amongst seeing various sights of Sydney we went to see a Jurassic 5 concert (hip hop band), saw a show at the opera house, went to the sydney motor show and caught up with some friends that are living here now.
It was still spring in Sydney so we headed north along the east coast to head for more sun. Within only a few hundred kilometers it started to get hot. We stopped at many many places along the way including Coffs harbour (met a couple from milton keynes!) , Byron Bay, Tweed Heads (carianne's relatives), Surfers paradise, steve irwin's Australia Zoo and Noosa heads before resting at Rainbow Beach for a few days.
We then took a 3 day trip to Fraser Island for my brithday which was paradise.....there was crystal clear freshwater lakes + creeks (which you can drink from), miles of pure white silica sand beaches (the beaches here are fantastic), loads of sun & plenty of drink!
Heading further north we then stopped at Hervey Bay, Bundaberg (toured the rum distillery + watched turtles lay eggs on the beach at night), the town of 1770, Mackay and we are now in Airlie Beach for a while and will be going on a boat tommorrow to see the Whitsunday Islands and Snorkel on the Coral Reef. We Watched the Rugby world cup final here which was a great atmosphere although there was some pretty gutted ozzies around!
We have covered about 2000Kms so far and have another 600+ to go before we reach Cairns. As much as we'd like to be in Sydney for new year, the distance is too great so we are probably goona spend Xmas and new year in Cairns and check out the great barrier reef so it will be just as nice and VERY hot!
Further down south it gets hot in the day and cool at night but where we are now it gets ridiculously hot in the day and stays pretty hot at night. I parked the van up the other day and within a few mins the inside temperature rose to 58 degrees C !!
The plan (so far) after new year is to head up to Darwin in the far north of Oz then down thru the outback via Alice Springs and Ayers Rock to Adelaide, Melbourne, Canberra, the Blue Mountains then finally back to Sydney to sell the van and fly to New Zealand!
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