Australia part 1
Trip Start
Oct 05, 2008
1
9
23
Trip End
Ongoing
Katoomba,
New South Wales,
Australia
Friday, January 23, 2009
Right then, back to the 3rd January and our arrival in Australia.....!
We flew from Christchurch to Melbourne, so it was lovely to arrive in Oz without any jet lag and having made such a relatveily short journey. It was not quite as striaghtforward as hoped due to a non-arriving taxi at 4am in Christchurch, but after a few frantic phone calls and a bit of a 'flying by the seat or our pants' moment re checking in we made it, and a few hours later and a surprisingly easy customs experience we were off on the suburban train line to Auburn (about 6km from Melbrourne) and the home of Daisy's Aunt Noelene. Noelene was actually down in Sorrento, about 90 mins from Melbourne though her son (and Daisy's cousin) Andy was there to greet us, along with pooches Oli and Basil. It was great to meet Andy and he gave us a tour of the local area before we headed into central Melbourne to meet my old house mate from uni Phil and his girlfriend Laura, who also went to Plymouth uni. We headed out for some drinks at a trendy rooftop bar and heard the awesome news that they had, around one hour ago, got engaged!! Whoop, whoop!! We celebrated in style before a bit to eat on Brunswick street (think Camden high road minus the shady types) at the Veggie bar and a few more beers. Feeling pretty shattered we headed back to Auburn around 10pm and said our goodbyes - our next meeting would prove to be Laura and Phil's big day!!
Our next day in Melbourne involved a picnic in Carlton gardens. Andy previously lived in Japan and today his boyfriend Daisuke arrived. It was nice to meet various friends and neighbours, including Noelene's neighbour Jane and her homestay student Chen. The following day we set off with Jane, Andy and Daisuke to Sorrento - an affluent seaside town 90 mins from Melbourne. We were staying at a lovely beach house and it was lovely to see Noelene again, along with some of her friends from Melbourne. We had a lovely evening of good food, good wine and good company and Daisy was particularly proud to have been the first member of the UK branch of her family to make the trip over.
The next morning involved a stroll along the headland before a dip in the sea at Bay Beach - I thought it was supposed to be warm in Oz!!! However, being the southern ocean in this particular part of coast I guess not!! We spent a nice afternoon collecting some sea glass for Noelene's art project before heading back to Melbourne later that day, with a stop at half-moon bay for some fish and chips as the sun set.
We enjoyed the next few days in Melbourne, finding some grea coffee stops along Brunswick Street and in St Kilda and joining Noelene for some 7pm Eastenders viewing!! We also took a trip along the Great Ocean Road, stopping off at Bells Beach, seeing the Round the Twist Lighthouse and also going Koala spotting in some Eucalyptus trees. The scenery was stunning along the way and as we carried along down the winding coastal road we met the infamous '12 apostles' - though due to coastal erosion and the power of the waves now only 8!! It was a spectaular and almost eerie sight and definitely worth the long drive. After a few more days in Melbourne and a visit to the zoo (great butterfly house) and the comprehensive Victoria Street market we decided to take a trip out to Adelaide. After a 9 hour Firefly express bus ride through some pretty unspectacular desert scrub scenery we arrived. After a quick bite to eat in our hostel we got chatting to some guys from Scotland. This quickly turned into some beers and before we knew it we were stumbling into our room at 2am!!
The next day, not feeling too great, we discovered it was 42 degrees outside!! Sticking as closely as we could to places with powerful air conditioning we had a bit of an explore. Adelaide had got a bit of a bad rep from some other travellers we had met, but we found we enjoyed it more than expected - esp the South Australia Museum which had excellent Aboriginal displays and some beauiful minerals on show. It was soooo hot today, but fortunately we managed to spend most of the day outside of the suns penetrating rays,,.,
Today (14th Jan) we visited the Barossa Valley - one of the main draws for us heading out west to Adelaide. We visited the rather corporate (but very pictureque) Jacob's Creek winery before heading to a far nicer boutique vineyard, where we picked up a beautiful sweet Shiraz Rose. We visited a couple more places before a BBQ in the grounds of the Richmond Grove vineyard in the 37 degree heat - far more bearable than yesterday but still pretty much scorchio!!! We picked up a very nice Semillon blend as a gift for Noelene and visited a beautiful look out point over the valley. All in all a really good day and defintely a worthwhile 2000 km round trip out to this part of the world from Melbourne.
The next day involved 10 hours on a coach back to Melbourne, where we stayed for a few more days, hooking up with Tim who we met back in Philly one day and also sorting out some of our future plans.We also took a 'neighbours' tour one day - it was alright, highlighted quite how low budget the show is (I would never have guessed...) We also had the pleasure of meeting ex-star Connor, the Irish one. He has filled out. Big time. One day we took a trip out to celebrate Vietnamese new year with Andy and Chen. It was a great see of colour and noise and I hope a good insight into Vietnam. On Sat 17th we cooked a meal for Noelene, Andy, Jane and Chen to show our appreciation for letting us stay. We have had a great couple of weeks down in Melbourne and staying with Noelene has really helped us out a whole lot and its been great to meet various friends and neighbours. However, now we head north - to Cairns......eventually!!!!!
Monday 19th Jan and we found ourselves on an overnight bus to Canberra. After a pretty much sleepless night we arrived at Canberra at around 7am, We checked in to a hostel and had a search around....not a whole lot going on, we soon realised why a lot of people 'skip' the town. We did however visit the Australian parliament which was nice and took advantage of $5 drinks at a local bar in the evening.
The next stop for us was the Blue Mountains. We stayed in a beautiful Art Deco hostel in the town of Katoomba and went on some lovely walks - managing not to get lost along the way.....The weather was beautiful and we got some stunning views of the '3 sisters' and Katoomba falls. The backdrop was remeniscent of a Green Grand Canyon and it was amazing to stroll around and see parrots, lauraqueets and lizards - we had truely arrived in Australia! We had a great few days here and I highly recommend,
