G'day. We have only been in Australia 2 weeks and yet I feel we have done enough things to fill up a few months. I write this while sitting in the red hot sun at Airlie Beach and am looking forward to a few days of doing nothing in place called Town of 1770, for which we leave tonight at midnight.
Our transition from New Zealand to Australia has been a strange one. The differences between the two countries are greater than either of us expected them to be. First of all, there is the time difference. Although it is only a 2 hour difference between Auckland and Sydney it hit us quite hard after the flight and by 2200 on our first night we were well and truly ready for bed. Couple that in with the fact that Australia has north and south time zones and half hour time zones we ended up being in four different zones within our first week. Which was a tad confusing to say the least. Secondly, the one we both hoped would be different, is the heat. Having spent 9 weeks in the cold and rainy climate of spring in New Zealand with it only reaching the heady heights of 20 degrees every now and then, we are now averaging at least 30 degrees a day with extremely high humidity, and not much change when the sun goes down. I have heard that it takes 2 weeks to acclimatise to hot places, but I can safely say that that is a load of rubbish. I feel sure that acclimatisation is a long way off but we are enjoying it all the same. Finally, the people. Even though we were in New Zealand for the world cup and so we caught it at it's busiest time, I'm not sure I would ever describe it as actually being busy. The roads were quiet, the towns and cities were quiet and their laid back, easy going, friendly attitude suit us to a tee. Walking through sydney, life could not be more different. It is much more like London in the fact that it is crowded, loud and fast moving. Like London it is very geared towards it's tourism industry as well as having to cope with huge amounts of commuters to it's central business district. As such, you get the feeling that even though the locals partly rely on us tourists, they would much rather we weren't there. Don't get me wrong, we have met a lot of really friendly Aussies, but coming from a country where everyone said hello and seemed genuinely pleased to meet you we are still getting used to being back in a busy city.
And Sydney is just that, a very busy but very beautiful city. We only spent a couple of days there but made sure we soaked up as much as Sydney had to offer. Aurelien and Hannah, our hosts for our short time in Sydney, welcomed us into their amazing flat with open arms. Not only did the flat come with panoramic views of Sydney Harbour but it was comfortable and had a friendly atmosphere to boot. We walked across the bridge (we didn't climb it this time but we are coming back to Sydney, although the thieving whatsits want $200pp to do it so we'll see how the budgets doing by then), through the market at the Rocks, round the circular quay, past the amazing opera house and through the beautiful botanic gardens, all in wonderfully hot sunshine. We even managed a ferry to Darling Harbour to have dinner with my friend Cherylanne who last I saw when we were teaching together in shoeburyness. There was even time to sample some tasty Sri Lankan food at the Kirribilli markets (definitely up there with one of the best meals I've eaten since being away, along with the fantastic seafood chowder I had at Fleurs place in Moeraki, NZ).
When our whistle stop tour of Sydney was over it was time to make our merry way into the outback. I must admit, I was not particularly excited about going to see Ayers Rock but everyone who has seen it has said it is a must on any Australian itinerary. We only had 2 nights in the Uluru resort so it really was a case of fly in, look at the rock and fly out. Our first evening there was spent sweating (it was about 37 degrees), booking a sunrise bus tour, sweating, cooking, sweating and getting an early but sweaty night ahead of our 0430 start the following morning. We were dropped off at the sunrise veiwing point of Ayers rock by our fat, miserable bus driver. I realise we were on the cheapest way of seeing it but I didn't expect quite the reception we got from him. On dropping us off, he told us where to walk to watch the sunrise but that he wouldn't bother as it was rubbish and if we weren't back on his bus in time he would have no qualms in leaving us there. Nice bloke. Anyway, as it turned out, it was a beautiful sunrise and Ayers rocks was incredible. I realise now that it is not just some big rock in the desert. It is an immense sight to behold and we stood in awe of its magnitude and beauty for quite some time. After the sunrise we were afforded a few hours to walk around it and went on a free and very interesting ranger guided walk as well. It made Ayers rock all the more impressive when you learn about the history and culture that surrounds it. The walk up on to the rock was closed due to strong winds but I don't think we would have climbed it anyway having learnt how disrespectful the local tribes find it. It was interesting to hear that the majority of people who do decide to climb it are Australian men who believe it is as much their rock as anyone else's. We were told that in a few years it will actually be against the law, not just disrespectful to climb it, which can only be a good thing for the area.
With hardly a moment to relax we were back on the plane again and heading to Cairns to a fantastic hostel called Travellers Oasis. I can't praise this hostel enough, it was clean, comfortable, air conditioned, and best of all it was really friendly. The other backpackers we met were all great fun, and the staff were fantastic and got us a great deal on a diving/snorkelling trip to the Great Barrier Reef. As always, we went for one of the cheapest companies to take us out to the reef on a day trip, and so our expectations were not very high but we were excited all the same. However, Cairns Dive Centre excelled themselves. We were on quite a small boat and as such there were only about 20 people on the tour with 6 friendly staff who made the experience even more enjoyable. I took up the offer of a free introductory scuba dive while Gen decided to stick with snorkelling. I got to spend 20 minutes underwater exploring an area of the outer reef called the fish bowl, and it was clear how it got that name. The wonder of the reef blew both of us away, the colours, the multitude of marine life and the cleanliness and warmth of the ocean were all incredible to behold. After my dive I joined Gen snorkelling and we stared down in awe at the reef below us for hours. Gen even managed to see a reef shark which caused her to move faster than the great Thorpedo could ever have managed! The whole day was a joy and we were sad that it had to come to an end. We had only booked 2 nights at Travellers but doubled our stay as it was so nice. When it was time to leave we had to hang around until midnight for our bus but were kept company by a couple of canadians, jess and rob, and a young guy called Matan from Israel. They stayed up and played cards with us until it was time for us to get the greyhound down to Townsville.
The bus ride itself was not a highlight! Even though it was as comfy as a bus can be, it was still a 5 hour bus ride in the middle of the night. Still, it saved us money on a nights accommodation, so every cloud. We didn't hang around in Townsville and got the ferry straight across to Magnetic Island to stay at Bungalow Bay, which boasted a koala sanctuary in it's back yard. On the island, rather than going to the somewhat cruel sounding sanctuary (they put on 3 tours a day where you can hold a koala, to do this they have to drug this nocturnal animal and clip it's claws just so that it is able meet everyones expectations of being a cuddly creature), we went on a walk up to the old Forts that were on the island. We were told that if we were lucky we may see some koalas in the wild and we were not disappointed. Nearing the end of our 2 hour walk we saw one asleep, high up in a eucalyptus tree, and gazed at it for a bit while Gen made the noises I'm sure you can all imagine her making when seeing a cute, furry animal! We also spotted some domesticated rock wallabies round the island and fed them on some food that they have now become reliant on since humans have found them. Apparently there are thousands of others around the island that have little or no human contact and are still wild, it is only a small pack of them in one part of the island that you can see and feed. Back at the hostel they also had a lorikeet feeding session. They have clearly been doing this at the same time everyday for a long time as about 15 minutes before, all the lorikeets started circling the bridge and making the most almighty racket. We stood there and watched as people fed them, it was quite a sight to see hundreds of brightly coloured birds swoop down to get their feed. I managed to get a few souvenirs from the birds while I was taking photos, meaning I had to wash my T-shirt and arms straight away. Whoever said it's lucky clearly hasn't been dumped on by a swarm of lorikeets! That evening we teamed up with our friend Matan again for a pub quiz, calling ourselves Israel's Finest, and coming in a respectable 2nd winning a couple of jugs of beer along the way.
As is now the norm for us in Australia we left Magnetic Island almost as soon as we had arrived, spending only 2 nights before we headed down to our current destination, Airlie Beach. We have spent 3 nights nights here and are ready to leave tonight. During our stay we had a day trip on a catamaran called Camira through the beautiful Whitsunday Islands, stopping off for a bit on the white sands of Whitehaven beach. It was a fantastic day hanging out in the sun while sailing through the beautiful islands. There was also an extremely well stocked all you can eat salad bar and, my favourite, an all you can eat 4 meat BBQ as well. Safe to say, for me, the salad bar didn't really get a look in while I gorged myself on as much meat as I could manage! All washed down with some very tasty cold white wine, made even tastier as it was all included in the price of the trip so it felt like it was free. The whole day was amazing and we would love to stay and do it all over again, but we are still a long way from Sydney with plenty to do in the mean time. We have a 10 hour overnight bus ride to look forward to tonight but have treated ourselves to a private double room for a few nights in 1770 to make up for it. Good times.
I see the quins are getting better and better. This doesn't surprise me in the least. It's in the bag.