G’DAY MATES!!! Let’s put another shrimp on the barby! Or...as it’s been so long, another blog on the website! Two blogs on one day...you lucky blogspotters! Aaaaanywhooooo....

You guessed it...we’re in Oz! We had an EXTREMELY long day getting here involving four airports, three flights, two taxis and cocktails in Singapore airport!

Eventually in the CBD (Cairns Backpacker District) we mooched off in search of a hostel. “A Hostel!? Not a fancy-pants hotel?” I hear you ask. Well, no. Affordable accommodation for our foreseeable future will be the simplistic backpacker accommodation available readily all across Australia!

Once we’d found somewhere half decent we started to consider our objectives, those were (in no particular order) to: buy a car, dive on the Great Barrier Reef, get a phone/local sim card and make sure we would be in Brisbane in time to meet Chris and Mick (Ma and Pa Cooper)!!

Annoyingly as our first full day in Oz was Sunday, everything was shut! “This is absurd!” we both thought, but in fact it turns out that over here shops still do close on Sundays. Even worse than that though, this weekend was followed by a bank holiday! Bizarrely, the Queen’s Birthday...it appears that Aussies will take ANY excuse for a day off as we don’t even celebrate that! Despite this by Wednesday we had our phone and our car, a 1992 Ford Fairlane 5 litre V8!!! Nicknamed ‘Bruce’ or ‘Brucie’ to his friends, he drives like a dream!

We’d been considering a liveaboard boat for diving, but the trips were a little long for our liking, and our schedule, so we opted to drive an hour north to Port Douglas where the diving is supposedly better for a day trip to the reef! Very exciting during the duration of our three dives we got to see a shark and a turtle (both asleep!) a MASSIVE stingray plus plenty of others that through our various underwater adventures we now recognise quite easily! We had really good dives on the Great Barrier Reef and it was sad stepping off the dive boat as that will probably be the last time we dive on this trip!!

Since then, we’ve been heading south and I write now from Airlie Beach. We’ve stopped at Mission Beach where the elderly couple who ran the backpacker hostel were a tad insane. Then we passed through BORING Townsville to Ayr where we made use of the limited camping equipment that seems to be sold as standard with every backpacker’s car and then here where our last two days have been out sailing round the Whitsunday Islands!
Aboard ‘Siska’ our boat we were assigned a bunk beneath a couple from ‘Yarksher’, or ‘Yorkshire’ to those not from there, it was a bit cramped but for one night only, a bit of fun! With no wind, Siska chugged off and we spent the day in a couple of snorkelling sites where we swam around for what seemed like hours amongst all the coral and tropical fish. In between sites, we spotted dolphins swimming along playing in the waves and in the bay we stopped for the night there were loads of turtles that popped up to the surface periodically for air which were both nice bonuses.

At night, literally ALL the stars were out. As there’s so little light pollution from Australia the night sky was brilliant. Just another attraction to this country! There’s really very little to complain about!

Yesterday we came upon Whitehaven Beach, which is just gorgeous! You know us though, nothing but the best when it comes to beaches...white soft sand, clear turquoise seas and clear blue skies! Very nice!

By the afternoon the wind had picked up enough to do some sailing which was quite exciting and when the crew asked if anyone wanted to volunteer to help, I was first with my hand up! I winched the sheet and grinded the Halyard while others hauled the main sail and the gentleman’s sail! Not sure what any of those are? Well, neither are we, I just did as I was told! It was a really good couple of days, we both loved it so maybe we’ll get in some sailing elsewhere too...who knows!?

That brings you up to date with us, we’re sorry we’ve not been able to get these blogs up sooner, but everywhere here seems to want us to PAY for the internet! Now there’s a culture shock! We’ll keep doing the best we can, so do keep watching this space!

As always, love to all

Nick and Katie

Xxx

Just a brief note from Cooper: only 3 days until Mummy and Daddy arrive – woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xxx

Guy: Buying a car, then selling it at the end of our trip should 'touchwood' save us hundreds by not renting a car or taking the overly-priced public transport.

Morten: Where's the blog you promised?