We have had some amazing trips from here. We spent the night up in Kakadu and then had an early morning start to go for a road boat road trip to see Aborigine rock paintings. We also saw quite a bit of wildlife along the way. It is the wet season and we have seen some spectacular thunder storms. Some of the place names are fun too with Humpty Doo being one that comes to mind. We also had a little tour to see the Uranium mine at Ranger, the source of 10% of the wo...

Avoided crocodiles, cyclones, scorpions, stingers, sharks and having a whale of a time. Went snorkelling for the first time with a dive master who was very patient. The great Barrier reef was something else. We visited it twice, once from Port Douglas when staying at Cairns where we went out to Agincourt reef and had a look from a semi submersible and the second time from cape tribulation. Cape tribulation is pretty much the end of normal road and is 4wd after th...

After Sydney we flew to Brisbane. Brisbane also seemed quite lively with similar deals with the ferries buses and trains. We took a bus out to Lonely Pine, the koala sanctuary. We had no sooner paid when we heard the rumbling of thunder in the distance. We had been wandering around looking at various marsupials, some we had never heard of, when the thunder seemed to be getting nearer and we felt the spots of rain. Taking shelter in a gazebo we were soon joined by...

Well Sydney was a bit wet and overcast so we did our best between showers. John is not all that keen on heights so I climbed Sydney Harbour Bridge while he went off exploring by ferry around the harbour for a few hours. Sydney seemed much more vibrant after the sedate pace of New Zealand. We were pretty much in China Town but also situated in Darling Harbour. It wasn't until the afternoon of our last day that the sun decided to shine. We were surprised to find ...

Once we had left Queenstown our journey continued over to Doubtful Sound where we boarded the Nautilus for an overnight cruise. We saw a whale , heard a blue penguin ( no it was not telling rude jokes! they just hide in the bushes). We also heard a kiwi which is a nocturnal bird and therefore seldom seen. The sandflies were extremely annoying as it was a very calm day. We sailed out into the roaring 40's of the Tasman sea before returning to the shelter of the so...