Fraser Island

We are now back from our adventures on Fraser Island. Some of the highlights were swimming in the freshwater lakes, seeing a dog named Dingo, and digging for shellfish.

We stayed in permanent tents on the island for the night. When we arrived the guide showed us around and then we put our crap into the tent. After that we headed back to the kitchen area where Gabby found a 7' python wraped up in the fence. Needless to say she was a basket case until we left the next day.

We also spotted some whales from the beach. They were wuite far out but you could see them blowing when they came up for air. We spent some time looking for shell fish. You could tell where they were from the little bumps they leave on the sand. We saw a Dingo in a resort area that we stoped at to switch busses. We were looking at the tracks in the sand when the Dingo popped out of the bush a few feet away. Kailey aptly named him Dingo the Dog.

We all had a blast swimming in the lakes. The kids were using me as an acrobatic machine of some sort. Needless to say we are all a nice shade of pink today.

Hervey Bay

We are now in Hervey Bay. For some reason the bus rides seem to be getting longer. The ride was quite bumpy and the driver was a bit cranky. The hostel we are staying at here is more like a resort than a hostel. We will be hanging out playing table tennis, monopoly and backgammon until we leave for Fraser Island tommorow morning.

Rockhampton

We arrived in Rockhampton yesterday. We met an interesting English couple on the bus to Airlie Beach. They were on the same bus as us to Rockhampton and we decided to go out to dinner with them. We went to a neat hot rock resteraunt. Rockhampton is known as the beef capital of Australia so naturally we had to try the beef. The steak was unbelievablely good. Travis decided that he was going to have crock and roo. Travis did very well and ate all of the roo and he ate about 1/2 of the croc. Later he was bugging mom by saying that he ate roo from winnie the pooh.

Today we went to the zoo and botanical gardens. In Rockhampton they are free to the public so we liked the price. We saw more Koala's and some croc's. While we were wandering around in the botanical gardens we stumbled across a brown snake that was crossing the path. Later we found out that they are very poisonous and are bad news. We also saw a peacock that had all it's feathers out as well as a hundred or so turtles.

We are headed to Hervey Bay to go out to Fraser Island on Monday morning. We will be out there for one night in a tent so it should be interesting!

Whitsunday's

We are now back on land from our adventures on the Ocean. We spent 2 days/nights on the Atlantic Clipper. It happened to be filled with Irish so as you can imagine it was a nice quiet relaxing trip (not)! One of the stopes was Whitehaven beach which was ipressive. The sand is 98% silica which is the only place in the world that this occurs. NASA used this sand to make the hubble telesope's lense.

We went snorkelling at 2 different reefs. Both reefs were very different. This morning on our last snorkle we saw a turtle and many larger fish. It was also neat when the captain shone the light into the water and elephant fish would swim in the light.

The ship had a diving area that was about 19' above the water. Travis had a blast jumping off it into the ocean. Seeing as Travis jumped off mom and dad had to try it as well.

Kailey was the perfect little snorkeler. She caught on really quick to how the foam noodle keeps you afloat and she was off. Only the kids got fins so it was hard to keep up to her. Luckily for Gabby, Travis decided that he didn't want to snorkle so she got his fins seeing that they both have the same size feet.

We are all now a nice shade of pink (Travis excluded). The weather was absolutely perfect. Warm with a nice breeze to keep us cool. The water was like glass for most of the trip.

We are now off to Rockhampton for a couple of days beofre heading to Hervey Bay. From there we will be on a 2 day tour of Fraser Island. Hopefully we can see some whales and sharks while we are there.

Whitsunday Islands

We will be heading out in a few hours for 2 days of sailing in the Whitsundays. The bus ride was long to get to Airile Beach but I am sure it will be worth it in the end. Talk to you all in a few days.

Mission Beach

Mission Beach has been a nice relaxing day. The bus ride from Cairns was about 2 hours and seemed much shorter. We spent the day loungeing around on the beach for some sun. The hostel we stayed in was very nice and friendly. While on the beach Gabby found a sea snake that had washed up on shore. Of course I didn't ahve my camera with me so we don;t have pictures of it. We are heading to Arile Beach today so we can catch a boat for 2 days of sailing in the Whitsundays so you won;t hear from us again for a few days.

Last day in Cairns

We spent our last day in Cairns in Karunda. Definately a tourist trap. We took the skyrail up to Karunda and then the scenic train back down. We are leaving in the morning for Mission beach for a down day sitting in the sand.

Great Barrier Reef

We spent the day out on the Great Barrier Reef. We took the 90 min baot ride out to Moore reef. Once there the four of us went snorkelling for about 40 minutes. Kailey and Travis went on a glass bottom boat while Gabby and I went on a dive. In the afternoon we all went to the other side of the reef and snorkeled our way back to the boat. A very fun day to say the least!

Daintree Rain Forest

Today we visited the oldest surviving rainforest in the world. We took a tour with Billy Tea's which took us out into the rain forest. This took us out along the Cook highway along the coast. It was a very nice drive with some awesome senery. There was one Island that looked like an aligator's head.

We went as far as emerson creek where we stopped to have some Daintree tea, bush bread and fresh fruit. We were able to go swimming in the creek but none of us went in past our knees. We stopped for lunch and had an Aussie BBQ. Travis loved the steak and Gabby had some nice fish. The place we stopped for lunch was also a rescue centre for injured wildlife. We were able to hand feed Kangaroos.

After this we went for a boat ride looking for crocs. Unfortunately it is the wrong season to see crocs but we did get to see lots of other wildlife. Seeing a snake in the wild was neat.....just ask Gabby.

Toranga Zoo

We spent Tuesday at the zoo in Sydney. To get to the zoo you have to take a ferry that leaves from the famous Sydney Harbor. So we got our first glimpse of the Sydney Opera House and the harbor bridge. We took a few hundred pictures in the harbor so you can all enjoy them once we get back.

The zoo was quite impressive. We didn't get to see the whole zoo as it is quite big and it was 33 degrees out. The view is quite nice as it looks out over the water towards downtown.

Some of the highlights were getting our pictures taken with the Koala's. We were less than 1m from the Koalas and the zoo keeper came in to feed them while we were there. One of the Koala's decided that the zoo keepers arm looked tasty. It was quite humorous to say the least. We also saw the greyback gorillas being fed. There was a baby there that was quite funny.

We arrived in Cairns ("Cans"). Tommorow we will be going into the Daintry rain forest. Should be a fun adventure looking for crocs and feeding Kangaroos.

Blue Mountains

We took the train out to the Blue Mountains. So we took the train back to Sydney and then transfered to another train out to Katoomba. The train took about 3 1/2 hours and I would never have thought I would meet anyone that can talk more than Kailey. She has met her match in Adam!

We stayed in a beautiful house a few quick steps away from the Three Sisters. We went on 2 hikes yesterday. The first hike we left at 8:00 in the morning and started out from the three sisters and hiked around to the steepest railway in the world. The hike started off with over 1000 steps down the cliff to the bottom. The hike took 2 1/2 hours and we didn't see anyone until we arrived at the railway/coal mine area. We decided that we would take the train up as the 800 stairs up to the top didn't look apealing. The train averages 52 degrees over the 500m length of the train tracks.

The second hike we took was at the cascades. This was a quick hike down to the waterfall. I will post some pictures this evening after we settle down.

Finally In Australia

So we managed to survive the 24 hour travel to Australia. The Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Sydney was a tad bit dissapointing as it was an older plane that did not have the individual entertainment systems. One of the ladies that we were sitting by was nice enough to let us know that when you purchase train tickets you only need one for all of the kids in the family.

The Train ride from Sydney to Tuggerah has some nice views. So we are now comfortably settled at Ange's place and are ready for our trek to the Blue Mountains in the morning.

Countdown

It seems like the days are getting longer as we get closer to departure day. We are down to less than 2 days before we leave. Most of our bags are packed. Now it is all the loose ends that are slowly making their way into our bags. Also some serious Australia reading to figure out what other little gems we can find to do while we are away.

Luckily the weather will be nice until we leave so we won't have to see snow until we get back in late November. Hopefully we can figure out the trains once we get there to get from Sydney to Tuggerah.