Australia here we come!

On the plane! Free alcohol. Not a good idea. Lol. We have set off on our big koala adventure! I just happen to slip and speak Fijian to the flight attendant and all of a sudden an Indian man starts spilling out his love and admiration for me on the plane. He decides he wants to marry me, but he has this arranged marriage with another Indian woman that he has fallen in love with in 4 weeks. He says if he had only met me a few months sooner we would be getting married. Lol. Funny how different cultures think.

Anyways, Megan and I are really excited about our coming adventures in OZ! A couple of Irish friends of mine are meeting us at the airport and hooking us up with a place to stay for a few nights until our trip down the Great Ocean Road. We cannot wait for what lies ahead. I will post again soon! Much love!

Shop ‘til I Drop






Melbourne is the most spectacular city I have been in yet. So well laid out. Pleasant people. Everything has a SALE sign on it. Immaculate. Incredible public transport. Delicious Food. Fondue. Burgers. Festivals. BBQs. Sports. Beach. Did I mention shopping? Low unemployment rate. Minimum wage of about 15 AUD/USD. I think you may get where I am going with this. I want to LIVE here!

Being silly in Melbourne



Crates left after a busy day in the Queen Victoria Market. You should have seen the amount of fruit we bought for $1! Astounding market!
Flinders Street Station... a wonderful train depot

Megan and I stayed with two Irish friends of mine that I met at The BeacHouse in Fiji over New Years! They were the most astounding hosts anyone could ever ask for. And I mean that! They picked us up from the airport, gave us their bed, fed us every meal, and showed us around. We even had several good laughs with poor Liza being dragged around by an Australia bulldog she was dog sitting. They deserve so much happiness! Remarkable couple! Megan and I just hope to be able to repay them sometime in the future. Thank you Liza and Tommy.

Our graciously organized BBQ.
Melbourne lights.
A black swan on the river.


Delicious eggplant, olive, pesto, onion, and spinach pizza.
Beautiful Pancakes and Peaches

Our two days in Melbourne came to a quick end. For those of you who make it to Melbourne, I recommend you see Federation Square as well. We ran out of time.

We hired a car for Monday morning and started our trip down the Great Ocean Road towards Adelaide. The drive went smoothly with Megan behind the wheel (my stupid license didn’t show up in the mail in time).

Outback plants




Outback Fauna



Apollo Bay

We saw 21, yes, count them, 21, wild koalas hanging out in the blue gums on the Kennet River/Grey River Road. One juvenile was even within arm’s reach!




The pull over was literally a dirt road just off the main highway. Thank goodness I did research before starting our road trip! Other highlights include: watched surfers at the famous surfing coastline of Bells Beach,






leisurely strolled around Split Rock Lighthouse at Aireys Inlet,



ate a quite delicious burger with avocado and mushrooms in Lorne, saw an echidna crossing the street, spotted a kookaburra during our koala adventure, and caught the 12 Apostles at sunset! A perfect day! We were also told that a colony of penguins emerges from the sea just 25 minutes after sunset.

12 Apostles at Sunset

One lonely apostle.





Well, we waited a good 35 minutes in the 50 degree weather and never saw a speck of tuxedo… maybe we will spot them tomorrow returning to the deep at sunrise.

Along the path to the 12 Apostles lookout.

Stopping in Princetown to book a hostel proved to be a scene out of an Alfred Hitchcock movie, pushing us to continue on towards Port Campbell where we found a brand new VIP hostel with the most comfortable backpacker bunks ever! Highly recommended!

London Bridge


March 16, 2011

No penguins. Turns out in February and March they are molting and therefore do not venture into the ocean to feed until April when they have a waxy coating covering their feathers again (which is secreted by a glad at the base of their tail).


Sunrise

Mid-Day


We did go back to the 12 Apostles at sunrise and during daylight hours though. Splendid little stretch of beach!

While driving towards Portland we stopped at a fauna park where we spotted our first kangaroo. Although, because it was in a cage we were still not satisfied.


White kangaroo in the fauna park

Continuing on our way towards The Gramps (Grampians National Park) we found out the roads and trails have been closed off since January 2011 due to flooding. During our detour around the park to make it to our reservation in Halls Gap we were greeted by a herd (What do you call a pack of kangaroos?) of wild kangaroos feeding right off the side of the road. I felt like I was spotlighting deer in the back roads of Alabama. Oh the good ole days.

WILD kanagroo in The Gramps

Back to the kangaroos… so I pulled over, stealthily creeped up to a few of them and caught a few snapshots. They were cute, but didn’t come close to the adorable young koala from the day before.

From Portland, up to Halls Gap, through Ballarat, and on to the Melbourne airport, there wasn’t much to see.

Ballarat




Australia reminds me of the Texas Panhandle actually. Lots of wide open fields with cows, windmills, and small country towns.





We did see emus at Tower Hill, stopped at one aboriginal painting completed thousands of years ago, ate delicious brownie, boysenberry, and ferrero rocher cold slab ice cream in Ballarat, and got to drive almost 8 hours!

Aboriginal Painting... thousands of years old.


Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef




Cute town. Lots of spectacular deals. Cheap accommodation. A free-to-the-public, lifeguarded, saltwater lagoon/pool along the esplanade. Main attraction: The Great Barrier Reef. Megan and I hung out around town shopping in the handicraft markets, the night market, and the one-of-a-kind boutiques. On Friday we headed out on a really nice vessel called the “Silver Swift”. We came to the reef during a slow period so the 120 capacity boat was practically empty.

Megan
Me

I did 3 certification dives and Megan got to do 2 introductory dives. She pretty much went on the same dives as I did with no previous experience and LOVED it! During our trip below the surface we were faced with HUGE Napolean Wrasses (Maori Wrasse), a green sea turtle, white-tipped reef sharks, nudibranchs, coral gardens, bommies, gigantic sea cucumbers, and an array of fish. Because I have been living and diving in Fiji for the past two years I tried to keep low expectations of the Great Barrier Reef. Sadly, even not expecting much, I was quite disappointed. With a cyclone in early February and all the rain that they have been receiving the water was extremely murky. The dive captains said it had actually cleared up a lot in the past week. I would have hated to be here in February! The reef was also just basic. I think it is more of one of those “been there, done than” sort of things. I have definitely seen better coral and marine wildlife than I saw on the two reefs we visited, such as Vatu-i-Ra Passage in the Bligh Waters of Fiji and South Water Caye, Belize, plus much bigger animals in Hawaii.



Underwater













A large head of coral flipped during the cyclone in January. Tremendous damage all over the reef.




All kinda of large game fish were circling under the boat.





After getting out of the water the Napolean (Maori) Wrasse (endemic to Australian waters) hung out near the boat. He was HUGE. We were even able to pet it. Although, of course, it tried to bite me... what's new?!




Around Cairns

Megan plays the didgeridoo.


After exploring all of Cairns we headed down to Sydney. Our flight was smooth and included two ice creams! Exciting stuff! Upon arrival in Sydney we were told that the shuttle that was supposed to pick us up had quite running for the night and so we have to take the 15 AUD train ride instead. One hour later we arrive at Kings Cross with the street jumping. We are warned by an older Australian couple that we are not in a safe area and that we need to go straight to our hotel. It wasn’t THAT bad. So we arrive at our hostel, the guy checking us in decides to stop in the middle of check-in to go and put away some tables on the patio. Then there are no top sheets available. We get to our room and it is no 3 bed en suite with kitchenette, it is a 4 bed with a window. There will be a serious talk with the manager on Monday morning!

It is now Sunday morning, our flat mates decided to come in at 6 AM to wake us up for a chit-chat. It was actually a pretty interesting early morning talk. They are from Sweden, nice guys, living it up big in the same hostel for 4 months. Stupid! Anyways, we will be getting to know them more in the coming days.

Today, we are off to explore the sights of Sydney!

Australian Fruit Bowl

Signs of Australia