East Coast Baby!!!

So the plan was to get from Sydney to Cairns and we had about 3 weeks to cover 2730km!! Just to put that in some kind of perspective we found a map of Australia with a map of Europe on top (right!) so it would be like travelling from Turkey up through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Germany and end up in Denmark!!!!!! Mad isn’t it?!!

We booked onto the hop on hop off ‘Oz experience’ bus which turned out to be an “authentic” Aussie experience!! The drivers were your stereotypical Aussie Crocodile Dundee types!! They fired out every corny Aussie phrase in the book and were just way too much but they got us to our destinations and they did provide us with some very 'useful' facts along the way - like Koala’s look all cute and cuddly but don’t get too close as they are your friendly carriers of Chlamydia!!

Our first stop was Newcastle where we stayed with Denise & Mark. Everybody was asking why we were stopping in Newcastle, they seem to give it a real bad review but I am happy to say we really enjoyed it. It had some beautiful surfing beaches, organic cafes and open air restaurants along the main street. Nothing seem rushed, a breath of fresh air after Sydney. We had a fab picnic in a beautiful small park in the middle of a housing estate, only a local would find it!!! It had a beautiful bandstand and some class jazz musicians playing a charity gig. Thanks a mill Denise & Mark for showing us a good time, sharing all your stories of weddings and vow renewals, an amazing experience (here’s hoping you are accepted into the Guinness Book of records!!!) and we will definitely produce a dream chart when we get home!!!!!


Back on the bus again we headed for Byron Bay on the gold coast, Hippyville would be a better description, people walking around barefoot without a care in the world. It was packed with surfers trying to catch a good wave and Hippies trying to catch a good vibe!! To be honest we felt a bit old here…its full of 18/19yr old backpackers who looked at us like we might be on a bucket list trip before we kick the can!! And this didn’t get any better until we were further up towards Airlie Beach!! Before we set off on this RTW trip Michaela said the one thing she wanted to come back with was a Didgeridoo (or a Didge as it is known in Oz) so we started the search in Sydney and saw some nice ones but weren’t convinced so the search continued in Byron Bay and we found a beautiful crafted one which she could a even get a note out of!!!! We met the guy who made it and had a beer with him and the shop owner in a local bar where there happened to be an amazing didge and blues guy playing, Tristan O’Meara - a good Irish surname ;o) Some similarities to Xavier Rudd (watch this space!!!). It was a great finish to our time in Byron Bay.

The guy in the shop playing my new Didge proving it can make noise!! Hopefully this is what I will sound like in a few years time!! (Hope the video works!!)

Next stop was Brisbane (via Surfers Paradise which wasn’t that exciting!!) to catch up with Toms friend Kate and her partner Patrick (now husband, got married in Ireland on Easter Saturday!!!). They gave us a great tour of the city and took us for some lovely food and let us stay in their house for the weekend while they went south to Byron Bay where we had just come from!! It was quite warm while we were there so we cooled off in their local outdoor swimming pool come park - it was a really nice place to chill out for the day and had 3 pools, a café, music, some grassy area for picnicking and sun bathing!! Great quality of life here for kids and families. We also visited a local brewery, XXXX. Nice place for lunch but we didn’t get to do the tour as it was ridiculously busy!! The city was nice as well just to stroll around - plenty of people watching and loads of street performers. Kate & Patrick, looking forward to seeing the photos of the big event, thanks again.

As we kept heading north on the bus we stopped briefly in some spots along the Sunshine Coast - Noosa and Rainbow Beach but there’s not a lot to say only that we didn’t understand why Queensland was called the sunshine state (even put it on their car registrations!!!) and it had been constantly raining on us :o(

Next port of call was Airlie Beach and we were praying for a change in weather as we were heading out on an 80ft yacht (Matador) to the WhitSunday Islands. And thanks be to God (as my Nanny would say!!) the clouds started to part and the sun was beginning to shine (left pic just before we went out on the boat). We got to see the famous Whitehaven beach which was spectacular, the sand was so soft, perfect grains of pure white sand. We also did some diving and snorkelling on the different reefs and Michaela did her first dive!! Diving was only alright as visibility was not great but snorkelling was good. We saw some reef sharks and lots of colourful fish but the coral was quite damaged from the all the bad weather and storms they have been having. The food was top class, they even managed to cook up a Sunday roast on the 2^nd night in such a small galley!! Overall it had been the highlight of the east coast. When we got back on the mainland we met up with friends of Michaela’s Steve, Kathy and their kids and they treated us to a lovely meal in Hog Breaths Café - what a great steak!!!! It was great to catch up and a good nights craic was had over steak and a few beers!!

The next morning we headed for Magnetic Island which was a short ferry ride from Townsville. We were staying in a hostel which led right on to the beach so we just headed for the pool and watched the world go by for the afternoon. The next day we hired a ‘rental’ car, more like a toy car with pink hub caps, pink!!!! It got us around the island which was beautiful, deserted beaches, snorkelling on the reef and treks up to an old World War II fort where you could apparently see Koala’s in the wild. Sure enough after an hour of having our necks creaked up in the sky there he was just waking up after 20 hours of sleeping and ready to feed on some eucalyptus leaves for a few hours and then back to sleep, what a life!! Then we headed back to the hostel for some Bingo, Michaela’s gran would be proud. She got the first full house of the night and won a jug of beer and then went on to win the third full house of the night which was an upgrade from dorms to a log cabin overlooking the sea!!! A good nights work it has to be said.

After a serious amount of km’s over the last 3 weeks we arrived in Cairns. Here we headed out on a boat to dive the Great Barrier Reef. The fish and coral we saw were much better than the Whit Sundays, both the diving and the snorkelling were fantastic. We saw a HUGE clam lying open on the sea bed…it looked really velvety and purple and snapped shut when you waved your hand just above it!! And the biggest fish we saw was a HUGE Maori Wrasse, it’s the biggest reef fish in the world and the unusual thing about them is that the adult females can change sex!!

We met a group of Dutchies on the boat and headed out with them for some dinner and drinks after the boat trip. We partied in the Woolshed, a local backpacker pub and met a few other Irish lads who were good craic!! A great night was had dancing on the tables and being served free champagne all night for the ladies from a good looking, semi naked, Aussie hunk!!!! The boys just had to put up with the expensive beer from the very ordinary bar staff!!!

So that was the end of our adventures on the east coast and now it was time to fly to Melbourne to catch up with Liz, Jon and Seppy wohoooooo!!!

G'day Sydney

When we arrived into Sydney the first thing we saw was a G’day sign at the airport. It was cool to be back in a native English speaking country and being able to understand all the random conversations around us (always good to nosy and eavesdrop!!). It felt very relaxing and stress free, a walk in the park from what we had been used to for the first 5 months.

My first impressions of Sydney were - WOW there’s a lot of Asians - very beautiful architecture - well organised and busy with people constantly on the move especially in the CBD (Central Business District). For the first couple of days we were sightseeing around the city. Highlights of course were the Sydney Bridge (Did you know that Crocodile Dundee worked as a painter on this bridge and this is where he was discovered?!!!) Sydney Opera House even though I think it looks more spectacular by night, botanical gardens were beautiful and full of wildlife, tons of cockatoo’s & seriously big bats!!!!, Hyde park, people playing chess, families and friends having picnics on the grass, just a lovely chilled setting in the centre of the metropolis. But my favourite district of the city was definitely The Rocks, full of musicians playing on the street, amazing old wharf buildings now converted into funky art gallery’s and shops, lots of cool bars and restaurants and just a great vibe about the area.

Found a statue doing the "Tierna Pose" in the Botanic Gardens

Big Ugg Boot!!



Tom is writing this post and has omitted his most important first impression of Sydney which involved a free BBQ/Introduction to Goon (very cheap box of white wine!!) laid on by the lovely Base Hostel that we stayed in!!! I didn’t make it as I was so jet lagged from the 27 hour journey to get there so I said I would go to bed for a couple of hours and then get up and go out that night!!! That night never happened as Tom was in bed ‘singing’ by 5pm happily experiencing the warmth of his first “few” glasses of Goon!!!!!! And by the look of things not too many snags were cooked up at the Barbie but the Goon was free flowing!!! So still wrecked from the jetlag I just went downstairs grabbed something to eat and went back to bed myself to the sound of Toms soothing snores in the dorm room!!!

Thanks Michaela…continuing on next on the list of things to do in Sydney was Party for Paddys and would you believe it Maire happened to be on holidays in her old neighbourhood and so we met up with her and her gang!! We had started early in the afternoon in Cheers Irish pub with a bit of lunch and some Magners Cider. There was some great characters in there especially an old man from Kilcoo, Co. Down who had a hat which Michaela took a fancy to and without a bother he gave it to her and then went into a deep conversation about his life story. He hadn’t been home in 5o years and sadly now couldn’t afford to go home. A true gentleman and he was taking a day trip down to do a tour of the pubs in Sydney for a bit of craic!!! After that we headed to the Rocks to catch up with Maire and the gang in a Hotel bar which had a ‘legendary band’ according to the music guru’s of Maire and Alana. The jury is still out on the band but it was a fantastic nights craic!!! Therese, another friend of Maire’s invited us to a good old Aussie Barbie for the Irish contingent in Sydney at Coogee Beach. It was a fantastic spread of food. We rolled out of the apartment. Home cooked food can’t be beaten!!

Then Round 2 of Paddy’s day came around as Sydney was organising a parade on the Sunday afternoon. We were all set wearing our county colours and when we got to the centre we discovered it had been cancelled due to rain!!!! We were gutted, that would never happen in Ireland as it would never be held!!! Determined as we are that didn’t stop us from partying. We headed to a local bar to watch a replay of the last six nations game Ireland vs. England and what a result. We did a tour of some great pubs around Sydney catching up with Maire and the gang again who took us to see the same legendary band. Lots of singers helped them along with the gig and it really was a cracking finale. Looking forward to that promised ‘Best pint of Guinness’ in Alana’s pub in Dublin when we get home!!!

So after a day of recovery we caught up with another amigo of ours, Sarah that we met on Amber on our tour of Patagonia. It was great to hear all her carnival gossip and she took us to a fab Vietnamese restaurant which served us a crazy sugary dessert…..yummy!!! Thanks a mill and hope to see you in Ireland some day.




Finally on our last day in Sydney the sunshine decided to make an appearance so we did an action packed day of sightseeing. We took the early train out to the Blue mountains and saw the picturesque 3 sisters, waterfalls and forests. Breathtaking scenery. In the afternoon we headed back to Sydney and got the ferry to Manly, had a lovely meal at one of the restaurants on the beach and then got a lovely night view of the Opera house and bridge on the way back. It definitely was a fantastic end to what was great stay in this city.

Aussie Aussie Aussie - Oi Oi Oi!!!!

After 27 hours of travelling:

• Shuttle bus from Hostel to Airport in Buenos Aires
• Flight from Buenos Aires to Santiago where we had to rush of the plane and sprint through the airport to catch the connection (I left my sleeping bag behind in the rush - gutted!!)
• Flight from Santiago to Auckland - unfortunately no such luck with the upgrades this time :o(
• Middle of the night flight from Auckland to Sydney where we arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed (NOT) to wait for an hour on our free hostel shuttle bus into the centre!!!

30 minutes later we arrived into Sydney checked into the hostel and collapsed into bed!!! Well actually Tom took a detour to the free BBQ/Goon (cheap wine!!) beach afternoon that the hostel was running but that’s a story for later!!!!

We spent 7 weeks in Australia all together split between Sydney, the East Coast from Sydney to Cairns, Melbourne and Uluru (Ayers Rock). We managed to see 4 of the 6 states, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Northern Territories. We packed a lot in to a small amount of time in a MASSIVE country!! It was like a holiday within a holiday as we were back to speaking English, eating food that we were familiar with, meeting friends we already knew and generally having a 'Far Out' time!!

So next post will be Sydney....hopefully coming soon!!!

Uruguay

I had been looking forward to Uruguay since the beginning of our trip!! The beaches are supposed to be beautiful, everyone in BA was talking about Colonia but obviously the most important part was that I couldn’t wait to see ISABEL!!!

We caught the ferry from Buenos Aires to Colonia and the first thing you notice as you arrive is that the water is brown!! Not quite what we expected but it is something to do with silt rising up as rivers meet the sea!! Everything else about Colonia was quaint & beautiful. It was a picturesque and quirky little town from the cobblestone streets, gate bridge entrance to the old town, vintage cars outside restaurants that you could eat in, lots of tourists driving around in golf carts and not a golf course in sight!!

We hired bikes from the hostel and cycled out to the beaches which you had practically to yourself and we found an amazing old bull ring, disused now but you could imagine it was an exciting place in its day. Late afternoon we arrived at the old lighthouse in the town, we climbed it and watched the sun go down. It was a beautiful sunset over the sea and the first time I had seen the sun actually drop over a horizon.

After a nice few days chilling in Colonia, we packed our rucksacks again and took the bus to Montevideo to see Isabel and the gang. I was soooooooooooo looking forward to catching up with her, seeing a familiar face, chatting about things and people we already knew (ie lots of talk about the ISH much to the dismay of Tom and Wilfred!!) and staying with a friend rather than in a hostel bed :o) Its been amazing to travel round South America seeing new places, meeting new people and experiencing new cultures but everything is so transient and catching up with Isabel was about familiarity, feeling at ease and not having to introduce yourself :o) We had a fantastic stay there. The room was perfect and Paulina and Rosalia were excited to see visitors (I think that it helped that we came armed with princess jigsaws and fairy wings!!). And it was great to meet the new addition to the family little Tobias - he was so cute and did well to put up with his very attentive big sisters!!!!

We had loads of nice food and wine, vegetables for the first time in ages (it was definitely a team effort in the kitchen with Wilfred and Isa!!!) Tom enjoyed helping Wilfred out with some website stuff (you really cant keep Tom away from technology!!) and building some drawers. I went for a much needed haircut with Isa while she got her nails done and also went out to visit her Irish Christian Brothers school, Stella Maris which had a beautiful tri-colour hanging outside and lots of pictures of old Irish brothers inside!!

They made us Chivito and home made pizza, showed us their local ice cream parlour (Tom and the kids were in heaven!!), we walked along the promenade, saw the best view of the city up by an old fortress and visited the family farm - paradise and good old family mayhem wrapped into one afternoon - it made me feel at home!! Lunch was fantastic - Italian pasta for the whole family which I think was about 10 adults and 6 kids followed by Siesta for all but the foreigners!! Then it was into the pool for a dip…honestly words cant describe how perfect the setting is…the house is big and old and you can feel the family history, the sun room is perfect to sit in and enjoy the view and the pool is great for a cool down. All you can see for miles is green fields, cows and horses…paradise :o)

After a fantastic time in Montevideo, we said it would be a shame not to check out the beaches along the west coast of Uruguay. We only had a few days so we decided to base ourselves in Punta del Este where all the rich and famous go (obviously we would fit in perfectly!!). The beach was nice but Punta del Este was very busy and touristy (as Isa had warned us!!) so we rented some bikes and cycled to Jose Ignacio!! Well what a day that was!! Id say it was at least 30’C and we cycled 40km in a head wind to get there!! Which wouldn’t be too bad if the bikes hadn’t fallen apart!! After 20km Tom’s pedal fell off. Luckily a nice local cycled passed and went back to his house to get a wrench to help us fix it. We got it back on but it only lasted for another 5km and there was nothing on the road for the next 15km to stop at so he just had to cycle on with it half falling off!! Then with about 10km to go my thighs were killing and it was so hot!!! I thought the head wind was getting worse but then realised that the brakes had slipped and were rubbing against the back wheel so I was cycling twice as hard and getting nowhere!! But as we said there was nothing to stop at and so we just had to keep cycling!! We nearly collapsed into Jose Ignacio and I’ve never been so glad to see a welcome sign into a town!! We had a well deserved lunch and then begged the bus driver to stick our bikes in the boot of the bus to take us back to Punta del Este!! After a few no’s, we were nearly crying, he eventually said yes and we threw the bikes into the boot :o)

The next day we took the bus out to Casa Pueblo, the house of a famous Uruguayan painter. His art was very interesting and his story fascinating. Carlos Paez Vilaro had travelled the world as a young artist to many small villages in Africa, South America and Europe which in those days was quite a feat. He painted for many famous world leaders and rich people but also spent a lot of time with ordinary people in small villages painting murals in schools and hospitals etc. A very interesting day finished off with a nice lunch on a terrace in the museum looking out over the sea :o)

After Punta del Este we went back to Montevideo to say good bye to Isabel, Wilfred and the kids. We were sad to be leaving but excited to be heading off to OZ!! Its very true when people say its friends that make a place and we discovered that first hand in Uruguay. It was definitely one of the highlights of South America and we will never forget our time there. Thanks so much Isabel and Wilfred for showing us a great time and we hope that we can return the favour some day when you bring the whole clan to Ireland :o)