Australia Flythrough

Our tour of Oz started in Tasmania, where we hired a small campervan to explore the Tassie east coast for a week - this time with full insurance. We started off 'free camping' overlooking the Bay of Fires near St Helens and spotted lots of wildlife right outside our door: possums, echidnas, and even a wallaby. We walked to Wineglass Bay in the Freycinet national park (not sure what the wine glass is all about), looked at Tasmanian devils and visited Port Arthur - the site of one of the largest and harshest British penal colonies in the early history of Australia. Along the way we enjoyed some great food - Tasmanian salmon, more wine directly from the farm and beautiful cheeses. Our last night in Tasmania was was spent in Hobart, the capital. It was a Friday night and for the first time in a long while, we were surrounded by people in suits who had gone out for drinks after work.

On to Melbourne to catch up with our friends Andy and Betty, and meet up with Jason, our travel companion for the next few weeks. With Andy as the Melbourne connaisseur, we saw the sights, explored the city's café culture in depth, and ventured out to the Mornington Peninsula to visit a cheeserie and a few wineries. The 'beererie' we also intended visiting was unfortunately shut, but the local off-license provided us with the opportunity to sample some of it anyway.

We spent the next three weeks on a road trip of the east coast. The trip started in Cairns, where Jason bumped into an old colleague at the airport whilst waiting for our baggage to arrive. Small world. As Cairns is the gateway to the Barrier Reef, but not a very attractive one, we did not linger and made for Port Douglas, a small laid-back village further north along the coast. We found the perfect motel to stay in: the friendliest staff yet, free mangoes from the garden, a washing machine (this felt like such a luxury) and all mod cons. We stayed for nearly a week, exploring the Daintree rain forest (including crocodile spotting trip and exotic fruit tasting) and went out to the Agincourt Reef to dive. Jason passed his Open Water exam, and James and I clocked up six dives in two days to add to our collection. The reef was beautiful, although we had not bargained for the two-hour boat ride back from the reef to resemble a roller coaster ride - the swell was huge and even the crew were looking seasick (they rated that journey 8 out fo 10 for roughness).

That did not deter us from moving on to another water-based adventure in the Whitsunday Islands. We boarded Matador, "the largest International Offshore Racing Maxi ever built", for a three day tour of the Whitsundays. Although a very impressive boat, she had retired from racing a few years back and thankfully was not nearly as intimidating as the marketing blurb had made her sound. Led by skipper Pete, the small crew showed us and about 25 others some of the main sights in the Whitsundays. We visited the famous Whitehaven beach (with sand so pure it sqeaks - and they used it to make the lenses for the Hubble telescope), swam, snorkelled and dived in different bays and watched impressively starry night skies whilst sipping wine on deck before going to sleep in our tiny bunks below deck.

Via a short stopover in Rockhampton, the 'beef capital of Australia' and much prettier than the rough redneck town the guidebooks had depicted (art deco, palm trees and even a scenic Rabobank), we travelled south to Fraser Island. Fraser Island is basically an enormous sandbank (its eastern beach is over 75 miles long), but has been around for so long it is covered in rainforest. There are no tarmacced roads on the island so we joined a two-day trip across the island by 4WD bus visiting fresh-water lakes, doing a number of walks to look-out points and of course more beaches and interesting natural sand formations. On our final day on the island we got the chance to do a scenic flight from a small plane that took off and landed on the beach. This sounded so unique we had to try it. It was great to get a view of the entire island and the landing on sand was very smooth.

Our final destination in Queensland was Noosa, a smart beach resort where we indulged in some nice meals, laid-back jazz and walks along the beach looking at the enormous beach houses of rich Brisbane- or Sydney-siders. We also visited Australia Zoo, set up by the parents of 'crocodile hunter' Steve Irwin. We fed the elephants, stroked the koalas, watched wombats being taken for a walk on a lead and and of course went to the main event at 'croc-a-clock': a crocodile show in a huge stadium where they bring out a few of the crocs, tell the audience about how great crocs are and give them a snack or two. Photos of Steve and his family were everywhere and staff talked about Steve as if he is still alive (and by crikey! they even brought out a Steve impersonator during the show). It was a bit surreal, but it is a beautiful zoo and the tiger show inspired James to become a Wildlife Warrior (just like Steve) and sponsor a tiger for a day.

For Chistmas, we set up camp in the hippie town of Byron Bay which is full of aura readers and scented candles as well as nice cafes and fresh seafood. Jason had found us a great apartment (well, house!), across the road from the beach, complete with barbie (BBQ), so we joined in the Aussie tradition of 'prawns on the barbie' for our Christmas dinner. We spent Christmas day walking along the beach and cliffs to visit Australia's most easterly point (according to the official sign) and watch the kite-surfers do their acrobatics in the sea. It felt strange to have Christmas in 30+ degree heat and I have to admit it did not feel very Christmassy - but we tried, with Christmas carols and all. Maybe it was caused by us humming along to 'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas' one too many times, but we did get our white Christmas after all - a couple of days late. We had moved on to the Blue Mountains west of Sydney for a few days and got caught in a fierce hail storm producing a white Christmas effect in the middle of summer.

For New Year we moved on to Sydney where we caught up with various friends who are living there at the moment. We were very lucky that a friend of a friend of Jason was organising a New Year's Eve boat party that had had three spare places exactly. This meant we had front row seats for the fireworks: we could see the Sydney Harbour Bridge and were right next to one of the pontoons that let off additional fireworks. It was truly spectular and a fitting end to our tour of Oz. On to our Asia for our last leg of our world tour.