Australia Zoo and a Craptastic Fraser Island Weekend!!

Hi guys. So Nathan and I are spending our last day in Noosa. It's absolutely freezing here!! It is winter now so what can I expect really?? I shouldn't complain because I know our winter at home will be alot worse. I doubt there will be anymore warm weather for us here in Oz as we are moving south where it just keeps getting colder. I can't wait to get to Hawaii where it will be nice and hot.

So we did the whole Fraser Island 4x4 camping thing but both Nathan and I have left with disappoinment. We had a couple of wankers from England in our group that caused the whole weekend to be absolute crap. When we were loading up the truck in the morning both of us were very excited because of the atmosphere of everyone and just looking forward of what was to come. It was a self drive weekend (with no guides) and within the first 5 minutes of departure, England guy #1 decided to drive our vehicle as though he was in the Indy 500. These are giant 4x4's that can carry at least 11 people... and they are top heavy as we load our gear on the top of them. When you take corners that fast with something like this they are bound to roll. There definitely were a couple close calls just on the way to the ferry and when we stopped for our final check, Aidan (the shopkeeper of all the 4x4's - he lead us to the ferry) told England guy #1 to stop driving like an idiot because as soon as we hit sand driving like that all of us are going to be rushed to the hospital. So from there all of us in the back were on edge. We were hoping that our driver decided to cool down from there but no way!! He drove the exact same on the island. After politely asking him 3 times to slow down, Nathan finally called us to vote for a new driver. England guy #1 put up a huge fight telling us we needed to stop being 'backseat drivers' and constantly told us to 'shut up'. He finally decided to stop by slamming on the breaks. That wasn't before he pulled us into deep sand first to get us stuck. So from that point on he wasn't allowed to drive anymore - which caused there to be major tension the whole weekend.

Besides the crap with all the driving the island was ok. We definitely got lucky with the weather as it turned out to be super hot and sunny the whole time. They were calling for rain and clouds so we were happy how that turned out. We saw some cool things... but like I said... it was hard to really enjoy ourselves when there was such tension between everybody.

We left for Noosa the day after we returned from Fraser Island. We spent about 3 days here in total I think. Yesterday we went to Australia Zoo for the day. It's a big place... took us from approximately 9 am - 5 pm just to see everything. This is Steve Irwin's zoo... so it was nice to say we got to enjoy it. Saw everything from Tigers to Crocodiles and even fed elephants and petted Wombats. I was bound and determined to smuggle a Wombat home for myself and they are definitely the cutest thing here in Oz!! I guess though that I'll have to settle for a stuffed animal. It was a good day though. The memorial they had for Steve Irwin brought a tear to my eye... it was pretty sad stuff.

Ok all - well for now that's all I have. We're headed tomorrow for Maroochydore - which is only approximately 20 minutes south. So hopefully it's a good time.

Til next time,
E&N

Rafting the Tully - Racing the Whitsundays

Hello all!! Well this is our last day here in Airlie Beach. It's a cool little place. Very touristy though... there are tons of backpackers. We are headed for Rainbow Beach on the overnight bus later on. It's about a 12 hour ride so we're not looking forword to that.

Anyway - we've done a couple things since our last blog. After Cairns we had gone to Mission Beach for a couple days to test our skills at Whitewater Rafting. This was not the first time rafting for both Nate & I... but it definitely was the most intense one!! We rafted the Tully River for over 5 hours and took on approximately 45 rapids over about 17 kms!! That's pretty crazy if you ask me. I can't say we all managed to stay in the raft... at one point our raft flipped right up from below us leaving the 6 of us having to swim to the other side of the river!! There was a point along the river that we rafted and then pulled ashore. Everybody followed the guides back to the beginning of the rapid we just did and told us to jump in and swim it!!! Didn't look to bad but I was definitely in for a shock when I swore I was going to drown!! Haha - that was something else as you couldn't catch your breath from all the water slamming into you face and body. Don't know if I would do that again. Did some cliff jumping off the rock they call 'Jabba The Hut'. The riverside BBQ filled our bellies at noon before we took off down the river again. Hard to describe what we were experiencing so check out the pictures and I'm sure they'll do all the talking for me!! It was a long tiring day but definitely one of the highlights of my trip!!

From Mission Beach we went to Magnetic Island. Nathan won a TNT magazine contest 6 months ago where we won two nights accommodation, ferry transfers and a meal for each of us!! The tickets expired the day after we used them... nothing like waiting til the last minute!! How were we so lucky to show up on the island and it was raining. The locals said this was the first time it has rained on the island in 3 months!! Lucky us!! Anyway - we didn't get to explore too much because of the rain and the cold winds coming off the ocean. So we enjoyed it the best we could and visited the local rock wallabies for awhile. Nothing too exciting compared to the rafting and what was coming up!!! When we left the island it was a gorgeous sunny day... surprise surprise. We were now headed for Airlie Beach.

Last Saturday (June 9) Nathan and I departed from Airlie Beach on the ex-racing yacht "Southern Cross" for our 3 day/2 night sailing adventure around the Whitsunday Islands. I'll admit I was definitely nervous for this one as I have a tendancy of getting seasick. We must have picked the perfect weekend for it though as the weather cooperated for us 100%. Over 3 days we sailed, suntanned and snorkelled nonstop. The party would begin later on at night after our dinner and would go to all hours of the morning!! Early mornings had us waking up to the sunrise over the islands. Can't really complain about that!! One of the island highlights for me was when we went to Whitehaven Beach. It was definitely something I have never seen before. I felt as though I had just walked into paradise!! The sand was so white and the water so blue/green!! Again - hopefully you'll get the idea when you check out the pictures!!

We had a smaller group of 16 in total including Josh & Cat, our crew. It was a good size as we all became pretty close by the end of the 3 days. We were very lucky in that our last day heading home we got some really good winds and we put our yacht to the test!! The boat was literally on it's side slicing through the waters. Haha - that was cool... but hard to find a seat as it was like trying to sit on a steep slide and not go down. Challenging but we managed to keep all 16 of us on the boat!! That was the sailing highlight for me... and probably for Nathan as well.

Well that's about it for my updates. Like I said before we are leaving for Rainbow Beach tonight where on Friday we are going to Fraser Island for 3 days to do some camping and 4x4ing. It's supposed to be gorgeous there as it is the largest sand island in the world I'm told!! Can't wait to get there!!

E&N

Cairns, Cape Tribulation and The Great Barrier Reef

Hi everyone!! Well our time in Cairns has come to an end. We were here for a total of 10 days and it rained every single day!! Both Nate and I were getting antsy to get out of here so we booked a tour up to Cape Tribulation and the Daintree Rainforest.

The tour left on Thursday and we made some stops along the way at look-out points, a crocodile cruise on the river and a walk through the oldest living rainforest in the world - The Daintree Rainforest. We arrived in Cape Tribulation shortly after noon, settled into our accommodation and then headed out for a day of adventure.

We were warned before heading out not to cross any waters unless there was a bridge because they are infested with crocodiles!! So I made sure Nathan kept his distance from all bodies of water!! We walked to the beach and felt like we were in an episode of 'Lost'. There were mountains of green all around us and palms trees galore. It was gorgeous!! Everything just seemed so untouched from humans which made it that much better!!

On Friday we had booked a day out to the Great Barrier Reef for snorkelling and our first ever Scuba Dive out at Mackay Reef!! We departed early morning only to find it raining and windy. The swells were massive. I had prepared myself for the ocean by buying a couple remedies for seasickness and was praying that they'd work!! We headed out and I was fine but I swear I though the boat was going to flip over a couple times. Our divemaster, Brooke, began to prep us for the dive and as I was watching her and reading over some of basic skills... I completely lost all my bearing and bolted to the back of the boat to once again be sick. Ugh!! I was hoping that wouldn't happen. I was definitely not the first to get sick on this ride as 3 others visited the back of the boat with me!! Even Nathan said he almost lost his breakfast a couple times!! I was fine for the rest of the ride though - so lucky for me!!

Since I missed most of the prep I wasn't able to participate in the first dive. There would be 2 all together. So Nathan decided to wait for me and we went snorkelling for what seemed like hours!! We swam with a turtle, saw a huge Maori Wrasse and numerous other tropical fish and rays. The coral was so much more vibrant and colorful than the Ningaloo Reef on the West Coast. After lunch and a quick run-through of all the fish and coral we were looking at, Nathan and I were suited up for our dive. We were the only 2 people who wanted to go diving so it was just us and our divemaster!! It was amazing and such a feeling to be able to breath underwater and not worry about rising to the surface. Our dive lasted 30 minutes and we became familiar with all sorts of things you can't see at the top of the surface by just snorkelling. Even Nemo and his friends came out to say hi!! I'm hooked for sure and definitely will take up the opportunity to do it again as we head down the East Coast.

Well, we're back here in Cairns now and leave for Mission Beach tomorrow. We are going White Water Rafting on the Tully River on Tuesday and we hear they have the best rapids in Australia!! From there we leave for Airlie Beach where we'll leave for 3 days on "The Southern Cross" racing yacht as we sail around the Whitsunday Islands. So make sure to keep checking the blog because we'll have a lot of stories to tell this leg of the trip.

See you soon!!

E&N

PS - Check out all the new video's and pictures we added!!