Kate and Wenna Do Queensland!

Hello all!

Now for an observation on Queensland that isn't limited to driving.

Certain things that have expired in South Australia continue to survive in Queensland. Not sure if it is the weather, the people or some other factor but

- Plastic Bags
- Bi-Lo
- Sizzler

All seem to be alive and well up here.

After my last blog we said another tearful fairwell to the gorgeous Jessie and her hospitality and went for a nice leisurely drive up to Mackay. Originally our plan was to stay there overnight, but upon arrival it became clear it wasn't quite our thing. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice town, but it just wasn't quite what we were looking for. Additionally, our enquiry at the Mackay Tourism Office (at the Town Hall- thankyou to Lynn) led us to the realisation that if we wanted to do anything cool we would have to go up to Airlie Beach. So we booked ourselves in for a day trip, had a quick lunch and made our merry way up to Airlie Beach.

Airlie Beach is F**cking Gorgeous. It's a picturesque little town set in a cove, with rainforest covered-hills all around. It is an amazing sight and I really cannot describe it in pictures, let alone words. It looks like a scene from a movie, with the greenery, the blueness of the ocean, and the boats which fill up the water. I do have concern that it will not remain this way for long- there are house and land developments occuring all through Queensland, and Airlie cannot avoid it. There also appears to be a new marina complex being built, much to the chagrin of some of the locals who said they can barely afford their current marina. Interesting.

Kate and I drove around for a bit before choosing a caravan park, probably my favourite so far. "Island Gateway" it was called, and it was the first place I have stayed where coconuts and mangoes literally fall onto your tent. It had a nice mix of age groups, plenty of shade and good views. After settling in and erecting the H.O.W (House of Wenna- read: tent) we washed up and ventured back into town. We sat by the bay, looking at the stars and drinking tails, and then visited a couple of bars to scope out the locals. It was beautifully quiet but with enough of a nightlife to keep us interested.

We had an early night, as we had a full day ahead of us on the ocean. We awoke with the dawn, as is the habit when the sun pierces your thin little tent, I even went for a jog. For those of you not in the know, I've been battling something of a cough/lung infecton for the past couple of months, so I was pretty pleased when I managed to complete it without leaving a bit of lung on the sidewalk. We caught our coach which was pleasantly driven by the boat owner "John," discovered that three quarters of those taking our boat were from France (the exceptions- a couple from slovakia, a family from germany, a couple from england. oh and two other Aussies). We boarded our vessel (The Mantaray) and made our way to Mantaray Cove (I think thats what it's called), just north of Hayman Island. It's a really protected spot, boats not allowed to lay anchor, and provided great scenery for our snorkelling expedition. Trevally's over a metre in length meandered around the boat, whilst other fish decorated in a myriad of bright colours played amongst the coral. It was effing exciting if you excuse my french. I had my first go at Scuba Diving, which was a bit weird, but satisfying, though I saw more fish while I was snorkelling.

I can't remember the name of our second Destination but it features Hill Inlet and Hill Inlet Lookout- a pristine, quiet piece of Whitehaven Beach, named so because of its 98% silica content sand. Basically, the sand is white, soft, fine and beautiful. Its not even hot, because it reflects so much of the sand. Apparently the last time any sand was removed from this beach was when NASA bought 5 tonnes on it to make the Lens on the Hubble Telescope. The three hours we had there flew by.

On our way back to Airlie Beach, we were treated to the sight of another pair of travellers- a mother and baby humpack whale, who floated every closer to the boat, until realising we were there and ing off. It was an amazing sight, and although I feel very pleased to have experienced it, I am a little annoyed I couldn't get a good photo. None of the photos I have taken on this trip have done it any justice.

Upon return to our tent, we tried to stay up and watch flashdance, but quickly fell asleep because we were y exhausted.

The next morning it was time to hit the road again, so we tripped up to Townsville. On the way we stopped at Cedar Falls, only to find that at this pont in the dry season, there was no water falling down at all. Just a big water hole.

Townsville will always be known to me as "the town that someone built around a big effing mountain." Look up a map of Townsville if you don't believe me. although it had some pretty views, something about the place didn't feel right to me. It was a Friday Night, and everything was totally . The Mall, the bars, everything. We couldn't do anything we wanted to because it was all closed, the caravan park we stayed in was a bit dodgy, we couldn't find a seafood restaurant by the bay, we went to the movies and the cinema smelt like a pool... it just didn't work. Again, we just caught an early night and got ready to hit the road again.

Saturday took us on a considerably shorter drive, but one that had far more highlights than many of our other driving days. We took a stop at Jourama Falls, and though we didn't venture in far enough to see the falls- would we ever see a waterfall on this trip? - we did see some amazing waterlife in the waterhole down the way. A few turtles even poked their head out to say gday. We also stopped at a great little servo/truck stop which not only had free tea and coffee but a book exchange.

At Mission Beach, we failed to find a location that contained any kind of "Town Centre" but did locate "Bali Hai"- a cheap, but well equipped caravan park. Costing us less than all of our other accommodation so far, we were impressed by the laid back vibe, the mixed people there- ranging from residents, to old men walking cats on leads (i you not), french backpackers and hot skydiving boys who used the camp as a base. Having arrived there mid afternoon, it seemed appropriate to float down to the beach and read our various vampire fiction, whilst admiring the views of the islands.

And we are, at our final destination. We actually managed to sleep in a bit this morning, although how or why I'm not sure. Our drive was nice and relaxed, and we finally find a waterfall- Josephine Falls! This spot is just gorgeous and really easy to access, Anyone in the Cairns area should visit it. We had our regular sprout wrap lunch and drove the last leg to Cairns.

So here we are! 2300km, 300 bucks worth of petrol, 5 trips to Baskin and Robbins, several sprout wraps and one nose piercing later. We are well ahead of schedule, and now have just relaxation, white water rafting, and a visit from my sister to look forward to. Want to give a big up to Jessie in Rockhampton and Jake in Sunshine Beach, for their hospitality and advice. Especially want to give a huge e-hug to Kate for being such a great travel companion, surviving those long drives and never getting ty with me who is such a huge mess.

For those who think of doing this trip, my advice is to just give yourself plenty of time. There are so many places I would have liked to have seen, but even with the amount of time we've had it can be hard to see everything. I'd like to do this trip over several months, were I to do it again. Get as much information as you can, you never know when you might miss something great or find out something is not what you expected to be (Bribie Island, for example).

I'm gonna go cruise the night markets now.

First things first- People in Queensland LOVE to tailgate. They love it! Even when there’s nowhere to overtake, and when they do overtake, all they do is end up waiting to turn right…

Secondly, I’m kind of surprised by how brown it is here. Given there’s no water restrictions, I thought it might be a bit greener. It’s kind of a weird juxtaposition of brown brown fields with huge green mountains coming out of nowhere. Anyway, I digress…

After my last blog Kate and I made a short trip south down to Eumundi for the Saturday Markets. On the way we stopped at the Australian Nougat Factory (YUM) and picked up a few supplies. Eumundi has a population of about 1800 but there were sooooo many people there for the market. It was a true country market, with EVERYTHING. There were people selling food, ranging from freshly made crepes (dan’s are better), organic fruit and vegetables, to home made ginger beer and specialty teas. There were people selling hand made jewellery, face painting, art, craft, etc etc. Massages, shoe conditioner stuff, you know, a bit of everything. The weirdest part for me personally was the buskers. In one space, a girl probably about 11 years old, hanging off the edge of a tent, holding the pole singing the same verse and chorus of “Girls just wanna have fun.” Further on, four younger children singing “Somewhere over the rainbow.” Later on I saw them all spread out individually singing it again. The worst part though was a young man with Down Syndrome, who sat on a stool, breathing in and out of a harmonica at various speeds, every now and then shaking his maracas. Awkward. We perused various things for a while, before making the way back up the sharp hill on which we had parked to our spaceship, with the next stop of Rainbow Beach.

Rainbow Beach is a town population 850 or so, and it’s everything a little holiday country town should be. One main street, with easy access to Fraser Island, a national park on the opposite side, and a caravan park full of retirees and their dogs- and us. So many dogs! The funniest one for me was the toy poodle who resided in the caravan across the way- although he went for his walks in the morning, when he popped outside, his human would say BACK IN THE CARAVAN! We spent the day just chilling, I met a local who invited me to a karaoke night at the backpackers across the way. We had all intention of going, but instead settled in with some Black Books in the spaceship dvd player. The next morning we checked out and went for a walk down to the beach, where we saw the hot hot lifesaver, and Carlo Sand Blow. For those who have no idea what a Sand Blow is- like me before this walk- its basically where sand has blown inland and has covered trees and stuff. Carlo Sand Blow is several acres worth of sand, that covers a whole valley of trees. In some spots the trees are still visible- or at least the very tops of them- but in others, they are just dead sticks. It’s an absolutely incredible sight with an amazing view that I will post on Facebook or something at a later date. We visited Tin Can Bay for lunch, a quaint little fishing spot where you can hand feed the dolphins if you arrive early enough in the morning. It’s a really sweet little town and I wouldn’t mind spending more time there in future.

It was back on the road for a couple of hours to Hervey Bay, via Maryborough. Maryborough is worth visiting just for the architecture, several of the buildings in the main street are over a hundred years old, and when combined with the absolute ghost-like ness of the Sunday environment- we literally saw only four people, all the shops were closed- it’s quite a creepy experience. Hervey bay is quite large but really pretty. We checked into a Caravan park right on the beach, which although was superb for that reason and the sweet couple that ran it, it also had the esplanade on the opposite side- which was loud, full of loud cars and swearing drunk people. It was another early night, I finished my copy of Dexter by Design in the tent. Early in the morning we packed up and hit the road to Rockhampton.

We arrived in Rockhampton after what has been to date our longest drive- somewhere between 4 and 5 hours. We headed for a little park next to the Fitzroy river where we were met by the amazing Jessie, who I used to play netball with, and has recently moved up here. We stopped by her house to rest and shower and be indoors (such a treat) and went for a drive through Rocky with the intention of going to a pub for dinner. Rockhampton is quite a fair sized town, the most fascinating feature to me is that it has a huge freight train line straight down the main street. I’m talking a huge coal-carrying train, with nothing other than stop signs to keep you safe. Absolutely no barrier for the people crossing the road. It’s really a bizarre sight. Anyway we went to a pub, and sat down for a bit to check out the menu (1 kg steak anyone?) but soon realised the line waiting to order was not moving so decided to go to Saigon Saigon just down the road. I got checked out there too, apparently. Anyway. Dinner was here then it was home to organise accommodation for Cairns, flight back to Melbourne for Kate, and to organise to add my sister to our white water rafting trip. Rannon’s coming up, yay!!! SO excited.

We slept well. Or at least, I did. Can’t really speak for Kate. I got to sleep indoors, on a mattress. My room even had glow in the dark stars on the ceiling!

We woke up early, said our farewell to Jessie and went to coles to pick up some food. We saw some amazing mullets. I will remember Rockhampton as the Mullet town. We visited the park we had stayed at yesterday to eat breakfast, I had a M&M Yogo (when was the last time anyone had one, seriously) and Wagon Wheels. I also had a banana and went for a play on the awesome play ground.

Our first stop for the day was Yeppoon, a little coastal town about a half hours drive from Rockhampton. We wandered through some shops, had some mid morning coffee, and just enjoyed the sunlight. It’s a really lovely little town, the gateway to Great Keppel Island- although we arrived about ten minutes late to catch the Ferry. Major Doh. We met a curious older couple who wanted to see inside our spaceship, and in turn impart advice on what is good to see and do locally. Well, apparently that’s what Kate heard, all I heard was the male of the pair tell me he likes it when its warm at night so he can walk around naked. Classy.

On their advice, we headed north to Byfield National Park, a beautiful rainforest park filled with incredibly green mountains. We had some lunch at a little picnic spot and went for a walk along a short trail. It was incredible, so green and humid and dense. The track went right by an enormous waterhole, which I would have checked out further, were it nor for signs indicated Crocodiles seen earlier, and for Kate screaming out WENNA LOOK OVER THERE!!! Apparently she thought she had seen a croc, but no, it was just a massive goanna. Which I am also afraid of. For the remainder of the walk I was in a state of hypervigilance, every time something moved I freaked out. After surviving that walk, we decided to visit a local pottery barn- not before viewing a very random rooster, who both chased people and stood right at their feet waiting for food. Far more confident than its Bush Turkey neighbours. A short drive found us at the pottery place, it was like a random little house/retreat in the park. A cool place, with boxes and vases and gongs and all sorts. I picked up a couple of things.

Next stop was the Capricorn Caves, where we went for a guided tour. It was pretty cool, but I’m a bit of a snob having seen a lot of caves already, but it was cool. Our tour guide was pretty abrupt and abrasive, everything she said sounded robotic. Toward the end she warmed up a bit, whether she was just happy about the end of the day or if she just liked the crowd. The middle of the tour featured a “Cathedral Cave,” basically a huuuge natural room which had been kitted out with some nice lighting. Apparently it has natural acoustics of “0.19” which will make sense to musical people out there. Kate treated everyone to a bit of a song before they put on a horrible cd and did a lighting display. There was one moment where they turned off all the lights and we were left in the pitch black darkness of the cave. Bit creepy.

Anyway I’m tired so to sum up, Kate and I drove back to Rockhampton, picked up supplies and came back to Jessie’s where Kate whipped up a fish and salad and sweet potato chip dinner. YUM. And then we had berry crumble and are all full.

The end! For now. Tomorrow- Mackay and maybe Airlie Beach.

It's only been a couple of days since our last entry but a lot has happened.

After my blog on thursday, we went out to dinner, got some icecream, and meandered. We do a lot of meandering. Returned to our hotel room to chill out some more.

We woke up bright and early- and I do mean early, something like 6.30. It's really bizarre to experience such bright sunlight so early. We packed up, took all the teabags and complimentary body product stuff, and taxi then trained then taxied to the spaceship port in Brisbane. The spaceship is pretty cool but a bit fidgety, its taken us a while to work out a configuration that really works for us.

We blew out of Brisbane quite quickly- no offence Brissy, you're just a bit boring. We hopped onto the highway and stopped by a suburban mall to pick up some supplies (flat sandals for me, my summer shoes had managed to cut nice big blisters in my feet). Back on the highway and then down to Tamborine Mountain. It was a really fun drive, lots of hills, trees, rivers, creeks everywhere. That said, the place is full of new housing developments- there was literally one behind every corner. We checked into Thunderbird Park, which backs right into the rainforest, and set up camp- the van for Kate, and a one man tent for me. It was really quiet, almost too quiet. We went for an evening walk down to a waterfall, which although was very beautiful was right next to the highway. It was a weird but I suppose all too common juxtaposition, this amazing waterhole home to some amazing endangered life, but every now and then VRRROOOOOOOOOOOM

Back at the campsite, we tried to make a fire. We did a pretty good job given there as ZERO kindling around. I'm pretty impressed, all things considered. But in the end the darkness and quietness overtook us and we went to bed at like 8.

I was woken by 6ish by what I thought was a frog, but when I turned to the window I found myself face to face with a bush turkey. Those things are freaky.

Although we were a day ahead of schedule- having checked into Thunderbird instead of heading down to Lamington National Park as planned, we were already missing the sun. The decision was made to skip right ahead to Bribie Island, which would put us a day ahead of schedule. Before we went though we fit in a trail ride through the rainforest. It was just me, Kate and the two staff, which was great. Horseriding is pretty amazing. I haven't been on a horse for years and wasn't even confident back then, but I managed to muster up a canter for the first time ever. Only a little one has my horse (Spider) didn't want to keep it up, I imagine he could feel my nervousness.

We hit the road and high tailed it back to the highway and made the drive to Bribie Island.

Bribie Island is brown, boring and full of shops. Kind of like Victor, it has a mall and even an Audi dealership. The word we used to describe it was that of a retirement village island. We got out of the van to get a charger for my phone (as mine was broken, and apparently my ipod charger doesn't support my ipod either. @#&*$!@) before getting back in the van and skipping right up to Noosa. It is gorgeous here, really clean, beautiful beaches and green. Everything screams of expensive and upper class, but its full people, many in campervans similar to ours. We secured the final space at the Noosa River Caravan Park- right next to another spaceship, home to a couple from France. Thankful we had found A space, it was back into the centre of town to watch the sunset at the beach and then for dinner. Every cafe along here looks good, plenty with live music. We must have found the one with the worst muso, although the food was good the opening of "Hi, my name's Corey and I haven't played in ages" followed by the song starting "My name's Corey and I'm an MC" had us eating just that bit faster. Hot chocolate and Cocktails at another cafe, where we met my boss's son Jake. He gave us some great information on things we should do while we're here, and even offered us a place to crash on the weekend if we'd like. Yay for friends!

I was feeling a bit nauseous from the milkyness of my cocktail so after Jake it was back to the campsite for bed. We both slept in the van this time, top to toe. we put the awning out for a bit more room, I have to say I had a great sleep in there, a little better than the tent.

We were very RUDELY awoken by a garbage truck that stopped right behind our car. You think those are loud at home? Imagine being separated from one by about 30 cm of air and a piece of canvas. FUCK!

Oh well. Time to wake up. We had left our campsite by about 7.45 and fit in an early morning walk down at the beach and then through Noosa national park at the headland. I'm still amazed by how sunny it is- and warm! I hope to come back a little browner.

Anyway I've been in here for a while, Kate is wandering somewhere through Noosa, I should go find her. We're heading to rainbow beach today, then hervey bay, then rockhampton, then Airlie beach!

love love lovexxxxx

So its Day 2 (evening) of our trip, and I can't describe to you how amazing I feel right now.

But let's return to the beginning. For the record, it's Wenna typing.

My day began yesterday at 6.15 am when I received an excited text from Kate. Today was the day. Months of planning and here we finally were. At 7.30, I got my cab, by 8 I was checked in and roaming Adelaide Airport. My flight (Virgin Blue) was comfortable, I managed to read the entire first Sookie Stackhouse book (true blood fans will understand), whilst the woman next to me cracked up every time she turned a page. I wonder what she was reading?

Upon arrival in brisbane, I was fortunate enough to have my bad come out quite quickly before heading to the airtrain, which heads to the Gold Coast. As i stood in line, I watched the countdown to the next train from 5 minutes to 4 for the next departure. The man serving was busy being a flirt, ugh. I finally got my ticket, he said "no need to rush" but as soon as I got out of the terminal the sign had clocked down to two minutes. I had to BOLT, literally, dragging my 20 kg suitcase along. JUST made the train and settled in for the 1.5 hour trip to Nerang Station, where I cabbed it to our accommodation. Queensland supposedly has the most impatient drivers in Australia, and I saw plenty of that in our cab. Could have been because my cabbie generally stopped in the middle of intersections and then muttered "I probably should have put my brakes on earlier."

Kate met me at the hotel, and took me up to our room, where we have the most amazing view of the ocean. The room is comfortable, clean, and after a trip to coles nicely stocked up with chocolate.

Let me take a moment here to describe how relaxed and just pure amazement I felt once I hit our hotel room. There is something in the air here- or perhaps its in the sunshine- and all my stress, worries, sense of responsibility just melted away. This is exactly what being on holiday is about.

The remainder of the day was mainly spent meandering around Surfer's Paradise, sitting on the beach and checking out the (very pretty, tanned) bodies. After the sun went down we went for a walk for some dinner, had a couple of guys (unsuccessfully) try to get us on a pub tour, and went for a night swim and spa. Just divine. Back up to the hotel room to chill out in our robes and have some sleep. We slept with the door to the balcony wide open, which let in the amazing sound of the waves crashing, but also the sound of roadworks. ugh. I had a shit night's sleep due mainly to my regular coughing fits, fortunatly none of them stirred Kate.

Day 2 started nice and slowly- we had really hit relaxation mode. We had to visit at least one theme park on this trip, and we chose Dreamworld. We caught the bus there and managed to make a whole day of it, and went on all the rides (besides the Wipeout, which reminded us of that one that broke at the show several years back). I admit, I was a bit of a pussypants and needed my hand held at times. Any photos taken on the Giant Drop or Tower of Terror especially involved me with generally closed eyes and a screwed up face. I didn't mind The Claw though, although I"m still in rocking . We also investigated the new "Alien Vs Predator Vs You" attraction, basically laser skirmish. I kept getting shot by this one woman who didn't seem to realise we were meant to aim for people on the opposite team. Kate and I were on the "Infected Humans" (yellow), who were pitched against the "humans" (blue) and the various alien and predator statue things. There was a petite woman on the infected team who looked familiar- Kate eventually recognised her as Cosima from season one of Australian Idol. Talk about random.

As I type this, we're about to go out and have some dinner. maybe some drinks and a game of pool. Tomorrow we'll be taking the train back up to Brisbane in order to pick up our Spaceship, and then hit up the hinterland- toward Tamborine Mountain, or Lamington National Park. I probably won't get the chance to upload any photos while we're travelling, but will have plenty when I get back. Promise.

In between work and all the other committments we have, it can be hard to find time to do the things we want. So I'm going to add a few goals for my holiday.

1. Get fit. I know its difficult with only 2.5 weeks but I think with healthy eating and daily exercise (eg a jog around my surroundings) I should be able to shift at least a little bit of this weight. And get faster!
2. Whiten my teeth.

Lets see how I go!