Aussie Brisbane and Cairns

Monday, 23 April 2012

Kangaroo

Goobye New Zealand, Hello Aussie!

To be honest, after 6 months of NZ we were kinda sick of travelling and we were dreaming of home. Not as in dreaming of Belgium because if we could take all our friends and family in a suitcase, we would move to NZ. But after 6 months of asking people for help, for a place to stay, you just miss having a place of your own. And of course we miss our friends and family, the people where I can be my annoying, boring little self, where I can complain as much as I want.

So sorry Aussie but we weren't really excited to leave our beloved country and to travel even more (It's always being careful if you say you like NZ more then Australia). And more, all those dangerous poisonous snakes and spiders, not really something to look forward too. But we're on the other side of the world anyway so we might as well go and explore some more.

Our first stop of four: Brisbane.
We had accommodation with Niels' coach he had at the national competition of Australia in January, Paul Canavan or as most people call him Snow. He and his wife Helen totally changed our first opinion about Australia. Ok there are snakes and spiders (quite big ones actually), but everywhere you look you have parrots, cockatoos and other exotic birds flying around in the palm trees. Also the temperatures are a bit more tropical then in NZ.

But also because they took great care of us with amazing dinners and deserts at the table, transport whenever we wanted it, private bedroom,… I missed my parents and the parental cares even more (I'll be honest in that).

So we had an amazing week in Brisbane with hockey practice in Brisbane and the Gold Coast, markets on the ocean side, dinner in a boat club, walks in the very pleasant green city centre,…

We also went to a Koala Sanctuary where we petted koalas, fed kangaroos like we in Belgium would do with the little goats at the kids farm (kinderboerderij), saw the rare Platypus (vogelbekdier in Dutch) and all other animals that Aussie has to offer.

After that day Niels and I stayed at Flo's place, a teammate of Niels at Nationals. Also he drove us around and brought us to the Tweed Coast and Gold Coast where Niels and I had our first surf lesson! I must say that I really enjoyed that and we were pretty good in it! So after a full day of surfing, we headed back to Snow and Helens place for a last evening with a BBQ. I'm really happy that at the end of our Aussie trip we will come back to this place.

We'd like to thank everyone in Brisbane who helped us out! It's like i'm repeating myself but also you guys have a place to stay in Belgium!

Next stop: Cairns, next to the Great Barrier Reef!

Cairns is in northern queensland so very tropical with hot weather, humid air and close to the Great Barrier Reef! The first days we stayed in a hostel and well… we didn't quite enjoy that as there were cockroaches everywhere and the rooms where just dirty! But the weather was good and we enjoyed our first days with swimming and exploring. Then after 3 days, another teammate from Niels at nationals invited us into his house. Warren and Hazel welcomed us and thank God for them because it started raining and it never stopped. Unfortunately we had to stay indoors a lot, did some jungle walks but not much more. Our last day we had to arrange something to see at least something of the Reef so we booked a tour to Green Island, the beginning of the very large reef. To make a sad story short: We took a wild ferry, got seasick, it rained all day, we tried snorkeling anyway, saw 1 little tropical fish and some coral and stayed the rest of the afternoon on the boat as there was no indoor spot on the island. Oh yes and the highlight was: we saw a turtle in the ocean!

So this is sadly a very short blog because we didn't like Cairn very much because of the rain. A couple of thing worth mentioning is that Cairns has some nice tropical fruits like custard apple, mango's, passion fruit, something orangy, lemonade fruit and some kind of weird lychee, which we all tried of course.Also every night at dawn, a massive colony of Flying Foxes (massive bats) wakes up and start flying to another spot. Quite impressive to see that many vampire animals flying above your head!

We are very happy in the end we had a roof and good food at Warren and Hazels place! Thank you guys!

So we take the plane to Melbourne. We'll see how that is… it's now 50/50 for our opinion about Australia!Geschreven door Magali

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Aussie Brisbane and Cairns

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Spearfishing

Driving on the beach

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Inpakken

First drive in NZ

Dolphins

Seals