Catch up with Cathy and the girls...

Greymouth, Franz Josef, Wanaka, Queenstown, Milford Sound, Dunedin and Lake Tekapo, New Zealand

2009-06-30T01:10:00.000-07:00

Hey!

Ok so it's not as easy getting online here as it is in Australia, so I've squashed pretty much everything since Christchurch into this blog entry. Here's how the last 2 weeks went...

After getting the Tranzalpine train across to Greymouth, because of the bus we're on we had to stay 1 night in Greymouth. There's nothing to this town!! It's cool the way they do buses over here. It's more of a tour. So they go certain days in winter (but everyday in summer) so you have to work your plan around the bus, and it's compulsory to stay at some places over night as the bus doesn't go any further. The hostel we stayed in Greymouth was cool though, it was called Noah's Arc, and each bedroom was designed as an animal from the arc. So we were in the sheep room!

The next morning we jumped on the bus at 8 and headed south down the west coast. It's so beautiful, lakes and mountains everywhere. Our final destination was Franz Josef, and because we wanted to do the full-day glacier hike here, we had to spend 2 nights. So the following morning we got all geared up and headed to the glacier. We were walking for a good while before eveing reaching the end of the glacier. When we first looked at it we thought oh we probably climb to the top and walk around up there. Not a chance! We made it about half-way I'd say. There's crevaces and caves and well it's not as straight-forward as you'd think. It was so amazing though, stunning. We broke off into groups, and it turned out we had 9 Irish in our group of 11! Ok well 5 of us were together, but still what are the odds of having another 4 Irish in your group! The entire hike was about 12km, and for about 7 hours. It was tough at times but we had our 'clampons' so we had a grand grip of the ice.

Our next stop on the bus was Wanaka. I think it's at a higher altitude as it was soooo much colder than Franz Josef. When we arrived we went to the puzzle world. There's a big illusions room and an outdoor maze. Sure it kept us occupied for a while anyway! Our hostel had free pool and table tennis, so we had great fun there too! It's the simple things in life that make us happy :p Next day we had a few hours to kill before the bus collected us again, so we just checked out the lake, Lake Wanaka. It's one of the bigger lakes in New Zealand, and is 50km in length!

So then we finally arrived in Queenstown. It was night when we arrived so we just checked out the town, went for food etc etc. First impressions were that yeh it is quite built up for a small area, but it's a nice cute little place. The next day when we were walking around we discovered there's actually loads of shops, restaurants, pubs etc, so it's actually quite packed. But it's still a nice little place and everything is so accessible. The lakeside is gorgeous as well, Lake Watikipu, which is 80km in length. Apparently at the moment if you went into it you'd have 15mins before you'd die from hypothermia!! That afternoon we went into a shop down here that does hoodys and tshirts and you design the look yourself. SO we all got a hoody and designed it with various NZ logos, and things (sports etc) representing our time in NZ.

The next day I went off and did a day trip to Milford Sound. The girls are going to do it just before they leave Queenstown so I went off to do it with a tour company over here. For those who haven't heard of it, Milford Sound is a Fiord over by the west coast. It's in an area known as Fiordland as there are so many over there, but Milford was known, well unofficially I guess, as the 8th wonder of the world. It's fabulous, crystal green waters with huge rock faces. So we just got the bus from Queenstown down, but since it's such a journey, we stopped in Te Anau, and some other places too. We also stopped at a chasm which wsa fascinating to see, it was crazy the way the rocks had formed due to the stream. Anyway, so Milford Sound itself was a must see. We did a 2-hour cruise around it and up to the Tasman Sea. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone over this side of the world, it's something that photos doesn't do it justice.

The next day Gillian, Emma and Marie went skiing for the day so since it was my last in Queenstown, I kind of wanted to do something big but didn't want to o skiing. Long story short, Trish (Alice's friend) somehow convinced me to do the Nevis Bungy Jump with her. I was considering doing a bungy, but thought I might brave the Kawarai Bridge one which is the world's first bungy and is about 40metres or so high. I said sure I'd ask about the Nevis, and before I knew it I was on the bus on the way to it with Trish!! Gillian had done the jump the day before and well she survived it so odds were we'd be fine too!! :) The Nevis is the 3rd highest bungy jump in the world, at 143 metres high. I think by the time I was half way down I realised I was doing it. It was definitely the scariest thing I've ever done!!! It's just hard because you have to jump yourself, they can't push you. Well I'm so glad I did it anyway, I still can't believe I went through with it! Afterwards they were telling us of a great offer they had for the Nevis Arc, so it was my turn to dra Trish into doing something. So we did it together as a tandum. It's the world's highest swing. And it was so much more enjoyable as it wasn't as scary. You could hold onto the harness, and it was out of your control as the guy dropped you, so you just hang there and enjoy! It was about 140metres as well so it was quite a drop, but it was class!

That night we went for some drinks as it was my last night with the girls, so the following morning, after 10 months together I said a sad goodbye. And I headed for Dunedin. It's scottish gaelic for 'Edinburgh' so obviously has a lot of scottish influence. It was alot bigger than I thought but there wasn't alot to do there. They have a cadbury chocolate factory there which was cool enough, and they also have the world's steepest street (Baldwin St) according to the Guinness Book of Records, so of course it was compulsory to climb to the top of it :)

The next day we headed north towards Lake Tekapo. There's not much in the township, but two of the most photographed landmarks are here, the Church of the Good Shepherd and the Collie Dog. And of course the Lake itself doesn't look too bad either!! :) At night you can see the stars clearly and see the Southern Star.

And then it was time for my last stop, back to Christchurch. I'm here for two days now and then fly to New York to meet Ger. We'll spend 5 nights in NY (including the 4th of July celebrations) and then up to Boston for 3 nights, before flying home for Oxegen. So plenty still to look do for the next 2 weeks =D

Here's some photos from the last 2 weeks....

Cathy x x

Christchurch, New Zealand

2009-06-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

Hey Again!!

Well after 8 months in Oz we said a sad goodbye. With a 2 hour time difference from Oz, we arrived quite late into Christchurch, so didn't get to see any of the city until the next day. Our hostel was right in the middle of the city, in Cathedral Square so we were perfectly located.
After a nice well deserved lie-in, the first thing we did was go to the shops to buy UGG boots, hats, scarves, gloves etc etc as it's FREEZING!!! Such a shock to the system coming from 28 degrees to 5 degrees!! So once we got all kitted out in our fab warm clothes, we went to check out all the brochures etc to see what to do for our few days here. There are 3 walks around
the perimeter of the city so I ventured along that evening to do them. It's such a nice city, all flat, and has a real English feel to it. Two of the bigger roads are Oxford Tce and Cambridge Tce, and theres a Manchester St. Need I say anymore!

We split up for the second day. The girls went to the hot pools of Hanmer Springs while I did the Lord of the Rings Edoras Tour. We drove right into the middle of the Southern Alps, stopping at some of the lakes first. They were fantastic, you could see the reflection of the sky, mountains and trees in them. And then we climbed Mount Sunday, where LOTR was filmed as Edoras, aka the Kingdom of Rohan, in the 2nd and 3rd films. The views from here were just amazing. And in the distance was where they filmed Aragorn entering Helms Deep. Our tour guide used be a TV director, and knew loads of the LOTR production team, so he had loads of information for us and loads of secrets from the filming and what to look out for when we watch the movies again. It was an expensive trip, but well worth it as the views were just stunning. And the guide definitely knew his stuff about LOTR and of NZ and Christchurch's history. I didn't know, but it was a dutchman, Abel Tasman, who discovered the place many years before Cptn Cook discovered Australia. He actually sailed down South of Australia completely missing it! But he did discover Tasmania, and because he was dutch, he named it after the dutch leader of the time calling it Van Daemon's Land. You might recognise that term from the years when the Irish convicts were sent over to "Van Daemons Land" Of course the Maori's had discovered the country a thousand years previous, but you know how Europeans are, and they claim to have discovered it.

The next day we headed off early to the Christchurch Gondola, 10km out of the city. It's a cable car up the mountain, where at the top there are options to do a few different walks. Up there you have the most amazing view of Lyttleton Port, and a view of Christchurch in the distance. The "mountain" was actually a volcano crater millions of years old. So we decided to do the crater walk, but given the time of year (ie winter) the track was full of ice, so we had to take little baby steps around. The views were fabulous, you got a view of the Cantebury Plains. Cantebury is the province that Christchurch is in, and there are about 6 Provinces in the South Island alone.

We've just arrived in Greymouth over on the West Coast, after travelling the TranzAlpine train across. It's rated as one of the best scenic rail journeys in the world and we could definitely see why. We passed by several lakes, and the mountains were all snow capped in the distance, it was gorgeous.

So our plan now is we've one night here in Greymouth, and we'll do the brewery tour this evenin here. Tomorrow morning we'll get the bus down to Franz Josef and the following day we'll do a full-day Glacier Hike. Really looking forward to that one! Alot of people who come to New Zealand say the hike is the highlight of their trip. After Franz Josef we'll spend a night in Wanaka, and then it's off to the adventure capital, Queenstown.

So until next time.....

Cathy x x

Cairns and Cape Tribulation, Australia

2009-06-14T00:09:00.000-07:00

Hey all!!!

Well Australia is just about over now :( We've just had the last two parts of the trip - Cairns and Cape Tribulation. We arrived in Cairns Wednesday afternoon, checked in, and me and Emma went straight to get a box from the post office. Haha we're both sending more stuff home again! It just builds up and it's so uncomfortable dragging around a heavy backpack all the time! So anyway we walked around a little on Wednesday, but didn't do too much exploring. That night we went to PJs (yeh i know, they've a PJ O'Briens here too!!! ) and we met up with Fraser Island people. I also bumped into Orla and Roger again (both from Cork) , we've pretty much seen them every place now since Fraser Island. But it's like that when you're doing the
east coast as everyone is doing pretty much the same things.

So then next day was our Reef Day Tripper - Day trip to the great barrier reef for some snorkelling. When we got out there, because of the time of season (ie its actually winter here even though its still hot) there were so many waves. You could still see clearly, all the fish and coral which were amazing, but the waves kept pushing us back. It was fun anyway. Usually
on that trip you snorkel in two spots, but cuz of the waves, we just stayed in the 1 spot longer. That night then we headed out again, as it was Heathers last night in Oz. She's one of the English girls we met on WhitSundays trip. So we were out in a bar called the Rhino Bar for the night. It was cool as there was the 3 of us, the 2 english girls, those 3 scandanavian guys, and 2 people from our Fraser trip. And it was the last time we'll see all of them now in Oz, so it was a sad goodbye.The next day, we were to do the 2-day trip to Cape Tribulation. Our tour guide woman was from Cape Trib which ended up being really cool since she gave us so much info on the place, and it was great hearing of different stories from when she was growing up there. It's a rainforest (you know that) but based on a tree they found not so long ago, they estimate it's
135million years old, making it 7 times older than the Amazon one Crazy huh!! The Amazon is about 20mill years old. They have 3 seasons up there, rainy, more rainy, and dry. And they've no electricity so they've to basically make their own, ie some people use diesel to power it or something, but thats quite expensive. One story the guide told was very funny. One day her
sister out of nowhere found a cat. So they brought it home, and thought it'd be safe for the cat to have her lie between them in the bed. Anyway they woke up the next morning with a snake beside them and the cat inside the snake!!!! Apparently, snakes will kill anything up around there, and theres so many of them, so yeh they strangle them to death and then eat them. Haha
imagine waking up to one of them beside you in the bed!!!!

So this is how the trip went. We headed off around 8am on Friday and went to a look-out first. Ah just some islands in the distance. It was nice, but not out of this world like. Then we headed to a wildlife sanctuary. It wasn't very nice now. They have loads of croc's there and they let them live to the age of 3 or 4 and then kill them for their skin, ie croc leather etc!!! Like hello dont tell us that! Ah was very bad now. And after them saying that sure you couldn't really enjoy the place. It was nothing like Aus Zoo or any of the other places we've been to. Anyway, we also did a kind of walk thing at the Mossman Gorge. It was nice now, really clear water, kind of small waterfall type thing. Mossman is before Cape Trib, and has a huge Aboriginal community there. Then we got the ferry over to Cape Trib. You have to get a ferry over, no bridge or anything over there, ah but sure the ferry is only like a few mins, one of them small ones. Then we got over and it's just trees everywhere! We stopped at one stage to do a boardwalk type thing, and sure trees everywhere. She also showed us a walking tree!! haha she said it moves about 1metre a year!! Then we arrived at our hostel at about 2pm and she didn't collect us again for 24hrs! We didn't know this so were very unprepared, sure theres nothing to do there like! Well not in a day
anyway. But there are two lovely beaches so we walked both of them - Myall Beach and Cape Trib Beach.

When we got collected the next afternoon, we went to an ice-cream place, where the ice-cream flavours are dependant on what season you're in. So we got like coconut, mango etc etc. All made from stuff on the island like. Then we stopped for a river cruise down the Daintree River. THis is the river that the ferry had to cross earlier. We saw some real wild crocs. And a wild snake in the tree. Ah it was good seeing a croc like not in a zoo like. Oh also, I never told you why cape trib is so called. Well as you know Aus was discovered by Cpt James Cook in 1770 (he reached the town of 1770 first so called it that - thats before airlie beach, but we didnt stop there at all) anyway so he sailed northwards, and came into loads of troubles when he hit cape trib cuz the main sea area kind of ended. So hence its called cape trib. Some history for ya there! Then we drove through Port Douglas on our way back to Cairns. We didn't get to stop there but it does look like a gorgeous town.

Today we just checked our Cairns a but more, and checked out the lagoon here. And tonight we'll head to the famous 'Woolshed' Bar, but then it's when the excitement starts - The Waterford v Limerick hurling match!! So we're hoping the Casino will show it since it's pretty much the only place that will still be open which the game starts!

So tomorrow it's off to New Zealand.... We've planned 4 nights in Chrischurch to start, and then we're doing the Magic Bus. I'm only doing the South Island as most of you know now, and then I'm off to New York to meet Ger =D While the others will do 5 weeks doing both islands. So then plan is 4 nights in Christchurch, and then jump on the Tranzalpine train across to Greymouth. Then we'll do the Franz Josef glacier from there. And ah well you can wait for the blog updates for the rest :)

So until next time........

Cathy x x

Magnetic Island and Mission Beach, Australia

2009-06-09T16:37:00.000-07:00

Hey all!!

Well Magnetic Island and Mission Beach have both come and gone. We arrived late in Magnetic Island due to our bus being late. We needed to get a bus to Townsville and then a ferry to Magnetic. So we finally arrived at our hostel in Magnetic late afternoon. We were staying in Base which was in Nelly Bay. When we jumped onto the bus after the ferry it seemed like a long time until we reached our hostel. So we thought the island was HUGE! We didnt do much the first night, but in fairness, where we were staying was 15 minutes from even a shop!! The hostel was cool, right on the beach, with its own swimming pool, but the night before had been the full moon party, so there were a lot of soar heads.

Next day after we arrived, we began the day with some kayaking at Nelly Bay. W went in doubles, as all the singles had gone. This was cool, but got quite boring after a while. Myself and Emma were in the same kayak and bailed after about 20 minutes!!! We had the kayaks hired for an hour, but yeh, it was quite boring after the initial thrill had worn off. It was cool though, we met some guys kayaking that we had been on the WhitSundays trip with!! Anyway, we then chilled by the pool for a but before deciding it was time for some exercise. So we did the 'Forts Walk' It was one of many popular walks on the island. It was only 4km in length, but we got a view of Arthur Bay, some other bays, and Townsville at a distance.

Next day was out last full day so we hired a Moke. For those we haven't heard of this, it's a tiny kind of mini Mini!!! The one we hired was called Scooby-Doo! It had 4 gears, no horn, and was very stiff trying to change the gears!!!!! But the fun was unreal! What a thrill to drive. Marie didn't have a full driving lisence, so myself and Emma shared the driving. Seriously, hard to describe, but you can't really drive over 60 km/hr, and with only 4 gears, so imagine the fun!! =D We went around the island anyway, stopping at all the main bays. We also saw some Rock Wallabys. Then we stopped at the Koala Sanctuary. In here, we saw Koalas, Crocodiles, Cockatoos (dunno how to spell this!) It was crazy. Though I've been to numerous zoos and wildlife parks, it was the first time i held a crocodile (albeit a small one) a few lizards, and I faced my fear and held, A SNAKE!!!!!!!!! Some kind of python! I put my hoody on first though, with the hood up. No way I was letting that thing touvh my neck and arms!!! :p haha ah it was grand. Myself and Marie had held Koala's in Australia Zoo, so this time Emma decided to hold one. No matter what though, they're always so cuddly, they're adorable!!

Last night we arrived in Mission Beach, just for 1 night. There's really not much to do here, but I definitely think we stayed at the best hostel (Scottys) !! We met up with people from our WhitSundays trip and headed to the beach for some drinking games. THe three of us, Hannah and Heather (the 2 English girls) were already staying in Scottys, along with a guy called Will, so the 6 of us met up with the 3 Scandanavian guys for some games; Henrik, Daniel and Jens. A few hours of goon later, it was time for some sleep.

Today we head for Cairns. We plan on all meeting up again (the crowd from Mission Beach) and we know some of the people from Fraser Island too, so we all plan on a few nights out here. Also, it's time to meet up with Gillian again. It's less than a week now until New Zealand, and for those of you who know me, it's now 3 weeks until I leave the girls and meet Ger in New York!!

Catch ya later,
Cathy x x

WhitSundays and Airlie Beach, Australia

2009-06-04T22:26:00.001-07:00

Hi Again,

After our crazy trip to Fraser Island, we had one night in Rainbow Beach before catching our 17 hour bus journey north to Airlie Beach. It wasn't as bad as it sounds. We drove about 3 hours to Hervey Bay, had a 3 hour stopover there, and then got onto another bus which was an overnight one up to Airlie Beach. When we arrived, we had to go check-in with Tribal Travel (the company we had booked our WhitSundays trip through) and then rush down to the marina to catch our boat.

It was a great few days sailing. We got on Monday morning, and returned to shore Wednesday afternoon. There were a few showers over the few days, but the sun was good enough to make an appearance for us every so often, enough to keep us happy anyway. Where we were sailing is where the Great Barrier Reef begins. We sailed mostly up around the north islands, and then down to the south to see Whitehaven Beach. There are 74 islands in the Whitsundays, so you'd need alot more than 3 days if you were to see them all!

Our first day, we set sail around 9.30 or so for about 3 hours. There were 26 of us on board so it was a great opportunity to get to know each other. There were 4 crew, and the people broke down like this: 6 Irish, 7 English, 6 German, 2 Norweigan, 1 Swedish, 2 Swiss, 1 Japanese, and 1 Canadian. Our main stop for this day was to a north island (can't think of its name) but we stopped off here for some snorkelling and scuba-diving. We each got a turn diving with the instructor, groups of 4 at a time. I had done this before in Fuerteventura so was familiar with it, but it never loses its excitement. We got to touch one of the larger fish too, he seemed very friendly now I must say! He wasn't scared of us at all. After a few hours here, it was back to the boat for food, goon and drinking games. Next day we were up early as some people had yet to do their dive. SO after this was finished we headed to Whitehaven Beach. This is the beach you'll see in most postcards/pictures of the WhitSundays. It was amazing. The sand was such a light colour, it's hard to even explaain it. There's not much fish life here, so we just lazed about on the beach for a few hours, and took the few obligatory photos, and did our foot-prints and hand-prints in the sand.

On our last day we headed for another island, called Langford Island. It's a kind of long strip of sand in the middle of the sea, kind of mad to see because half of it gets covered when it's high-tide. We went snorkelling here for a few hours, and the highlight of it was definitely swimming with the turtles!! I think myself and Emma saw 4 of them, and managed to touch one!! =D Emma had bought a waterproof case thing for her camera back in Byron Bay, so we got lodas of underwater photos. After this then we pretty much got back onto the boat and had 3 hours of sailing to get back to Airlie Beach. It was crazy, when you're doing the actual 'sailing' part, thats when they put the masts up, we all had to sit on one side, because we were so lob-sided then the other side was actually practically in the sea. Crazy! The boat was cool though. It used race in the Sydney to Hobart race, so it's built for speed. The crew were great too, and we were fed so well.

The night after arriving back in Airlie Beach, we all headed to one of the bars here. It was a fun night as most of the people came out. And when it closed, we all headed to Mama Africas (nightclub down the road)

I think Airlie Beach is my favourite town so far on the East Coast, I really love it here. It's just so relaxed. There's one main street and it's basically just bars, a few shops and hostels! It's a very backpacker town. You can't swim in the sea here because of all the stingers (jelly-fish etc) so they've built a lagoon just off the beach where hangs out all day.

Tomorrow morning we get a bus up to Townsville where we'll jump on a ferry over to Magnetic Island for 3 nights.

So until next time.....

Cathy x x

Australia Zoo, Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island, Australia

2009-05-30T22:49:00.000-07:00

Hey!!

Well we've been very busy traveling the east coast the past while. We had our own internet connection up until Brisbane, so from now on the blog updates won't be as frequent... I know I know you're very upset about that. Ok so our first stop after Brisbane was Australia Zoo where just myself and Marie went for the day. We said our goodbyes to Gillian for 2 weeks and caught the early bus. It's very impressive I must say, though I don't think I'd call it a zoo. It's the Steve Irwin zoo, but it's more wildlife than anything. There were tons of Koalas, and Crocodiles in particular. They also had a section dedicted to South East Asia where they housed 3 Tigers and 3 Elephants. There are numerous shows on through-out the day. Well not really shows, more you can just watch them feeding them and they'll tell you more about that particular animal etc. It's a very well run place, and all animals are there for their own good lets say, not just so they're on show to the public. They're really treated well I must say, we both agreed that. So we went to a koala show thing and saw some of the elephant feeding/washing. But the main show was the Crocodile one in the Crocoseum :) It was class, it was more him telling us the dangers of croc's rather than a show. And he fed him too, getting him to come out of the water for the meat. Oh "him" being Norman, the 25-year-old croc. Very nice chap ;-) haha yeh right! Then the highlight of the day of course was us getting to cuddle a koala and have our photo taken. Haha my life is complete!! I've always wanted to hold one of them! =D

Anyway, so we got the afternoon bus then to Noosa, which Emma had gotten so we met up with her again. Because the bus had been delayed a bit, by the time we arrived in Noosa it was already dark. First impressions though were that it's definitely a surfer town! The amount of people walking back from the beach with their surf boards was crazy. The hostel we were staying in seemed a little but out of town, so we just stayed in. It was our only night here, but sure we didn't mind staying in at all. There are 3 parts to Noosa - Noosa Heads, Noosaville and Noosa Beach. We were staying in Noosaville which is more residential and right beside the river. Next morning, we got up early, checked out and went to check out the town before we had to get our bus up to Rainbow Beach. It's a nice little town, similar enough to Byron in that it's so relaxed, but it's not as hippy as Byron. Most people come here either to surf, or to do the everglades, which is a kind of canoe safari type thing down the river. We didn't really have time to fit it in so said we'd pass. So we got to check out the main street and the beach before grabbing our bus.

Next stop was Rainbow Beach, the gateway to Fraser Island. When we arrived we met the group we'd be traveling the island with, and had our induction etc etc. There were two groups going from our hostel. In our group there were 10 - 9 Irish and 1 Canadian!! What are the odds like!! And the Irish guy was from Waterford too!! Then the other group had 7 - 3 Germans, 2 Austrians and 2 Swedes. So we had 2 4-wheel-drives between us and pretty much stayed together the whole time. We set off on Thursday morning and headed to the ferry over to the Island. There are two ways of getting to the island, either from Rainbow Beach or from Hervey Bay, but since Rainbow was first for us, we went from here. We were only on the ferry about 10 minutes and we were there. We drove on the "road" for about half an hour before reaching the beach. I use the word Road lightly, as it's the bumpiest more ridiculous road you'll ever see. It's just bump after bump the whole way. Then when you hit the beach it's kind of like a beach highway. You'll pass other campers/4-wheel-drives along the beach. Based on when the high-tides were, we had made an itinerary before leaving our hostel. So on day one, once we reached the beach we went to Lake Wabby. To get there, we had to park the cars, and walk about 40 mins over crazy sand to reach the lake. What a lake though, it was all green, but a kind of dark green, amazing to see. We swam here for a while before heading back to the car and onto our campsite. Because of the tides, we couldn't drive on the beach until about 1.30, and since it gets dark at around 5.30 we had to get camped up before the sun went down. So we chose our site to camp, along with the other group and set up for the night. It was class, pitch black, all you can hear besides yourselves is the ocean. After dinner, drinking, drinking games, and a few hours sleep, we were back up again. Like the day before you can only drive on the beach at certain times so you're restricted really. Our first stop of the day was Lake McKensie, the most fabulous lake you'll ever see. It's completely clear water, with sand surrounding it, paradise!! We stayed here a good few hours, total relaxation. After lunch I bumped into a girl I knew from home, it's crazy, it really is a small world. Once we packed up, it was a long bumpy drive back to the beach highway. Lake McKensie is inland so you're traveling on crazy dirt tracks all the way. On our way back to the beach we nearly had the car topple over at one stage, very scary I can tell you!! Apparently it's so common that cars topple over because you've so much weight on the top (tents, food, drink, bags etc etc) And a few weeks ago someone was even killed. But we survived to tell the tale :)

Next stop was the Maheno ship wreck further up on 75 mile beach. Ah it's just a really old ship that was washed up there years and years ago. Afterwards we headed to Eli Creek. It's a creek were you let the current bring you down-stream. But apparently the water is spring water so you can literally drink it! Then it was time to find our campsite for the night. This time we weren't in the middle of nowhere, we were staying in an Aboriginal land. The guy running the place, Daniel, claimed to be an Irish-Aboriginal haha! Ah he was great. Once we had finished dinner and started on the drinks he came down and taught us all how to play the digereedoo, and told us of some Aboriginal history, including some history from his own tribe.

Our last day on Fraser we had to get up seriously early, so that we could have time to drive to the top of the beach to see Indian Head and then drive all the way back to the ferry before the next high-tide. So we were up before light! We saw sunrise along the way, and then reached Indian Head. It's meant to be a great spot to see some Whales and Sharks, but unfortunately we didn't spot anything.

All in all, Fraser was so class. But I can't believe no-one had ever told us how bad it is to drive on, and how bumpy etc. So my advice to anyone reading this, if you do Fraser, be warned!!!! But you'll love it! :)

Just waiting now for the bus up to Airlie Beach. The messed up our itinerary when we were booking, so now we'll arrive at 7am tomorrow morning (an overnight bus) and we've to be on the boat for the Whitsundays by 9!!

So until next time...
Cathy x x

Brisbane, Australia

2009-05-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

Hello all!

Well our short stay in Brisbane is almost over. We didn't arrive here until late enough on Saturday, because buses were either cancelled or delayed due to floods in Sydney. So when we eventually got here, we checked into our hostel and then went to their pub. Like any decent backpacker pub, they have good food and drink deals, so we stayed here for a few hours. Then
the girls came into meet us. The girls being Raedin, Eilish and Ella. I lived with Eilish and Raedin in college, and Ella was their friend from their course. They've been in Brisbane 3 weeks now, and plan on traveling and working in Oz for about a year. So it was great to see them again, and even better cuz they knew the good spots to go out in :) So we headed over to Fortitude Valley which is like pub central. Literally it's just full of pub after pub. We also came across a pub called the Elephant and Wheelbarrow (Like our favourite pub back in St Kilda) so naturally had to go in here for a few. Anyway a good night had by all, with just a few sociable drinks ;-)

Next day was hangover day. We just lazed around all day and then eventually got up to go to the cinema. We also got to meet up with the girls again and catch up.

Today we got to walk around the city. We walked across the bridge and saw the man-made beach over there. It was tiny, I really expected something alot bigger I must say. We're going to meet the girls again tonight for the last time, for food and some drinks, but nothing too crazy since we're up early tomorrow.

Early tomorrow myself and Marie are catching a bus up to Australia Zoo, aka Steve Irwin zoo. And afterwards we'll meet Emma on the bus up to Noosa, where we'll spend one night before heading up to Rainbow Beach and Fraser Island. We leave Gillian now too for 2 weeks, as she's done the coast before. So she'll go over to Alice Springs for a few days, and we'll meet her again in Cairns.

Cathy x x

Surfers Paradise, Australia

2009-05-22T06:17:00.000-07:00

Hi again,

Well Surfers Paradise has come and gone, and here's to hoping all the bad weather is gone too. When we arrived Tuesday

evening it was dry so we did our all you can eat pizza night in our hostel, and then headed down to see the place at night. It was cool actually, so built up though. Not a drop of rain, until that night. And pretty much Wednesday and Thursday then

were wipe-outs. Wednesday was full of torrential rain and winds. At one stage myself and Gillian went for "a walk" in it.

I tell ya we were lucky not to get blown away! Seriously had we known how dangerous it was we may not have gone out. Some

people actually died jus from walking on the road. One guy died at his desk in work when he was pierced with some glass! And

another guy was hit by debris while walking along the street. The beach was distroyed from erosion as the waves hit crazy

meters in height. Well we didn't let the rain damper our fun, and Wednesday night we headed out on the famous backpackers pub/club crawl. Well lets just say only myself and Emma actually made it out ;-)

Thursday then was hangover day, but that didn't matter as the weather was still awful. In the evening though myself and Gillian went for a walk and met the Gold Coast Nine News weather reporters on the beach, so we were in our element when we got to get a photo pretending to broadcast :p haha it's the little things that make us happy!

Friday then (today) it really cleared up, thank god. So we headed to the Warner Brothers Movie World where we spent hours of fun checking out all the rollercoasters such as Batman and Superman. We went to a Shrek 4D show, and one of the highlights our our day was the driver stunt show. It was a mock hollywood drive stunt scene. And in it they drove on two wheels with the cars in a row, and ended with a car driving on two wheels on the top of the building and into another building just before it exploded! And it was some sort of real explosion too as we all felt the rush of heat! Definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Surfers.

And we ended our time here with a visit to the Hard Rock Cafe, and then onto O'Malleys bar for a nice cold Magners Pint bottle =D

Next stop Brisbane.

Cathy x x

Byron Bay, Australia

2009-05-19T05:21:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Well we've just completed the first part of our East Coast trip - Byron Bay. Here's how it went...

Myself and Gillian arrived in Byron Bay last Saturday, a day before Emma and Marie. It was evening time, so we dropped our bags at the hostel and went to check out the place. We stumbled across Cheeky Monkeys, where we had heard so many things about, and since they do great meal deals we decided we'd check it out. We hadn't planned on staying out at all, just some food and maybe a drink or two. But a few hours later we were still out. It was one of those random unexpected great nights out. It's a total backpacker place though, with food and drink deals and loads of games to win free beer =D

Next day the two girls arrived u from Sydney. We had called the tour company to see could we do the tour to Nimbin, but it was fully booked, so we went to check out the beach instead. The two girls were wrecked from their 13 hour bus ride, and we were tired from the night before so we didn't stay out long, and went back to the hostel for a "snooze". But sure we all conked out! That night we were dying to go back to Cheeky Monkeys again, but were very sad to find out the only night it doesn't open is Sunday night :( Ah well, sure it gave us an excuse to check out our own hostel's bar and restaurant - The Arts Factory Lodge.

So our last full day here we had to do the walk to Cape Byron, where the lighthouse is, as well as the most Easterly Point in Mainland Australia. Unfortunately though when we got to the lighthouse it started raining. But it didn't stop us, we still got our photos :) Then our last night in Byron just had to be Cheeky Monkeys night. It was Mexican Monday there, so we got our $5 meal deals again and our jugs of beer. Happy days =D There was plenty entertainment there too and loads of prizes to be won. Gillian entered a competition to win a Fraser Island and Whitsundays trip, but was beaten by milli-seconds by an English girl.

Overall we liked Byron Bay, though I'd definitely say it's better peak season. It's a cute little place, very hippy slash surfer type, and very chilled out.

Next stop, Surfers Paradise.

Cathy x x

Adelaide, Australia

2009-05-15T05:10:00.000-07:00

Hey!

Well Adelaide has come to an end. We thought we'd literally have nothing to do here except catch up on sleep, and well we did have a 12 hour sleep after we arrived, but then there was plenty of sight-seeing to be done. On our first day here we went to check out the city. There isn't too much really to see around the city itself, but we found the casino, and went to the Adelaide Oval, walked to North Adelaide to O'Connell Street, yes right, O'Connell Street!! Then we checked out Rundle Mall, which is the centre of it all, an Opal Gem Mine and the highliht of our day - the Haigh's Chocolate Factory tour. Well the tour itself wasn't the best, but we did get free chocolate =D

After spending over an hour in the tourist information office, we planned our next days here. On Day 2, we got on a bus up to Mount Lofty (for views of the entire city) and then up to Cleland Wildlife Park. Well we went to the wildlife park by accident really, but nevertheless it's always good to see kangaroos and koalas!! :) After this we went up to Hahndorf. This is a picturesque German town on the edge of the Adelaide Hills. It really was so beautiful, like stepping back in time, in a German village of course! :p And that night it was time to check out the much anticipated Angels and Daemons movie at the cinema :)

Day 3 (today) , our last full day here we had booked a trip up to the Barossa Valley. The tour started with a stop in Gumeracha to see the world's biggest Rocking Horse! Yes you heard me right. And the best part is you get to climb it too! Afterwards we were off to stop at our first of 4 wineries for the day, and what a place to start - Wolf Blass. We've even heard of this wine in Ireland! :) Well 3 (smaller) wineries later, and a few nice viewing points, we were headed back to Adelaide. Unfortunately we didn't get to stop at the other big winery in the Barossa Valley, Jacobs Creek, but nevertheless it was a great tour anyway. Oh I almost forgot to mention, our last stop before heading back to Adelaide was to the Barossa Reservoir, aka the Whispering Wall. It's crazy, it's like a natural phenomenom whereby if you stand at one side of the wall, and some-one else stands at the other side, 140 metres away, you can just talk normally/whisper and you can hear each other!!

So tomorrow we fly over to the Gold Coast to start our East Coast trip in Byron Bay.

Chat later,
Cathy x x

Last week in Melbourne

2009-05-14T05:09:00.000-07:00

Our last week in Melbourne, in pictures......

- Logie Awards
- Pharmacy Bar
- PJ O'Briens pub
- House Party / Kellys surprise birthday party
- Elephant and Wheelbarrow pub
- Restaurant Tram
- AFL Game: Collingwood v St Kilda

Logue

Melbourne, Australia - Part 3

2009-05-03T21:24:00.001-07:00

Hey!

So here's the final Melbourne blog entry. Since the last entry we've been to several concerts, had plenty more nights out, and had a few little getaways. So here's how it went...

As soon as March arrived, it also brought all those concerts we had booked so long ago now. Some or all of us went to Coldplay, Kings of Leon, The Fray, Snow Patrol, and V Festival. To top that off, we also went to some comedy shows during the comedy festival in April; Neil Delamare and Jason Byrne. And Marie and Emma also went to see Russell Brandt. They were all great, particularly Snow Patrol. Mine and Emma's friend from school, Cathy, was also over for a few days visiting her sister Suzanne so we got to meet up with her. She went to the V Festival with Emma and Marie, and I got to meet her and do the Ice Bar with them. It's so cool, it's a bar made purely out of ice. Even the glasses you drink out of are ice! But you're not allowed in there for more than 30 minutes at a time. We also did a trip to the Old Melbourne Gaol.

March also brought Paddy's Day, and the Australian F1 Grand Prix. The Grand Prix was unreal, it was so unbelievably loud. The roads around Albert Park are converted into a race track for the weekend, which is on the edge of St Kilda. So we could even hear them practicing from our appartment! The race was great, but you just have no idea of whats going on and who's winning, because it's just too fast! Paddy's Day was also great, we headed to a pub in the north of the city called The Quiet Man. They had bands both inside and outside, and all the usual people were out.

After Gillian came back from her 2 weeks in Ireland, she had no job, so decided it was a great time to do the east coast. So after Paddy's Day she headed up to Cairns, and made her way down to Brisbane with a girl she had worked with. Once they reached Brisbane, they flew over to Vanuatu for a relaxing weeks holiday, and Emma met them over there. Judging by their photos, it looks like paradise over there! And they also got to dive down to the world's only underwater post office!

Then last week I headed off to Alice Springs, this time with the other group - Kelly, Declan, Dee and Finbarr. Because the Vanuatu trip was only a few weeks ago, Emma and Marie decided to do Alice Springs on our last week in Melbourne. So Emma's now finished her job, and they're currently up in Alice Springs. Gillian is also planning on doing Alice Springs, but not until we're doing the East Coast.

So our plan now is as follows. Myself and Gillian will finish up working this week, and in our last few days here, we're going to do the Restaurant Tram, and go to an AFL match (St Kilda v Collingwood) Well we can't leave without going to a game, and St Kilda have won every game so far this season, so it should be a good one. Then next Tuesday our appartment lease is up, so myself and Gillian will fly to Adelaide while Emma and Marie will fly to Sydney, just for a few days. Myself and Gillian got to see most of Sydney at New Years, so decided to go check out somewhere new, while the others have plenty sites to keep them busy in Sydney. And then we'll all meet up in Byron Bay 4 days or so later, to begin our trek up the East Coast.

Here's where we'll visit over the next few weeks...

Adelaide/Sydney
Byron Bay
Surfers Paradise
Brisbane
Noosa
Rainbow Beach
Fraser Island
Airlie Beach
Whitsundays
Magnetic Island
Cairns
Cape Tribulation

Catch ya later,
Cathy x x

The Fray

The Ice Bar

Old Melbourne Gaol

Mugshot!

We've decided to join Ned Kelly's Gang

Coldplay

Alice Springs, Australia

2009-04-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

Hi All!

My next little getaway from Melbourne was to the middle of nowhere, to Alice Springs. The girls had just been to Vanuatu a few weeks before, so they said they'd do this trip at a later stage. Emma and Marie will do it the first weekend of May, and Gillian will do it while we're doing Fraser Island and the WhitSundays. My next blog update will explain it all! :)

So anyway, it was off to Alice Springs for a few days, this time with the other crowd - Kelly, Dee, Declan and Finbarr. As soon as we arrived we checked into our hostel we went to check out Alice Springs. We heard there was absolutely nothing there, and well we were right! We went to the one tourist spot here, to Anzac Hill. Incidently it was actually Anzac Day too!! (April 25th) From here you get a great view of Alice Springs itself, as well as the West MacDonnell Ranges.

That night we headed to a resort on the edge of the town to watch an Aboriginal Show. It was done by 4 guys (which we're pretty sure at least one of them wasn't an aboriginal) but they did some aboriginal dances etc. The best part of it was when they told the story of the Digereedoo, and showed us how to play it, and the different sounds you can get out of it. But the funniest part of the night was when myself and Kelly were forced to go on stage to dance the Emu Dance with them!!!!

We were up for 6am the next day (Sunday) to be collected for our trip to the Uluru. We drove for over 3 hours while passing just one petrol station, obviously situated there for a reason, and then stopped to take some photos of Mount Conner. The tour guide said it was the Uluru at first and sure we believed him! Anyway it's just a big rock in the distance, which does kind of resemble Uluru. Then our next stop was The Olgas (aka Kata Tjuta) These are 36 dome shaped rocks. Pretty cool. They were cool because they were so like redish with a pure blue sky then in the background. It really is the Red Centre. Then our next stop was the Uluru. You have the option to climb it. While the Aboriginals don't like that, it is allowed. Anyway it was weird, the whole bus journey the driver was really dis-couraging us, so then by the time we got there I was the only one who said I wanted to climb it!! Turned out it was closed anyway, due to high winds at the top of it. There was no wind at all, crazy! So must be that the slightest breeze and they'll close it. Ah sure I was sceptical about being the only one to climb, though Declan said he'd have climbed it after seeing it, so it made up my mind for me then when it was closed. The rock was spectacular to see anyway. We only walked a small bit of it. The base of it is actually 9.4km long! We drove around it a few times, and then headed for our sunset champagne bbq, where we'd have a great view of the rock in the distance at sunset. Only thing was that the sun set behind us, not behind the rock, from this viewing point which was pretty dumb, but you could see this is where all the tours come to view it. Anyway, the sky changed colour slightly, we took a few photos, and then it was back onto the bus for our 4+ hours drive back to Alice Springs. Ah it sounds like a lot, but it really wasn't as we all slept loads.

The morning (Monday) was yet another 6am start. I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but the reason we chose to do 2 * 1-day tours was because we were restricted with time, so we couldn't do the 3-day tour which most backpackers do. In the 3-day tour, you camp out under the start fater seeing the Uluru. But my god the night time up here is FREEZING! So anyway, Monday morning, we were again collected at 6am. This time after the 2 and a half hour drive, we were to get off the main bus, and onto the Kings Canyon bus. It was a smaller bus, but there were only 10 of us doing the tour so we got 2 seats each - happy days :) Kings Canyon was class then. Completely different to the Uluru. We had to do a 3.5hr walk, for over 6km, but you didn't feel it at all. There were a few kinda hill parts which were tiring, but that was it. Then the views were spectacular!! We got some amazing photos. I've attached photos below, but I don't think they do the place any justice. It's one of those things you have to see to believe. On this tour you only do Kings Canyon, since you spend a few hours there. So we were back in Alice Springs early enough anyway, back in time for a few drinks.

It was a full on few days, but definitely worth it. It's just a completely different kind of holiday, but you definitely don't want to spend too much time in Alice Springs itself, since there's nothing to do or see there!

Well only a week left now in Melbourne, so I'll write a final Melbourne blog entry in a few days.

Enjoy the photos,

Cathy x x

View from the plane

Anzac Hill

Anzac Hill - The West MacDonnell Ranges in the background

Anzac Hill

At the Aboriginal Show

Aboriginal Show

Annie's Place - Where we stayed

Mount Conner

The Olgas (aka Kata Tjuta)

The OlgasDee in front of The Olgas

Ayre's Rock (aka Uluru) - Behind us is the climb

Uluru

Kelly wearing her Fly Net

About to start our Kings Canyon walk

Walking up the first set of rocks

Kelly and Declan

Perth, Australia

2009-03-12T21:00:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

Two blog updates within a week, going well! :) We're just back from 5 nights in Perth, so here's how it went...

We arrived last Saturday evening, got a taxi to the hostel and then headed out for food and drinks. We were staying in an area called Northbridge, it's a suburb of Perth, but literally like 20 minute walk north of the city centre. And turns out that there are no clubs/pubs really in the city centre, they're all in Northbridge. Our hostel was on a quiet residential road not even 10 mins walk from the centre of Northbridge. We met up with Dino who I know through the guys in Cork, and we all went for drinks in Rosie O'Gradys. Turns out it's owned by the same crowd who own the Elephant and Wheelbarrow, and Bridie O'Riellys in Melbourne. So we felt right at home. On our walk home from the pub though we had an incident where an aboriginal came across the road and smacked one of the girls!! Thankfully Dino was with us so just pushed us on and said to ignore them. Apparently Perth and alot of smaller towns in Australia are notorious for this kind of thing, where the aboriginal people don't take kindly to the white people. We were told they get a grant of about $600 a week from the government! So they hang out around parks drinking alot.. This gave us a shock, but it was the only such incident during our time in Perth.

On Sunday we headed out to Fremantle for the famed Fremantle weekend markets. It was great, but we've been to so many markets around Asia so it wasn't too new to us. After about an hour or two we decided to head to Cottesloe for the legendary "Sunday Sessions" There are two main hotels along the beach, but we heard the Ocean Beach Hotel was the best so we spent the afternoon and evening there. Usually there are mad queues to get in, but this week there was a festival on over in Rottnest Island so alot had headed over to that. We still had a great day, and met up with Dino and his girlfriend Melissa (who's from Melbourne) for a drink as well as Gillians friend Mary. Then on our way home sure we pass Rosie O'Grady's, so we just had to go in for one or two!

Monday was our check out Perth City day. We started by going down to the Perth Mint. This is where in the past they used make the gold. It was cool, we watched as he had the melted gold in a furnace at 1,300 degrees celcius, and then a few minutes later it was a block of gold worth about $400,000 !! There was a little museum part of the place as well and you got to lift an 8KG bar. We also got to weigh ourselves, and turns out I'm worth almost $2.5million in gold :p I'm sure Ger would say I'm priceless though ;-) haha

After Perth Mint we went to see the Swan Bells. It's just a modern looking building with huge bells at the top. I think they call it the largest instrument in the Southern Hemisphere. Then we jumped on a bus and went to Kings Park/Botanic Gardens. Here we saw the most amazing view of the city. If you put "Kings Park Perth" into Google Images you'll see what I mean. Well I though it was so beautiful anyway! :) It took a while to walk to that point, but was so worth it. Then we headed back into the city centre and got to one or two shops before they all closed. In Perth they have a bus system with 3 routes around the CBD and they're free! It's a cool idea I must say now, and they were new, clean buses too. Then after town, we walked back to the hostel, but like previously stated, we pass Rosie O'Gradys on the way so well we called in for a few drinks and some food. They import Campbells Curry sauce from Ireland, so chips and curry were amazing!!!! :)

Next day we did a tour down to the Margaret River region. We had booked this the day before, and got collected at the hostel at 6.45am! To be honest it turned out to be a glorified taxi! We were the only 4 on the tour, in a crappy mini-bus. But we drove down the coast and stopped at a few beaches along the way, making our way down to the town of Margaret River (where the actual river is) But i think the whole region is known as the 'Margaret River region' and is famous for its amazing beaches etc. We stopped in a winery and a brewery too. Then it was back to Perth. It was backpacker night in Rosie's so we had to be back for that.

On Wednesday we planned to spend the day over in Rottnest Island. We had planned to go out early and cycle around the island, as besides one or two tour buses, there are no cars or anything on the island. So it's famous for cycling around it and admiring the amazing views. I think it said there are 83 beaches and 40 bays around the island. It's just over 8km in width. We met up with Mary again, and her boyfriend Colm, and the 6 of us got the 11.30 ferry over. But by the time we got there and ate, turned out we only had about 2 hours to cycle around, as the last ferry back to the mainland was at 4.30. But it was plenty time. We got to do two of the tracks (out of 3) and cycled 14km, so it was great views AND we got our exercise in for the day ;) We also got to see the animals that are native to this island - the Quaka. They're like a very small kangaroo. Very cute!! Apparently when people first came to this island years and years ago, they mistook them for rats! How I don't know.

When we got back to Fremantle (aka Freo) we had time to kill, so visited Rosie O'Gradys over here and then checked out the Little Creatures Brewery. They brew beers and a cider you can buy all over Australia. Then it was time for the Torchlight Tour we had booked at Fremantle Prison. It's an old convict prison dating back to the 1850's. The main prison block was actually built by the prisoners. It was onyl a convict prison a short time though, and then became a regular one. Before it closed in 1991, it had executed 43 people by hanging. I was listening well to the tour guide ;-) It was really cool and spooky. We went in a group of about 20 people all carrying our torches around the prison. It's meant to be very haunted, but we didn't come across anything too mad except for the odd 'orb' in a few of our pictures, you know it looks like a spec of dirt in the photo, but is actually a spirit/ghost. I'm very sceptical about the whole thing, but there was definitely some sort of spirits there alright because sure you could take the same photo twice and theres no consistency in the dirt patches..

On our last day, our flight wasn't until 7.30pm, so we just shopped out in Freo and then back to the city to check out some more shops. To be honest, the shopping in Melbourne is alot better but we still found plenty stuff to buy! :p

The next update should be Alice Springs in April! But before that Gillian will have done the Gold Coast and the girls will have gone to Vanuatu, for what they call 'a holiday from our holiday'

Catch ya later!

Cathy x x

Fremantle Markets

Cottesloe Beach

Dino, Melissa and Gillian

Myself and Emma with those weird, but lovely slushy drinks

The 4 of us with Mary

Kings Park/Botanic Gardens

Our fab mini-bus to Margaret River

Me and Emma by the Bussleton Jetty (longest pier in the Southern Hemisphere - 2km)

View of Perth skyline from Kings Park

Bussleton Jetty

Meelup Beach

The 4 of us outside the winery

Surfers Point; where the likes of Kelly Slater competes in surfing comps

Fremantle Prison

Little Creatures Brewery

Fremantle Prison, all locked up

The guy pretending to be a prisoner, he bloody scared us!!!!!

Rosie O'Gradys in Freo

Inside the grounds of Fremantle Prison

Cycling around Rottnest Island

Wadjemup Lighthouse on Rottnest Island

A Quaka - Native to Rottnest Island

Emma with her new friend the Quaka

Melbourne, Australia - Part 2

2009-03-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

Hi Again!

Since I've last updated this we had New Years in Sydney, we've all done the Great Ocean Road, Ger came to visit so we went to Tasmania, Kelly and her gang are all living in Melbourne, and Alice and Sarah are back in town. So here's how it went...

After a lovely Christmas Day on the beach, we all headed over to Sydney. The girls went seperate to me as I was off to meet Ger. 4 months since we had seen each other, the longest ever! Myself and Ger stayed out in Coogee (just below Bondi Beach) while the girls stayed with Marie's friend just outside the city. Alice and Sarah had just finished the east coast, as did Kelly, Declan, Dee and Finbarr. So we all met up down by the Rocks at Sydney Harbour for New Years Eve. It was a loooong day of drinking, but the fireworks then were just amazing!

While in Sydney myself and Ger did the harbour cruise, went to Manly, went up the Sydney Tower, did Bondi and Coogee, and of course we visited Palm Beach - aka Summer Bay aka HOME AND AWAY!!! Unfortunately they didn't start back filming until mid January so we didn't actually get to see any of the 'stars' but sure we (and when I say we I mean me!) were in our element there. Ger was very upset of course that he didn't get to meet the legendary Alf Stewart haha! Meanwhile the others did the Sydney bridge climb and Emma and Gillian did a skydive.

Then it was back to Melbourne. The first thing myself and Ger did when we got was go get some flying lessons! It was so cool. We got to take off and land as well! Two days later we packed up the car and got the ferry over to Tasmania. We only had a few days here, but oh my god, what a beautiful island!!! It's good we only had a few days here, because now it means we've an excuse to go back there! :) It's so gorgeous. We arrived in Devonport and drove over to the east coast to the fabulous beaches of Bicheno, and then down to Cole's Bay and Wineglass Bay. What amazing scenery!!! Next day it was down to the Tasman Penninsula. Down here we went to the Tasmanian Devil park (Yeh I know, they actual do exist!!!!) and onto Port Arthur. For anyone who didn't know (cuz we didn't before we started researching it) Port Arthur is the place where all the British and and Irish convicts were sent many many years ago. It's a definite must see if you're ever in Tassie. There were even recounts on the walls of some of the convicts, and you'd see they'd be from the likes of Kerry and Cork (naturally there were no Waterford convicts!! ;-) ) After Port Arthur, it was onto the capital of Tassie - Hobart. Here we decided to brave it out and do a skydive! Three words - Oh My God!! What a feeling when you're literally free-falling straight through the clouds. You can't breathe! You think you're gonna die! And then as soon as you begin to see the city the parachute comes out. Fantastic! For anyone who hasn't done a skydive, I'd definitely recommend it. What an adrenaline rush!

After Tasmania, it was time to check out the famous Penguin Parade down at Phillip Island. This is where the little penguins (the worlds smallest type - fairy penguins) come out of the water each evening at dusk and waddle across the beach to the little homes on the shore. Soooo cute! But if you ever do this definitely do the 'Penguin Plus' We were lucky and decided to do the penguin plus not really knowing why we paid extra, but it meant we had a prime view of it.

Before Ger went home we drove the Great Ocean Road. This starts about an hour and a half west of Melbourne city. It's basically a coast road for miles and miles with the most amazing views. We did a two day trip, stopping in Torquay, Lorne, Bells Beach (from the film Point Break), Cape Otway, Apollo Bay, Port Campbell, Warnambool and Tower Hill. Most of these stops were beach resorts, Lorne being one of our favourite. Such a beautiful beach! Around Port Campbell we saw the famous rock formations known as the Twelve Apostles, as well as London Bridge. And Tower Hill is the home of a very very old (can't remember how old) volcano.

And then it was time for Ger to return to Ireland... :(

Since Ger left, the girls have also gone and done the Ocean Road. And they were as impressed with it as us. They did it as part of a tour, and did a two-day trip as well. Gillians highlight anyway was seeing the lighthouse from the old TV show 'Around the Twist' !!

The end of January had us celebrating Australia Day. Myself and Gillian went to the Ting Tings concert (was excellent!!) Oh I forgot to mention, before Ger left we also all went to the Australian Open tennis. What a setup. For all of us except Gillian (as she had gone to Wimbledon before) it was our first time at a big tennis tournament. So we were well impressed anyway with it.

February was a quiet month with regards to going places and concerts etc. Gillian went home for 2 weeks and has since come back. We had a few house parties and nights out to keep us going. It turns out the house that Alice and Sarah moved into are kind of a bit mad! It's full of Irish people as well as their neighbours next door. So it's a good place to start for a night out. Oh it's all coming back to me now. I think the highlight of our February was, wait for it..... Neighbours Night! After Black Saturday (the Victorian bushfires) there was a special Neighbours benefit night. They have a night every Monday, but this week was a special one, and there were soooo many stars there! I tell ya, we were going around following them like star-struck fools! :p haha Ah it was a great night. There was myself, Emma, Gillian, Marie, Kelly and Dee. I'll make sure to attach some photos below.

February also brough the hottest day ever recorded in Melbourne - 46.5 degrees celcius!!! It was HORRIBLE! The winds were unreal (hence why the bushfires were so out of control) and then people were cranking up their air conditionning so alot of homes lost power. Thank god for air conditioning in work thats all I'll say! Myself and Alice also joined gaelic football teams. Alice is playing with St Kevins and I'm playing with Garryowen (as it's close to work so very handy for training) The season has just kicked off. Theres matches every Sunday down at Gaelic Park, so another good way of meeting many more Irish people.

So now it's March.. Sarah has just gone home. She's gone back to work for a few months, and then planning on coming out to meet us in New Zealand in June. Myself, Gillian and Marie went to the Coldplay concert. They were fantastic!! Unbelievable live!

So whats to come I hear you ask... This is what the next few weeks bring us....
- Concerts: Kings of Leon, The Fray, Snow Patrol
- Trips away: Perth, Alice Springs
- Comedy festival: Jason Byrne, Neil Delamare
- Other: Melbourne Grand Prix, Paddys Day!!

So, until next time..... enjoy the photos

Cathy xxx

Melbourne, Australia - Part 1

2008-12-18T19:17:00.001-08:00

Hi All!

OK I know I know, it's been forever since this thing has been updated! But we've been very busy making Melbourne our new home :)

So here is how the past 2 months went... We had booked our first week in a hostel in St Kilda (a suburb just south of Melbourne - it's like the Tramore of Melbourne :p ) called The Cooee. Some of the girls had seen it being advertised on travel programs before we left so we said we'd see what all the fuss was about. It was class!! OK they're very strict, and it's weird going from staying in guesthouses all over Asia to staying in somewhere you share a bathroom in, but it was so much. We met so many people traveling from all over there place. But of course the mejority were Irish. I swear, anywhere you turn in St Kilda, you'll see Irish people. It's like a mini-Ireland or something. Anyway, the Cooee was class, and they had a little garden out the back where you could have a few drinks everynight, and it was bring your own which was perfect! :) Cuz being a backpacker is like being a student again - you're always broke! Well ya know what I mean.....

Anyway during out stay at Cooee, it the International Rules game was on in Melbourne. So of course we got all kitted out in out county jerseys and headed to the MCG (huge stadium in Melbourne - Melbourne Cricket Ground - don't let the name fool ya) It was class, sure practically everyone there was Irish. And for any of you who didn't watch those games, we won!! We were all over them for most of the game!

Our second week in Melbourne we had to move to a different hostel as the Cooee was booked out. It was a hostel called Oslo. Ok you know those horror movies where the people are staying at creapy motels/hostels and then someone attacks them in the middle of the night? Well this place was CREAPIER!!! We wondered why this was the only accomodation available in the whole of Melbourne this week (as it was the Melbourne Cup - the event the whole of Australia comes to Melbourne for) Anyway, we survived this hostel, how I don't know. The owner was so weird that it was kinda funny. haha. It's hard to explain in writing, but our advice is no matter how desperate you are, don't stay here!!!!! Unless you want the experience of your life which you may not survive!

OK enough about Oslo. Ah it gave us plenty of laughs really. Afterwards that is.... Well while we were here it was the Spring Carnival, so the 6 of us got all dressed up and went to the Melbourne Cup day. It was a great day out, and again I'd say every Irish person was there. Emma even met some guys she went to college with. It was weird after backpacking through Asia, getting all dressed up and sophisticated, and then well going from a hostel..... A fun day anyway :)

So we spent as little time as possible in Oslo, and then headed to the next best hostel in St Kilda (after the Cooee) - Base Hostel. Like Cooee this was a really cool hostel. We had to seperate up a bit with the rooms in this place, but it meant we all meant more people. This hostel had a bar downstairs, with the best drink prices in town :) As much as we loved Base, we really were getting fed up of the whole living out of a bag thing, living in hostels etc etc. So we had to start checking out houses/appartments and fast. This wasn't as easy as it sounds, it took us ages to actually find anything. There were alot of unfurnished places around, but sure the expense of renting one of them and having to get all your furniture like. These places didn't even come with fridges! Then God smiled down on us and pointed us in the direction of Marine Parade. We got a 2-bed fully furnished appartment, literally right across the road from St Kilda Marina, and right next to the beach. And we've lived there ever since :) Well the four of us live there (myself, Gillian, Emma and Marie) because Sarah and Alice weren't sure they could commit to living in Melbourne for 6 months and we wanted to get a 6-month contract. So Sarah and Alice moved into a house share on Barkley Street, while we moved into Marine Parade.

Now that accomodation was sorted, it was time to get a job. It just happened that we landed in Melbourne just as a recession kicked in over here too. There were just no jobs to be found! Well hardly any, you had to look hard. Gillian was the first to get a job, and got a waitressing job on Acland Street (the main street in St Kilda). I was sorted with EMC. I got a 6-month contract with EMC in Scoresby (about 40 minutes East of Melbourne) - the exact same job I was doing in Ireland, just a different timezone. And Emma and Marie have since also gotten jobs on Acland Street. Sarah and Alice decided they were fed up of the Melbourne weather (as it was taking a bit longer than usual for summer to kick in) and there were just NO jobs in Melbourne, so they took off to do the Gold Coast for a month. They flew up to Cairns and for the past month have been making their way down south to Sydney in time for Christmas.

Meanwhile in Melbourne, the four of us have just been doing our best to make St Kilda our new home :) We've been to a few concerts (Bloc Party, MGMT, and to come are: Kings of Leon, Coldplay, Snow Patrol), checked out the locals, checked out the shopping malls and night market, done some touristy things including the Eureka Skydeck (88th floor building looking over Melbourne) seen the penguins at St Kilda Pier, celebrated Alice and Emma's birthday and we've just decorated our appartment for Christmas :)

I had a 4-hour commute to work everyday, but then I got a car from a guy in work (thanks Barry :) ) so now my trip is down to about 45mins each way. It also means we've the car for checking out more touristy things, and checking out those huge malls just outside Melbourne (Chadstone and Knox City) We still plan to do Phillip Island, Werribee Zoo, Great Ocean Road and lots more :) Oh and also plan on a trip to Perth at some stage.

But our next stop is Sydney for New Years. We're flying up there on the 30th for 4 nights. Ger is flying in the same day over from Ireland for a holiday, and we're about to meet up with Kelly, Declan, Dee and the rest of their group, so plenty to look forward to :)

Until the next update, enjoy the photos below....

Cathy xxx

PS.....

*** HAPPY CHRISTMAS FROM ALL OF US!!! ***

Singapore

2008-10-22T00:40:00.000-07:00

Hi All!!

After a great few days in Kuala Lumpur, we flew down to Singapore; our last stop in South East Asia. First impressions weren't as good as KL. The day we arrived, it lashed. But then again, it is rainy season here. It's a very mixed culture in Singapore, with a lot of Indians and Chinese living here.

The day after we arrived we decided to spend the day out in Sentosa Island, which is an island just off Singapore, but theres a bridge over to it. We did the Sky Tower, then onto the Butterfly and Insect Park, then onto the Sentosa Luge and the Merlion, and lastly to the 4D Cinema. The Butterfly and Insect Park was surprisingly good. Disgusting with all the insects, but good all the same. The Sentosa Luge is a kind of free flowing karting thing, but it's not mechanical. You just go flying down a slope in a kart type thing, with nothing but a break. It was so much fun though, you got good speeds on it. The Merlion was also cool, it's a mixture of a Lion and Mermaid. It's a Singapore symbol. Oh and before we left we went to a pink Dolphin show. We nominated Alice to go up in front of everyone to help out the trainers :) She got a kiss from the dolphin and all :) Then myself and Gillian went up after the show to get our photo taken with one of the dolphins. They were so cute!!

While on the island we also went over to the 'Southernmost part of Continental Asia' and put our footprints in the sand :p

Our last full day in Singapore then we decided to split up. Myself and Gillian went to do some cool sports stuff, while the other 5 went to do the bus tour of the city. They did say it was good, and would recommend it. But myself and Gillian didn't really have time then on our last day to do it. But we got to see most of the city anyway the day before. We started the day by going to Snow City and went taboganing. Then went and checked out some sites, and Raffles Hotel, where of course we had our Singapore Sling in the Long Bar :) Then we checked out the markets, and Little India. There's a festival of lights on there at the moment, so the streets are all lit up for it. Then on our way back home, we did the coolest thing so far. We went on the G-Max and the GX5!! The G-Max is a kind of group bungee jump. You're strapped into seats, and then when you least expect it, you get hurled into the air at 200km an hour! And just go flying up and down for a few minutes. Mental!! So scary! Then the GX5 was similar, but it was a swing, rather then going up and down. You're brought back slowly to a height of about 50m and then go flying forward at a speed of 120km/hr over the canal!! And then just swing back and forth like a pendalum. This was the more enjoyable ride by far. Definitely recommend doing it! The other was just scary!!

Anyway, we're waiting now for our flight over to Melbourne, and Sydney (Donal) I think we're all definitely looking forward to being settled for a while!!

Catch ya later,

Cathy x x

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia

2008-10-17T20:41:00.000-07:00

Hey!!

We've spent 4 days down in Kuala Lumpur, and it's an AMAZING city! There's just so much to do. The skyline is fantastic, and they have the 4th highest building in the world here in the KL Tower (Communications Tower). The markets all have cool fakes, and theres so many shopping malls, you literally shop til you drop.

OK I'll start with the tourist things. We went to the Petronus Towers which are twin towers with a bridge in between them for crossing. So we went up to the bridge to look down. This wasn't even half way up the buildings, but the view down was amazing. Then we did the KL Tower, and went right to the top of this. I thought the Empire State Building in NY was tall, but the KL tower beats it hands over. You should see it at night especially, it lights up in purple, and the dome part at the top is starkling purple all night long. Fantastic to see. But the Petronus Towers at night is equally impressive, all lit up. On the last day, Emma, Sarah and Alice went to the Auquarium. It's the biggest one in the world. They were well impressed with it. They said you could see shark and everything swimming overhead as they walked through a glass tunnel.

OK so besides the previous paragraph, all we basically did was shop! We went down to Petaling Street in China Town which is famous for its markets with all the fakes. We also spent a day in Times Square shopping mall, which by the way has a theme park on its 5th floor!!!! It covers a few floors, but has a rollercoaster going through a few floors of the mall!! Naturally we had to spend a few hours in the theme park too :)

The shopping in KL is amazing though. Other malls we went to were Lot 10, and to the Petronas Mall. These would both have proper shops, no fakes or anything, so you're paying similar prices to at home, but they've an unreal selection.

We had a few drinks here too. One night we went to Luna Chill Out Bar, which is on the top floor (33rd floor) of one of the buildings, so we had a great view of the city skyline at night. And got to see the KL Tower all lit up purple, it was amazing to see.

Seriously, the shopping is brilliant here. And on the last day, myself and Gillian even treated ourselves to the most cutest 8.9" laptops :)

We're flying down to Singapore in a few hours, so until next time....

Cathy x x

Phnom Penh & Siem Reap - Cambodia

2008-10-12T02:25:00.000-07:00

Hi Again!

Our next stop was Cambodia. We got a bus from Ho Chi Minh City, over to Phnom Penh. We had heard horror stories about this trip, and we even contemplated paying $200 for a flight over instead. But we went for the $10 bus , and it was amazing! The people giving out about this journey must have gone on public buses or something. It was a bit of a trek alright as it was 6 hours, but went very smoothly.

As soon as we got to Phnom Penh we checked into an Aussie Hostel. The owner is from Melbourne but his parents were Cambodian and left for Oz during the time of the Khmer Rouge. It's called 'Me Mates Place' I'd definitely recommend it if any of you ever come to Cambodia. We decided to go visit an orphange after we had checked in. They recommend you buy them rice when you visit because if you give them money, well theres no guarantee the owners will even put it towards the kids. So we got 50KG of rice and off we went. And I must say it was the most thrilling thing we've probably done since leaving Ireland. We only stayed there about 40 minutes but the kids were unbelievable. They were so friendly and were getting us to play games with them. They all spoke fluent English and Khmer (Cambodian) and could also speak French and Japanese. I think we might just have been lucky in the orphange we visited. They were definitely well looked after kids.

The next day we did all the tourist things. Well we started with go-karting, just cuz it's so much fun :) But then we went to do the harsh stuff. We first visited the Killing Fields, and then went onto the S21 Prison. I'm not sure how aware you are of the Khmer Rouge's reign, but it lasted from roughly 1975-1979. In that time over 2 million people were killed. They mostly killed anyone who had any chinese or vietnamese background, as well as anyone who was educated - lawyers, doctors etc and any of their relations. Their plan was to have 2 classes - the working class (worked in factories) and the peasants. They used bring people to the S21 prison (which used be a high-school before the Khmer Rouge regime, as all education was abolished) they would torture them here for information, and then they'd bring them in trucks to the killing fields and then beat them to death. The killing fields we visited (Choeng Ek) has already uncovered 20,000 skulls. But there's still a lake there yet to be excavated. Words can't describe how you feel walking around the fields and the prison. It's just shocking how evil these Khmer Rouge people were.

We had one more day left in Phnom Penh so we spent it wisely, and just chilled out and then went to all the markets.

Next day we got the bus north to Siem Reap. Theres not much to do in Siem Reap really, except for Angkor Wat. So the next day we got up and headed out to Angkor to see the sunrise (people had recommended we do this, we're not usually in the habit of getting up at 5am!!! ) So we got to see Angkor Wat, Bayon, Angkot Thon, and temple of Ta Prohm. These were all built around the 12th century, but some were only uncovered recently enough. The temple of Ta Prohm actually has trees rooted in the middle of it! So no-one knew the temple was there until they started cutting down some trees and uncovered it. Some of these temples were the ones used in the Tomb Raider film. And they were destroyed a bit during the time of the Khmer Rouge, because they were Buddhist temples, and the Khmer Rouge didn't believe in Buddhism. It was all cool to see, but by 11 o'clock I think we were all templed out.. So it was off to town for some more shopping :)

Next morning it was a flight down to Kuala Lumpur and back to westernisation!!

Cathy x x

Nha Trang & Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam

2008-10-05T19:05:00.001-07:00

Hi again!

Our next stop in Vietnam was the beach resort of Nha Trang. We all had high hopes for this place after the disappointment of Hanoi, and well it didn't start great. The first evening, some of us went for a walk only to come across loads of rats! The beach didn't seem upto much, and there was still loads of filth and rubbish on all the streets. But we stumbled across a cool bar called 'The Sailing Club' and stayed there for the night.

The next few days then for myself and Emma were connected up to a drip in a kind of small hospital. Emma had an ear infection and acute tonsilitis & I had a bad dose of Tonsilitis. So well our Nha Trang experience wasn't the best. But the others had a great time. They went to a waterpark/themepark one day, on a small island, called Vinpearl. But well they said it was like a ghost town. The people there would turn on the rides especially for them!

Then they found a sort of paradise in Nha Trang - a place called Louisianna. It was a bar/restaurant with a pool and it's own private beach. So basically they just lived there until me and Emma were better, before we headed onto Ho Chi Minh City. Gillian did a wake-boarding lesson there one day and loved it!

Then it was onto Ho Chi Minh City - Vietnam's second biggest city. We got an overnight bus for this, and we were well impressed with it, a proper sleeper bus. Then our first impressions of Ho Chi Minh (aka Saigon) were all good! It restored a bit of hope after Hanoi was such a let down. Here we checked out the markets. There were cool stuff here, but it's just so annoying how they all shout at you to buy stuff and they're in your face the whole time.

Then we did the Independence Palace, where the Vietnam War officially ended. It was where the President's office used be. And they had an underground kind of shelter for when they were attacked there. It's just so fascinating learning about the wars in Vietnam, mainly because they were just so recent. Our last stop this day was to the army museum. This was class. It had loads of war vehicles (fighter jets, army tanks) just like the one in Hanoi. And inside, it told the story of the war and when the Americans attacked. Also it told and showed of the devastation of when the Americans dropped Agent Orange on the Vietnamese people.

Our next day in Ho Chi Minh, we did a day trip. First stop was to the Cao Dai order. This is a religious group in Vietnam. They worship and pray according to most religions including Budhism, Catholicism and Hinduism. They pray everyday 4 times a day - 6am, 12 noon, 6pm and 12 midnight. We watched their noon ceremony. Was cool to see, but well it was kind of boring to be honest.. They just sat legs crossed and reflected to themselves, while some children sang and there was a kind of orchestra with guitars and banjo type instruments.

After this, it was onto the Cu Chi Tunnels. This is where Guerillas fighting for north vietnam against the Americans were camped. They were camped in tunnels a few feet under the ground. It was unbelievable how small these tunnels actually were. They'd literally crawl through them. But they were totally well hidden and disguised. They also told us how the Cu Chi Guerilla's used hunt down the Americans and the tools they used (as well as using guns of course)

Well next stop is Cambodia. Until next time...

Cathy x x

Hanoi - Vietnam

2008-09-30T09:55:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

After a nice relaxing week in Laos, we flew over to Hanoi - the capital of Vietnam. I have two words for this city - Manic and Filthy! The amount of scooters is unreal! Theres no such thing as rules of the road, and every driver is obsessed with beeping their horn every two seconds! No seriously! Also, everytime you cross the road you're taking your life in your own hands. You just walk and hope all the scooters avoid you! Otherwise you'll never cross the road! But though we were all looking forward to getting out of the city, it's still something you need to experience if you're ever over this side of the world.

Our first day here we decided to do the whole touristy thing. But turns out that those tourist places (museums etc. ) close only on Mondays!! How crazy is that! Then we had planned on doing the overnight trip to Halong Bay for Tuesday and Wednesday, but turns out a typhoon was due Tuesday night! So long story short, we ended up doing the 1-day trip to Halong Bay. It probably turned out for the best though. It was very cloudy so we wouldn't have seen the sunset anyway (which is meant to be amazing) But it was still great to see all the limestone rocks. It's something that photos doesn't do it any justice. You have to see it in real life to appreciate it. And we got to stop in a fishing village in the water. There's a floating school there and all! Crazy. Then we also got to go into caves that were discovered about 20 years ago. So because of us not going on the 2-day trip to Halong Bay, it meant we got to spend Wednesday (today) doing the touristy thing again, but this time the museums were open.

We went to the Temple of Literature which was the first university in Vietnam, almost 1,000 years ago. It wasn't as pretty as we thought it would be.. Cool to see all the same though. Then we went onto the war museum. This was class! You got to see helicoptors, and fighter jets, and army tanks.

One thing we didn't get to do in Hanoi, and which we looked forward to seeing was the tomb of Ho Chi Minh. Turns out he goes on holidays to Russia for a few months every year around this time! Haha no really! They send his tomb or whatever to Russia every year for renovations.

Another thing we did in Hanoi of course was got dresses made. There are tailors and silk shops everywhere. So we all (just the girls) got dresses made for Ladies Day at the Melbourne Races, a week after we arrive in Melbourne :-)

But anyway, we fly down to the beach resort of Nha Trang tomorrow, and I can safely say we're all looking forward to leaving this city!!

Cathy x x

Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang - Laos

2008-09-24T05:33:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Our next stop in Asia was Laos - the most bombed country in the world. Apparently up to 9 years ago nobody was even allowed into this country. But it's now all safe and a republic :-) But what a journey! After crossing the Thai/Laos border we got a mini-bus up to Vang Vieng. And OMG we'll never complain about Irish roads again! It was crazy the amount of potholes. At times he had to drive on the other side of the road to avoid the biggest potholes! But we arrrived safely anyway.

We went tubing the next day. What fun! It's just so random. You go floating down with the currents down the river, stopping at bars along the way. You have to direct your tube towards the bar, or else you might miss it. Then you drink your buckets in the bars and attempt the jumps into the river. You go about 50 feet up a tree, and swing down on a cable wire, and jump into the river! Myself, Alice and Gillian went to do the jump in the first bar. I think it took us 10 minutes up there to get the courage to actually swing down. But it's such an adrenaline rush! By the end of the day we had all gone down the ropes at different bars. You're meant to have your tube back by 6pm , but well we totally lost track of time. And by the time we left the last bar it was already dark! I counted and the were 14 of us all holding onto each others tubes floating down the river in the dark! Ah it was safe enough though cuz you float for about 50 minutes, then you see all the lights of Vang Vieng and it's easy to know where to stop.. Crazy day though!

By our second day in Vang Vieng we were all so wrecked! But the tubing was actually cancelled for some reason anyway.. We didn't hang around another day for it, as we had limited time, so we headed up north to Luang Prabang. Donal stayed behind though to go tubing with some Irish guys he met.

So after another nightmare road journey, 8 hours later we arrived in Luang Prabang. Our first impressions were that it was a beautiful city. Again it was a very quiet place. We stayed here 3 nights, and each night we went to the night markets. We were just addicted to them! Our first full day here we went to see the old Palace, where the Laos royal family lived until they were exiled in the mid 70's. Then it was off to Wat Xieng Thong - the oldest temple in Luang Prabang. I must say it was beautiful to see, but there really is a limit on how many temples you can actually visit!! :p

The next day we made a trip to the Kouang Si Waterfalls. We thought after seeing that beautiful waterfall while trekking in Chiang Mai, that no waterfall could beat it. But we were wrong. This was amazing! A must see if you're ever in Luang Prabang. Myself, Gillian and Alice went right up to the front of it, and the power of the water was unreal. We also got to see a bear sanctuary by the waterfalls. But obviously we couldn't go anywhere near them... Then on the way back from this trip, we stopped at a typical Laos village. It wasn't as cool as seeing the Karen Village in Chiang Mai, but nice to see all the same. You can really see the poverty of a lot of the Laos people.

Well we didn't do much else here in Luang Prabang, except for some more compulsory pampering and massages :-) Oh one more thing about Laos - there's a government imposed curfew of about 11pm , so theres not much to do here in the nights. But there is a bowling alley open until 3pm, so that kept us going.

Next stop is Vietnam.

Cathy x x

Koh Phi Phi , Phuket - Thailand

2008-09-21T01:27:00.000-07:00

Hi again!

We never bothered going to Koh Samui in the end as we had heard from so many people that it's just way too commercialised, and not that much better than Phangan. So it was time to head west for Koh Phi Phi. After arriving I think it's safe to say that everyone's first reaction was OH MY GOD! It's such a beautiful island. And so small.

The first thing we did here was book tickets to do the trip to Maya Bay. This is where the movie 'The Beach' was filmed. On the way to that island, we got to stop at Monkey Island first. This is like a beach with just monkeys on it. So we kayaked over to them and fed them bananas. Our tour guide said we were the first group in a while that no-one got attacked by the monkeys!! haha. Phew! Next stop was to go snorkelling and more kayaking around the island. Emma and Alice actually found Nemo!! AND his house! But none of us could find him afterwards.. And then last stop of the trip was to Maya Bay. It was so beautiful! I couldn't really remember it from the movie but was still fabulous all the same. The sun wasn't really out that day so I'd say it looks nicer on a sunny day. We didn't complain though.

After 2 nights in Phi Phi we decided to spoil ourselves and book into a 4-star hotel. And we loved it so much we stayed an extra night there :-) It was literally like paradise! They had their own private beach out the back, and a fabulous pool in the middle of the complex.

There's not too much to say about Phi Phi really. It's just fabulous. A definite place you must visit if you're ever over this part of the world. And you can head to the beaches in the night and chill out. It's more relaxed than any of the previous islands.

Our last stop this side of the country was Phuket. We really only had a day here so we headed to Patong Beach. Phuket is way more built up than any other island. You'd think you're on the mainland. But there seems to be loads to do here. Since we only had a day here, we really had to make the most of it and spend the day shopping :-) Day well spent by all!

We're hanging around in Bangkok at the moment waiting for Sarah to arrive, and then for our bus to Laos tonight. Our first stop is Vang Vieng, and tubing down the river :-)

Until next time,

Cathy x x

Koh Tao, Koh Phangan - Thailand

2008-09-15T02:14:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

So after doing the whole tourist thing for over a week, it was time to relax on the islands. On Tuesday we arrived in Koh Tao. It's the smaller of the three main islands off the East Coast of Thailand. The weather was quite bad though. Well when I say bad it was still so hot, but was cloudy. And as soon as we arrived on this island we realised the only real thing to do here is diving. It's huge on this island. Most people come to do the 4-day PADI diving course. Alice had already done this, and decided to do the 30 metres dive while we were here. Well it was a good thing the weather wasn't great as all 7 of us just conked for the whole day. The last week had taken it's toll on us. But this rest just meant we had plenty of energy to make it to the beach party that night! It was class seeing the Thai guys juggle and play with fire. And you just order your bucket of Sangsom (whiskey) and coke and chill out on the beach for the night.

After a day in Koh Tao we decided to head down to Koh Phangan. This is where the full moon party was to be, and this was definitely the party island in Thailand. Alice stayed an extra night in Koh Tao to complete her diving course, and the 6 of us headed down South. The night after arriving we decided to take a stroll and see what the place had to offer, and we stumbled across the full moon beach. Class! What a night! You just have loads of bars on the beach beating out all kinds of different music, and then there are stands everywhere selling buckets of drink. And they'll pretty much make up whatever drink you want for you. And at about 2 euro , it's a bargain! :) And there was those Thai guys again playing with their fire. And a skipping rope on fire which Donal decided to attempt. Check out the video on YouTube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDXQSuxaWy8

Two nights later we had a pool party at our place we were staying, Coral Bungalows. It was advertised all over the island, so there was a huge crowd down for it. Lots of drinking, and then time to go for a swim, while still drinking! This was Megans last night as she had to go back to Atlanta :( But it was a good fairwell night for her!

During the day, as the weather wasn't too good (class by Irelands standards, but not by Thailand standards..) we used chill out in whats called the Lazy House. They just play films all day, and episodes of Friends and Family Guy over and over. Ultimate relaxation! And when the evening arrives, time to order more of them buckets!

Yesterday we decided to get off our lazy asses and do something for the day. So myself, Gillian and Marie decided to do the boat trip around the island. We stayed in the night before as we knew we wouldn't get up otherwise. And we were proved right when the other 3 went out and couldn't get up the next day! So off we went. Our first stop was to a lovely waterfall. Nice and refreshing as it was a bit of a trek to the waterfall. Then we stopped at another beach for lunch, Bottle Beach. They say it's the nicest beach on the north of the island. And it was gorgeous. Just total calm and relaxation. Then it was off to the north tip of the island where we went snorkelling. The amount of fish and coral there was amazing. We couldn't find Nemo there at all though...

Finally the night of the full moon arrived. And it was a bit of let down to be honest compared to the other nights we had here, but still fun all the same. The beach is just totally black with people. There are boats arriving the whole time with more people from the other islands around. Just a crazy mad night all around! Actually we randomly met a girl myself and Emma went to school with, Stephania. So she came out with us for the night too, and is gonna spend the next few days with us :)

We're heading over to Koh Phi Phi off the West of Thailand tomorrow morning, so until next time........

Cathy x x

Bangkok - Thailand

2008-09-08T04:21:00.000-07:00

Hi All!

We've had a great few days in Bangkok, but like everyone says, 3 days is more than enough time here. When we arrived on Saturday, we met up with Alice, our Monaghan friend. She was meant to meet us in Chiang Mai but had a little accident in the islands and crashed her Jet Ski... We went straight to Khao San Road and checked into the D&D Inn. It's class, and right in the middle of the Khoa San Road. I'd definitely recommend it, though it's alot more pricey than anywhere in Chiang Mai. We then headed to the MBK Mall which is huge. But it's just like the markets - you can get any of the prices they tell you down a few hundred baht. Then we checked the markets out, and went for drinks in the Shamrock Bar. It's literally a few yards from our hostel/hotel.

Yesterday we did the day trip out to Kanchanaburi which is about 2 and half hours west/south west of Bangkok. We got to go to the floating markets, then a cobra show, then to a war museum and saw the bridge on river kwai. We also saw a train go over it while we were there, which was cool. Then we headed off to the Tiger Temples. It was so cool seeing the tigers. We got loads of photos taken with the tigers, and then got to play and mess around with 2 tiger cubs. They were so adorable! :)

At the cobra show Megan, Gillian and Emma braved it and held a snake! Whereas I nearly ran a mile when I saw it. It was HUGE! I think they said it was 60 pounds in weight. Then at the show we got to see and touch a cobra, and they showed us his poison. We also saw a huge Python, and some rare snakes from South Thailand. (can't remember their names)

And today we went to see the Grand Palace, and Wat Po (Temple) It's very like India I think, really cheap goldie looking buildings, class all the same though. But we've seen enough in Bangkok now so we're getting the VIP Bus at 9pm down to the islands on the East. We'll go to Koh Tao first and stay a night, as we've a place booked in Koh Phangan for the rest of the week down there. We heard the VIP buses are actually more comfortable than the trains, so said we'd go for that. It's about 12 hours journey including the boat, but we'll sleep most of it hopefully...

Until next time,
Cathy x x

Chiang Mai - Thailand

2008-09-02T01:17:00.000-07:00

Hi All!

OK so our trip didn't get off to the most perfect of starts. Our Qantas flight from London to Bangkok was cancelled, but they put us on the Thai Airlines flight instead. Wow what an airline. The air hostesses were beautifully dressed in Thai silk clothes. But just before we boarded the Thai flight, we were told our bags weren't put on! But long story short, after wearing jeans for a day around Chiang Mai in 30 degrees heat, we finally got our bags.

So we arrived in Chiang Mai ok anyway. It's so hot here! I kind of thought there would be more to the city, but I guess it's most known for its treks. The first day here we just went around the city to check it all out. Then our second day we did the Flight of the Gibbon (zip-lining) It's where you're flying through trees on a cable! Really cool! We also did some kind of ab-sailing down trees too on this trip.

Then the next day we began our 2-day trek. I don't think any of us really paid any attention to what the trek involved. We were just concentrating on the elephant rides, white water rafting and bamboo rafting. Oh and the visit to the Karen Village.

So we got collected about 8.30 , collected some more people, and then drove for about 45 minutes or so to the Karen Village. The Karen women wear gold rings around their necks. One of the girls was saying that if they take them off they can die. Dunno where they got that from! But they do have to take them off if they visit any Government buildings. From the age of 5 or so, all girls have these put on. And as they grow older, they take them off and burn them to make them expand. They had a sample one there so we tried it on, and oh my god the weight in it is unreal!

After this village we drove another 40 minutes or so and reached the elephant camp, where we rode elephants for up to an hour. That was so cool, but very scary! I was full sure we'd fall out or something! Myself and Gillian called ours Dumbo! And he was dumb! He was a hungry thing and kept grabbing big branches with his trunk to eat the leaves. And then we brought the elephants down to the water to clean themselves and Dumbo splashed water and dirt all over us!!

OK so and after this we began the trek through the jungle to the huts we'd be staying in that night. It started great and after about 40 minutes or so I was really thinking I'd love hill-walking. But then we stopped and had to decide - the hard route (2 hrs) or the easier one (1 hour) so after much debating we decided to do the harder one. But Emma and Marie did the easier one as Marie's leg was sore.. So there was me, Gillian, Donal, Megan, an American, a Brazilian, and 3 Japanese guys. And OH MY GOD!!! That was the toughest thing I've ever done!! Talk about a challenge! It was all up hill through the mucky jungle, crossing over water on stones. CRAZY!!!!

So we FINALLY arrived at the tribe village we were staying in that night. They cooked us dinner and got massages from the local women. Ahm lets just say they never got any training in how to massage backs!!

Then we got up this morning at 7.30 and had to trek downhill for an hour. This was very tough as it had rained loads over night so it was very hard to get any grip in the mud. We reached a gorgeous waterfall then. And after dipping in the water for a bit to cool down, we treked another hour or so to reach the park where you do white water rafting. It was soooooo cool!! :) There were 6 of us in our boat including the instructor guy. And there were some good rapids too :) And after this we changed over to bamboo rafting where we just kind of sat on bamboos and enjoy the ride. Then after some lunch it was home time. Well Chiang Mai time....

We went to Muay Thai Boxing then tonight. So cool. Unreal vicious. I got some cuts and sunburn today, but after watching these fights, I'm not complaining anymore! :o

We're flying down to Bangkok tomorrow, to stay for 3 nights. So until next time, enjoy the photos.........

Cathy x x

Travel Plan

2008-08-19T03:31:00.000-07:00

Hey All!!

OK so the traveling starts on August 31st, and the plan goes something like this.....

South East Asia
Thailand - Chiang Mai, Bangkok, Koh Pha Ngan, Koh Samui, Koh Tao, Koh Phi Phi, Phuket
Laos - Vientienne, Vang Vieng, Luang Prabang
Vietnam - Hanoi, Nha Trang, Ho Chi Minh
Cambodia - Phnom Penh, Siem Reap
Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur
Singapore - Singapore, Sentosa Island

Australia
(Working in Melbourne for 6 months)
Melbourne, Sydney, Tasmania, Cairns, Brisbane, Rest of East Coast....

New Zealand
North and South Islands

Fiji

US
Hawaii
San Francisco
LA
Las Vegas
San Diego
Sanata Barbara

Canada
Vancouver
Whistler

Some photos of the traveling gang....