Happy New Year and on to part two..

Since last write, we've had a lot of time and not a lot of stops. We spent a few days in the Hunter Valley wine region, and had fun biking between wineries for tours and tastings. Only trouble was that neither of us was used to uphills on bicycles, and the generous servings of wine didn't make it any easier.
Spent 8 nights in Sydney, shared between Jodi's cousin in central Sydney on the harbour, and her parent's friends' beachhouse just north of Manly Beach. Days were spent wandering around in the sun, buying last minute Christmas presents, snorkelling with schools of squid, eating delicious kebabs, getting some serious haircuts, and exiting beach waters at the announcement of a shark sighting.
With a few days to spare, we headed down to Canberra, the nation's capital. Most memorable was the showcase at the art gallery of French Impressionists work on loan from the Musee d'Orsay in France. Saw Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Renoir, and many other works by amazing artists. They certainly look more incredible in person. Also toured the city, parliament house, national museum, and the war memorial.
Finally back down to Merimbula to spend Christmas with Jodi's family. It was very relaxing to sit and talk with relatives, eat more than our share of delicious food, take the kids to the wildlife park, and not be constantly re-setting up the tent. Did more snorkelling, played cricket, lots of swimming - even on cloudy Christmas Day - and some hiking. It was certainly a change from the past months on the road.
We're now on our way down to Melbourne to take a holiday from our vacation, and go to New Zealand for three weeks. Have finally worked out plan for rest of our trip. Will go across Victoria via Great Ocean Road, then out to Perth. From there, we fly to Thailand for ten days, then back across the miles of nothingness, and down to Tasmania for two weeks. That should put us at the beginning of April, and we'll have to face the reality of eventually going home.

South Queensland

It has been almost a month since the last blog entry, so we'll have to summarize. After touring Fraser island, we continued south and spent a few days camping in the Great Sandy National Park. With all roads in the campground being deep sand, we had to leave the car out on the side of the highway and walk everything in through the treeline rather than risk getting stuck. Then on to Noosa, where we had a trip booked to spend 3 days canoeing the Noosa river, with accomodations in a bushcamp. We realized we may be getting old when we didn't join the other 20 year old travellers in their nightly drinking games with cheap boxed wine (only $9 for 4 L). After returning to civilization, we decided to go for surf lessons. Amazingly, we both managed to get upright at the end of the 2 hour lesson.

Next up, no trip along the Sunshine Coast would be complete without a stop at the Australian icon, 'the Big Pineapple'.

Essentially what you would imagine, a 50 ft pineapple accompanied by gift shop, restaurant, pineapple farm tours and petting zoo. So we took our photos, learned all we cared to know about how pineapples are grown and processed, then back in the car and onward to the Australia Zoo. The zoo is known for being run by the late Steve Irwin and being home to the 5000 seat 'Crocoseum' and its twice daily crocodile feeding and wildlife shows. We were also able to feed elephants and kangaroos and pet a koala.

Next stop was Brisbane, capital of Queensland and third largest city in Australia. We managed find some delicious meals, some great live music in an underground club, and see a pro soccer game, the Brisbane Roar vs the Melbourne Victory. We did lots of walking along the beautiful Southbank riverfront, and visited the Queensland Museum and Art Gallery, both free.

Down then to Surfers' Paradise, one of many towns on a 35 km stretch of high-rise beachfront hotels known as the Gold Coast. We opted to visit the Dreamworld and WhiteWaterworld amusement parks. Our pass allowed us to go between the two adjoining parks, so we spent the morning on coasters and other rides and the afternoon at the waterpark. Best was the hydrocoaster, just like a rollercoaster with its ups and downs, but you're in an innertube on a waterslide.
Took a few days to go in to Lamington National Park, and did a couple of rainforest hikes. Both offered excellent views from the top of mountain ranges, and we were even treated to a nuber of waterfalls along the way.

There was plenty of wildlife in the campground, with wallabies feeding in the clearing at dusk, possums in the trees at night, king parrots and crimson rosellas attempting to steal our breakfast, and the bush turkey that managed to eat half a mango in the back of our car.

Spent the day after relaxing on the beach in the hot spring sun before driving down to visit some friends whom we'd met on our drive trip, and were spoiled to stay in a house with a real bed and a hot tub. Living out of your car makes you realize just how much of a luxury a real bed is, and a bathroom where you can leave your toothbrush there overnight, and not have to carry it back and forth across a campground each time. Hiked up Mount Warning, known as the place that gets the first sun in Australia each morning. Only 4.4 kms up, but it still took almost two hours of non stop climbing to reach the top.

Next stops were Byron Bay for some good beach lounging and a kayak trip to see wildlife. Only managed to spot three dolphins, but we did manage to tip our kayak after surfing a wave, and had a fun time trying to climb back in again, Chris with only one contact lens left, amongst all the big waves. Finally on to Coffs Harbour, home of the Big Banana. did a dive trip out to the Solitary Islands, and swam with many grey nurse sharks. We even managed to get within 10 feet of some of these big creatures. It was an incredible dive.

Now we continue down to Sydney to stay with some friends before heading to Merimbula again for Christmas with Jodi's family.