Day to Day

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So the good news is we're both still in one piece. Ankle has mended nicely too! Aoife's a bit black and blue from recent sporting activities (but then again isn't she always....). We unfortunately didn't manage to do the "Grand Canyon" walk at the Blue Mountains as planned with the Pengellys but may have been the best given my ankle. We did go on a few walk though and it was beautiful (and cold!). We also made it to the landmark there known as the "Three Sisters" (See photo of Aoife with ruddy face and attractive hat We stayed in Bucketty again for a few days to take advantage of the great cooking and opportunity to make some actual plans before flying off to Townsville. Roisin and John had mentioned in passing a place where we could see wallabies but we had no idea that John actually worked on Tuesdays in a wallaby sanctuary. We went with him on Tuesday morning. It was super cool deadly great. The sort of thing that you couldn't pay money to go to (or certainly not the type of money that we can afford). The highlight was definitely the baby wallabies (or joeys for those in the know ) They were jumping all over us and we got to feed them (and their fur was SO soft!). Class.

We got a lend of some camping gear from Roisin and John (tent and sleeping bags and a book of maps) and got a flight from Sydney to Townsville on Thursday. We had booked a hire car with Hertz and discovered that there was a big difference in price between picking the car up at the airport rather than at their "Downtown Office". We figured we'd just hop in a taxi into town and save the 100 bucks. We got in a taxi. Taxi driver never heard of the place. Looked it up on a map and it turned out the place was across the road from the airport entrance. 30 second walk. Taxi cost us $4..... and our pride. When we got there we were told that our vehicle had been upgraded but it meant driving an automatic. Neither of us had ever driven one so we had to sit in the carpark for 20 minutes with the instruction manual trying to figure out how to change gears and what the hell all the letters meant. We had a bit of the kangaroo petrol (badum tisch!) when we were starting off but we got going in the end. Now you'd think us being armed with a book of maps would have us prepared for the journey ahead to Airlie Beach - but that only works if you look at the maps before you leave. So we drove off convinced (my fault ) that it was a mere 30km away and that we'd be enjoying a pleasant dip by lunchtime. Alas no. Aoife the navigator was scratching her head in consternation - I knew smething was up. Was actually 350km..... Ooops. (Should've known - nothing in Australia is that close together - the shop is usually further away than that...)

Anyway - we got there and it was lovely. It had a campsite and a fish 'n' chip shop. We were laughing. After a bit of hmmmmming and hawing we decided to book a package trip for sailing in the whitsundays (for Saturday) and then camping on Fraser Island (further down the coast). Saturday afternoon we boarded our vessel which was going to be our (and 52 other people's) home for the next 3 days - The Atlantic Clipper. Good few days was had but we were a bit unlucky with the weather - it was VERY cold. It was a bit of a booze cruise but we did manage to do a bit of snorkelling over some reef on two of the days which was cool. Also, in true Irish tradition Aoife met a neighbour of hers from home. Can't go anywhere.... We were very seasick on the last afternoon as the weather had taken an even worse turn and the sea had gotten very choppy. Not fun.

We got straight off the boat, refilled our extremely empty (read: emptied) stomachs, and hit the road. We planned to drive to Eungella National Park, camp for the night, go on some of the walks, and then head on to 1770 (it really is the name of a town - no time travel / Deloreans involved). We even knew how far away it was before we started. Alas having directed all our attentions to judging how far away the place was we failed to correctly judge the amount of feul that we needed and how many petrol stations there actually are in Australia. We didn't run out - but it was close. The fact that we were on top of a mountain and were able to coast down in neutral helped enormously. We camped without incident - we are becoming dab hands at putting up the tent in the dark at this stage. Next morning, as was the plan, we went for a nice walk in some rainforest and then hit the road again. Somewhere along the way we decided we loved driving so much that instead of 7 hours driving we'd just go for 10 and a half instead - straight on to Rainbow Beach, the jumping off point for our Fraser island trip. Having found the town completely deserted and devoid of any food options we rocked on up to the campsite at 11pm. There was a sign outside that said "If you arrive out of hours, please ring the night bell" - so we rang the night bell. Cue crabby Australian asking us "When the bloody hell do you think I sleep?!". Aoife demonstrated uncharacteristic patience and tolerance by resisting the urge to say - "You said TO RING THE BELL!!!!!!" and was nice as pie to calm the guy down. They agreed that the best course of action was to go to bed and pay in the morning... Then Aoife got a lecture about how difficult a job managing a campsite was and again she somehow managed to fight her instincts and grin through gritted teeth and nod sympathetically. She's still going on about it.. (its not good for her to coup these things up).

The following day we moved into the Dingos Hostel on Spectrum Avenue (one of the many colourful road names at Rainbow Beach). For our trip to Fraser Island we were to hirea 4x4 Jeep along with 8 other people, load it up with food, tents and a few beers, and head on over to the island on a ferry to camp for the weekend. It was a great few days. The island was really stunning and thankfully the weather picked up dramatically (scorchio!). The day after we got back we went dolphin kayaking off rainbow beach - another great experience. We were in the kayaks surrounded by hundreds of dolphins jumping around us. It was really great but Aoife has decided that kayaking is also - "not her sport"

That afternoon we packed up and left for Noosa. As usual we arrived in the campsite after dark although it was at the much more civil hour of 6:30. We had our tent up in a flash and we were just making some sandwiches when our neighbours arrived. It was a big group of about 10 people and they were loud (and they hadn't even started drinking yet). In short - was a disaster of a night. They didn't really seem to get on at all at all and due to the thinness of tent fabric and the loudness of their voices we know a lot more than we need to about all of their personal lives and the issues they have with each other (all presented in very colourful language!). They fought (both verbally and physically) all night - no exaggeration. The cops were there at 7am to kick them all out of the campsite and everything (couldn't kick them out before because they were all too drunk). Ugh - disaster. Not to worry though - it gave us plenty to talk about with our other neighbours. In the morning we visited Noosa National Park and did one of the walks (but missed the koalas - would've spotted them if we had taken the same route we took backwards ) and then in the afternoon we went surfing - yay! Surfing lessons were great and we both got standing up on the board loads. We loved Noosa.

This morning we got up and drove to Byron Bay. We put our tent up in the daylight and went shorts shopping for Aoife for the afternoon. We'll have a bit more of a mooch around in the morning and then onwards to Coffs Harbour where we hope to do some white water rafting. We'll let ye know how it goes. Take care, Tadhg & Aoife

When we last left you I had just about recovered from the flu... Last Wednesday morning while running for the 06:58 train from Kings Cross to Central I had a bit of an accident Don't worry - didn't fall in front of a train and nothing is broken.. Just twisted my ankle quite badly. They call me Mr. Glass. [am well on the mend now ]

As the title says, we're finishing up this Friday (yay!). In the next few days we will both be training (and we use the term loosely..) our replacements for work. Hee hee... God help them. Kimberley Clarke may fall and as for the future of taps in Australia... I weep.

We are currently attempting to firm up our very flimsy plans for "seeing a bit more of australia" before we fly off on the 5th of August. The plan as it stands is to fly to Townsville / Cairns, do some snorkelling, maybe go to Fraser Island / Whitsundays, attempt some surfing, and have a road trip to Brisbane. Easy peasy. Again - any wise words from the previously experienced (enthusiastic inexperienced - thinking of you John... ) are welcome!

The eh.. "big" news is that we're going to the new Harry Potter movie with the Pengelly's tomorrow - hurray. (actually really are looking forward to seeing it -we'll have to try hard not to embarrass Aoife's cousins by being too enthusiastic).

Sorry but we have not added the photos yet - I keep forgetting to bring the camera along to the internet cafe. Next time!!!

We had our last effort at the quiz on Monday.... We came 2nd!!!! We were leading all the way from round two to the last round and were beaten by a point. If only we had known which country "The Douro Valley" was in or the name of the blonde guy in Dukes of Hazzard. Thems are the breaks... We won two jugs of beer which we just had to drink that night. Great success.

We're heading to the Blue Mountains this weekend (ankle permitting) - the perfect place for mishaps to befall me (freak landslide, giant hailstones, wild dingos... etc.) so tune in next time to see what mishaps / injuries I incur!

TTFN!

I know you're all dying to know how we've done in the quizzes since our last post... 3rd again last week and 4th this week - devastating!!! We'll win it yet though - more movie questions and less australian geography / trivia / cricket questions would suit us a LOT better!!

First things first.. I am gainfully employed - hurray!! I am an "administrator" like Aoife but I'm not with a global bathroom superpower.. but I am employed under the same umbrella - "tapware" Yes - my company sells taps - swanky. I almost lost the job though after only working for 4 days because I have been muchos sick for most of last week. Bad flu. Nearly all better. Was sure that I was for the chopping block but I must be class because they kept me (and I managed to catch up on the 3 days I missed in about 2 hours today.. very challenging work!!).

Last weekend we visited Bondi Beach and Manly. We saw surfers and had fish 'n' chips and reckoned "we could do that" (having had 5 days surfing training in Lahinch...). We even saw a former cast member of .... "Home and Away" (It was bad boy "Cain" - eh.... swoon...). He had pizza - just like us! Wow!! Needless to say its the highlight of the Australia trip so far for one of us...

This weekend we went to the natural history museum, "Blades of Glory" in the cinema (V. funny!!) and the Sydney Aquarium (which was class!! crocs and sharks and seals and all that kind of thing).

We have both handed in our notice in work (hehe - I did it having only worked 4 days and being sick for 3 ) so we're beginning to plan our trip up the coast when we leave (all viable suggestions welcome!!). We're both quitting on the weekend of the 15th which leaves us about 3 weeks to see as much of Oz as is humanly and humanely possible.

Photos to follow as usual - sorry!! Btw - was thinking that if people registered with the site they can set it up so that they get an e-mail whenever we make a new post or a comment - thus cancelling out the need to be checking back for new posts. Just an idea..

Take care,

Tadhg & Aoife

We didn't win the quiz last night - but we did come 3rd! Not too bad for a team of two people (first place had about 20 on their team). We won a free bottle of wine to boot. Roll on the poker night tonight!