Australia

Our flight got us into Sydney in the afternoon and we headed for the hostel called Nomads - Maze on Pitt street...it looked nice on the internet but hey its always hit and miss and this time was a definite miss! the place was like the hotel out of the Shining movie - just short of a freaked out kid riding a bicycle round the corridors and the room itself was like a prison cell - at least thats how i referred to it! So needless to say we went straight out the door and became hardened tourists - only returning when we had to!!

We headed down to the opera house and bridge that night and it was cool all lit up, so we did the photo thing and headed away for dinner.. the following morning up early and out to the rocks market - only on saturdays and sundays but the stalls are class ( if you like shopping that is!) and it was also the National Sorry Day for the Aboriginals so the place was packed out..they even had a great band on available for weddings!!

We left the markets an hour later with an ornament for the house called a satellite of love! i couldnt resist it, but at this stage Ger is starting to worry that there wont be enough walls in the house for the amount of "ornaments" we have..you can also get a cuppa tea with scones cream and jam as well here - a right touch!

We headed out to Manly beach after shopping and booked ourselves into the revolving centrepoint tower for dinner later that night..We even seen Iron Maiden at manly Beach...

The restaurant is well cool you get your table and dinner is buffet style so when you leave to get it you are told to remember your table number as it will have moved by the time you get back - so you get a lot of people walking about plates in hand looking for their table.. good craic though! You also get to try out different food - ger's plate was full of camel, emu and kangaroo meat... when in Rome and all that!

Our 3rd day we headed out to Bondi and Coogee - this excited me as this is where me and the girls used to live...nothing had changed at all we got the 372 bus to coogee and after brekkie headed for the coogee to Bondi walk around the coast, the weather was fab but as usual we had got it wrong and were dressed in jeans and jackets while folks past us in their speedos and bikinis..oh and seen a guy who had decided to build his house on the edge of the rocks and Ger tried to get his fitness going on the way!

Got to bondi and met up with an old school friend Helen Thompson out there and her mate Marie Claire Henry, they have been living there for 4 years now, so unfortunately Ger had to sit and listen to us catch up after 10-15 years about the old school days..

Girls just so you know our wee flat is still there and has even had a piant job and the Rino's are still in flying form!! lol

We met up with a friend of ours then from our China trip - Donna at the CBH - Coogee Bay Hotel and had the traditional cook your own steak for dinner..

She was taking us to her house for the night out in Blacktown as we were heading up to the blue mountains the following day with her so it was great - a night out of the cell in a proper house!! her mum and dad - josie and Joe were so nice and we had our own room and a great comfy proper bed and shower not to mention the great breakfast the following morning and their pool out their back garden! it was like heaven..

We headed up to the blue mountains that morning and it was a fab day and the weather was great and clear so we had super views of the mountains and the 3 sisters from the scenic railway vertically down into the valley and they the cable car back up again..

Ger even tried to touch for one of the sisters..haha

We said our goodbyes to Donna and headed back to sydney then for our last day..
We were up and about and climbed the bridge as it was a class day for photos, after we contacted Ger's sisters mates, James and Geraldine and they invited us out for dinner at their house so we headed out to them and yes you guessed it we were very wobbly coming home... great night though of craic and the wine was great! Mind you at 5am the next morning our heads didnt agree with us... our flight out to NZ was at 8 so we were up and away early doors...

PJ we seen this for you and thought you might us to bring it back for you!! lol Tell Pat he got a good bargain last year...

And finally if only there were more of these at 3am on a saturday night in Dublin!!

We had caught the bus to Brisbane and booked into a hostel and first things first we had to go look for a pub that was showing the Liverpool champions match...

Brisbane is fairly small so navigating it was pretty and soon enough as always we found an irish pub that advertised the match starting coverage at 3am in the morning and you had to be in before then as it was a lockin..so we headed home for a kip and set our alarms for 12am and then headed back to the bar and got there for 1am - very strange as that is normally when i start suffering from concrete head syndrome and need to go home... or dance more! When we arrived in the place was packed with liverpool supporters and i even met some belfast lads from the lisburn road at home!!
Half time was even better as they handed out bacon butties for all... so at about 8am in the morning we eventually made it back to our beds and the body clock was then thoroughly screwed up...

We only had 2 days in Brisbane but that afternoon instead of shopping or drinking we headed out to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary to get up close and personal with some of Australia's wildlife...

The sanctuary was class and just the ticket for a hangover as you spent the day walking around amongst the kangaroos, crocs, koala's etc feeding them...
You got a bag of food for a dollar and away you went feeding whomeever you wanted to get near to..it was well cool and the animals were so tame.

We then got to have the photo opportunity with the koala - ours was called Crumpet and she was cool bit heavy though and needed to lay off the aul eucalyptus for a while mind!

We decided to round the day off with dinner and drinks in Brisbane's casino, but as soon as we got there we were told we couldnt get in! flip flops and shorts etc not allowed - i think it was just the backpacker thing and they probably thought we were going to steal the loo roll from their toilets! (not far wrong!!) haha
So we ended up at the trusty old golden arches!

The following morning we were headed for Syndey for 5 days and to meet up with some old pals...

We arrived to yet another day of beautiful sunshine in Hervey bay...and the place hasnt changed a bit in the 9 years since we have been before, it was usual check in go to bottle shop and get loaded up with your crates and boxes of wine for the next 3 days camping!

We were arranged into groups of 9 and 10 and assigned 3 drivers per van..the vans have been slightly updated and now look more like unwanted ice cream vans with the insides ripped out, but class all the same and good for taking batterings! Our group was made up of the 2 of us, a friend we had met jess form the Uk, 4 lads from the UK as well that looked like a wannabe boy band, a girl from Limerick and a girl from Holland...
And because most of the lads had either forgotten their licenses or couldnt drive the 3 named drivers were me, jess and Patrice from Limerick - the lads were all delighted as you can imagine getting 3 birds to drive them in a huge 4WD ice cream van...haha

I had the pleasure of going first and had to first drive the thing onto the ferry and then work through the gears and 2WD and 4WD changes for getting onto the island... so as you can imagine it was only a matter of time before disaster broke! I hadnt really been listening when they told me how to maneouvre the gear changes so when i got it into 4WD and started in 2nd gear up a steep sandy hill with my foot to the floor, the clutch didnt appreciate it and smoke started billowing out of the van and it didnt smell good at all! lol It was hilarious as their were cars and vans behind me shitting themselves as the handbrake wasnt the best either...and all i could say was " Ger... help me, can you fix it!.."

After working out that 1st gear was needed for starting we were off... and for the next hour i drove us through the rainforest bit of the island up and down the sandy hills for about and hour and a half and the guys got tossed about like a wet lettuce in the back!
Once we reached the beach beer cans were opened and many cigarettes were smoked!

We made our way up the beach as the tide was coming in and we needed to beat it to get to the first campsite for the night, so drivers changed we made our way to Eli Creek - natural fresh water that you can wade up and down and is totally clear..and the Maheno ship wreck which is a huge boat sitting further up the beach that as we seen was housing a shark ray which was cool even though no one would be dared to touch it!

First night camping was cool all 4 vans that got the ferry together camped together so we had a huge floor carpet thing going on and all the tents were in a huge circle with all the camping stoves full of BBQ stuff at each corner with torches hanging from ropes as lights. Max was our chef and to us at that time he was defintely a match for Gordon Ramsay as we were all starvin and didnt care how much sand was in the sausages... it was just like electric picnic dec... you were missed!

A long drop of course was the lads first duty which they perfected i have to say even though after a lot of drink it was rarely used!
The usual drinking games initiated and joke telling ensued, we actually had one guy from Israel - Rammy who was "Borat", so he was just hilarious to listen to whatever he said especially trying to get him to play the drinking name game..

The following morning we had to get up at 7am as the ride was due in at 9 and we had to get up the beach or be stranded at the bottom for day.. so havoc broke out and it was like the wacky races trying to get the van packed up with tents, food, cookers and people!

We made it up to Indian head for about 10 and the first thing our van did was to cook a fry up! and then we did the tourist thing and went walking and then over to the champagne pools, it was a class day and the pools were fab so we stayed there most of the day and when we werent in the water me and Ger had everyone playing sticks! (remember Kev's back garden BBQ..lol)

We had to leave here then to get back down the beach before the tide came in again, so off we went driving again and got a spot camping for the night so wasting no time time the food was out and the drinking started again!
A canopy had to be made as the rain had stared but it was class and none of us were allowed go to bed unless all the alocohol was finished, so after many drinking games including the famous - "can you eat 3 crackers in one minute without taking a drink" in our case Ryvita was used... we managed to polish off 20 litres of Gune/wine and 68 cans of tooheys new..
Got introduced to a new drinking game as well called horseracing which is fab so its one to bring home definitely... great night had by all though!

Day 3 was hangover day as we got up and tried to head to Lake Wabby... after an hour scenic walking but cursing ourselves for not going the shorter route to aid the headaches, we arrived at the lake and were instantly cured when we dived into the water - it was lush...

After walking back the short way over the amazing dunes - and i tried a sound of music rendition.. we all headed for the famous Lake mackenzie for some more lounging...

Lunch was a fantastic few hours in the picnic area of Lake mackenzie where we basically cooked all the food we had left and eat everything in sight seeing it would have gone to waste - a huge lizard even came to join us!

The ferry from Kingfisher Bay back to Hervey was at 4 so once back to the hostel and van returned, the hostel organised a pizza and movie night for all of us - jst what we all needed, we were off th enext morning at 9 for another bus to Brisbane but Fraser had been fab and massive craic was had!!

We arrived at Airlie beach wrecked after our 13 hour bus journey and had prebooked into magnums which was a bit of an oversight as it has now reached our top 3 worst hostels list... but hey each to their own..

We had booked to head out sailing the following day so after we checked in slept , showered and visited the beauty salon - waxing the legs is a tedious job which for me is just as boring as having to put petrol in my car, and which Ger is beginning to detest as well haha, but once complete we were ready to go...

We chose a pro sailing boat to go on which had previously taken part in the sydney to hobart race, it was class, 28 of us were on it including the 3 crew but it was a big boat...
As part of the sailing we the visitors got to join in as well as each day we would hoist up the sails for a day of relaxing, swimming, snorkelling etc..ger got well into the sailing lark and each day practically fought his way up to help with the sails..however getting into bed for him was slightly harder as we had been put in a double bed at the back of the boat, which is usually the best spot apart from the fact that it was like getting into the boot of a car, and at 6ft something this was no mean feat...hilarious to watch though, but he did get to share the room with 5 women so enough said!

The first night was like sleeping inside a hot water bottle, the noises from outside were exactly the same and it rocked constantly second night was much calmer though as we moored in a cove, but scenery and sunsets were great though.

The lads on the boat were all cool, we met 2 lads from Bath Adam and Steve and also hooked up with a group of girls, one of which works in Intel (and was given 6 months off by her boss!!), so we all had massive craic and they got a good kick out of Ger as he couldnt swim but yet with the help of a tube kind of float thing he was always the last one out of the water.. it was like calling him in for his tea and he wouldnt come!! (another fear overcome by Ger..)

One of the snorkellilng area we went to was called Hayman island and Luncheon Bay, which was just like swimming inside a huge aquarium, absoultely fab and our quest for the day was to find Elvis! - an old but huge fish with big rubber lips..

We visisted loads of Islands and of course Whitsunday islands - whitsundays is just paradise and the sand actually squeaks because it is made up of miniscules bits silicon/glass...here we got to see reef and black tip sharks and sting rays however they kept swimming away from us for some reason, i always thought it should have been the other way around.. but it may have been the sight of us in our stinger suits that we had to wear that may have done it..definitley getting one of those for back home - sooo atractive!

We spent most of our time on whitsundays lounging around and trying to play frisbee, but all we managed was to break a tree - oops!

We returned to dry land from the boat, (still swaying for a few hours from being on the boat so long..) and lounged by the lagoon pools at airlie beach until we had to catch our next over nighht bus to take us down to hervey bay for Fraser island and some 4WD carry on!

Arrived in Cairns on the 11th May and stayed at Dreamtime travellers hostel, 5 mins from esplanade, the guy Chris at reception is really fab and organises everything for you cheaply so we got stuck in as soon as we got there and starting spending some money!! lol Then headed out to the local - The Woolshed, an old happy haunt and met an old friend just outside out after many beers!!

The first day out and about and we booked onto our boat trip out in the reef on a boat called Ocean Free, it wasnt free but fish certainly got fed as the weather wasnt the greatest and lets just say i had to pass on lunch, didnt talk for a while and ger did a bit of back rubbing... so when we arrived at Green island i was very glad to be on terra firma..!

The weather picked up by lunchtime and the rest of the trip was fab and captain Andy and his crew were a good laugh as well and were handing out wine on our trip home for the sunset so Ger got stuck in..

The following day we travelled up the coast by bus to Cape Tribulation to stay up there for the night and signed up for some Jungle Surfing ( thanks to our friends at Intel's generous leaving present..) We stayed in a place called PK's jungle village and it was just as i had remembered it, spiders, a lot of trees and drinking..but great beach

On the way up we did the Daintree river crossing for some crocodile spotting and i found out that the croc "Gummy" that was there 9 years ago has since been run out of town by "big Albert" and is now in retirement from biting the bottom of the boats! After this we headed into the rainforest which was cool, but no cassawaries to be seen..class scenery though and loads of butterflies that are both female and male..handy?!?! Oh and Ger spotted a car he fancied...

That evening we got picked up after checking into the accomodation and went up into the jungle canopies for some jungle surfing... it was class - basically they hooked you all up and then you zip wired through all the trees at very high reaches..and you got to wear some funky headwear with very apt names on! lol
Check out the photos it was absolutely brilliant and hilarious too as they made us go upside down and everything..Ger definitely conquered his fear of heights..haha

We headed back to Cairns the following morning via the rainforest lookout, mossman gorge and Port Douglas and from the lookout you were able to see the place that Steve Irwin got stung.
We had a few hours then to shower and pack up before our overnight bus took us down the coast to Airlie Beach for some Whitsunday Island sailing..