Brisbane Part 2... Sunshine Coast Hinterland

Apologies that this is out of order but it was bought to my attention by a dear friend that I not included a picture on my blog of the Ginger Tour bus and then I realised that although I drafted Brisbane Part One I hadn't published it or written Brisbane part two which included all the fun that we had at the rainforest retreat in Sunshine Coast's Hinterland - so I am rectifying that now!!

Becca and Glen had arranged a weekend break for us and two other couples at the Templeton Gardens Rainforest retreat, in a traditional-stlye Queenslander...

It was a lovely rainforest retreat with a log burner! There was even a saltwater bush outdoor pool that was at the resort and a spa pool (jacuzzi) that we also made use of even though it was freezing!! That was after a very lovely walk through the rainforest to see Kondalilla Falls

It was lush!! In every sense of the word!!

After our walk we all agreed we'd earned some refreshments and so we headed to a very nice pub for some 'schoners' of beer and some grub and the view wasn't bad either:

The next day I was in for a treat and what holiday would be complete without a visit to.......

Thats right people!!! A 'theme park' dedicated to Ginger!!! It was EPIC!!!!  There was a ginger train ride and a boat ride too where we were following the route of a gingerbread man around the world!!! Ace!!! The highlight was of course his stop in London and if you look closely you'll see on the side of the bus he was on a Ginger Tour!!!

What more can I say - Australians are hilarious!!!

Brisbane... Probably part one i'm on the clock :)

After being scooped up by Becca and Evelyn and meeting new edition to the Beswicks, 8 month old Harry, we headed up to Brisbane from the Gold Coast.

There have been so many fun things that we managed to cram into the last week so i'll try and keep this brief but cover all the highlights.

We went to a local wildlife park that specialise in indigenous and native animal species on display including a very active rescued, orphaned platypus named Daffy and some paddymelons...

and a very large wombat...

It was really good fun and Evelyn was running around so excited yelling "come here, have you seen this?" and then running on to the next one and saying the same thing, it was hilarious!  Her child enthusiasm was completely contagious!

The next day Evelyn went to school so Becca, Harry and i took a little road trip to Redcliff, which looks out over Moreton Bay and on a clear day you can see Stradbroke Island although today was a grey day so we went for a coast walk and appreciated the fresh air..

In Redcliff also spotted a strange phenomenom which was cyclists wearing cable ties on their helmets to protect them from skydiving birds attacking them!! So that was scary

Afterward we drove down the coast road and then went in land to Dayboro a very cute country town with yet another good steak sandwich - (I figure i won't be having much red meat when i get to Tuvalu so i'm stocking up!)

By popular demand more photos

Talofa (Hi) from Tuvalu!

Due to some of you being very demanding and me seeming to have internet access at the moment I am going to attempt to put up more photos!  No more to report at the moment other than work is starting to get good! Getting my teeth into a big funding application already which i'm very excited about!! But anyway here goes my attempt at photo uploading...

This is the view from the hotel's restaurant on the main island of Funifuti - which i'm staying on!

Us getting ready to load the boats last sunday for our trip over the other side of the lagoon for bbq, fishing and some snorkelling and scuba-diving!

And this is my room on the day I arrived! :) It was before I realised i'd be sharing it with mosquito's, ants and cockroaches! But i've even got used to them now :)

More soon... as the internet allows!

Life of the Coconut!

I have arrived in beautiful Tuvalu!

This is likely to be a short entry as i'm intending to put up photos and Tuvalu although picturesque is technologically challenged and so the internet is intermittent!

I'm settling in nicely with my very friendly and welcoming Tuvaluan family and they are feeding me well and trying to teach me some Tuvaluan.  Turns out there are other volunteers here mainly Australian but one British guy as well that is here as a "Scout Ambassador"! Such a cool title!

The first day I was here they had arranged a welcome dinner and the President of the NGO i'm working for told me that I better get used to the "Life of the Coconut" - when pushed for an explanation he said, "You can't rush a coconut, when its ready it will fall and then you can't hold it back, but if you try to pick it before its ready it won't be good!" Tuvalu time is like the life of a coconut! And I need to adjust!

Here are a couple a photos from my first 5 days in Tuvalu...

Bluefin trevally!!! I caught it and then ate it for dinner! It was lovely!!!

 I hope to add more photos and details soon but for now I've really got to do some work :)

Gold Coast and the mighty Geelong Cats!!

So its been a while since my last entry mainly because i've been busy in Brisbane having fun with Becca and Glen and the kids.  But now in Fiji sitting in my hotel for a few hours before i head back to a airport and off to Tuvalu tomorrow morning!

This is a summary of some of the fun that was had in Queensland! First i travelled to the Gold Coast with Rach for drinking and some dancing and more importantly some football (Aussie Rules (AFL) for all my 'followers' at home - by the way, followers sounds so weird!)

So we drank some cocktails and ate my first Aussie BBQ, lounged in the jacuzzi and pool at the hotel looking up at the skyscrappers, hunted for footballers for Rach, and walked on the beach as i got to enjoy my first bit of good weather since i got to Australia!

Had an amazing hungover pre-football lunch with one of the most amazing view from the surf club at Broadbeach.

And then we were off to the home stadium of the Gold Coast Suns to watch them play our mighty Geelong Cats!!! WOOOO!!!!

It was a fun but tenser game than anticipated but a good laugh!

We then went back to the unit (flat/apartment) for take out curry that was yummy and the Wimbledon men's final... oh and some more wine!

Next stop Brisbane :)

Melbourne Part Two...

I forgot to mention that there were some exceptionally good fences at the Zoo as well as all the animals...

In case anyone thinks I've gone mad its not me but my beloved that was interested in the fencing at the zoo!! David in case you are worried I have more pictures but sharing one on the blog seemed like enough :)

After the Zoo we headed to Melbourne City to look at Hosier Lane's amazing graffitti...

We had coffee on Degraves Lane which was like a very small lane which had bistro and cafe feel similar to Covent Garden it was awesome - but did make me want Eggs Benedict :)

After coffee we went to another small lane called Hardware Lane where we had lovely lunch before power walking back to the station to head back to Geelong :)

To Melbourne and beyond!

After a lack of updates on my blog i'm pleased to share lots of exciting adventures!  The first of which took Rach and I to Melbourne Zoo, along with some willing children (her neices and nephew) as a good cover story so that we could be childish all day!!  We saw some amazing animals including the new elephant baby and the funniest orangutans! Tom, Rach's nephew laughed so much at the orangutans that I thought he was going to hurt himself but instead we all just laughed and laughed and laughed at the monkeys and at Tom!!

But just as importantly we saw lions...

And tigers...

And bears oh my...

Life on the farm!

As promised... pictures of the farm... in the sunshine

A rare day of sunshine in winter in Geelong, Victoria... So we went to the You Yangs!  It was a beautiful clear day so the views were stunning!  We walked around the peak on the East-West walk here are some of the best shots I took.

You can see the coast in the far distance of this one!

The rocky path we navigated :)

Some funky bark that I spotted I've sent the photo to a tree expert i know ;) for any insights...