Tastastic

I only have one minute to write this so all I'll say is I'm in tassie and it's good. Time out.

Crikey!

Hullo again to you all. We are now safely located in the Whitsundays and will be boarding our boat in T minus 3 hours. It was absolutely peeing down when we arrived yesterday - so much so the pilot had to take two goes at landing. The airport itself was one small building and baggage claim was just that; they drove the trollies round to the side of the building and you had to go and find your own bag in amongst everyone elses. But I get ahead of myself. I must first tell you of our trip to Australia Zoo which was an absolutely fantastic day and I can't wait until I can put some pics up to show you.
We set off from Brissie at half 8 and drove north for about an hour to get there. Sarah's friend Debbie was our driver and we are very thankful to her for that. Surprisingly there were no queues to get in and though there were plenty of people about it never felt crowded. We made it just in time to see the tortoise show and then proceeded on to the croc show in the aptly named crocoseum. The rest of our day involved feeding the roos and elephants, watching the tiger and bird of pray demonstrations and wandering around to see any of the animals (or indeed keepers) we fancied. The animals were all really well cared for and (except for the crocs) all had really good relationships with their keepers. If you ever find yourself over here I highly recommend you go. The zoo does an amazing job and any donations you give go directly out of the zoo to conservation projects, not back into the zoo itself which you might expect. All in all I have to say well done Steve and co. You beauty!
So, back to the Whitsundays. As I say, we arrived yesterday in very wet conditions and were told this was the forecast for our entire stay. Thankfully today the sun has been out so far (apart from a wee shower) and hopefully it will continue that way. Our overnight accommodation was the YHA and we were pretty shocked with how basic it was. Our room looked more like a cell and faced out onto the main street so wasn't exactly quiet. We soon decided not to come back there on Saturday night and booked into another boutique backpackers a little out of town. We then had to go and check in for our boat (which was news to us as we'd received no information after booking) and despite a minor hassle that was relatively painless. Last night was uneventful due to the rain, we just spent the evening in our cell reading (thankfully I'd decided to purchase a book at Brissie airport).
Now we find ourselves killing some time in between our checking out and our boarding. We will be back on land on Saturday and I shall hopefully be able to fill you in about our boating adventures then. Anchors away!

Brisbane Day 1 feat. Bernard

Wull hullo. It's our 2nd day in Brisbane and we were supposed to be at the zoo today but the forecast was storms so we decided to postpone until tomorrow. Instead we have come to the internet cafe (a novel experience after 4 years away from this sort of thing) and are booking our zoo tickets online to get a discount, amongst other things (which is proving to be rather difficult).
Yesterday was a very long day. I was up at 5am (the equivalent of 2am in Brisbane where I have learned there is no daylight savings) and had a smooth journey over to meet Sarah and her friend Linda on the corner of Edward and Turbot Streets - though there were so many 'big black cars' I did miss them driving by and Sarah had to run back for me. Linda then kindly took us to our home for the next 3 days - the Kookaburra Hostel. We dropped our stuff off and I got changed into my new summer dress (bliss) and headed out into town. We wandered to the main shopping street, had a spot of lunch and then headed over the river to the south bank. We followed this past the city beach and lagoon and then headed back to the north side for a walk through the Botanical Gardens where we came upon Bernard. Bernard was, and hopefully still is, a lizard of some sort, the biggest one I've ever seen in the wild, but not big in Aussie standards I'm sure. He was chilling out in the sun, though kept eyeing us up as we took photos (even doing a fabulous little walk to distance himself from us at one point).
In the evening Sarah's other friend Debbie came to pick us up and we went for a meal at a Meditteranean restaurant. I had a Turkish Pizza with Spit Roast Lamb, Rocket, Yoghurt and Sumac. I put these ingredients in capitals because they were soooooo delicious. Debbie then took us up to Kangaroo Point to look at the city by night. I have to say I was pooped by this point (about 8.30) and we were soon back at the hostel for an early night. Sadly I didn't sleep too well, as is my way in new and unfamiliar places, but I made it through and hope for a better snooze tonight.

Flaming Gollah!

G'day folks. This is the last in my surge of posts and it is just to say 'see ya later' as I'm off to Aussie in the morning and am not sure when I'll have the chance to blog again. To give you a quick idea of what I'm up to my itinerary is Brisbane, The Whitsundays, Tasmania and Melbourne all taking place in the space of 4 weeks. My current feeling is excited nervousness. So I bid you tarra for now. Take care possums.

The 5th of November

After a gorgeous day of catching the rays it was hard to believe the fireworks display on the harbour could be in jeopardy but sure enough the southerly rolled in at tea time and I was checking Stuff regularly to see if it was going to be called off. In the end it wasn't and I headed down to the city to sea bridge to watch this years' display. I remember 2006 being brilliant but I really should learn not to have expectations. Don't get me wrong, it was a good show (especially the end) but I found myself a little underwhelmed. Whether this came from watching it on my own when I'd expected to be with a group of friends I don't know but that's the way of it. Anyhoo, here are a couple of pics of the event.

Julia's back in town

I'm trying to get all of my recent antics blogged about before I head off to Oz so here follows a brief account of my reunion with Ms Julia Inkster which took place on Monday 1st November at around 4.10pm (on account of the train having brake issues).
Our first important activity was getting on the trampoline. Julia was a pro, I was a wuss (Sally, Fred, Lals, recall the hamster wheel if you will). Here Julia demonstrates how it's done.

We then went out for an drink at the waterfront bar and sat out in the glorious evening sun.

After a spiffing tea (many thanks Chef Julia) we went for a walk along the beach to catch the last of the sunset. It was beauteous as you see.

On the tuesday we went for a walk in Queen Elizabeth II Park and had a wee picnic. It was another stunner of a day and South Island was very clear right from the sounds down to the snow covered Kaikouras.

The afternoon saw us relaxing with a book and later on a bit more bouncing ensued. Thankfully I was less of a wuss on this day (though as you will see from the pic I was nowhere near as good as Julia).

I've just had fish for tea

I didn't know what else to call this post and because I didn't want to spend half an hour trying to think of something, I went with the first thought that came into my head. Why it was about my tea I do not know, but I did have fish and it was very nice. Anyhoo.

I'm now coming to the end of my first day of freedom since arriving in New Zealand for a second time. Ever since I set foot on Kiwi soil in April (even before so) I have either been looking for a house/a job/both, or I have been in a job. Today felt like a new beginning, almost as if I'd only just arrived (or had the worlds longest jet lag) and the fact that I was halfway around the world and back in NZ actually started to hit me. Why this has only just started to happen I can't explain, I only know that I've been trying to come to the realisation of where I am for the past 7 months without success. But now I think I have it. And I like it! I am completely free to do what I want, go where I want, when I want. Even though I woke up at 7.15 it didn't matter because I could go back to sleep if I wanted, or not, I had no early get up in the near future and so that somehow made me feel less tired (it must all be psychological really). So what I did do was to finish my book, take my time in getting up and ready, walk into town and go to see the photography exhibition at Te Papa (the first of many 'Wellington' things I hope to do this week).

Whilst in Te Papa I had a look out of several windows at different levels and through these transparent wonders I saw what seemed to be some kind of yacht race going on as well as some cannons going off down by Frank Kitts Park (this turned out to be some event for the Wellington Free Ambulance and thankfully there were no injuries so no ambulance was needed). Below you see a photo of this scene (n.b.I often wonder if such prose is needed as I'm sure you would figure out that the photo is of what I have just described and yet I feel I would be a poor host if I did not say this. Thoughts?)

After Te Papa I headed round the waterfront to snap some more shots. Here is the view up Taranaki St towards Mt Cook where I currently reside. I'm guessing the hill at the end of the road is actually Mt Cook but I must say I couldn't tell you for sure. What else would it be though? 

And here's a shot of Cafe Eis (with lagoon in the foreground) for Fred.

Plus an artsy shot of the fern ball.

And seeing as I'm actually finishing the post of a week after I started it I thought I'd add last Sunday's antics onto the end which began with brunch at the newly located Parade Cafe.

Followed by a trip to Sue's and a wander round her pretty little wilderness.

Finishing up with an impromptu trip to the ballet to see The Nutcracker.

And there it is in black and white.