Jessica and Steve Travel Australia

Queensland

2009-01-09T23:44:00.000-08:00

No pictures (if we plug in our cameras on the hostel's computers, we "will be hit hard!"), but we are now in beautiful Queensland. We checked out the famous Australia zoo yesterday, where we saw our first Crocodiles, a bunch of poisonous snakes, some Cassowarys, the usual roos and koalas as well as Bindi, Terry and little Robert Irwin (they weren't in cages). Last night we camped in Rainbow Beach, and despite the incredible downpour we managed to stay dry - the modifications to the tent worked. Hopefully this will help as we continue further up towards Cairns, where it will be much much wetter. First though, we are spending 3 days on World Heritage listed Fraser Island, the largest sand island in the world. Have heard rave reviews from other travellers so far, so we're pretty excited!

12 Days of Aussie Christmas

2008-12-22T20:57:00.000-08:00

One the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...

an emu up a gum tree
One the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
two flying doctors
One the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
three kelpie dogs
One the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
four kookaburras
One the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
five kangaroos
One the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
six chooks-a-laying
One the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
seven possums playing
One the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
eight dingos dancing
One the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
nine puddings baking
One the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
ten wheat trucks carting
One the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
eleven magpies singing
One the 1st day of Christmas, my true love gave to me...
twelve teapots pouring

12 days of Christmas, and 5 weeks on the road! See you soon back in the cold country!
Jessie & Steve

Maffra Agricultural Show

2008-10-30T02:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday was the Maffra Agricultural Show, the local fair. It was great to see some of the livestock of the local farmers, as well as see an aspect of Australians that most Canadians don't get to see. The highlights of the show were the dog high-jumping competition and the Beaute Utes muster.

The ute is an Australian icon, as Australian as the kangaroo. It started out in 1933 here in Gippsland when a farmer's wife wrote to Ford, asking for a vehicle that "we can go to church in on Sunday without getting wet, and my husband can use it to take the pigs to market on Monday?" (apparently trucks didn't have roofs?). Being that it was the depression, farmers couldn't get a loan for two vehicles, and therefore a combination of a truck and a passenger car was ideal. Customer service also existed back then, and Ford read the letter, and Ford Australia's design department, Lew Bandt came up with a design, and remarked to the plant supervisor that "them pigs are going to have a luxury ride". Australians now seem to use the term ute for anything with a truck bed, whether it has the passanger car front or not - even a large truck such as a Ford F250.

A ute muster is an activity that embodies Australian culture in rural areas. The idea is simply to get as many utes as possible in one location. The Guiness World Record for most utes at a muster was broken earlier this month, in Deniliquin NSW, with over 7000 utes. Ute owners have some sort of obsession with bumper stickers, often covering the rear window, or entire rear of the ute with stickers.

This coming weekend is the Sale Show, and we might attend that one as well.

As always, more pictures located at flickr.

Red Centre adveNTure

2008-09-11T04:15:00.000-07:00

Finally, another trip and another blog post.

We awoke early last Tuesday and left Sale at 5am for a flight to Alice Springs, to begin our adventure in the outback. We rented a car and stocked up on supplies before beginning the 470 km drive to Watarrka National Park. Of course, google maps shouldn't be relied upon, as it might direct you along dirt roads meant for 4WD vehicles, which our rental Yaris was not. Northern Territory is quite the change from our pastoral area in Gippsland, and we were delighted to see camels, kangaroos and a dingo by the side of the road.

We woke up the next morning and took a stroll to Kings Canyon, just missing sunrise. We attempted half the climb (dubbed Heart Attack Hill) before we decided we should go back to camp and get some food before tackling the 6km hike. The walk provided spectacular views of the 300m gorge, as well as of the expanse of desert around us.

View from our campsite. I've never seen dirt so red.

Jessica starting heart attack hill

Looking up at the climbIt doesn't look that bad, does it?View of the Canyon from the topTo the Luritja people of the Wararrka area, these domes are young kuninga (marsupial desert cats) men who passed through here during the dreamtime/creation.

With the car packed, and our feet sore from walking, we embarked on another long drive, 300 km to Uluru. We arrived in time to catch the sunset, but rather than watching the sun set behind Uluru (which I think would probably be gorgeous), we watched the rock turn different shades of red. We were pleasantly suprised by a view of the sun setting over Kata Tjuta as we returned to the campground.

The changing colours of the rock at sunset

Sun setting behind Kata Tjuta

Early Thursday we caught the sun rising over Uluru, and walked around a portion of the rock. The base walk is 10km, and -after the 6km hike the day before, and with a moderate hike planned the next day- we decided to drive around it instead, and only walk certain portions. We still managed to see a lot of the rock, and took too many pictures. In the evening we had a tour booked that would take us out to watch the sunset and enjoy dinner under the stars, with an astronomer to explain the constellations - unfortunately it was overcast. However, we were able to try kangaroo and crocodile meat.

Friday morning, it was time for another hike -this time around Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), which are a group of rock formations 25 km from Uluru. There are 36 "domes" that make up the Kata Tjuta (which means "many heads" in Pitjantjajara) and our hike took us on a 7km hike through the valleys. With our feet again tired from walking, we travelled back to Alice Springs, and stayed at Heavitree Gap, a gap in the MacDonnell ranges. There, we were able to feed Rock Wallabies that came down from the hills in the evening.

Our final day (Jessica's Birthday!) we drove west into West MacDonnell Ranges National park, and had a guided tour of Simpson's Gap, before venturing into Standley Chasm. Unfortunately, this meant the end of our trip - once we had flown back to Melbourne and driven the 300km back to Sale anyway.

Curtin Springs cattle station - over 1,000,000,000 acres- between Uluru and Alice Springs. It is near Mt. Conner, but for some reason Mt. Conner doesn't seem to be a tourist destination like Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Curtin Springs made for a good spot to stretch our legs, but we couldn't figure out how to get a meal from their "restaurant".
View of Mt. Conner from the Lasseter highway

More pictures are available here

Australians have strange signs

2008-07-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

A few of the photos from the last blog post reminded me that Australia has some strange signs. They also aren't very good at putting signs where you want them to be, but that is another story.

Drive on left in Australia. I hope that people aren't just learning this as they pass the sign. (Great Ocean Road, with high tourist traffic)

Please Check Under Your Car before driving away - there might be a penguin under it. (Phillips Island Penguin Parade)

If I walk into this Cambodian Cafe, doe it take me to Burke road, or to Riversdale road?

Australian wildlife - Kangaroo? Check. Koala? Check. Wombat? Check. Dragon with a scarf?? (Mallacoota, Vic)

Drowsy Drivers Die - now thats stiff punishment! (Gippsland, Vic)

They have trains on roads here? In the background is a sign that clarifies that train tracks cross the side road. Why they need two signs to make this point, I'm not sure. (Gippsland, Vic)

Unfenced cattle and kangaroos in the snow (Mount Hotham, Vic)

Keep left of poles (Mount Hotham, Vic)

Snow

2008-07-21T21:13:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we drove up the Great Alpine Road to Mount Hotham. It is supposed to be the mountain equivalent of the Great Ocean Road, which we enjoyed tremendously back in December (wow, was it that long ago?). The Alpine road wasn't as spectacular, but we are going to have to do it again in the spring when the weather is better.We in Omeo (pop: 452) an old gold rush town, for a bite to eat and to rent snow chains for the car ($30 a day rental!). We went for a walk in the snow through Dinner Plain village (population: 88), hung out with snowmen, and got the car stuck in a snowbank, although we were to cold to have the snowball fight that prompted us to "go to the snow" in the first place. (Australians "go to the snow" the same way they "go to the beach".)

Central Post & Telegraph Office in Omeo, built in 1891, looking over Omeo.

Omeo from above. Valleys of rolling hills.

Steve digging the car out of the snowbank
(no chains on the tires yet).

Jessica playing in the snow.

Steve with a new friend.

Keep left of poles. I don't think I'd try to drive through the trees, but who knows?

Watch out for unfenced snow kangaroos!

Gippsland Plains Rail Trail

2008-06-03T23:27:00.000-07:00

We are long overdue for an update. Life is continuing as normal in Sale, and we have settled in and haven't done much travelling over the last few months. Jessica and Steve are both working full time, and sending money back to Canada to pay down pesky student loans.

Today, we had a day off, so packed up our bikes (thank you garage sales!) and drove to Maffra, where a 10 km section of the 65 km rail trail has been opened. The trail passes through dairy country, with lots of cows by the side of the trail, and views of the dividing ranges to the north. We made it about 7 km before Steve's bike started falling apart. We packed a tool kit just in case, but it didn't have the necessary Allen key. Steve was able to partially fix it, but we decided to turn back, and not press on to Stratford by bike. Another 19 km section of the trail is open at the other end of the old rail track, so we may bike that one next.

The Wilderness Coast - February 2008

2008-04-04T23:00:00.000-07:00

This blog post has been waiting for a month. As the cliche goes, better late than never - hopefully the next one will be up soon.

At the end of February, we decided we were overdue for a road trip. Jessica had just finished working 9 days in a row and Steve had just had his busiest week yet. We decided to travel 300 km up the east coast of Victoria towards the border with New South Wales.

Unfortunately, at knock-off time (read: quitting time) on Friday, it was raining, and no one likes camping in the rain. So we waited until Saturday morning, checked the weather forecast, and determined the rain would stay in Sale. We packed the packed and headed towards the Wilderness Coast. To get there, we drove towards Bairnsdale, the western portal of East Gippsland, as well as East Gippsland's only city (in an area of 32,000 sq km). From there, we headed towards our first stop, Orbot. It is the 3rd largest town in East Gippsland, with a population of 2500. We stopped at the slab hut, which was built in 1872 and has since been turned into an info center. We found some post cards, and bought our first souvenir, a coffee table book titled: Images of Gippsland. It even has a picture of Jessica's workplace in it. A quick walk through the Forest Reserve (read: park), and then we were off to Marlo, a 10 minute drive down the Snowy River (yes, as in the movie, The Man From Snowy River). Marlo has a population of around 300, and its big slogan is "Marlo: Where the Snowy Meets the Sea". Here we pulled in and watched the fishermen fish, the pelicans bob in the river, and went for a walk down the river towards the Sea. It is a very picturesque little area, although our photos might not show it off all that well.
We took a scenic detour along the coast looking out to banksia trees and sand dunes, and stopped at Cape Conran National Park for lunch. We walked from the East Cape beach to the end of the Cape, and then headed on towards Mallacoota, still 3 national parks and another 150 km away. Mallacoota is a laid-back town of about 3000, nestled in Croajingolong National Park, and equidistant from Sydney and Melbourne (about 500 km). It is Victoria's eastern most town, and the warmest town in the winter, so we might just head back. We chose this location because the guide book mentioned a company that had kayak and mountain bike rentals, but because of insurance issues, they had since gone out of business. We enquired at the info center about renting a canoe, but again, no one was willing to rent out a canoe because of problems with insurance. Instead, we spent the weekend walking along the Mallacoota inlet - which the locals call top "lake" and bottom "lake" - and along the many beautiful beaches (including secret beach, which really WAS hard to find). The locals kept apologizing for the weather, as it was windy, but as long as we escaped the rain back in Sale, we were happy. Our campsite looked out at the inlet, and if we had wanted we could have had a waterfront site with mooring. It was a short trip, but overall it was one of our favorite spots we've been

Happy Easter. We're Off!

2008-03-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

We're off to Torquay for the Bells Beach Surf Comp in a couple minutes. There will definitely be a blog post and new pics very soon!

Have a great Easter!

The Den of Nargun

2008-02-26T02:20:00.000-08:00

Nargun is a mythological half-stone half-human creature of Kurnai tribal legends. She lived in a cave behind a waterfall in Woolshed creek, a tributary of the Mitchell River. According to legend, Nargun would abduct children who visited the rock pool below the waterfall. Nargun could not be harmed by boomerangs or spears, as they would be reflected back at the thrower. The cave used to be rimmed in Stalactites, but they have been broken off by tourists.

The Den of Nargun is located in Mitchell River National Park, approximately an hour east of Sale. The Mitchell river is the largest unregulated river in Victoria.

Photos of our day trip to the Den of Nargun are finally on the flickr account - it only took 2 months!

Settling In

2008-01-16T21:19:00.000-08:00

We've been almost a month now in our new house. The past few weeks have been devoted to setting up the house with electricity, a phone line, internet, in addition to borrowing and buying all sorts of basic household necessities. Lucky for us, most of our furniture is on loan from Steve's boss which is good for two reasons. Firstly, it costs us nothing. Secondly, we won't have to worry about selling them in a year from now. Finally, our house looks like someone lives there.

Since Christmas, we've explored more of East Gippsland. We visited the Den of Nargun, a site of Aborigine importance, swum at the Blue Pools a couple of times, and rang in the New Year at Seaspray with Steve's boss and his boss's family. We visited Raymond Island, home to a colony of 80 - 100 koalas and counted 11, including a mother and baby combo. Unfortunately, in our koala pursuits, we happened to get ourselves a little lost, thus "enjoyed" a 3 hour walk up and down random dirt roads under a very hot sun. To cool off on the really hot days (ie 38 celsius) we've been frequenting the beach at Seaspray. There is a wicked rip tide there that just carries you down the beach so that half the time is spent fighting to stay in between the surf patrol's flags. Funnily enough, when we were at Seaspray for New Years, Steve's boss actually "saved" a girl that had gotten caught in the rip and was being carried down the beach. It happened just after 6 o clock and the surf patrol were off duty and engaged in New Years festivities in the beach bar.

Steve and I both started working this week. I've found a job at a nice restaurant in town and will start working full time hours in a week from now. Everyone at the restaurant is very positive and friendly, so I'm looking forward to working with them. Yesterday, I was wheeling my (new) bike down the driveway on the way to work, when I realized it had a flat tire, a major bummer. I had to call a taxi in order to get to work on time! Steve's at work right now (on a Saturday morning!) and, though I can't really speak for him, I'm pretty sure he's happy to finally be doing what he devoted the last umpteen years of his life to achieving.

Merry Christmas from Australia!

2007-12-24T22:24:00.001-08:00

No chance of a white Christmas here, rather it is 17 degrees and sunny. It was a quiet Christmas morning for us - pancake breakfast, reading books, and uploading photos. We now have basically all of our photos onto the computer, sorted through, and uploaded onto the internet. They are available here.

To hear an Australian version of Jingle Bells, click here (Holden: Australian version of chevy, Ute: a mix between a car and a truck, Eskie: cooler, Kelpie: Australian shepherd dog).

Returns

2007-12-22T00:30:00.000-08:00

It feels like it has been forever since we last posted. We returned to Melbourne, to meet up with Jessica's friend Amy who was flying in after a trip to Africa. We stayed at a wonderful caravan park (read: campground) North of Melbourne, which ended up costing only slightly less than the hostel we lasted stayed at in Melbourne. On the other hand we didn't have to pay as much for parking, and the facilities were exceptionally clean. We visited the Melbourne Museum which was enjoyable (and free) but overall unremarkable, but we still did not manage to get to the Immigration museum or the Ian Potter National Gallery, which we have been intending to do.

We met up for coffee with Amy in Fitzroy, Melbourne's oldest suburb. We hadn't managed to make it into Fitzroy yet, but were glad we did. We found great used book store to stock up on books (we spend a great deal of time reading), had lunch at an amazing vegetarian restaurant, and returned at night for some live music - Fitzroy is a hub for Melbourne's live music scene.

After three days back in Melbourne, we decided to return to Wilson's Promontory National Park for a couple more nights camping. We hiked over to Oberon bay, and did some short walks down to Whiskey Beach and Picnic Bay as well. We enjoyed "the prom" as much this time as on our last trip, but the flies seemed to be worse this time, especially on our hikes. Eventually we will have some great pictures to share from here.

Unfortunately, our relaxing time in the prom had to come to an end, and we returned to Sale, where we signed the lease for our new 3 bedroom house. Even though it is much larger than we need, it ended up being much nicer than the other options in the same price range. The house wasn't cleaned before the last tenants moved out, so our first day was spent trying to bring it up to our standards. We spent one night in the house, which was a nice change from the tent, especially with the stormy, rainy, weather. However, the electricity cannot be hooked up until after Chrissy (read: Christmas), so we will be spending the next week or so in Maffra, thanks to Steve's boss.

Steve is still trying to sort out the paperwork needed to practice in Australia - insurance quotations started at $12,500 for the year, but thanks to some advice from colleagues other sources which are up to 4 times cheaper have been found, but some require membership to Chiropractic associations - which means more paperwork. Registration with the State is also needed, but they are closed for Chrissy until the middle of January, so work will have to wait until then for Steve.

A few more photos have been uploaded to the address in the last post, and we will try and get some more added when we can

More Pictures

2007-12-13T19:08:00.000-08:00

Check out this address for pictures - http://www.flickr.com/photos/54632595@N00/

Hopefully that works!

Also, see the ads on our blog? Aren't they pretty? They help us fund our trip. So far, we've made $5!

Forest Fires, Job Offers and Apartment Hunting

2007-12-10T17:11:00.000-08:00

To sum up the past 7 days in five words or less, it's been exhilerating, relaxing/buggy and (finally) stressfilled.

Going back to the beginning, we spent 3 wonderful nights in Wilson's Promontory National Park. A wonderful big park with many hikes and hills and beaches. We got to play in the surf on a (nearly) deserted beach. We hiked up Mt Oberon (really only half way up, to be honest, as you *have* to drive up the first half). We saw wombats - a baby, a mom and a deviant one who tried to break into our neighbours tent - and bushy tailed possums and many wonderfully coloured birds. On our third morning in Wilson's Prom, we woke up to rain. All to familiar with the annoyances of a wet tent, we packed up as quickly as possibly so as to escape before the tent was soaked. While packing up, there was simultaneously a flash of lightening and a crack of thunder and next thing we noticed, a black plume of smoke was rising over the forest just north of us. Wilson's Prom, you should remember, has a history of devastating forest fires, so we were understandably worried, packing faster in the hopes of escaping the wildfire. We were assured on our way out the fire was in fact under control and nothing to worry about, however, retrospectively we're glad we left as for days later we heard news the fire was still burning in Wilson's Prom!

The next couple of days I've labelled relaxing/buggy, however don't be misled as buggy is in no way relaxing. The relaxing, pathetically, went on inside our car where the bugs were reluctant to venture. We camped for free along 90 Mile Beach, where there wasn't much more to do than read books and walk along the beach. You aren't even really supposed to swim along the beach as it is no monitored by the lifesavers.

Last night, Steve signed his contract. Though he's now (theorectically) gainfully employed, he's still got the headache of registering with the board, getting insurance, etc. We've also got to find ourselves a place to live and as we're trying to find the cheapest place possible, the pickings are slim. We visited one unit with a loft bedroom and another more conventional one bedroom unit. On Thursday we are going to visit a 3 bedroom house. Our trouble aside, the craziest, most mind blowing aspect of the whole experience was one we learned apartments are not rented with fridges in Australia! Furthermore, if they advertise a house with laundary it doesn't actually mean there is a washer and dryer, rather a sink and a space where you could put the washer and dryer if you were rich enough to own one.

Road Trip!

2007-12-03T16:15:00.000-08:00

We have a new travel companion, Mick. He's only 16, but he has traveled a heck of a lot of Australia (300,000 km or so) and will be travelling a bunch more with us. So far we've we've travelled over a thousand kilometres up and down the Great Ocean Road in our new (ie 16 yr old), shiny (now dusty), red ford laser (Mick). We (or at least Steve since I can't drive manual yet) have pushed Mick to his limits on 4WD dirt tracks and curvy ocean roads and we've come out alive, so that's a good sign.

We started out our road trip in Torquay - surf capital of Australia. Did some window shopping in Roxy, Billabong, Rip Curl and so on. Visited the Surf Museum and were awed by the number and variety of surf boards that have been constructed over the years. Imagine surfing on a 18 foot, wood board. It's kind of insane. Of course we actually had to try surfing ourselves. Steve is an old pro, however it was my first time so we took a lesson. I had fun, though it's really hard and definitely takes more than 2 hours to learn. Hopefully we'll get out a number of more times this summer so that I can get better.

From Torquay we continued on down the Great Ocean Road (built after the first world war by returning service men for those who are interested). We camped two nights for free in a Scout Camp (Steve lied and said he was still a Scout leader - bad Steve). We did some bush walks around there and were terrorized by flies . (They don't bite, but are wicked annoying.) We drove farther, visited waterfalls, saw echinas in the wild (wiki it if you don't know what one is), did a treetop walk, camped for a couple nights in Otway national park, saw the 12 apostlees and other geologic formations, survived a thundstorm in our tent, then finally drove back the way we came, past Melbourne ending up on Philips Island where we are now.

Last night we went out to watch the "Penguin Parade". The "Penguin Parade", happening every night around dusk, is the return of a 800 strong penguin colony from the ocean where they feed to the beach/dunes where they social, mate and sleep it off. They are the funniest little penguins - only about a foot tall but sooo noisy.

Today we're planning on heading east towards Wilson's Prom, another national park. It is a fine, sunny day, so perfect for spending in a car! Yay road trip!

2007-11-23T15:54:00.000-08:00

Another week has passed us by.

We rented a car and spent a couple of days in the small towns of East Gippsland where there is a chiropractic office looking for an associated. The towns in the regions are all quite small (3000, 10 000, 20 000) but for some reason seem to lack small town charm. We did however experience some native wildlife - a herd kangaroos hopped in front of our car and flocks of cockatoos flew overhead. We also tried to go to the beach but, like usual, it was raining.

Friday we went to the Melbourne Aquarium which was nice, but not as good at the Vancouver Aquarium (which we went to a few months back). In the evening we walked to St. Kilda pier and saw the Port Philip Bay little penguin colony - they come out of the sea at night and hide in the rocks of the breakwater. We also saw many water rat swimming around by the pier. (The rats were cuter than you might imagine, not creepy like most rats.) On our walk back home we walked though Luna Park, a local amusement park. It was strangely empty.

Melbourne and?

2007-11-18T22:03:00.000-08:00

It has officially been two weeks here in Australia, and we now have the hot weather we wanted when we were up at the beaches in Sydney. It was forecasted to be 37 degrees today. I wrote my Australasian board exams on Friday and Saturday, which were ok other than an interrogation of knowledge and practice by a panel of 4 Australian chiropractors - nervewracking!

With all of the studying for the exam, we did not tour melbourne much, other than walking through Fitzroy Gardens, the treasury gardens and JFK memorial, and through downtown (the "CBD"), bourke street mall and chinatown. So on saturday night we ventured ino St. Kilda, which used to be a seaside resort. It is now one of the city's livliest areas, with stylish restaurants and bars. We stopped for tapas before heading to the famour St. Kilda's cake shops (Thanks John, for the recommendation), and then met up with 2 former CMCC students at Red Eye, a night club that is part of a hostel (quiet night's sleep?). Yesterday we visited New York Tomato, a restaurant built into the back patio of a townhouse unit near our hostel, and then took the train to go look at some cars we were thinking about buying - but no luck yet. Today we visited the old melbourne gaol, built in 1841 and the site of the hanging of Ned Kelly as well as over 100 other prisoners. Next up, we're heading towards Lakes Entrance for a few days, and then back to melbourne.

Four Days in Sydney, Finally in Melbourne

2007-11-07T21:25:00.000-08:00

After hours of sitting, on Sunday morning, we finally arrived at the Sydney airport. We ended up stuck up in the air for about 3 hours longer than originally projected, including an "emergency" refueling stop in Samoa. This meant, instead of spending 4 hours in the Fiji airport we spent less than one, and, as a result, having no time or oppurtunity to browse the duty free stores. The plane from Fiji to Sydney was an impressive double decker plane - it must have held hundreds of people, half of them sporting those corn row braids you get at any tropical destination.

We breezed through customs in Sydney, found the subway (also double decker!) into the city only to discover it cost an outrageous $14 per person! (And this was only the beginning of the revelation that everything really does cost more in Australia.) It took about an hour (and another $3.90 spent on the bus) and finally we arrived at Collaroy beach and our hostel. Unfortunately. due to rain, we didn't spend the next three days lounging and tanning as originally planned, however we did visit the Taronga zoo, walk up and down Collaroy beach, visit the Sydney Barrick's museum and walk around downtown Sydney, as well as relax in the hostel and enjoy a brief vacay.

This morning we arrived in Melbourne after an overnight train ride. Not a great sleep was had, however we saved money on a hostel which is always important when you have no income. Today we walked around a little bit, discovered the public library (free internet!) and enjoyed the sunny Melbourne (nice change from rainy Sydney).

Flight

2007-11-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

The adventure has started - well almost. We're sitting in the airport watching a movie on the laptop and waiting for boarding to start. It was supposed to start boarding an hour ago, but no sign of a plane or any Air Pacific staff yet. Our flight was also supposed to depart at 6:35pm, but we just noticed out tickets say departure at 19:35, so they switched the scheduled departure time without letting us know.

PS - If there are ads on the website when you view this, that means you can help fund our Australian adventure by clicking on them. I think we might be able to make enough for 1 wing on 35 cent wing night.

PPS - That means click on the ads when you come read our blog ;)