Friday, January 26, 2007

A week of extremes!

We arrived here to hot sweltering temperatures. Despite having a rental car we decided to start our week by walking and ferrying. The ferry trip into the city was just a short 10 minute ride, and we did this twice, however the walk to the ferry was 10 minutes in 30 degree heat so we flagged it after the second trip and went back to our lovely air conditioned rental car.

I would like to talk about the extremes, which have been excellent, with the exception of a reasonably bad case of sunburn. This is the result of a lily white body being exposed to the sun during a couple of hours swimming at the beach, (note this was not sensible me) but I can not say the same for Cassandra and Johnathan. Cassandra could quite easily adopt the name “lobby” (short for lobster) for the next few days; her face is shiny like a traffic light.

Our extremes have been awesome, we had a tiny visitor (some sort of gecko) in our apartment one night, he was the size of a match and had really big eyes and little suction cup feet and was incredibly cute but very vulnerable given his size so we picked him up in a glass and put him outside so as not to squash him when we were walking around.
On the opposite end of the animal/bug scale, we saw a stick insect about 15 cm length and the thickness of a pencil.

Another extreme was a chance visit to the local lookout point on Mt Coot-tha (just 5 minutes from us. When arrived just on sunset we were amazed to see a large group of people all facing the same direction. When we asked someone we were told it was a comet (McNaughts, I think) and it was pointed out, apparently it only comes around every 10 years or so. It looked amazing with naked eye; a long tail was glowing across the sky.

We have temperatures of 30c and teasing rain showers of 2 minutes.
The rain has been welcomed by the Australians, in some areas double the amount of last years entire rainfall for the year fell in one downpour and created massive flooding cutting some towns off from civilisation. It is hard to imagine that can happen.

On the good news front we are closer to kicking of on our first adventure. We have taken possession of a Toyota Prado Land Cruiser, Bronze over Champagne, License plate 066-JYC, I only enclose the number so if it appears on the headline news you know it us and can raise the alarm, Wolf Creek and all that you know.
We have also ordered a Camper Trailer, from http://www.castawaycampers.com/, they are making it now and we can pick it up on Tuesday.
The beast is all Terrain, 9’x9’ tent + 18’x 9’ screened annex, Sink/bench, 2 long range gas ports, storage box, LPG holder, Queen size bed, etc….

We have purchased a lot of camping stuff; we have easily visited over 20 shops buying stoves, single beds, gas lamps, tables, chairs, Dutch ovens and all the camping accoutrements.
NOT THAT THAT WE HAVE ANY BLOODY IDEA WHAT TO DO WITH THEM.
Today is Australia Day and we have finally found an internet cafe and the time to sit and update. We have tried to buy a local conection and you would not believe the nonsense you have to go through to get on line.
Yesterday the weather opened up and we had torential ran for over half the day, this will help the Aussie dams, Brisbane has a level 4 water restrictionon, L5 is the highest.
We have had a really hectic time sorting ourselves getting ready for the big off. In less than a week we will be on the way. Our first planned drive is a short trip to Ballina, Casino and Lismore where we can test the car, the tent, go fossicking (precious gems) and fishing. We are hanging out for the fishing.
Attached is the car and a pic from the Mt Coot’tha Japanese garden. We walked the gardens at the base of Mt Coot'tha, very cool heaps of Aussie creatures to see.
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7 comments:

flashgordonnz said...

Hi. I am an obscure watcher: I am the accountant at NZRA. I've met Jmac a few times when he came to Wgtn with the RITO. I think you are about to have an excellent adventure and are jealous! Blogging is such a cool way to keep everyone upto date. Much better than the old hotmail or yahoo that we sent "in my day". Blogger is giving you a homepage for us all to keep up to date with your goings-on. I managed to set up a subscription to your blog. Goodlike with all the wild life: it's all quite freakyby kiwi standards!

Kerry & Peter said...

Hi guys
Was good to see you have the count don going for your return home like you use to do at work Wendy - crack me up.
Glad everything is going well and what a great site to use so we can keep track of you and your big adventure. Will keep an eye out for your number plate!!!
Take care, be safe
Kerry & Pete xx

John & Linda said...

Hi guys, we were wondering when you were going to let us know when you got there, but then, we also knew you would be toooo busy spendin' up.
We'rrrrrrreeeee watchin' you !
cheers
John & Linda

Scott and M-H said...

Hi
Thanks for the update - glad you have the worst bit over (the shopping) - your tent and car look good. Have a great trip and we will check this site regularly for updates. Have fun!

Scott and M-H said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Farmerbrown said...

Kia ora kotou,

Thanks Wendy for sending me your Blogger address, this is just great and it's the first blog I have ever visited!

Your journey so far sounds awesome.

We have just returned from the Parachute festival http://websites.parachutemusic.com/festival/2007/mp3/index.html held at Mystery Creek, what an awesome weekend!!! We are all still on a high. Such fantastic music everywhere you go for 3 days!! The kids had photos with the famous, e.g. Brooke Fraser, The Lads, Rapture Rucus, 3rd Day!!! Spacifics etc, and John was hit and kept the pick thrown out from the stage by the guitarist of 3rd Day - now that is cool!

Bye for now and I look forward to reading more. Remember Janeve and Meagan would love to see you- although Megs will be back at school by now.

love Shirlene Mark J+C+B+K xxx

Anonymous said...

Hey guys, cool blog, will be interesting to see what y'all get up to. By the look of the countdown you're not going to have to travel too fast .
Hope the locals are treating you well, take care Brad & Caroline.