The town of 1770

We were feeling a bit crap and sore after the madness of the Whitsundays so we really needed a rest which was not helped by a horrible over night bus from Airlie Beach.

But we arrived in the small town of 1770, North of Bundaberg, so called as this was the year Captain Cook first set foot in this area. Our hostel was in a large ranch about 5 minutes drive from the beach and it had two massive doggies!

One was called Scoobie but we don't know the name of his sister or girlfriend. The hostel also had a cat called Shadow and a nice horse which looked very sad. The town is basically a beach and a few shops and you really feel cut off from everything.

We just chilled in 1770 for a few days and Dave took some surf lessons and was really good at it, (Chris couldn't do it because of her sore arm). The beach at 1770 is the most northern surf beach on the East coast. The Internet here is shit so we don't know when our photos will be uploaded. Poo.

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The Whitsundays

Our 3 day trip on The Card around the Whitsundays was awesome! The Whitsundays are a group of 74 islands off Airlie Beach and is the 3rd best sailing place in the world next to the Carribean and the Greek Islands. Our group had the coolest people and our crew were crazy! We had an amazing time! Check the photos to see what we mean.








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Magnetic Island

Magnetic Island is our first tropical Island that we have been on. It is beautiful but really sleepy with hardly any shops and places to eat.


The first night we arrived we saw toad racing where locals and tourists bet up to $50 on toads to race each other. Crazy but loads of fun!

The man running it was a character. We have spent our time here doing bush walks (we got to see a baby koala) and sea kayaking. We have also been battling with some annoying Irish culchies from our dorm. We hate them! Lets hope we get some sleep on the Whitsundays boat. We doubt it!



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Mission Beach

We arrived in Missions Beach Monday morning and the sun was finally shining! The place is basically one big beach and there are lots of activities to get on with like bush walking and swimming. We both did the 14,000 ft sky jump which was so amazing! Going up in the plane and having to move ourselves to the edge of the door was the scariest part! The 60 second free fall was unreal. It was quite hard to breath as the air just shoots up your nose. As the instructor pulled the parachute the views of Mission Beach and the surrounding islands were spectacular! It was really beautiful. We have a DVD of the dive but it does not capture the nice views that we saw from up there.


Today we did the Extreme White Water Rafting in Tully. Not only did we get to crash down the river but we also got to jump off rocks and go down shoots. The forest and mountains were gorgeous. This place is class!

We have most of our photos and video on DVD so you will have to wait till we get home to see them. The sky dive one is really embarrassing!

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Cairns

We arrived in Cairns on Tuesday morning. The town itself is nothing special, its just one big tourist information centre. We headed to the Great Barrier Reef to see the fish the next day which was amazing! The weather was overcast and windy so the boat ride there and back was really rough and the bumps were great! Being in the water was pretty scary sometimes as it was quite choppy and the currents were strong. But the reef was so beautiful. So many fish! So many colours! It really is a different world under there.


On Wednesday we went up to Cape Tribulation and saw crocodiles in the wild. We stayed the night at a beach house and went horse riding through the rainforest. When we reached the beach the weather was bucketing.

Apart from the the rainforest it could have been the West of Ireland. We loved it, especially when we got to go really fast! Our horses Raja and Little Red were the biggest and smallest of the group. They had to go through dense rainforest and muddy hills and were so well behaved.


Tomorrow Dave is doing his bungee jump.....


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More Melbourne

We met Susan Kennedy from Neighbours on Friday! She was so lovely and chatted away. She said she was born in Carrickfergus! Libby and Paul Robinson drove past but we did not get a photo. Chris has now seen 8 Neighbours actors and saw Dr Karl twice. Ramsay Street was a lot smaller than what we thought. We also met a cat and a dog who live there. How exciting!


That night we went to get Thai and a few drinks at Melbourne Central and then went to a comedy club on Collins Street. The comedians were not great but we still got at laugh, laughing at the shape of them. Later Edel took us to St Jerome in this cool alleyway near Shit Town where we had a wee boogie.


The next day we went out for dinner with Doireann, Stephen and their flat mate Adam.The food was so gorgeous! We headed into the casino for a while but found the whole thing a bit daunting. While lot of minging people in there! Dave briefly won $20 but promptly lost the whole $40 with two more spins of the roulette.


Yesterday we headed to St Kilda for a dander and tonight we are going to Melbourne jail for a night tour. I hope it is not too scary! Then off to Cairns tomorrow at 5am! Bring on the good weather!

The Gallery
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Melbourne

Coming back to Sydney and not being able to go back to Stanmore sucked!!! We stayed at this wee crummy hostel in Kings Cross but at least we got a chance to have a drink with Erin, Emily, Jenny and Leah from Chris' old work at the CWA. (Two for One at the Fountain rocks!)


Our Qantas flight from Sydney to Melbourne was great apart from the delay. They loved giving us food and drink. As we flew over Sydney we could see the Royal National Park coastline. The park is so big that we only ever managed to see part of it by foot.


On Saturday Melbourne was filled with mental Irish people dressed up like ejits. It took us a while to realise that Ireland were playing Australia in the rugby. Theoretically we could've gone to the game. There were tickets about on Saturday afternoon but we settled for the warmth of the pub as we were knackered and had no warm gear to sit on the terraces for two hours.


We have done a good few things since we got here. We visited Christine's Uncle Francie and Elaine in Garfield and had a barbeque, had a few drinks with our friend Edel that we met in Sydney and had coffee with Doireann at Southgate. We also went to the Austrian Centre for Moving Images and saw the Game On Exhibition where we played away on old video games from Pong, Space Invaders, Packman, King of Fighters (where Chris beat Dave's ass!, Lemmings, and Nintendo Wii. How cool is the Nintendo Wii by the way!!!! We want one!


On Tuesday we went on a tour of the Great Ocean Road. The weather held out and we managed to see some beautiful sights. Our tour guide was a complete mentalist which added to the craic. His name was Bernie and he looked like a crazed Santa on holiday. He was a typical Ozzie - big, brash and politically incorrect. He slagged everyone from the French, Belgian, Pommes, Canadian, Japanese, Dutch and American. He just called us the the Paddy's but we didn't get as much stick as everyone else which was surprising. He was impressed when we told him where we lived in Sydney as he said all the 'Paddy's' usually live in County Bondi. The two Belgian people got it the worst. He kept calling them Frenchies and Froggies and picked up snails and asked did they want a bite. Aww and the 'Ducthie' got it pretty bad too. Apparently everyone in Holland is big headed!


We stayed with Uncle Francie on Wednesday night. They took us to Phillip Island where they have a Summer house. We went to the zoo and saw The Nobbies. We also had another big barbecue but this time it was a proper barbecue with a fire. We weren't able to stay for the penguin parade but maybe another time. We took a walk on the beach and saw the sunset where Auntie May used to sit when she visited. It was beautiful.

Here are some photos

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