Category: Uncategorized

Saturday, 10th March 2018

When I woke up this morning, I was lying in a proper bed and not in the camper van!! What luxury!! And at night when I needed to go to the loo, I just stepped into the bathroom, instead of taking a hike on a camp site to the camp bathrooms!! And something else – more important – the rains had stopped and when i went out onto the verandah, I could see spots of blue skies amid the white fluffs of clouds!! It was still very early to wake up Gerry but my first thought was : let’s make good use of this dry spell – let’s go out for a walk along the esplanade and enjoy the views of the bay. Up to now we had only seen Cairns in the rain!

When we were ready, we went outdoors and it was ever so pleasant – the air was so fresh and not yet sticky – so we crossed the road to have breakfast at the Aqualuna, the Aquarium’s restaurant. We sat outdoors just to enjoy the weather!

After breakfast, we strolled along the esplanade, where there was also a Saturday market specialising in arts and craft and while we were taking a rest in the park, we got chatting to this Aussie guy dressed as ranger and he started giving us some interesting historical information about Cairns. Also an interesting fact: the man made lagoon is actually designed as the state of Queensland but upside down – but then that’s OK as we were down under, he told us!!! Anyway, what we did do is follow some of his suggestions and visited the Jungle Dome above the Casino and also the St. Monica’s Cathedral ( just a block from our hotel)

In the Jungle Dome, we met all the animals we’ve seen in their natural surroundings especially the red tailed black cockatoo, the kookaburra ( who swooped down at our first campsite in Port Stephens to snatch one of our oysters), white cockatoo and parrot. Luckily, we had not encountered any of the crocs or snakes during our travels, even though we had seen enough signs to be aware of the danger!

At St. Monica’s Cathedral – a modern church – we were amazed with the beautiful glass windows which depicted the creation of the world and then specifically Australia and then at the back two stained glass windows depicted the Battle of the Coral Sea during WWII. 

After our walk about, we went back to our hotel to have a siesta by the swimming pool and I could finish reading my book as well. We still had some wine in our room and some snacks so we sneaked that to the pool area ( we were on our own) and enjoyed a glass of wine with crackers and cherry tomatoes . However the skies started turning greyish and before we knew it we had a drizzle – it didn’t last long but we thought better go back to our verandah! Finally I finished my book while Gerry did take a nap! 

By now it was time to get ready to go out for our dinner – our last dinner in Australia and we thought we should go back to the Italian restaurant, Villa Romana, as i wanted to have my pasta al Scoglio again with all the seafood and of course as a starter I was having my beloved oysters – it will be the last time for a long while……. We had a lovely dinner and it remained dry all evening so that we could enjoy our stroll back to the hotel through the night market and the town centre. At least now we have some good memories of Cairns too, just like all the other places we have visited.

Tomorrow we will be packing up our gear and flying out of Cairns in the afternoon and getting back to Amsterdam on Monday afternoon with two stops in between: Melbourne and Doha. And then start planning a new trip………..

Tuesday, 6^th March 2018

Oh no!! It rained all night so our chairs outside were completely soaked and hence we had our breakfast at the camp kitchen – together with the 3 Germany guys, the French girl with her parents and the Norwegian girl! The boys had hung up their hammocks above the table in one part of the kitchen as that was the only dry spot and the French family had to spend the night in their car as their tent was leaking! So we didn’t do too badly that morning!!

Anyway, we were the first ones to leave and made our way to Mamu Tropical Skywalk in the rain forest. Well within half an hour we `arrived at the Skywalk – also owned by the same owners of Paranella Park, Mark and Judy Evans. However we sort of lost our way and asked directions at the post office in Johnstone – The lady was ever so helpful, giving us maps of the area.   

Once we arrived at the park, we were given umbrellas to visit the park and we were told that some of the walkways had been damaged with the heavy rainfall of the past days. Well we started our walk and listened to our audio. Once we reached the elevated walkway, it started pouring with rain – well what do you expect in a rain forest???? But at one moment, it was so bad that we had to take shelter as we couldn’t see anything! All I had to do is dance to the tune “singing in the rain”……. By the time we came to the observation tower, there was nothing for us to observe! The visibility was nothing! So we didn’t make the effort to climb the 100 steps to the top to look across the gorge and mountains, as we couldn’t see them.

By the time we made our way back to the main centre, we were completely drenched, and only then we were given rain poncho’s……….. But we didn’t even bother to open them up as it was not worth it for the few meters to the van as we were already so wet!

Our next stop was at the Sugar Museum in Mourilyan – about half an hour’s drive and by this time it was somewhat dry. This was very interesting especially as it had quite a few stories of the first workers who came to work on the sugar cane plantations and the way they lived. The other day, we had seen how one of these sugar cane workers followed his dream and built his castle, but many barely made a living especially those who were transported from the South Sea Islands – they went back to their island homes just as poor but with a “Returns” trunk full of memorabilia which they had bought with their little wages.

The ladies at the museum reception gave us a good introduction of the museum and when they asked us where we came from – Malta and Holland – they were very happy to meet a Maltese as both of them are children of Maltese (and Gozitan) immigrants and both understand Maltese! I’ve taken to saying that I come from Malta and this way I keep meeting my fellow countrymen and women or people who are related to Maltese – in any case they all speak positively of the Maltese!!

Once we had visited the museum, we were finally on our way to Cairns! And we had another downpour, which made it ever so difficult to drive – I was quite agitated and hoped we arrived at the campsite safely! Well Gerry is a really good driver and even though sometimes I would panic and say he should be more careful, he had everything under control.

The campsite was practically empty and we could choose where we wanted to stay. Once we pitched our site, we decided to make a plan – if this was really still the wet season, we were not going to stay much longer in Cairns. Gerry wanted still to go diving at the Barrier Reef, so tomorrow we will be going into town and see what the possibilities are. I am ready to start planning our trip back home!

Monday, 26th February 2018

This morning we woke up to a very beautiful sky – I was hoping to see sunrise but that was lost in the clouds but still it all seemed peaceful. The tide was out on the beach so it was a long stretch – I tried looking for any signs that turtles had either come ashore to lay their eggs or little turtles that had hatched had run down towards the horizon – but alas that phenomena did not take place!

After breakfast we were on our way again,; we did not stop to go through Yeppoon but we did go to the Shipwreck Point were a great number of ships in the late 1800’s had gone missing. Also interesting to note the this was Aboriginal land long before the settlers came here and of course they did resist the european settlers.

Finally on our way and on the A1 highway we came across bizarre landscapes – just like in Vietnam and Cuba, we saw these round mounds of limestone rock in flat land  – these rocks were formed due to volcanic action millions of years ago but I still need to find out more about the area. 

On our last leg of our drive after having filled up the van with diesel and had lunch at Carmile, we still had some 90 km to Mackay. This time we programmed  a campsite some 16 km north of Mackay and directly on the beach front which meant we did not get to see Mackay today. Anyway it was near 5 pm and most camp site offices close round about that time. We were just in time to reach a small part of paradise and we celebrated that with a bottle of bubbly whilst listening to various birds chirping and screeching away. We have enough to explore tomorrow!!

And by the way – we had a scorcher today! 24 degrees and although sometimes somewhat cloudy and a little bit of showers on the way, the day was sunny most of the time!! let’s keep fingers crossed that tomorrow is the same………

Thursday, 22nd February 2018

We woke up to another day of rain!  Today, it would have been my dad’s birthday – happily he must be celebrating it with more of his family now hat Hubert has joined them all in the hereafter!

However back in this world, we have  a miserable campsite! Most of the campers were busy getting their gear together and move on. We did the same – had breakfast and were ready to continue our drive up north.

Our plan was to drive through the national parks covering the areas from Nooseville to Hervey Bay and stopping on the way at Maryborough – the town where the author of Mary Poppins – Pamela Lyndon Travers – used to live. 

When we left the campsite, the weather seemed to be clearing up, however we were wrong – it got worse on the way and actually it wasn’t really a good idea to go through the national parks as some roads were just gravel roads! If it were a clear day, we would have had some really magnificent views of the rain forest. (It certainly was a rainforest!)

At one point our GPS directed us down a gravel road but just as we turned round a bend we could see that the road was flooded – no way we could go through this road so Gerry had no other option than to back up the van to the main road again. Serena, our GPS guide then rerouted us through Kin Kin and then onto Maryborough. 

Kin Kin is a tiny hamlet in the rain forest with a country hotel, general store, and church school. It would have been idyllic on a rainless day! Pictures taken out of the van – too wet to walk around here and we really wanted to get back to normal roads again. Maryborough was only 58 km away through neatly forested roads. Timber is a great production in this area.

Again, heavy rain and I really did send up a quick prayer that we would arrive safely – and we did! Maryborough is a quaint old town – actually one of the oldest towns in Queensland and has very impressive colonial restored buildings. What was really interesting is that the traffic lights show Mary Poppins with her umbrella either standing still when red or with umbrella open flying when green.

We had a walk around here and we were lucky that it was dry!

Further on the road, it was only some 35 km to Hervey Bay where we wanted to spend a couple of day – that is if the weather would dry up. Before getting to our campsite, the Ingenia Holiday Park, we stopped at the shopping mall to get some groceries and wine. We went into the mall with dry weather but when we got out, it was raining – real torrential rain! 

Anyway finally the rain ceased as quickly as it had come and we were finally on our final leg to our campsite. Enough place and although it looks really well kept with loads of palm trees and luscious green lawns, it did look somewhat miserable in the rain.

Just after 5pm, it was time to have a glass of wine together with some snacks under the canopy not far from our van and then I got dinner ready – a delicious Caesars salad with grilled chicken, anchovies, avocado and boiled egg together with toast – and of course a good glass of Pinot Grigio!

Again an early night tonight! Tomorrow, depending on the weather, we’ll decide whether we will be able to go across to Fraser island or drive further to Agnes Water and 1770.

A note this morning 23rd February – I am back in business and sending off this post today through McDonalds’ WIFI – am a happy person again as we were WIFI-less for more than 24 hours – we just couldn’t get connected at our campsite in Hervey Bay!! Ever so thankful to McDonalds (which apparently I have spelt wrongly all the time!!)

Wednesday, 21st February 2018

We woke up to a rainy morning!!  Well I thought that our sightseeing day with Angela and David was gone down the drain……… Olivia and Dylan were ready for school on time but of course (and I remember this very well with my own kids at that time) just before leaving forms and signatures had to be completed…….

Once Angela was back from her school run, we decided unanimously that we would take a short drive up to Montville, a pretty little village further up in the hills and also drive around to get a view of the Glass Mountains – but all we saw was rain and low hanging clouds! I did manage to take just two pictures at the Glass Mountains look out point – one of the picture as the view should be and the other of the actual view, all blurry and wet!!

Well we went for a coffee break at the Glasshouse Mountains information centre  – a really great centre with walkways both high above the ground and into the rain forest……….. but unfortunately, it was too wet to do the walkabout. But we enjoyed our coffee and conversations!

After our wet sightseeing trip which also took in the coastline, we went back to Angela and David’s place for lunch and then we were ready to leave and continue our trip in the rain. We were heading to Noosa Head  – only an hour’s drive away  along the David Low Coast Road. Thanks Angela and David for having us over and enjoying your company!

 On our way we stopped at Coolum Point and just watched the rough waves – normally in season time, whales can be  seen off this point when they are on their migration from the arctic and back.

Finally we arrived at Noosa Heads – still raining! After getting some info at the Info centre and walking on the beach we made our way to Noosaville where we set up camp for the night. We had enough dry time to walk around and also have a fish and chips meal at the little town further down from our campsite which is situated on the estuary of the Noosa River. We’ll be off early tomorrow towards Hervey Bay and keeping our fingers crossed that we will have better weather!!

Tuesday, 20th February 2018

Our stay at Burleigh Heads Municipal campsite was a pleasant one and after having our breakfast, showered and packed our stuff, we were ready to hit the road again. We’re on our way north through Brisbane to Brightwater where our friends, Angela and David live with their children Dylan and Olivia. 

Our drive was not really a long one – so we put in a detour to Tamborine Mountain and ended up at Eagles Heights.  Climbing up the mountain side of 550 meters, we constantly saw huge signposts saying that this was a very steep road and trucks, lorries and campers and trailers should not attempt to drive up! I was a bit in a panic mode thinking that half way up the road our camper van would succumb and we would be stuck half way. Actually, it wasn’t a bad climb and we’ve had higher climbs in Europe!! When we reached Eagles Heights,  we had a great view  – but it would have been more magnificent if had clear weather. We should have been able to see Surfers Paradise’s tall high rises from here but it was somewhat blurred. We used this stop as our coffee break and just enjoyed the luscious green surroundings.

After our coffee break we drove back down the mountain and were on our way to Brisbane – and the Sunshine Coast.  When we were close to Brisbane and the City, I was able to take a couple of pictures before disappearing into the tunnel which took all the way under Brisbane and came out at the other end in one of the suburbs – hmm…. that was Brisbane for us!

Time for some lunch and a WIFI stop at Macdonalds! Gerry is getting addicted to Macdonald’s milk shakes!! 

Finally on our way on the sunshine coast highway and when we saw the bill board welcoming us to the Sunshine Coast and……… it started raining! Oh no, our luck seemed to have run out – anyway we made our way to Brightwater – that’s where Angela and David live with their two kids Dylan and Olivia. We found our way quite easily and this is a new residential area – very similar to those in Almere – with lots of water canals and lakes as this area is actually on the estuary of the Mooloolah River . Actually well situated between the Glass Mountains and the coast.

As soon as arrived and parked in front of our friends’ house, I had a vision of the Griswolds family in the Christmas film: Christmas Vacation. Sister and Brother in law come and visit at Christmas time in their old and rusty RV and park it in front of the Griswolds’ home……..

When we met up with Angela and Dave, it was just like meeting old friends – now we know all the De Vries family spread over New Zealand and Australia and we were made welcome and enjoyed our time with the family. Angela prepared a lovely meal for all of us!

We did not make it a late night as tomorrow both Angela and Dave had taken the day off to do some sightseeing with us – let’s hope the weather will be better!!

This morning when we woke up, the skies were overcast even though the temperatures were already in the high twenties. I had forgotten that the rain had followed us in most of the places we were visiting so was wondering whether this would also be in Melbourne!! We were down for breakfast by 9.30 am after I had finished up with some blogging – now I was up to date and as i am writing this evening all about today’s wandering around in Melbourne, I will try to keep the blog current.

We were outdoors by 10.30 and took the tram to the city stopping at the Casino so that we could walk the Southbank Promenade – our plan was to climb the highest tower in the southern hemisphere, the Eureka Tower. Well it wasn’t actually climbing the tower – rather in less than 40 seconds we would arrive at level 88 in the fastest lifts in the Southern Hemisphere. The 360 degrees views of Melbourne were awesome – even though we had overcast skies! Interesting to note, is the fact that the glass on the top 10 levels is 24 carat gold plated.  This and the name of the Tower – Eureka – refers to the Greek term meaning “I found it” that was used in the Victorian gold fields whoever gold was found!

After our high altitude experience, we were back on street level and walked across the pedestrian bridge to Flinders Street Station and onto Federation Square. Another interesting note about Federation Square is that this was the site where the Aboriginal tribes of the  Kulin confederacy of Aboriginal peoples lived for thousands of years. The Wathaurung, the Bunurong and the Woiworung peoples occupied the land. The Woiworung group comprised a number of clans including the Wurundjeri, who laid claim to the area drained by the Yarra River and its tributaries. In the first years after European settlement, Aboriginal clans still camped at their traditional locations on both sides of the Yarra River, near the  Government House. Over the last two hundred years the site had been home to the city morgue, a fish market, corporate offices and rail yards. While planners had long dreamed of linking the CBD with the Yarra River, the divide created by the railway yards had consistently thwarted further development. However in 1998 it was decided to have this square designed and built in time for the Federation’s centennial – and it is now a cultural and events driven place enjoyed by both locals and tourists alike due to its central position.

Well that’s some history listen for my readers! And this is where we decided to stop our walk about and enjoy some crushed juices and watch the world go by. As the City’s information centre is located on the Federation Square, I decided to get some info on a good walk to get to know the old Melbourne. But first we visited the Anglican St. Paul’s Cathedral built on a site that previously from 1836 to 1848 was the site  which served as a corn market for the growing city. This cathedral has had various stages of constructions but as it stands today, it is a magnificent place of worship both from outside and inside. And yes, it’s become traditional for Gerry and myself to light candles in remembrance of those who are no longer with us.

Our walk around was based on one of Melbourne Walks – Arcades and Lanes which covered lanes, alleyways, little streets, arcades, cafe society and fascinating shops! Although the walk was only 2.5km  and to be walked in 1.5 hours, we took much longer as we were curious about some interesting places – e.g. the first public toilets for men built in 1910 while the Ladies’ public toilet was only built in 1927!

Once we had completed our walk, we were really dead beat and decided to take the city free circle tram so that we could see the rest of the city while enjoying the ride. I was so dead beat, that I nodded off a bit while sitting on the sunny side of the tram!!! 

It was well after 18.30 that we took our own tram back to St.Kilda and back to our hotel for a little rest and a shower before going out for dinner. This time we remained in St.Kilda and as I had read that there were some really good restaurants along the esplanade, we strolled down to the beach. And we were in for a big surprise – everyone was out strolling on the beach or just hanging around, waiting for sunset. We were lucky to get a table which gave us full front view of the sunset – oh that was so magnificent – life is good!!!

Yes I could easily adapt to this way of life – the  five million Melburnians have such a good life!! But that is all the time we can spend in this wonderful city as tomorrow we are on our way to Sydney with a stopover at Beechworth to spread the driving over two days!

Tuesday 23^rd January – Friday 26^th January 2018

By 9.30 am we were already on the road after having spent 3 days in Rotorua. We had hiked in volcanic and geothermal grounds, gone ziplining in NZ’s only indigenous forest with trees over 500 years old and all the time the smell of sulfur; sometimes so strong that it was quite nauseating!

This was going to be a short drive to Auckland, however we did a detour to Matamata – a small country town which became famous due to Peter Jackson’s filming of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and changing this town into Hobbiton! Of course I felt it my duty to stop here as Martijn (my son) and I had read all the books and seen all the films. The i-Site building is a replica of the Hobbiton gatehouse and inside we found a statue of Gollem – my precious!

We continued our drive to Auckland and we were first going to meet up with my cousins Mark and Philip Abela – their mum and I are first cousins as both our dads were siblings. While I knew of their existence, I had never met my Kiwi cousins. Anyway over coffee we got to know each other and especially Mark does travel to Europe as he loves hiking so we are sure to meet up again. Then onto Parnell to visit with my old school friend, Anisia – this is where we were going to use as a base for our sightseeing in and round about Auckland. Interesting note is that I haven’t seen Anisia since I left school many decades ago and although we are friends on Facebook, when we met it was just like old times and we had just met yesterday !!

After a good night’s rest at Anisia’s home and having brought ourselves up to date with what’s been keeping us busy all these decades, it was time to do the sights. Parnell is a very central area of Auckland and in fact is stuck to downtown Auckland and just because this is the last place we are visiting in New Zealand, we were granted some really good weather. We woke up to bright sunshine and it was time to go and explore!

We drove down Tamaki Drive offering us beautiful sights of the coastline and our next stop was to have lunch at one of the many seaside restaurants at Mission Bay. Oh it was so great sitting outdoors and watching the world go by. Everyone here seems to be in a holiday mood – well kids are still off from school for their summer holidays and there were a great number of mums with their kids going down to the beach.

Lunch over, we made our way back to town to visit the National and War Museum. Again we were lucky to view quite a number of interesting exhibitions of the Maori culture as well as the Great War of  1914-18 where more than 100.000 men left for the war and only 40.000 came back.

This was a really busy day, as in the evening, Anisia and Owen invited us to the Sky City – Auckland’s 328 meter high tower and the tallest in the southern hemisphere . We rocketed up to the observation deck and we had enough time to take inn the views before going up another storey for our dinner on a rotating restaurant. After dinner we drove down to the Wynyard Quarter full of waterfront restaurants and beautiful boats berthed  – to be fully inspected the following morning!

The following morning we woke up to another day of bright sunshine and our itinerary for the day was to explore Wynyard Quarter and then take a ferry trip to Waiheke Island. As we could not get any tickets on the ferry to take our car with us, we decided to go on public transport all the way. Of course, we had to investigate everything on Internet and got a good feeling that we could take public means of transport – which was a first for Gerry!! Walked up to the top of the road to catch the bus to get as close to the Wynyard quarter and everyone was helpful when we asked our way around. The bus drivers are ever so pleasant!! And it was great catching the bus and seeing the sights along the road without watching out for traffic.

By the time we got to Wynyard Quarters and having walked around, it was time to have lunch. Our stroll was quite fascinating – beautiful views of the financial city with contrasts to the older buildings still standing such as the Ferry House and the Customs house and the Viaduct Harbour. The latter was once a commercial port but since Auckland has been hosting the America Cup sailing competition, this are has been given a great makeover and there loads of eating places facing the little harbour now full of very expensive yachts. This is where we had our lunch – at an Irish pub called O’Hagan’s Irish Pub. We sat outside in the shade and enjoyed a green salad and some potato wedges with sour cream and salsa.

Once our lunch was over, we finally decided to take the ferry across to Waiheke island. After a 45 minute crossing, we arrived at a totally different place – this island was covered with vineyards and had loads of winetasting houses. We bought a day ticket on the bus and travelled to a few of the villages scattered on the island but finally decided to stop at Onetangi Beach – the beach houses here – bachs – are mostly lavish weekend homes for millionnaires. Anyway had a swim and a lie down on the sandy beach and just enjoyed our surroundings. We could sense that this place was a millionaires’ hiding place as when we stopped for a drink at the Boathouse, there were quite a few jetsetty crowds drinking bubbly wine and wearing stylish beach clothes……… Well after our drinks (bubbles yes, but not alcoholic……. Ginger beer!!), we caught the bus back to the harbour to get our ferry back to Auckland. A great afternoon!!

And then it was Friday morning – a leisure morning spent with Anisia at her house just chatting over coffee before we started packing our gear – we had an early flight following morning to Adelaide Australia which meant our Kiwi adventure was over. But before that, we were invited to Rocky and Sarah’s place in Torbay for an early dinner. Rocky had spent quite some time at Gerry’s place in Holland when travelling in Europe some 25 years ago – he used Gerry’s house as a base and it seemed he had fond memories of those travelling days. Sarah is a real princess in the kitchen – we had a fantastic dinner starting off with snapper caught the previous day by Rocky when he went out fishing and then my favourite – roast lamb – there was also a wonderful desert, ginger trifle but that was just too much for me but Gerry finished off everything. What a wonderful way to end up our New Zealand trip!