Brisbane

Friday 17th December 2010 - Sunday 19th December 2010

On the road again.  But major disaster occurred - likely I broke my toe whilst getting ready to head for Brissy.  RF providing cold XXXX can for first aid.  I am certain that the people down the hall were awoken with my screams!!  Seriously think at this stage I have broken my toe - perhaps even a bone in my foot!  Here is the photo evidence - much more painful than it looks....

Killing Me!!

 

Stopped in at Perigian Beach to see our celebrant for our wedding - pretty set now - just need to write our vows - that should be a bit of fun over a glass of wine.  Lucky we think the same way - a few meaningful words - burt nice and short!!

Arrived in Brissy - found our way to Jarad and Carolyn's and now for some family time with these guys and baby Caitlin - yay :).

A few BBQ's and tonight home made pizza (including the dough) - boys are busy at it.  A trip to IKEA - picked up some $1 glasses to take to Sunshine Beach for the pre and after party.  Probably cheaper than buying nice plastic.  Got the obligatory $1 hot dog on the way out - maybe they should change their name to the $1 shop! Caitlin loved her trip to IKEA - slept the whole time and now off to her first xmas party with Carolyn.  Big day out for little baby.
More excitment today - Australia rolled the Poms in the Cricket - great work.  Now for a big Boxing Day test in Melbourne.  Yay.  Mike Hussey your are a legend - keep up the good work.  Boys manaaged to watch flat out yesterday. 

Day 2 of 3rd Ashes Test.  Jarad & Richard at home in Brissy

Today they have decided on some cooking - just pizza dough - so should be ok~!


Caitlin Grace Evans - 8 weeks



Noosa

Thursday 16th December 2010
A few appointments arranging wedding things today.  Had a nice bfst at a little cafe in Noosa - then off to meeting at Sails.  All good - can see things coming together now.  Off to Malany to see the florist - should really have arranged to see her on the way to Brissy tomorrow - oh well.  Made it, all sorted.  Weather packed in on our way home - had to stop for a bit - huge rain with thunder, lightening etc.  Made it back to Noosa.  Wandered down to Sails wine/cocktail bar - Rumba.  Very cool bar underneath the restaurant.  RF ordered a Cuban Missile - (note underneath saying - Not for the faint hearted).  It was unbelieveable.  Chilli infused rum.  It was so hot that it took him an hour to drink it.  Meanwhile I enjoyed some Soave (not had it before - very nice).  Met some staff in the bar that had just moved down from Darwin - they had been working at Pee Wee's.  The whole 6 degrees of separation - they were Tom Austens flat mates in Darwin (Tom worked for me at the Holiday Inn).  Found a cool little pizza bar for a bite on the way home - cant wait for Feb - lots of fun!

Tannum Sands

Tuesday 14th December 2010
On the road again.  Love Airlie Beach - we will be back.  Plans to get halfish way to Brissy.  Sammy works for the people that own the Tannum Sands Hotel - so decided we would make that our stop for the night.  The theme continues with heaps of road works and really bad drivers.  

RF fancies himself as one of these stand by and point people



Weather has been kind so far - no issues with the floods.  Just started to see some water close to the road - but certainly no drama for driving.

Arrived at Tannum Sands.  Different from what we were expecting - much bigger.  Nice place right on the beach.  Had dinner and some drinks (weather starting to feel cool at night - time for Jeans in the evenings).  Not really cold - just climatising from 2 years of sweating!  If you are ever passing through definately a nice place to stop.  Big thanks to Kate & Graham for looking after us.  Lovely coffees delivered in the morning - thanks Kate.

Wednesday 15th December 2010
On the road again.  Worst day today - as apparently my turn to drive.  Fair enough since RF has done the other 4,000 km - but still feel as though I have drawn the short straw.  Heaps of road works again. Destination Noosa.  Wotif.Com - love their Flaming deals - figured out that the Sheraton Noosa was the flaming deal - matching their details of the swim up bar.  Booked - love it!  Arrived in Noosa safely - very lucky given the crazies on the road.  Arrived in Noosa - checked into the Sheraton.  Definately in need of a refurb.  Lovely big rooms - we are ok with it as not paying $300 a night.  Be a little on the angry side if I was.  Out and about looking for somewhere to have drinks the night before the wedding - found a place in Noosaville - but then note the following day that the business is for sale - so may need to watch that space.  Ended up at the Surf Club - not Surf club prices - but I guess that is expected in Noosa.  A bit of Karaoke at the surf club - just spectators this time, I think my singing days are over....

Airlie Beach

Thursday 9th December 2011

Cairns woke us up with lots of thunder and a bit of a storm.  Decided to hit the road - weather was clearing by the time we left Lou and Andrews.

In the spirit of making the savings last as long as possible - we went to Dan Murphys where we collected some XXXX Gold for Richie (his new beer of choice), and some Amiri Sav for Mel - (have not lowered myself to drinking goon yet - but these little puppies are only $7 a bottle and quite nice).  The cost saving on these two allowed for a case of Bulmers - yay!  Next stop was supermarket, and finally the demise of good living - the tobacconist for a rolly machine and tobacco.  Needless to say a few lessens coming up for Mel in the art of rolling.  So finally the Goon(Amiri), VB(XXXXGold), and Rollies trip is well underway.

Headed for Townsville - heaps of roadworks along the way.  Took us 5 hours to get to Townsville and followed this crazy idiot most of the way.  I should have reported him to the traffic police (whoever they are), but then decided just to shame him on our blog. He spent the whole day driving up everyone elses rear end a true idiot.



Can see his number plate - so still might report him!















Lots more bag trees on the way - took this photo for Nina and Miles.  Bananas on the side of the road are as cheap as $1/kg.

Bag Trees!

Passed through Innisfail - I remember the horrific flooding that happened here some years ago.  The town seems to have fully recovered - lucky it seems not their turn this year.  Starting to think about our best route down the coast with all the flooding - but we have a few days yet - hoping that we can charter a safe route.

Started to take snaps of the Big Fruits - number 1 is the Big Mango - funny as you know there are quite a few more to come and Rich thinks it may be a good ideas to get key rings of each fruit to hang on the rear vision mirror - so by Sydney we will have a fruit salad.  True to his word yesterday (Saturday - as I am writing a few days behind) we were at the shops and he started to look for the mango key ring - thankfully not found as yet!

The Big Mango

Arrived in Airlie beach about 7.00pm - had booked an apartment at Whitsunday Reflections for $100/nt with full cooking facilities.  Arrived and very happy - this place is just lovely and a real bargain.  It was opened in Sept - so obviously not too many people know about it yet.  Should you ever be in Airlie Beach - highly recommend ****8 Stars!

Headed into town for a look around.  Airlie  Beach is packed with back packers having a good time.  Rich and I starting to feel a little old - but very young at heart!!  Signs for jobs starting immediately for the pubs and restaurants here - we know where to come if we run out of money!  Lots of live music and very cheap drinks.  What would have cost us $11 or there abouts in Darwin was $8 here - very good!!  Picked up a pizza and off home for the oldies.

Friday 10th December 2011
Woke next day to beautiful day - temperature here is lovely - nice hot days and cools down in the evenings - might have found our climate of choice.  The pool here is great.  Some swimming relaxing and chilling out.  Starting to feel like we are really on holidays - or just every night is a Saturday night - life is bliss.  Smart move to buy our groceries in Cairns - went to the IGA yesterday and picked up a bottle of tonic (for our Gin) and they charge $3 a bottle - shocker.  Need to make sure we drink all of that tonic!

View from our Apartment - Airlie Beach

Shute Harbour

Saturday 11th December 2011
Time to update the I-Pod.  Downloaded some more travelling music as we will be back on the road on Tuesday.  5 nights in Airlie has been a great decision - love it here, cant think of anywhere else in Oz that is like this.  Weather has been great, a day by the pool in order.  Trying to go a little bit off white which is a challenge in itself for Rich and I.  Reading books, blogging, Gray's online bidding for wine bargains (my new favourite pass time aside from blogging), sun, relax, happy hour, wedding planning, dinner, TV, bed - good day!!

Sunday 12th December 2011
Our first day of rain since the start of our road trip.  Stormy day with loads of rain.  A day for indoor entertainment.  Purchased a Weekend Australian and brought ourselves up to speed with Wikileaks - how could you miss it - there were about 15 articles.  Very interesting - we will be watching to see how that unfolds.  A whole day enjoying the newspaper and relaxing.  Such a joy to have a proper newspaper that does not feature a snake or crocodile on the front page.  Georgia trecked accross from, Hayman Island for a visit.  Great to see her and catch up - it has nearly been 2 years.  Talked about old times in Torquay - thought we would snack on some nice cheese and crackers - like old times - but she has given up eating cheese!  Whoops - but at least main course was desirable with some nice roast lamb and cous cous salad.  Looking forward to seeing her again at our wedding.



Mel & Georgia

Monday 13th December 2011

Last day in Airlie Beach - relaxing day at the apartment.  Finished 2 books that I started nearly a year ago - read Side By Side - book about Collingwood losing in the Finals in 2009 to Geelong - quite depressing but looking forward to the new book - I like happy endings!  Made friends with Greys Online.  Fits in with our new careful spending policy.  Secured 2 cases of Foxes Island Pinot Noir for $39/case - RRP for these is currently $44 per bottle - so feeling very pleased with myself.  Wine delivered to Sydney for Xmas - might be some left over for wedding time too - that would be good.

Chilling Out in Airlie Beach

Carins

Sunday 5th December 2011
After a few catch up drinks with Lou and Andrew awoke to a very steamy Cairns day. Spent the day relaxing - much needed after 30 hours of driving over 3 days to get there.  Treated ourselves to some lovely prawns - not so lovely for Richie - because of course he has to peel them all!!  Yummy.  Explored a bit of the Cairns waterfront - very impressive little bar/restaurant - oriental in style where we partook in a couple of top up beers.
Relaxing day, good friends, good food, great drinkies.

Monday 6th December 2011
Lay Day.  Caught up on bits of wedding planning etc.  Planned our trip for Tuesday.  Very steamy in Cairns - easy to do very little.

Tuesday 7th December 2011
Set off in the morning to the Daintree.  Nice drive from Cairns along the coast - arrived at the ferry crossing to get to the Discovery Centre.  This is the most expensive ferry in the world.  $21 return of a 2 minute boat trip.  They dont even have to steer the boat - it is on a rope.  You cant get out of the car - not that there would be much point as the 2 minutes goes very quickly.




Most Expensive Ferry in the WORLD

The Discover centre is fab.  We hired the commentary phones that you dial the respective number and get the info on all the flora, fauna,wildlife etc as you walk around.  We we hoping to see the Cassowary Bird but were not so lucky.  The closest we got was this statue:



Mel with the Cassawary















Off for a swim - Richie very excited about the pool here (Airlie Beach).  More Blogging later!!

Back for some early morning Blogging - swimming soon!

Drove to Daintree village - very small, just a few little shops.  It was at least 40 degrees in the shade, sent a postcard to the Mum's - it is nice to get mail!  Headed to Port Dougals to the Court House Hotel.  Sammy works for these guys - so thought we would check it out.  Just a quick drink and looksee.  Cool place.  Not much competition in the area - they should rake it in!!  Sorry we didnt say hello to Bianca - Sammy - tell her next time - we will definately be back!!

Back to Cairns for swim in the pool at Lou and Andrews.  The pool there is great, the girls in the photo below have promised to come back at New Year for Deno!

Wednesday 8th December 2011
Blog day.  Spent most of the day setting up this Blog to share our road trip, xmas, nz, and wedding with you all!!  3 network VERY slow in Cairns and new technology for Rich and myself so yes took most of the day.  Headed out to the shops - got some lovely lamb that I had every intention of cooking for Lou and Andrew - however it is always a challenge cooking for good chefs.  So Andrew kindly offered - offer accepted!  Great BBQ and last little drinkies until Feb with these guys.  Thanks again for having us - it was fun!


Lou and Andrew - at home in Cairns











PS - Thanks so much for having AUSTAR - Rich is now officially addicted.  I am hoping that he doesn't make a habit of taking photos of video clips - like the lovely image above!

3 days - Darwin to Cairns

Thursday 2nd December 2010
Darwin to Three Ways - 927km
Set off at civilised time - no early mornings for the unemployed! Or so we thought..
Not really planning to get so far, until we realised how many one pony towns were along the way.  Dont go looking for the Katherine Gorge unless you know its Indiginous name - Nitmiluk - Dont ask for help at the Katherine Visitors Info Centre - they are not really interested, in fact - dont even stop.  Thought Mataranka might have been good for a thermal swim - think again - move straight on.  Daly Waters Pub (the legend) - wont be staying there for the night - no no no, not for us, no thank you!
Daly Waters Pub
Travelled through Barkly country - very flat and not much to see.  Thank God for Apple - I-Pod.  Possibly our best purchase ever.  Lukily we had spent some time before departing loading lots of music - Thanks Mitch for helping update the Evans/Fanshawe music selection.:)
Three Ways for the night - had been told to give Tenant Creek a miss.  So ended up at what we would best describe as a trucker stop that had 3 styles of accommodation.  No camping or dongas for us - so we booked into what they call a motel room - bad inventory managment if you ask us - it was a shabby donga with single beds, that you could barely swing a cat in.  Anyway a burger and a couple of beers and off to bed. 
Three Ways Roadhouse

Friday 3rd December 2010
6.30am start - to cross the Tablelands heading for Mt Isa.  Petrol is nearly $2/L at this stage - so economical driving speed paramount today - no 130km/h - 100 km/h to save a few dollars.  Friday saw the start of the Ashes series - lovely that ABC were able to broacast to us - but very uninteresting very quickly as we listen to Australias demise.  Back to Apple and some happier tunes.
More friendly and helpful people at the Mt Isa Information Centre - must be something in the water south of Darwin.  Happily in QLD now.  Mt Isa is a lot nicer that we thought it was going to be, gas is cheaper than Darwin and the trucks are bigger than Texas.  Cloncurry looked like a nice country town with all facilities - clean and tidy little place.  Made it through to Richmond - 1000km in a day - too easy on the open roads.  Checked into the nicest motel in town - same price as the dump at Three Ways - but a whole lot nicer with a lovely pool and fabulous service from the owner/manager.  Tons of friendly locals at the pub for Friday night drinks, all wanting to share their life stories of the outback with us.  Scared us off for another early night.

Saturday 4th December 2010
Up early looking for petrol station - not open - so motored through to Hughenden - another nice little town with good services.  Made the decision to get to Cairns.  Feeling the need for coastal vibes.  Made it to Sugar cane country with lots of strange "Bag Trees" covering the precious bananas.  Rich is dying to take a photo to send to Miles and Nina to show them the bag trees that we have in Oz. 

Note the Blue and Yellow bags - loads more at this time of year.

Made it to Townsville by lunchtime - straight past on the ring road.  Really surprised how big Townsville is and certainly new roading in place for it to grow and grow.  Lots of new sub developments.  Might stop in on the way down to Airlie to have a better look.  Motored up to Cairns - stopped just after Townsville for a bite of lunch - the new style.  This involves sandwiches/rolls from the Super Duper.  No more flash restaurants and cafes for us.  That was our pact when deciding to take 3 months off.  So far going ok...  Arrived in Cairns to meet up with Lou and Andrew.  Great to see them and be able to stay for a few days.  IHG friends are the best hosts and they have a great apartment at Yorkeys Knob - which Rich likes to call Yonkeys Knob. 
We made it to the coast!! A bit faster than we expected so proping here for a few days.  Starting to relax and enjoy some time together - could get used to this!!

Barra Monday

Darwin

Arrived in Darwin Feb 2009 after Mel had spent time at Cooinda - after luirng Rich to come and visit - decided that the NT was a place where we could stop for a while.
2 years has past and lots of good times.  Lucky to have made some great friends and at the same time attended the University of AGB where we learnt lots about what we didnt know and were given a load of great opportunities.
Richard re-found his passion for fishing - so Cooinda became the weekender of choice.  68cm Barra was the record (Mel's) until last week where Rich caught a keeper of 75cm - well pleased with himself!!
58 Bayview Blvd had lots of visitors - family and Boswell on his days off from Jabiru.  The pool was the central focus - with lots of time playing with the "noodles".  Sitting on the balcony Fri & Sat nights a highlight for Mel - where finally saw the "Pies" win the Grand Final - a true highlight for 2010!!
Deciding on a sea change - Nov 2010 we packed up and Dec 2nd 2010 we hit the road.......