Noosa

We flew from Darwin to Brisbane and spent a night in the city before heading up to Noosa via Greyhound bus. The buses are NOTHING like the American ones, modern, comfortable, free wifi and the people are mostly holiday travelers.

 We collected the keys, opened the sliding doors and looked out on a view we love, and now think of as our Aussie home, having stayed here for 5 years now.

 

Of course we are gradually visiting all our favourite places. This one is the Noosa Yacht Club, just 10 minutes from the apartment.

A city with more than its share of disasters

We've all heard about the devastation caused by Cyclone Tracy in Christmas Day in 1974. And I kind of knew that Darwin had been involved in the second World War when the Japanese were heading our way. But I had no idea of the scale of it.

 There were 188 Japanese planes involved in the first raid and 54 in the second raid a couple of hours later. 236 people were killed, and 30 aircraft destroyed before they could even get off the ground. Of the many ships in the harbour, 11 were sunk and 28 damaged. Most of the deaths were people on board the ships.

 We visited a military museum where we saw a movie of the bombing, and also a museum on the rebuilt wharf that had opened just 2 weeks ago. It offered a virtual reality experience of the bombing.

As we arrived, a young boy had just completed the experience. He excitedly told us about what a cool experience it was. I thought I'd give it a try, but as soon as things started falling down around me when the first shell hit I ripped the headset off and I was out of there. Graham almost did the same when he found himself in a fighter plane.

It was an amazingly realistic experience - too much so for me.

Darwin

The apartment seemed a lot nicer next morning, in the daylight and after a good sleep. The view out over the waterfront precinct was very nice, taking in the free swimming pool and convention centre. During the time we were there, we swam in the pool to cool off, and walked past the convention centre out to the wharf.

 

A fellow Ghan traveller advised us to spend some time on the hop on hop off bus, which we did. The 90 minute tour gave us a good overview of the city and an idea of the places we would like to spend more time.

 

We completed the round and disembarked in town beside Shenanigans. So we had a beer before doing our shopping. This time, with the help of daylight and a bit of local knowledge, we found the over bridge and elevator, and had a much easier walk back to the apartment.

And so to Darwin

Once back on the train we enjoyed our last two-course lunch, washed down with the odd glass of wine. Then it was time to pack and say fond farewells to the many friends we had made on the journey.

Close to Darwin we encountered several fires, some with flames that seemed to be right up to the tracks. The fire didn't seem to be affecting the trees, just burning off the undergrowth.

 We also saw evidence of many termites along the way. Some were quite huge.

 

We saw the efficiency of the Ghan team at work in Darwin as they worked with locals to get 350 or so people and their luggage loaded onto the correct bus headed for town. 

We were dropped off at a central CBD hotel. The 15 minute, 1.1km walk had seemed like a good idea when we were on the train, but dragging our luggage in 29 degree muggy heat at the end of a long day wasn't such a good idea. Especially after taking a wrong turn added quite a few more steps, several of them vertical. When we passed a jogger for the second time he asked us where we were headed. He told us we were doing it the hard way, as we had just missed an elevator that would have made things a lot easier.

We eventually found the lockbox for the keys to our luxury waterfront apartment. Which didn't seem quite as luxurious, or waterfront as we had anticipated. However it did have a choice of restaurants on the ground floor. We were too tired to enjoy our meal, and tucked up in bed soon after.

Nitmiluk

We had another wonderful meal back on board the train. We met up with some Ozzie women on tour with a kiwi guide from Christchurch. After dinner we had a few Baileys with them in the bar, and then ended up having a nightcap in our room after the bar closed.

So we were a little slow to get going in the morning, but still managed an eggs benny breakfast before boarding a bus to Katherine and on to Nitmiluk National Park. 

 

The Jawoyn people have lived in the area for thousands of years. Theirs is a story that ended well, with land claims resulting in the land being returned to them. They promptly gifted a large portion back to the government to become a national park. However the many tourism operations are owned and operated by the Jawoyn people. 

We have heard a lot about John McDouall Stuart, who packed a lot into his 50 years on this earth, including 5 unsuccessful attempts to traverse Australia from south to north, before succeeding on his 6th attempt.

 

He named the town and the gorge after one of the daughters of his chief sponsor. It's nice to know the park has been returned to its original name.

 

Where the feck is Alice?

We spent the afternoon in Alice Springs. Our bus driver was a hard case local who was obviously proud of his town, pointing out the K Mart and Coles as important landmarks. He said that there were some good places to eat, as we were passing KFC and Hungry Jack's.

 

Our first stop was close to the Flying Doctors, Reptile House and Pioneering Women's museum. But our first port of call was the pharmacy so that Graham and Murray could get some help with their reflux! The Losec is in the checked in luggage.

 

The Flying Doctors display was interesting. This map shows the locations, including some of the big mines as well as remote towns like Alice.

Murray went to see the snakes while Graham and I went to the pioneer women's museum, which was in the old gaol. Interesting stories of indigenous women as well as early  European settlers.

 

 The highlight of our Alice trip was a visit to the site of the original telegraph office, and hearing the stories of how the line was established, including the hundreds of wooden poles that had to be replaced as they were demolished by termites.

Oh and the other thing Alice is apparently famous for is regattas. We found this a little puzzling until we were told that they took place in the dry river bed with bottomless boats!

In the middle of nowhere

 We travelled north through the afternoon and on through the night. The free drinks were interspersed with a two-course lunch and a three-course dinner, then back to our room to find the bed turned down and chocolates on the pillow.

 

Next morning after a comfortable night's sleep, we were awoken by a tap on the door at 6.45am. We dressed and disembarked in the dark to walk along a path lit by lanterns to two bonfires. There we were served a cup of tea and bacon sliders while we watched and waited for the sunrise.

 

It was only then that we had an idea of how long the train was - 38 carriages, almost a kilometre in length.

 

On the Ghan

We walked from the station to our hotel, about 20 minutes as we had chosen the closest hotel. Which is also probably the oldest. We met up with Murray and shared some of his duty free rum. There was a big party going on and they had closed the restaurant but we found an English style pub not far away. As we had all had a long day we were pretty early to bed.

It was a cruisy start to the next day as final check in was 11.15. We walked back to the station. In the daylight we found the paved cycle track rather than bumping over the gravel with our bags as we did the night before.

 

Our room is awesome. It is so nice to have plenty of room, with a table and chairs as well as a comfy bed. Not to mention our own fridge complete with beer and bubbles.

 

The Overlander

Today we are spending about 10 hours on the train from Melbourne to Adelaide. It was just a short walk from the apartment to Southern Cross station.

 

We had to check in by 7am, so a reasonably early start. We walked to the station, and once we had checked in our luggage and had a coffee, walked up and down the station. We managed to get to about 4000 steps before getting on the train.

The journey was through lush green countryside. There had been a lot of rain, so in many places there was surface water.

 

We saw quite a few sheep, some cows and even a couple of kangaroos. In many places lots of small trees had been planted as though attempts were being made to regenerate the bush.

 Nearer Adelaide we stopped at Murray Bridge. There were several riverboats moored up, reminding us of our time on the Murray last year. 

We're certainly having some wonderful Ozzie holidays!

Out and about in Melbourne

Yesterday we visited the second of the bars recommended to us by the tram driver. It was a rooftop bar overlooking Parliament buildings. It had a very nice atmosphere with a lot of people enjoying lunch and the view.

On the way back we stopped to enjoy a few songs from a couple of buskers who were very easy to listen to. This is on Bourke street.

 

 In the evening we met up with my niece Carly. We had a lovely time, with a drink in a bar that specialises in weird wines (though we found some reasonably OK ones), and then in a restaurant called Meatmaiden. There were hunks of meat hanging just inside the door, and as you would guess, plenty of meat on the menu, and groups of blokes enjoying it. We had Burnt Ends for starters and they were delicious, the ends of the smoked brisket that Carly and Graham chose for their main. And my steak was one of the best ever. 

Today we did our walking along the south bank of the river, finding a good coffee and then walking up and down to find the best lunch deal. Eventually we decided on one, only to find the deals were Monday to Thursday! Oh well, our platter was good anyway.

 

It may seem as though a lot of the Melbourne blogs are about eating and drinking....... Well the whole of the CBD, apart from the odd block of David Jones / Meyers / Gucci type shops is about eating and drinking. We were amazed at the literally hundreds of cafés and bars, and most of them very well patronised too.

The restaurant tram

We had a wonderful evening wining and dining on the restaurant tram. Earlier in the day we had checked out where the departure place was, and found that it was close to the casino. So we headed off early to the casino to have a drink and know that we were nearby to catch the tram. 

Unfortunately, we decided to have a look around, and ended up exiting from a different door then we entered. We found ourselves walking along a corridor with shops on either side. After a while I said to Graham that I didn't  think we were going in the right direction. We turned around, and after asking two security guards who pointed us in different directions, we finally found the correct way out. 

 

Only to discover that it was pouring with rain! With very little time left before final check in time, we eventually had to brave the rain and got drenched running across the road and down the footpath to the train stop. However we weren't as badly off as some people who had to cross a different road where there was huge flooding.   Several  women boarded the tram in bare feet after tipping water out of their boots.

 

 

After the exciting beginning, all went well. Our waiters were great and the food and wine were even better. Our wine waiter gave us a challenge by saying that he would still be pouring when we had finished drinking. I am pleased to say that we proved him wrong.

 

The apartment, trams, and a special bar

  

The apartment is compact but very comfortable. There isn't a lot of room on the balcony and it's scary looking straight down, but we still managed to find a space to sit outside.

 

We've spent a lot of time on trams. Yesterday when we were stopped at the end of the line for a couple of minutes, the tram driver asked the passengers if they have any questions. We asked if he could recommend a good bar for lunch. He asked if alcohol was a prerequisite and Graham said of course, much to the amusement of some of the other passengers. He said to give him a couple of stops to think about it and then he would let us know.

He made two suggestions, and we decided to take him up on the first of these. It was an old pub called Young and Jackson, that we would not have looked twice at, but we went in anyway. It turned out to be a beautifully maintained hotel. We had to ask the bar staff to show us the way to the upstairs bar and the famous "Chloe" painting, which the tram driver said we had to see, though he didn't tell us why. He said we'd know when we saw it.

 It was painted by Frenchman Jules Joseph Lefebvre and was first exhibited in Paris in 1875.

It was treated with accolades and concern when exhibited in Sydney and Melbourne in the early 1880s, with some objecting to a nude painting being on display on a Sunday.

In 1908 the painting was bought by Henry Young, a publican. Chloe was installed in Young and Jackson hotel in 1909, is rumoured to have caused marriage breakups, and is still a talking point at the hotel today.

Jurassic World

This exhibition was on at the Museum so we decided to give it a go. We walked the 30 minutes it took to get there, something we would probably not have done in the past with the free trams.

 

The dinosaurs were amazing, so realistic in the way they moved. It was hard to capture them well in a photo because  it was quite dark and they were moving so much.

We were lucky that there were only a few people with us, so we had plenty of time and space to have a good look at each dinosaur.

 The attention to detail was amazing, even to the blinking of the eyes and the way that they seemed to look at you and follow you when you moved.

 But of course, the highlight was Tyranasaurus Rex. He was huge, very close to us and so realistic. The ground was rumbling, and we had to tell ourselves it really wasn't real. It was all too much for the autistic boy in our group.

 

Some pics from yesterday

 This is a typical city scene, taken while we were waiting for a tram.

 

We had this view when we had lunch at Docklands. We discussed the reason for the huge concrete pillars on the bridge. Other than creating a landmark, we couldn't think of one. 

 

There is a lot of building going on around the Docklands, but many of the existing buildings look like they were built in the 70s. These purple ones looked better than some of the others with their bright red, yellow and green bits.

13,540 steps

Today we walked to the Queen Victoria market. Something we would not have considered last time we were here, but in reality only a half hour walk. It looked closed from the city end, and there were some stalls that weren't open, but still plenty of leather jackets, iPhone covers, socks and women's clothing to wander around. 

We bought a couple of bargains, found a Spanish café run by a cool couple that made pretty good coffee, and then hopped aboard a free tram to the Dockside area.

By then the wind was quite blustery so the tram was respite for a while. It must have been visit the city day for rural schools as we were surrounded by excited children at the market and dockside too! The amount of construction zones reminded us of Christchurch, but much of the work here was to update and add to amazingly gaudy 70s style buildings with multicoloured features. 

 

Unfortunately I can't seem to connect my phone (with all the photos) to the wifi so will have to update tomorrow.

 

Had drinks nibbles and microwaved, but yummy, meals back at the apartment later.

Melbourne

After a couple of glasses of bubbles we boarded the A320, seats 1F and 1D, guaranteed no neighbours. We flew for a long time in darkness, but eventually the sky turned red as the sun rose. 

I watched "Hunt for the Wilderpeople", which was great. So pleased it was an option as I doubt that we would've made it to a movie theatre to see it.

Customs was a breeze, it's so easy travelling between NZ and Oz now with ePassports. Then we boarded a Skybus for the 30 minute trip into town. Free wifi, which was just as well because we only had a vague idea of where the apartment was. Hooray for Google maps!

And hooray for airbnb. We were able to get into the apartment about 9am. It is in the middle of the CBD, with a free tram at the door, and at a very reasonable price. We are on the 23rd floor, just along from the rooftop swimming pool. There have been people swimming in it and steam coming off it, so it's obviously heated.

We walked around for a while to get our bearings, had an early afternoon nap, and walked around some more. 15,000 steps in all, whew!

4.40am on a Monday morning

Those who don't travel very much think that it is a glamorous thing to do. There is nothing glamorous about sitting in an airport at this hour of the morning! 

Still, we have made it safely so far and I think we have all that we need with us, although Graham has checked in his glasses and iPad so he couldn't see to complete the departure card and I am not sure how he will be able to read anything on the plane!

 

Bring it on! We're ready to start our holiday.

5 more sleeps

The weather has begun to behave as though it is winter, with snow further south and more forecast for the next couple of days.

And as you can see I'm still in the experimenting with my new app. It has taken a while to find my way around it, but now that I have I think it will do the job nicely.

It is a shame that I seem to have lost all of the photos on the blog for the last six years. It is clear from the web that there are a lot of other people who have had a similar experience. Hopefully the way that this app stores and uploads photos will mean that this doesn't happen in the future, but who knows?

Promise not to use multiple colours and fonts in all my blogs! 😉

Here we go again

OK, so now I have paid for one.

Can I make it do what I want it to?

 

This is a pic of me when I was 19. Eating cherries that we had just picked.

Hmmmm

Still want to blog but can't find a good app

This is a pic I took going to work the other morning.