Taylor's Aussie Impressions

Taylor's Aussie Impressions

When I arrived in Australia it was everything I had expected. Other than the part that it was raining! But this was in Sydney. As we drove North to Old Bar the weather became nicer. If it wasn't for the first day of overcast and showers I wouldn't believe there was anything other than cloudless blue sky. Even though it is winter I am yet to see a snow flake. After getting to Old Bar I had just enough time to settle in and then pack and get ready for a more exciting adventure. Heading North to the Whitsunday Islands.

Let's begin with some impressions. This country is beautiful. I have seen most of the East Coast now and everyday I would see something more amazing then the next. One of the first things you realize when in Australia is the different Flora and Fauna. The life here is a lot more tropical then at home.

The animals are interesting. If you have never seen a kangaroo its something else. The way they use there tail to balance and hop is hilarious. The birds are all colorful. They all seem so cheerful always singing or chirping. Koalas on the other hand are strange little animals although I never saw one in the wild I did get to pet one at the theme park Dreamworld

Next is the ocean. Wow the coast is excellent! The beaches as you head north get less surf because of the great barrier reef. But this is not all bad because the beaches are perfect for swimming and just going for a dip. The water here is so much warmer than the Puget Sound. I don't want to go back. Although it is winter here I'm yet to feel the water colder than the sound. The sand beaches are the best and Australia is filled with them.

Oh and how about the Aussie ladies? I mean how could I forget bout them. They're just as gorgeous as the country herself. These two ar my favorite girls here. Are they pretty or what?

Taylor Down Under

The Australian Zoo/Steve Irwin Zoo

The Australian Zoo/Steve Irwin Zoo By Jake

Today we went to the Steve Irwin Zoo. It was amazing there. There was tons of animals. First outside of the zoo to get you warmed up there were two zoo keepers with a wombat you could pet. When we were in the zoo we went to the koalas. They pretty much didn't do anything except for sleeping so we went on to the next animal. It was the crocodiles and alligators. They were swimming around in the water looking for food. We went to the tortoises that were around 175 years old. Isn't that amazing! They weren't moving as fast as we thought they would.

The next place we went to was the snake house with tons of snakes. They had the deadliest snake in the world and other deadly snakes. We saw a snake that was the same species as the biggest snake in the world. It was Ginormous!

We came out of the snake house and went to the bird sanctuary. We hoped a bird would land on us, but none did. We saw many species of birds. One of the birds we saw was a laurikeet which is a type of parakeet that always lands in our back yard.

After leaving the bird sanctuary we arrived at the kangaroos. We all petted one including Dave, Joann and Taylor.

We had to rush to the Crocosseum and watch the reptile show. It talked about birds, crocs and snakes. They did a show with the snakes first where a man got picked out of the crowd to come and hold the snakes. Then they had a rubber snake and pretended to bite him. After that the fake paramedics came and put him on a board. Then while carrying him out next to the water they threw him in.

After the snake show they did a bird show. Laurikeets that were trained flew around the stadium to people and did tricks. The bird that I liked the most was a big 5 foot tall bird that I can't remember what its name is. His legs were longer than his body.

After the birds they brought in the big crocodile. The trainer stood on a platform and dropped the chicken and the croc jumped up to eat it. Then they put some chicken on land and the croc came out of the water to eat it and we saw how big it was.

I thought the crocoseum was the best part of the zoo. It was totally awesome!

C

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Fraser Island

FRASER ISLAND

Fraser Island was our 3rd destination point of our Queensland holiday. We rented an 8 seater off road vehicle and caught a ferry across Hervey Bay to the island. The island is completely sand, in fact it is the largest sand island in the world. Fraser Island is also known for its many Dingos. Every dingo on the island is a pure breed so they do not allow anyone to bring dogs onto the island. They don't want any mixed breeds. There were also no paved roads on the island. If we didn't have the 4 wheel drive we would have been stuck in the sand after about 50 metres. They were the bumpiest, steepest, curviest roads I have ever seen. Jake loved it. He saw it as a mini roller coaster. The first place we drove to on the island was Lake McKenzie. The lake was beautiful and had a white sand beach around the whole thing. Most of us jumped in the lake and swam around for bit.

When we were done at the lake we drove to the east side of the island to have lunch at the beach. We probably drove about 30 kms up the beach and hung there for the afternoon. It was a cloudless warm day, as were all the rest of our days on holiday, and the beach was great. We weren't allowed to swim though because the water was filled with tiger sharks. There have been many shark attacks here and there were also heaps of warning signs about all the sharks. When we were driving back from the beach, Joann spotted the dingo laying on the side of the beach. When we drove past, it ran by and we got some good pictures.
After the beach we drove to another lake. The second lake was very similar to the first. It had the same white sand. Also the sand was very very fine. We also swam at the lake and played on the beach. Once we were done at the lake we caught the ferry back to the mainland. We took up the whole day at the island in the beautiful warm weather right in the middle of winter.

Now we are back in school for term 3 and Taylor is still at our house. We have been out in the water a lot learning how to surf. We miss you all very much and can't wait to see you all again.

Cheers, Kyle

Great Barrier Reef

We are back from our winter holiday with our nephew, Taylor, and our friends, David and Joann Johnston, and are going to spread around the blog writing duties. My task is to write about the final destination of our northward journey , the small town of Airlie Beach and our activities there. It's located on the east coast, north of Mackay and south of Townsville if you're looking at a map that only shows the bigger cities. It is on the mainland and is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands and the Great Barrier Reef . We spent 5 nights in a very nice 3 bedroom condo with a great view of the harbor and of the nightly sunset. We didn't spend much time in the condo as we were out on the water for most of the 4 days.

On our first day, after that looooong 10 hour drive to get there, we just relaxed by the town's massive lagoon. The beach at Airlie Beach is ironically not any good, so they built this saltwater/chlorine treated 250 meter by 40 meter "pool". It's the size of a small lake. It overlooks the actual beach and has the best real estate position in town. The town has several backpacker hostels and was full of their young temporary residents, so Taylor enjoyed scouting out all the young females lounging around the lagoon sleeping off their hangovers. We had a nice chicken and pineapple barbecue at the lagoon that night and got nice and relaxed for our next three days of "excursions".


Excursion 1 was an all day power boat trip out to the 'outer reef' for snorkeling with 160 of our closest friends. My experience is that the bigger the tour the worse it will be.....We had great weather and pretty calm seas for the 3 hour 105 kilometer trip out there. We were told a few times that we should really get to the 'outer reef' for the best views of the reef and for snorkeling. We enjoyed our day very much, but were of the opinion 2 days later that we really didn't need to go out there after all. The coral and fish were as good or better during our next two days. The boat trip was nice, but it was 6 hours round trip and we had only about 3 hours to spend at the reef. The water was a bit rough and that made it harder to snorkle for all of us. The reef near the companies semi-permanent pontoon is is roped off to for protection. That didn't allow us the access we desired.







The next day we took a guided kayak trip with 16 people. By my reckoning it was going to be about 10 times as fun as the 120 person trip, and I thought it was. We got to kayak right over the coral, not even a meter above it. We ended up on a small coral beached "rock" that wasn't big enough to be designated with island status. We snorkled, climbed to the top of the 'rock', looped it by foot on the boulders, had a nice small healthy lunch, and paddled back again. The coral was clearer, more colorful and easier to get right next to than the spot from the outer reef. The fishlife wasn't as good, but they were still very abundant. We like being right down on the water best.

The third day we took a large catamaran for another 9 hour day this time sailing around all the Whitsunday Islands, snorkling, and spending a couple hours at Whitehaven Beach. Unfortunately for the sailing enthusiasts the wind refused to blow. It was warm and windless all day (just like Karen likes it) . We motored instead and the snorkling was very good again and the time at Whitehaven was magical. The sand is pure white and the water is wonderfully warm. The beach is accessible only from the water and has no facilities at all. Completely unspoiled. We tendered in and played for a nice long time. One boat employee brought frisbees, soccer balls and cricket gear ashore and we played with all 3, but mostly played in the shallow bathlike water. We'd been looking forward to going to this beach ever since we'd starting planning for this trip and it did not disappoint. It lived up to the brochures.


We hope you enjoy the photos. This was a place we'd like to return to someday.