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Australia

a travel blog by The Wilde Family


This is the first big trip by the Wilde Family for over a year - One month in Australia! And no you can't come and steal our stuff; we did a house exchange. And yes we also feel we got the better deal!

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Early Xmas

Cambridge, United Kingdom


Today the relatives are over and we are having an early Xmas dinner as we leave on the 15th. Today's roast is ostrich, yup that's right ostrich. We have become a fan of that meat over the year; we also had it last Xmas and have started a conversion process on our children's friends (usually by not telling them what they are eating until after they have declared how nice it is).

Still one more week to go and too much to do.

Shaun says, "Thank heavens, I have work next week all the pressure is on Karen" and then ducks the vase being sent in his general direction.

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on December 8, 2007 from Cambridge, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Australia
tagged Xmas

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Panic packing

Cambridge, United Kingdom


10 months to plan and still last minute packing...

Next stop airport and then to Australia via Hong Kong.

It has been pointed out to me that we leave the UK in Autumn, land in Australia in the Spring, leave Australia in Summer and return back to the UK in Winter. How about that!

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on December 15, 2007 from Cambridge, United Kingdom
from the travel blog: Australia
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Hong Kong Airport

Hong Kong, Hong Kong


A quick stopover at Hong Kong airport - what a difference to Heathrow. Chris took this picture of a shop in the airport - he liked the name. :)


permalink written by  The Wilde Family on December 16, 2007 from Hong Kong, Hong Kong
from the travel blog: Australia
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Brisbane

Brisbane, Australia


Well we arrived and we have absolutely no idea what our bodies think the time is. Just a quick comment on our trip - Heathrow Airport Terminal 3 is a mess (dirty) and chaotic (security - honestly lets stop the hysteria - after arriving 3 hours before our flight we only had 30 mins to grab something to eat - the retailers (airside) must be hating it - if common sense doesn't work how about greed?) Why do we put up with it? Once we left got on the plane everything was breeze all the way to the hotel in Brisbane. As you can see from the picture it's raining - Brisbane is in a drought and we bring the weather with us - call us the drought busters. Other than a quick walk to get something to eat we haven't seen much (falling asleep at the table). Early night (day/whatever) today; let's hope we can adjust quickly.


permalink written by  The Wilde Family on December 17, 2007 from Brisbane, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia
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Movie World

Brisbane, Australia


In an effort to stay awake we went to Movie World, we woke up at 2am, so it's coffee (or cola+sugar) and adrenaline. We got very wet on the water ride (Chris' favourite) and playing in the fountains. Sally's favourite ride was the Scooby Doo ride - "a sort of a 'mouse trap' in the dark and you get to go backwards for a bit of it". Shaun went on the Superman Ride and swore a little bit.
We managed to stay awake 'till 9pm, though we were all falling asleep at the table over dinner.


permalink written by  The Wilde Family on December 18, 2007 from Brisbane, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia
tagged ThemePark and Brisbane

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Australia Zoo

Brisbane, Australia


Today we went to Australia Zoo (The one that the Crocodile Hunter - Steve Irwin - owned).
Chris says - It was lots of fun when we had our photo taken with a snake around our shoulders.

Sally says - We saw some tiger cubs in the tiger temple and then we fed a pair of elephants.

We got to see lots of native Austalian animals and we were allowed to feed and stroke them including a (baby) American Alligator and an elephant.

We all had a fantastic day out, the zoo's atmosphere was relaxed with a real 'hands on' approach with the animals and we thoroughly recommended it to anyone who gets the chance to come here!

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on December 19, 2007 from Brisbane, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia
tagged Brisbane and Zoo

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Mt Coot-tha Lookout

Brisbane, Australia



After Australia Zoo, we met up with an old friend Drew (Pictured) and went to the Mt Coot-tha Lookout which offers excellent views of Brisbane. We ate a local delicacy called Moreton Bay Bugs!! They actually taste like lobster and are really nice.


permalink written by  The Wilde Family on December 19, 2007 from Brisbane, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia
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Travelling to Cairns

Cairns, Australia


Today we travelled to Cairns and then on to Mission Beach - Just a note or two to you all
#1) There is no such thing as a short hop around Australia
#2) Brisbane and Cairns have 2 airports (International and Domestic) and your ticket may not tell you which one you have to go to. (International also does Domestic flights and I wouldn't be surprised if the opposite was also true).

Guess what we did? Yup, wrong airport and panicked for 5 minutes as the one flight on the departures board to Cairns was already boarding passengers! Thankfully a nice lady explained about the other airport and after a short taxi ride we were back on track.

The flight with Virgin Blue was fun, beginning with the announcement of "This is a no smoking, no whingeing and no complaining flight - which includes the toilets which are fitted with smoke alarms and microphones!"

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on December 20, 2007 from Cairns, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia
tagged Cairns and Brisbane

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Wongaling Beach

South Mission Beach, Australia


Well here we are in the house in Mission Beach (or more accurately Wongaling Beach). This is right on the edge of the forest and we can hear all manner of animals including Cicadas (very noisy insects) which do their best to try and keep you awake at night. It's stinger season (small jellyfish) so it's not safe to be in the sea unprotected, so we have opted to swim in the pool (and just paddle in the ocean).

We spent the morning in the pool cooling off from the 32 degree heat ( sorry for those in England, just had to slip that one in!!!). We popped to the local town and picked up supplies for our barby tonight. Huge prawns and chicken kebabs washed down with lashings of Tooheys beer (and coke for the kids).

Back in to the pool in the afternoon and then down to the beach with our beers to hopefully meet some of the locals.

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on December 21, 2007 from South Mission Beach, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia
tagged WongalingBeach

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Dunk Island

South Mission Beach, Australia



Dunk Island is just off the coast of Mission Beach and you get to it by boat. We took the 'shortest hop' one from Wongaling Beach, which as well as being the closest was also quite nippy (fast). You have to pay to use the resort's facilities and since you are limited to the butterfly pool rather than the more scenic cacades pool did seem a bit steep (we sneaked in the cascades pool anyway!). We spotted some beautiful butterflies and lots of tiny lizards on the short walk to the cafe, with the heat and humidity short walks are all you can manage!The expense however is quickly recovered when you eat - we went to the Jetty Cafe (a bit like a posh chippie) and discovered that we could have 2 main courses (special offer/deal?) so we had loads to eat and didn't need to have tea at the end of the day - The Barramundi Spring Rolls and Tempura Calamari were excellent.We returned home at 3.30 and dived straight in the pool again! As we were going to be out all the next day on the dive boat we had a chill out for the rest of the day.

Shaun then spent ages on the phone to Nanny and Grandad sorting out their computer - even when you go to the other side of the world he can't escape work!!!!!

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on December 22, 2007 from South Mission Beach, Australia
from the travel blog: Australia
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