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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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New Years Eve (Part 1)

Sydney, Australia

After our late night we didn't wake up until 10am, so it was off for breakfast, whilst seated at the restaurant two very familiar people walked by taking photos (see picture). The big floppy hats, untanned bodies socks under sandals - surely it couldn't be Grandad Bill and Grandad Two? We will let you be the judge!!

We went in seperate directions today, Shaun, Chris and Sally went to the Sydney Aquarium, whilst Karen went off for her dose of retail therapy. The credit card survived the experience only $250 worse off - it could have been a lot worse!!

Shaun and the children returned from the Aquarium full of the sights they had seen.Chris' favourite fish was a ray shark, the front bit was like a ray and the back bit was like a shark. Sally's favourite were the large Rays, just like the teacher in "Finding Nemo". Shaun enjoyed playing with the urchins (of the sea kind not the kids!), they also got to touch a baby shark!!!



permalink written by  The Wilde Family on December 31, 2007 from Sydney, Australia
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New Years Day

Sydney, Australia

After our late night we slept in until 10am, well 3 of us did! Shaun took the children out for the rest of the morning (and lunch), returning at 2pm and waking Karen up!! Karen had not been asleep all the time she did manage to see the fireworks in London before dropping off! Even the Ozzie news people were impressed and thought their pyrotechnic guys had slipped out a few of their secrets to the brits about the way to do a great fireworks display!!

We then spent a couple of hours at the pool in the hotel chilling out - the children still appeared to have excessive energy, the adults being totally exhausted!

We plan to have dinner and get to bed early tonight.

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on January 1, 2008 from Sydney, Australia
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Bondi Beach

Sydney, Australia

To start the day off we went to the Maritime Museum where we saw the Captain Cook ship called The Endeavour. We also saw a warship (Vampire) and a submarine with massive torpedos (2m in length).We learnt about some of the maritime history of Sydney including some of the many shipwrecks that have happened over the years.

We then went to Bondi Beach (this time we used a taxi as it was much quicker than the public transport and time was running short). We saw some big waves and the current was very strong so we just played in the shallows and Chris got knocked over many times. You had to watch out for the surfers too!!

We then spent the evening around Darling Harbour which was near our hotel.As this was our last night in Sydney we needed to pack up our things in preparation for the next part of our journey - fly off to Rockhampton, drive to Gladstone and then off to Heron Island!

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on January 2, 2008 from Sydney, Australia
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Sydney to Gladstone

Sydney, Australia

This was our last morning in Sydney so it was back to the packing and sorting for Karen. Shaun took the children out to have a go on a bungee trampoline where they both did a backflip! Shaun bought himself a Digereedo and was shown in the shop how to play it - so there should be some interesting music coming from the house when it is shipped back to England!

We caught a taxi to the airport and booked in for our flight to Rockhampton, we then drove to Gladstone and stayed in a hotel for the night in readiness to travel to Heron Island the next morning.

There were some EXTREMELY noisy parrots outside the hotel. Apparently the local council are trying to get rid of them and have chopped down loads of trees thinking they would fly away - unfortunately all it has done is concentrate them all in 3 trees and the noise was deafening.

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on January 3, 2008 from Sydney, Australia
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Heron Island

Gladstone, Australia

Today we set off on the catamaran to Heron Island. The journey didn't go to well as Sally had a nosebleed before we left, and as the sea was quite rough Chris' stomach didn't stand up too well - enough said! Apparently the sea had been so rough over the New Year the catamaran and helicopter transfers were cancelled for 5 days, the day we arrived was the first day the dive boat had ventured out to sea in a while (so Shaun was pleased).

We were out of Mobile phone and internet access for the duration of our stay in Heron Island which was HEAVEN! It was so nice to wander around and not listen to someone else's conversation!Although it did slow down the blog entries.

We went for a snorkel and saw some black and white tip sharks and loads of sea cucumbers. After a quick dip in the pool we got ready for dinner and prepared for the highlight of our trip - turtle watching!

We were very lucky to come across a Green Turtle who very kindly laid some eggs for us and we were able to watch which was truely amazing!! Unfortunately you are not able to use flash photography or lights on the beach in case you upset the turtle (and any others around) so we don't have any pictures to show. But it is definitely a sight to behold and we would strongly recommend it to anyone.

We were kept awake by some really noisy Mutton Birds who had laid eggs all around the island (and four outside our room!). The noise they make can only be compared to that of a wailing baby and they all join in with the chorus as the finale!!



permalink written by  The Wilde Family on January 4, 2008 from Gladstone, Australia
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Heron Island

Gladstone, Australia

Shaun had received a passout for diving again today and managed to see 2 octopuses (1 on each dive, if he hadn't have manged to photo them nobody would have believed him). The children became Junior Rangers for the day and went on a Turtle track hunt. They can now tell the different tracks made by Green and Loggerhead turtles. They also learn't about the different types of birds on the island.

Karen spent the morning doing the washing; not quite her idea of tropical paradise but it was all done by lunch. She then spent time at the pool drinking beer and reading her book! In between Junior Rangers the children spent time in the pool and made a few friends with other junior rangers Ben and Josh. Shaun joined them after his dives and had a crisp stolen out of his hand by one of the cheeky restaurant birds that prey on people with food. They in turn have to protect their baby chicks from the seagulls who unfortunately have a pretty good strike rate, we saw quite a few chicks being eaten!

Tonight Shaun went for a night dive and saw a BIG octopus (3 for 3 - poor photo alas), a shark and lots and lots of turtles trying to sleep on the sea floor! Karen, Chris and Sally decided to go for a turtle hunt around the island as the sun set - the turtles must have seen us go by because we later heard that loads had come up the beach as we walked by! We did manage to see lots of baby sharks flapping their fins around in the water so that helped make up for the disappointment.

When we returned to the room Shaun had just arrived back from his dive and told us about a turtle near to the jetty. So we went to see how it was doing, unfortunately it had chosen a spot where there were lots of rocks and it didn't succeed in laying its eggs that night.

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on January 5, 2008 from Gladstone, Australia
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Heron Island

Gladstone, Australia

Shaun went off diving again in the morning, whilst the children did their Junior Rangers again. Karen sat by the pool and read her book ALL day (about time too says Karen).

That evening was the seafood buffet in the restaurant and there were mountains of huge prawns, Moreton Bay bugs, crabs, salmon and almost ever seafood you could imagine.

After dinner Shaun and Chris decided to go on one last turtle hunt. Sally was TOO tired and so she and Karen retired to bed - and missed ALL the action!!!

Whilst on the beach Shaun and Chris came across a Loggerhead turtle laying its eggs and had the opportunity to help the Ranger resite the nest (as the turtle had made her nest too close to the shoreline). This meant that once the nest was uncovered Shaun had to hand out each of the eggs so that they could be transported to the new site dug by the Ranger (129 eggs and one broken one - broken when laid and did not have a yoke.) Chris was one of the lucky ones who helped to move the eggs! Because the turtle had gone back into the water Shaun was able to catch the moment on film.

On their way back to the room they also passed two Green Turtles laying eggs and came back pretty full of themselves!

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on January 6, 2008 from Gladstone, Australia
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Heron Island back to Gladstone

Gladstone, Australia

Well this was our last few hours in paradise, the children managed to do some more junior rangers and gained two badges for all their hard work. Shaun and Karen went for one last snorkel. The cases were packed up and we had to leave, but we spent every last moment in the pool and arrived on the catamaran dripping wet!!

A few tears were shed (by Karen) and none of us wanted to leave this fantastic place. But all good things come to an end and we will have to come back another year in order to see some of the hatchlings - which apparently weren't due until at least the 9th January this year!

We drowned our sorrows on the catamaran back to Gladstone and arrived there two hours later a bit wobbly (well Karen was anyway.)

When we got back to the hotel we went for a swim and tried to persuade a family that were going ut to the Island the next day that they wouldn't enjoy it and we would be more than happy to suffer the trip for them - it didn't work!! We went for a meal at the local Thai restaurant and listened to the noisy parrots for one last time.

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on January 7, 2008 from Gladstone, Australia
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Gladstone to Cairns

Cairns, Australia

We caught the taxi to the airport, the security at Gladstone is certainly different to any other. We arrived within 40 minutes of our flight and were checked in and handed our boarding cards to the same person at the gate 30 minutes later!

The funny part was on arrival at Rockhampton we all had to disembark and put our luggage through security! We then reboarded the same plane and sat in the same seats!!

The journey was Split into four parts 25 minutes between Gladstone and Rockhampton, 50 minutes between Rockhampton and Mackay, an hour between Mackay and Townsville. The last part of the journey between Townsville and Cairns should have taken an hour but due to a storm over Cairns we were held outside for about half an hour. We experienced quite a bit of turbulence, which we all thought was great fun - some of the other passengers didn't find it very funny though!!

We landed approximately half an hour late and decided to do some shopping around Cairns. Unfortunately the weather was pretty wet and we came back to Mission Beach after a few hours. We stopped off at Innisfail for some shopping and then drove to our exchange home.

On the way back we spotted our first Cassowary bird - in the middle of the road!! Every time we tried to drive on he kept coming back on to our side of the road!!

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on January 8, 2008 from Cairns, Australia
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Back to Mission Beach

South Mission Beach, Australia

After a morning of waiting for the rain to stop the sun eventually came out to play, so it was pool time, in between sessions of packing and tidying, and BBQ in the evening; sigh, it just had to be prawns again.

permalink written by  The Wilde Family on January 9, 2008 from South Mission Beach, Australia
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