The Final Days

Hi Everyone,

After over four months our trip is at an end. Today is our last day in Australia and tomorrow we begin a mammoth 38hour journey to arrive back in the UK at 7am on Monday morning. The last couple of weeks have not been our busiest! We flew from Sydney to Cairns and stepped off the plane to a balmy 25degrees celcius :-) Warm at last! We didnt stop long in beach-less Cairns instead heading 60km up the coast to Port Douglas, a small holiday resort often hosting the rich and famous (indeed the Luxembourgish royal family had just been staying there). Being not quite rich or famous we were staying in the less illustrious YHA hostel, but, it was but a five minute walk to the lovely four mile beach.

Thus we spent all but one of our ten days enjoying the sun and relaxing on the beach or by the hostel swimming pool. It did not rain once and the temperature remained consistent with a lovely sea breeze - blissful. Our one burst of activity in Port Douglas involved heading out to snorkal the Great Barrier Reef. It was a very choppy day causing poor Laura to be a bit sea sick and making snorkelling quite tough but we saw plenty of fish and - the highlight - a Green Turtle! Not to mention all the beautiful coral.

Finally it was time a couple of days ago to leave Port Douglas abd return to Cairns from where our journey home would begin. Yesterday (Laura's birthday!) we had to do something special so headed back to to the reef on a lovely sailing boat in much calmer waters than before (no sickness - yay!) - but this time to scuba dive! Laura was a bit nervous (being the first time) but both of us found the experience to be marvellous, a wonderful way to end the trip and one of the highlights! We saw so many beautiful fish and coral from a wonderful perspective and best of all we saw a white tipped reef shark and a couple of blue spotted rays. Simply superb. A lovely meal was had later to cap a wonderful day - and indeed, a wonderful trip.

The highlights? Our Tongariro adventure is definitely still up there as one of the best things we have done - the most physically and mentally demanding, but, due to that, the most rewarding All our wonderful wildlife experiences as well - kayaking with seals, walking amongst sea-lions, viewing penguins from mere metres away and of course scuba diving admist the fish and corals of the largest reef in the world! More generally, simply travelling and always experiencing new things has been wonderful. Not worrying what day of the week it is (no nasty Monday mornings), not knowing where we will sleep - it has all been wonderful.

Thanks again to all the people who have helped us on our way - The Cookes, Amy and John and of course the Sutherlands!

Unfortunately the real world beckons and Monday mornings are going to hit hard. Many of you may not know that we are going to be living in Southampton on our return to spend a year completing our PGCEs so whenever anyone is down our way - do come along and you can see plenty more photos and meet Ruff!

Bye for the last time

Laura, Niall & Ruff xx

Ruff Down Under

Hi Everyone,

We know we have technically been "Down Under" the whole time but Australia is more "Down Under" than New Zealand!

We braced ourselves for the "worst storm to hit New Zealand in a Decade" last Saturday and were preparing ourselves for cancelled/delayed flights, but the storm was a little disappointing and not as serious as expected - far more devastating for New Zealand was a bit of a thrashing at Rugby by the Aussies!

We arrived in Sydney on Sunday evening and had time to explore our surroundings with an evening stroll where we glimpsed the harbour bridge and saw some flying foxes. On Monday we set off to see the sights and see them we did! Cockatoos were a plenty in the Botanical Gardens and after some fun with them we walked down to the waterfront to stunning views of the opera house and harbour bridge. We continued round and then took a very pleasent ferry to Manly where we checked out the famous surf beach before heading back for stunning views of the city from the ferry.

On Tuesday we were off to the Aquarium - and a very good one it was too. The seals were not too exciting (we have seen so many, closer, in the wild!) but the reef sections were great and really whetted or appetite for adventures to come! In the evening we went off to see the much hyped new Batman film at the much hyped Sydney IMAX (the largest cinema screen in the world!) Amazingly we were not disappointed - the film was highly entertaining, but was made even more so by the stunning cinema - Niall doesnt want to go to another cinema again! - But flights could make for pricey films.

On Wednesday Ruff was excited as we were off to Taronga Zoo. Said to have the best views of any zoo in the world it did not disappoint. A marvellous zoo with many animals from Australia and the wider world in generally well done, spacious enclosures. Laura particularly enjoyed the Koala with baby - look closely on the picture. We whiled away a whole day there and nearly got stuck as the zoo closed!

We awoke to glorious weather on Thursday so had to check out Bondi Beach - we even managed a little sun bathing - pretty impressive in winter! The highlight was seeing a Southern Right Whale, with calf, just metres from the shore. It really was amazing and was a news story in the evening! Check it out on http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=eKUWlmMs6fE - we were right there on that beach!

Friday saw us travel two hours by train to the much colder Blue Mountains. The weather was not the best but we went on a lovely hike anyway. The scenery was totally unlike anything in New Zealand with dense bush, steep gorges and very noisy birds! The weather today was a different story, bright blue skies, if a little chilly. We set off for Wentworth Falls and undertook a stunning walk past marvellous waterfalls and stunning vistas along an incredibl path cut into the cliff face itself. We are now preparing to head of to Cairns tomorrow. We certainly cant wait for the promised 26c temperatures!

Bye for now

Laura, Niall & Ruff