Backpack Geek

Yes, yes. It’s a little late again. We’re sorry.

We are now in the awesome New Zealand, land of the long white cloud. I will, however, pick up where I left you – in the hostile depths of Australia! Wow, we’ve done a whole lot since then…

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Hey all!

I’ve stuck up a load of photos and a few videos

http://www.backpackgeek.com/photos/album/72157616727522778/videos.html

Enjoy!

Hello everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates on the blog front but hopefully we can now get you up to speed!

Since our last blog we’ve been to Rockhampton, beef capital of Oz, had, just one (much to Rob’s dissapointment), tasty steak between us where we were entertained by some v drunk crazy girls dancng very oddly! We then drove on down to Hervey Bay, Fraser Island stop by point basically. We booked our trip to Fraser Island, we decided to go on a guided tour rather than a DIY 4WD, mainly because of time constraints but ended up getting good value for money we thought! Although we had a problem getting there as our credit card decided not to work as we went to pay for the rest of the trip 15 mins before the boat set off, and there were no cash points near by… so we missed out. But rearanged everything for the next day where we made sure we had the cash.

Fraser Island itself was beautiful! Once there we went on a walk through the rainforest, then for an all you can eat lunch (with pumpkin soup – pumpkin is our new favourite food, VERY tasty!). In the afternoon we drove along the beach on the east of the island, around 60-70km? On the way we stopped off at a shipwreck called The Maheno, which has just been sat on the beach for around 60 years. Then we stopped off at the ‘coloured sands’. Rob and I could see about 4 shades… there’s supposed to be about 75! We also stopped off for a swim down Elis Creek, the islands freshwatwer stream that runs straight into the ocean. Refreshing is the best word for that! Finally we stopped off at the tip of the island and climbed up a huge rock to look out onto the gorgeous sea. Dinner was also an all you can eat affair, much to Rob’s delight, but no pumpkin soup.

On the second day (after an all you can eat brekky) we went to Lake Woubbie in the morning. This is a freshwater spring that is now blocked in by a big sand dune. Because the dune continues straight into the lake, it gets deep very fast, its about 4 metres deep about 5 metres in! It was really pretty and we got about an hour to play! Then back for an all you can eat lunch, still no more pumpkin soup In the afternoon we went to the beautiful lake McKenzie. This consists of pure rainwater and has absolutely no water flowing in or out of it! It really is a postcard picture place! After that we got the ferry back across and went back to our campsite, with Rob for once, feeling less hungry than he has been since February.

We will update you soon on the rest!

Elee and Rob!

Testing video posting:

Hello all!!

This one is coming from the campervan as we travel from Mackay to Rockhampton. We’ve been in the chubby (the campervan) for five days now steadily making our way south along highway one from Cairns. The first two days was spent cruising round the Tablelands to the west of Cairns. This national park was really with some magnificant waterfalls and views as we meandered up and down the hills. We camped at Granite Gorge, a small creek inhabited by hundreds of small rock wallabies and small turtles.

By the second day we were heading southwards towards mission beach, which is currently occupied by deadly jellyfish. The next day we proceeded southwards again to Townsville where we visited the Museum of Tropical Queensland. Here Rob fired a cannnon, Elee was clamped in leg irons and we learnt about the shipwreck of HMS Pandora.

On Friday we drove out to Airlie Beach and had some fish and chips before sunbathing on the man made lagoon. Yesterday was an early drive down to Mackay where we stayed on the beach and spent the day planning the rest of the trip and enjoying a BBQ on the beach!

The front of our van is incredibly geeked out. We have an inverter attached to the cigarette lighter which provides a proper australian power socket. We’ve then got a spiltter in that to give us two sockets before having two converters to British plugs! Out of that comes A laptop charger with external 3G modem, and an iPod charger for the ipod/iphone. All in all it just about fits in the glove compartment!

We’ve also listened through the first 2.5 books of Harry Potter on our travels, determined to finish the series before we arrive in Melbourne in 20 days time!

See you all later!

Rob and Elee

NB – This post is now a week old – photos of the trek are up but I’ve not written it all up yet! Coming soon!!

Hello everyone!!

Blog post number two comes from the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. We’ve slept the night on board and are now sat on my bed admiring the sceneary as we climb northwards into the jungley area of the northern city.

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Wowzerz!

Three days until we leave! Elee’s packing her bags now, and we made a little, silly, unprepared or rehearsed video. Enjoy!