Cursed I Tell You

there is a very good reason the last blog makes little to no sense: i broke the computer. ooops i accidently hit a button, no idea which one, and the formatting has gone really really weird.

hows home?

lots of love Amy and Sarah

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Welcome To The Sunshine State

well hello

so strictly we have been in the Sunshine State, or Queensland to most people, for about a week and half now so i thought i would give another quick update. yet again with no pictures because our luggage is locked away. i will work on that in a few days.



so while we were staying with Joe and Lorraine we had a fabulous time. we spent some days chilling at their house because it was so lovely being at home again, even if it wasnt our home. we also might have broken the car. ooops. while we were chilling the weather was perfect, clear skies, about 30 degrees: perfect.



when Joe got a day off he took us and Kaja (his daughter) to Crystal Cascades which is glorious waterfall. sarah nearly walked into a giagantic spider. was very funny. we then drove throught the rain forest to Lake Morris which had some stunning views.



typically when when we finally got out of the house it started tipping down :(



on Sunday after spending an hour in the travel agents for something that took 2 minutes (we booked a trip and they put us on different buses!!!!!! we refused but had to go back the nest day to sort it out. 3 hours in a travel agents for something that should have taken half an hour!!!!!!) we went to Palm Cove with the entire family. it felt like a family road trip :). palm cove was beautiful. as its stinger season they have these nets in teh sea that float at the top and have weights at the bottom so people can still; swim in the sea. clever right? anyway Palm Cove was beautiful.



we then went to Port Douglas which mostly consists of 5* resorts. kinda ruins it but its still gorgeous. we went around the market, got covered in mud (stupid wet season) and then had a picnic on the beach. beautiful. then stopped for coffee while Sarah and Kaja played in the playground. we stayed under shelter so couldnt hear them!. win win!!!!!! just as we were leaving the rain kicked in :(.



we then flew to Brisbane. we only had a day there so we wondered around the city and saw all of it in that day. the weather was lovely; kinda overcast but still really warm. shorts and t shirt weather.



yesterday we got the dreaded 5 hour bus journey to a tiny little town called Hervey Bay. literally there are 2 supermarkets, a bottle shop, a petrol station about 10 hostels and thats it. so why are here? there is a gorgeous island called Fraser Island about a boat ride away. largest sand island in the world and the place we have been told to go by pretty much everyone we have met.



so we are leaving for this beautiful island in about 20 minutes and guess what! its tipping it down! cats and dogs. proper weather. not impressed :(. spectacular island and rubbish weather. we are cursed.


otherwise all good. hows hom?

Cairns

This is really just a quick blog to ensure everyone that we survived and were not eaten by sharks. although we did see many. the dive tour was absolutely fantastic. we saw so many fish and sea turtles and sharks and general under water life forms. we stayed on  boat on Saxon and Norman reefs but moved sites on the reef 3 or 4 times a day.

the boat itself was really comfortable and we couldve stayed there longer easily. the food was pretty horrible though and seemed to have 2 days worth of carbs in each meal. it was quite impressive.

we are now in Cairns staying with my aunt's brother and his family. Joe and Lorraine are lovely and Kaja (theyre 3 year old daughter) is really funny and could talk forever. basically all good our end and i mayuadd pictures to this post later so keep in touch
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DISASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So i know we only posted yesterday but we are, yet again, about to drop off the face of the planet and we thought we would update you with our contineous disaster weekend.

so we arrived in Cairns yesterday to find we had a message from Cairns Dive Centre, the company we booked our tour with. however, when we arrived they were already shut for the night. so we phoned them this morning and......

their boat had broken down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wtf?!?!?!?!?!?! they gave us some options which we discussed then went down to see them in the shop. eventually we got a full refund but we still had no dive booked. we were not happy.

we went for a walk and Cairns is literally chock-a-block with tour operators so we walked into one and met a lovely lady called Vicki, had a lovely chat with her and we now have a tour booked for tomorrow (when we were ment to go) in a better room AND a discount!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it did cost a little more but i think we will have a better tour.

So off tomorrow!!!!!!!! Soooooo excited!!!!! and for parent that want to know we are diving with Deep sea divers den. So if you dont hear from us within the next 2 weeks assume the boat sunk!!!!!!

Lots of love
Amy and Sarah xxxxxxxxxx

Paddling in the Desert

My my my, what a past week or 2. yes, i have absolutely no idea what day of the week it is. Since i last wrote we have been on an 11 day tour from Melbourne to Alice Springs. there is no way to tell you everything that happened in the time but i will do my best.

it started with a half hour walk to our pick up point at 6.15 AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeesh. over the next day and a half we went along the Great Ocean Road which was absolutely incredible. we stopped every 10 minutes or so to take pictures of the views and awesome rock formations suchg as the 12 Apostles, or the Sow And Her Suckling Pigs as the Aborigines called them!!!!!!

We saw KOALAS!!!!!!!!!

we also drove our tourguide Chris insane by being obsessed with cheesy songs and dancing along to anything we could!! (think surfing USA and ANY dance moves that go along to it!!! along with the obvious YMCA and las ketchup song!!!)

the next day and half to Adelaide we were in the Grampians wihc involved a whole lot of hiking up maountains in 30 degrees. thats fun let me tell you. our last night we stayed in these little huts in a tiny town called Hall's Gap and there were kangeroos literally in our back garden!!!!! it was amazing. we all loved Hall's Gap and could've stayed ther forever. little did we know but after that was a different tour!!!!!!! the organisation for this trip was fantastic. this involved a free day in Adelaide sop we went to the beach :D!!!!

We got to see the opening ceremony for the Adelaide fringe festival that evening also and it was amazing!!! fireworks off buildings in the centre of the town!!!

the next morning it was up early again to leave for our onward trip at 6.20am to alice springs. We met our tour guide Ilse and were off!! We met some lovely people and ended up continuing our bus aerobics and singing and recurited a few more poeple to the cause!!! We stayed in quorn, i know quorn like the food! but none of the places sold quorn and thought i meant corn!!! oh well we have to educate these australians sometimes!!! We did a few short walks but it was soooooo hot that Ilse decided that we would have to once again be up before sunrise to do our nice long walk up dutchmans stern!!! joy oh joy!! but we made it to the top and it was worth it!!! a kangaroo hopped across the path 2 metres in front of where i was standing!!! AMAZING!!!!!!!!

We then had a roadtrip day!!! YAY!!! 10 hours on a bus half full of fun people and the rest of people who really didnt care to join in! oh well amy and i made up for about 10 of them in enthusiasm!!!

We finally arrived in Coober Pedy and had a really fun night out at the underground bar where Aileen (irish girl) managed to chat up some miners and got a free drink out of them!!! Clever girl!!!! The next day we got a lie in!!! only left at 7.20am!!!! to go noodling yes noodling for opals which basically consisted of searching though a pile of rubble for any rocks that might contain a piece of opal and I FOUND ONE!!!!!! amy did too but mine is way cooler!!!!!

on our way out of coober pedy the next day we found out the van was broken so after waiting around in the rain for it to get fixed ( it shouldn't rain in the desert!!!! apart from when you're there Rach!!) we finally set off for our first night of camping!!!!! well it was meant to be camping under the stars but ended up not being so as it was chucking it down!!! ever slept in a tent with bunk beds????? i have!! its weird!!! any way apart from there being a 1 hour time change from heading a bit further north that day was rather uneventful!! except for the mouse in my tent that i saw twice on aileens bed and ended up on mine eating an empty crunchie bar wrapper!!

Once we finally arrived at Uluru (Ayres rock to those of you less educated) it was still raining!!! As a result of the rain about half the group left a day early!!! ( none of the brits though we're all way too hadcore from D of E to go home because of a bit of rain!!!) After they left we walked around the entire of Uluru in the rain, well not walking so much as paddling (Amy paddled in sacred mud) and jumping from tuft to tuft due to the amount of water there! Anyway I'm soooo glad we didnt leave as we got to see the most amazing sunrise the day the tour ended!!!!!!!

In Alice we had a farewell dinner with everyone that made it to the end of the trip and Ilse had a bitch about the people she didin't like!! Quite funny!!

We spent all of next moring in HOSPITAL!!! I'm fine!!! I just managed to get a rash all over my arms, legs, tummy and back!!! I think its the cheap soap at the hostel!!! Anywhoo we arrived safely in Cairns this evening and can't wait to go diving on monday!!!! Great barrier reef here we come!!!!!!

Lots of love Sarah and Amy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

There was also one about not taking cats on hikes!!! these australians are odd!!!

Amy walking/paddling aroung Uluru

Rain at ULURU!!!!!

Talking to clouds!

so after just looking at how many people have commented it kinda feels like i'm talking to myself but i can work with that. Currently on day 5 in Melbourne and I realised that in our last blog we didn’t really tell you what Melbourne is like. I like it but Sarah is less enthralled. The architecture is a bizarre mix of really old building terraced to flash new buildings and there are so many parks which are quite oftne really quiet. i guess when you live in paradise it stops being amazing.

i know you cant really tell but it is a penguin!!!!!

Since we last spoke to you we have gone to the docks, which is far cooler than it sounds and St. Kilda which is a beach town/suburb about  minutes away from the city centre. When we arrived it was overcast but quickly turned into a scorcher of a day


Lots of love Amy and Sarah
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Day 2

Welcome to Melbourne

We arrived at Melbourne airport yesterday at 6(yeesh) in the morning after about 20 hours in the air, thats not including our stopoever in Dubai. apart from far too many hours in the air and not enough sleep that was absolutely fine. since arriving we have wandered around, seen Parliment (which neither of us have seen in England but oh well) and been rained on. one thing i have to say is that when Melbourne does weather it does it well.
So although we arrived at the hostel at about 8am we decided that we might as wel get into the swing of Australian life!!! We were approached by a man on the bridge just outside our hostel who offered us just that! Drinking! at 9AM!!! needless to say we politely refused and backed off feeling a ickle bit worried!! But Melbourne is beautiful and apart from the rain this afternoon the weather has been perfect, so perfect infact that we managed to get sunburt on our first day!! (and we weren't sunbathing like you izzy!!)
Amy has just informed me that full stops do exist and I do now realise how easy it is to tell what I and what amy have written!! Oh well!! I'm now going to go move overboard with the !!! as it is fun!! and i know my housemates will appreciate it!!!
here are some wonderful photos of what we have seen so far. enjoy

lots of love Amy and Sarah!

xxxxxxx