Veenendaal's Journey
In and around Australia
We plan to visit Australia and New Zealand. We will leave Calgary on Feb 12 and arrive in Launceston, where most of Ellis' family lives, on Feb 14. Around March 20 we will leave Tasmania by ferry to Melbourne and drive the Nullabor to Western Australia, where my brother Bert and his family live. We hope to be in the west for about 3 weeks in April. From there we will drive north up to Darwin, across to Cairns and south again to Melbourne. If time allows we will fly to Launceston in the first week in June and back to Melbourne on June 13, when we will fly out of Melbourne to Auckland NZ where my brother Lindsey and Anjana live. From there we will fly back home to Calgary on June 27.
Route taken and entries by Real Traveler Veenendaal s Journey
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1
The Trip down
The trip to the airport was on snowy roads so we left at 6 am. We arrived at the airport at 9 am. This was 3 hrs before our departure, but we needed e... Continue reading » -
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At Opa and Oma's house
We landed at the Launceston airport 6pm. The moment we stepped out of the plane you could smell that we were in Australia. The fragrance that hangs... Continue reading »
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3
Bushdancing
When you are in Tassie, do as the Tassies do.....
We joined in a school fundraising activity and got a real taste of Australian bushdancing.... Continue reading »
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4
Tasmanias beautiful east coast
While the weather was still warm for Tasmania we headed of down the east coast to visit some of the beautiful white sandy beaches there.
We t... Continue reading »
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5
More beaches
Friday morning First things first, Janelle and Nadine counted all the shells they had collected, more than 900 had to come along!! We left St Helen... Continue reading »
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6
Launceston
March 3 Today was Cindy's birthday. The girls went for a trail ride in the morning. We saw lots of wallabies along the way. We ate birthday cake at Ta... Continue reading » -
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Tasmania's oldest bridge
Time to drive south to see some more of this beautiful state. Tasmania is a very historic place, it has a lot of old buildings and bridges. Some ar... Continue reading »
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8
Convict country
We spent a rainy day absorbing the historic site of Port Arthur. It was only the extreme,and second offenders that served their term at this place. In... Continue reading » -
9
Tasmanian Devil Park
We arrived at the Tasmanian devil Park in Taranna at 11 am, just in time for the feeding of the devils. They are sure ferocious little animals. Goo... Continue reading »
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10
Visiting the Louws
Arrived in Hobart just in time for Adrian to go fishing with his brother-in-law Bill. They put out the cray pots and ofcourse that means they had&n... Continue reading »
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11
Family reunion on Bruny Island
On tuesday we left the Louws and went to spend some time with another brother Edward and his wife Christine and their 2 little girls Alannah and Im... Continue reading »
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12
Crossing the Bass Strait
Now, to get off the island of Tasmania we took the ferry. A 14 hour ferry ride gets you from Devonport to Melbourne. We had a cabin and 3 cruise seats... Continue reading » -
13
Searching for a caravan
Once we arrived in Melbourne we needed to concentrate on finding a caravan.
Other than finding what we wanted the most eventful thing that h... Continue reading »
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14
Seeing where Gerben, Caroline and Alexander live.
We left Melbourne in the pouring rain. Funny thing for a place that cries of drought we have had rain almost every night! Arrived in Bendigo l... Continue reading »
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15
Digging for gold
On saturday we drove down to Ballarat, one of Australias main historical gold mining sites.
On the way we stopped at a chocolate factory, aft... Continue reading »
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16
Starting the drive around Australia.
Tuesday morning we headed west ward.We decided not to take the great Ocean road and visit the 12 apostles, we will leave that for another time.
... Continue reading » -
17
South Australia
We crossed the border from Victoria into South Australia at 11:45 and had to give up our bananas!! Australia is very conscience of the spread of di... Continue reading »
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18
Wine Country
We by-passed the city of Adelaide and toured the Barossa valley instead. Amazing how many vineyards such a dry place can support. We stopped to buy... Continue reading »
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21
Dingos and the Great australian Bight
We woke up in the mornng in a little town called Minnipa. Since every town has to have a tourist attraction, this one claimed to be famous for it's... Continue reading »
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22
Nullabor Plains
We slept at a service station In Mudrabilia last night since there were no campgrounds around. Up on time in the morning to continue along th... Continue reading »
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23
Orange trees and beautiful beaches
Bromus Dam was a beatiful quiet place, perfect spot to spend a sunday. The trees were really orange and so was the dirt. This spot was a real bush... Continue reading »
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24
Australia's most beautiful beaches
Esperance is also famous for it's pink lake but ... we really had to use a lot of imagination to call it pink.
Lots of Banksia flowers all a... Continue reading »
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25
Relaxing
We drove gravel road in the dark to get to a nice free camping spot by Munglinup beach. Actually the first night we rolled int what we thought was... Continue reading »
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26
Albany
Drove further west to Albany. Adrians cousin Andrew met us on the edge of town and pilotted us to his house. Continue reading » -
27
Valley of the giants.
On saturday morning we drove to the Valley of the Giants by Walpole. Did the airwalk, which brought us 40 m of the ground. These Kari trees gr... Continue reading »
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28
Spending a week with Bert and Agatha and family in Oakford
On sunday we worshipped at Byford church, met up with some old aquaintants and had a nice day if fellowship.
Monday loaded up the... Continue reading »
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29
Going up North
On monday morning we left Perth to start our treck "Up North"
Did not see anything too exciting on the way up. The country just got dry but s... Continue reading »
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30
Shells and Eagle Bluff
Packed up on Thursday morning and left Kalbarri for Denham.
On the way we met lots of feral goats, apparently they are quite a nuisance here... Continue reading »
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31
Dolphins
Goodmorning Dolphins!
It was early the first dolphin feeding was at 7:30 am and we made it!!
The kids just loved it. The dolphins... Continue reading »
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32
The coffee pot on the 1 mile jetty
We said goodbye the Bert and Agatha and the kids, really thankfull to be able to spend time with them.
We stopped at Hamelin Pool to see the... Continue reading »
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33
Blowholes and first taste of Ningaloo Reef
Sixty Km north of Carnarvon are the Blowholes. We arrived there just as it was light yet. The blowholes were spectacular, you could hear the a... Continue reading »
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34
More coral at Coral Bay
Drove up to Coral Bay. Saw 4 more emus, they do not really stand still long enough to take a good picture.
Coral Bay is at the bottem e... Continue reading »
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35
Iron,salt and carvings
We braved the elements in the morning, packed up in the rain and continued on our way. Amazing to see so many termite mounts around here. The do no... Continue reading »
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36
Mosquitos and heat
We drove past Port Hedland and stopped at night by De Grey River. It was really hot and the mosquitos were making their presence known. Close by he... Continue reading »
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37
Sunset on Cable beach
As we continued on it became surprisingly green. Nice to see after all the bare red dirt.The amount of life and dead cattle on the road was also in... Continue reading »
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38
Boab Trees
We continued on to Derby and saw alot of Boab trees along the way. The trunk of the tree can swell and hold up to 14,000 l of water. We stopped at... Continue reading »
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39
Geikie Gorge
We left on the boat at 8 am it was still reasonably nice,not too hot.
The Gorge was amazing, the steep cliffs and the sharp edges eroded by w... Continue reading »
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40
In the Northern Territory
Our next stop was to be Darwin, so we continued on the Great Northern Highway.
The scenery became quite green and grassy the termite mounts a... Continue reading »
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41
Florence Falls
Drove into Darwin just before lunch on wednesday. It is a large city and we saw many advertisements for crocodile farms and wildlife parks. We drov... Continue reading »
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42
Darwin
On friday morning we packed up, had our last cold/warm shower and headed for Adelaide River to see the jumping crocodiles.
Only 3 weeks befor... Continue reading »
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43
Kathrine Hotsprings
Drove back down to Kathrine this morning andfound the town packed, ots of things going on including a native bible translation celebration which wa... Continue reading »
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44
Heading South
Adrian took the 4 oldest to the celebration this morning, I stayed home with Eleni she is quite the sight (and sound).They all came back very excit... Continue reading »
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45
School and driving
The scenery changed as we drove further inland, from tropical to just low shrubs almost desert like again.
The kids are trying to stay on top... Continue reading »
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46
Not exactly what we had planned
Eleni had a terrible night she scratched herself raw, got to have her looked at.
Scenery changed again as we were driving. It almost looks li... Continue reading »
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47
Dinosaur country
Eleni is doing much better after 3 days of anti-biotics and the Dr told us we could go again. My Mom and Piet were waiting for us in Townsville so... Continue reading »
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48
Australia's East Coast
We met Opa and Oma on The Strand in Townsville.
It was very touristy here and finding a caravan park was not as easy as we had thought. But w... Continue reading »
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49
Didgeridoo Music
Sunday was mother's day, was very nice to be able to spent it with my Mum!
After a very interesting church service we walked around the marke... Continue reading »
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50
Learning about the reef
On monday morning we headed of to the Reef HQ to learn about the reef. It was very nicely done and eventhough the place was not huge we spent the w... Continue reading »
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51
Snorkling The Great Barrier Reef
Tuesday morning early we headed off to see the real thing. The boat took us out on a 1.5 hr bumpy ride to the reef (the crew said this was the smoo... Continue reading »
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52
Lizards and flowers
Met Opa and Oma at the Rockpool for lunch. The kids had been doing some school work this morning.
The Rockpool was supposed to be a safe plac... Continue reading »
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53
Travelling with Opa and Oma
Thursday morning a whole new adventure began. We started traveling south with Opa and Oma. Hopefully they will survive spending time with us 24/7.<... Continue reading »
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54
Sugarcane
Heading further south along the Bruce Highway we saw sugarcane, sugarcane and more sugarcane, with once in a while mangoes.
We found a place... Continue reading »
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55
Sunday in Sarina
Sunday morning we were excited to go to the Sarina Presbyterian church. It was good to be able to sing familiar songs of worship. The word was prea... Continue reading »
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56
Rockhampton Botanical Gardens and Zoo
On the way to Yeppoon we stopped at the Rockhampton Botanical Gardens there was also a small zoo there and the kids got to see their first koalas.... Continue reading »
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57
Singing ship
Yeppoon was quite a busy place, the beaches were OK .
We had a look at the singing ship at Emu Park which was put there in honour of Captain... Continue reading »
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58
Guess what we had for supper
Today was going to be a long drive day. We wanted to go all the way to Tin Can Bay. So we were on the road by 9:15, which is not bad for 10 people... Continue reading »
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59
The big pineapple
Time to move again. We left Tin Can Bay caravan park with its nice campkitchen called the Wobbly Boot,had one last look at the dolphins and headed... Continue reading »
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60
The Australia Zoo
Saturday morning we got up and headed to Beerwah to see the famous Australia Zoo. Still do not know if Steve Irwin was actually burried there but h... Continue reading »
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61
Surfers Paradise
As we headed further south the roads got crazy busy. We went to church on sunday morning in North Brisbane and than made our way through Brisbane t... Continue reading »
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62
Sold our camper
Today was cleaning day. We scrubbed and repacked all day everything from the camper had to be moved to the bus. Next day Adrian dropped us of at a... Continue reading »
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63
Heading south to winter
Without a camper and time ticking we needed to head south quickly. Through Slim Dusty's birthplace, Kempsey and the big banana place, Coff's Harbou... Continue reading »
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64
Driving down NSW
Headed for Sydney. We passed by some major road construction its amazing that they can build roads here, Australia is solid rock in this part of th... Continue reading »
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65
Back to Bendigo
So this part of the country is where they hide all the sheep, we saw lots and no wonder, there is not a whole lot you could do with this rocky soil... Continue reading »
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66
New Zealand here we come!
We left Melbourne at noon and we were all very excited to se we were flying Air New Zealand. We had great service and the kids were very happy with... Continue reading »
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67
Visting Hobbiton
On the way to Rotorua we stopped in the little town of Mata-Mata made famous for its Hobbit holes. The scene where Hobiton was filmed is still ther... Continue reading »
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68
New Zealand's big attraction
We made it to Rotorua later in the afternoon, we could see and smell the town before we got there. The steam and smell rises from the geother... Continue reading »
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69
On the way to Rotorua
What beautiful country side here on the north Island of New Zealand.
The most noticable here were the little hills that pop out all over, the... Continue reading »
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70
Te Puia
Today we went to Ta Puia. This is a big geothermal area with mud pools and geysers as well as a lot of native Maori buildings and stories.
Th... Continue reading »
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71
Through Taupo and Napier
Leaving Rotorua we drove through Taupo and stopped to see the beautiful Huka Falls. They are not very high but the water rushes at a tremendo... Continue reading »
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72
Masterton
Turned south towards Masterton. There are lots of forests in this part of the country, lots of logging and reforestation going on.We arrived at... Continue reading »
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73
Seeing the seals by Ngawi
We spent a few days nicely relaxing and doing nothing, well not all of us. Janelle was busy studying for her tests which dhe wrote at Sonya's schoo... Continue reading »
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74
Te Papa Museum
There is a huge museum in Wellington that we visited on thursday. The road was very windy across the mountains so we were prepared with icecream bu... Continue reading »
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75
Paua shells and goat curry
On friday afternoon we had a look at the Paua shell factory. The shells get ground and polished and they shine like Opal, quite pretty.
Continue reading » -
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More sheep and scenery
Making our way up to Waitomo we came across some more beautiful scenery.
We stopped to watch a herd of sheep being moved along the highway an... Continue reading »
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77
Waitomo Caves
Our last big sightseeing adventure was to the Waitomo caves.
There are about 300 caves in the Waitomo region. We visited 2 of them. The Aranu... Continue reading »
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78
To Auckland and back home
Time to head back to the airport.
We stopped at one last playground and then it was really time to go.
At the airport we changed all th... Continue reading »
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