From the reef to ramen

So its been an age since I last wrote the blog - sorry what can I say, Australia definately makes you laid back - No worries mate!!!!

After meeting up with the boys in Brisbane, back in mid January, we worked our way up the East coast searching for sun and surf and avoiding the floods. Its crazy to think Victoria was having fires while Queenslands streets were so flooded crocs were spotted in the town - ahhhh! Needless to say we avoided Townsville where the croc sightings were until it dried up - much to Johns disgust, he was determined to see them in the wild!

butting and biting us to get their deer crackers. I loved it!

We spent a few days on a typical ozzie farmstead, in the outback, which was hilarious. We arrived to a hostile reception from one eyed Pete, but won him over with our amazing expertise on the cross motorbikes. Who would have thought I,d be riding stood up on a cross bike - John and Tez were amazed and I think Pete was too, after initially having to scream at me whilst teaching me - SECOND GEAR!!!!!! His teaching technique was highly amusing. John was an expert of course and was able to ride the bikes while gathering the horses in the morning. We saw wild kangeroos whilst out horseback riding in the fields. Helped collect eggs, milk the cows and hunt for redback spiders - of course a very important part of Australian farm life...he he he. I made friends with Floyd, a galah with a broken wing who spoke, HELLO FLOYD! Floyd followed us around on the farm and liked to watch us in the pool, he also liked eating flipflops - naughty floyd!

After an amazing recommendation from Claire we spent a night on Keppel Island which was really tranquil. We snorkled and wandered the deserted Island staying in tents in the forest. Most of the resort had been closed apart from the one place we were staying and Island apparently had more wildlife than ever. We found that out later that night, after cooking an imense chilli, while being surrounded by possoms. One of which drank my wine when I wasn,t looking - he he he. We walked at sunset along the beach and saw dolphins in the surf with rays, it was an amazing experience!

We watched Bull riding in Rockhampton at a local pub full of cowboys, which was crazy! The boys were really young, only 15 and the bulls so violent. It was incredible to watch, but some of the boys got thrown so hard they were knocked out and bleeding. And all this was for fun???! Tez thought he could give it a go - but mum you,ll be glad to know I talked him out of it.

Me and John saw turtles hatching in Bunderburg which was unforgettable. We travelled to the site and were taken with a guide who explained how the turtles find their way to the sea once they have hatched, by the earths magnetism and the light of the moon. The logerhead turtles were tiny and it was amazing that once they made it to the sea they wont be back on land for another 17 years! The sex of the turtles depends on the temperature of the sand, girls are hot and boys are cool - I like that!

Whilst we were in Bunderburg Tez flew to Cairns to visit Diane Cilento, the actress from the 1970s Wickerman - who was once married to Sean Connery. He first contaced her over a year ago when he sampled some of her script lines from the film in a song. Diane now runs a theatre in the rainforest which Terry stayed at for a couple of nights. He was thrilled to have met such an amazing lady!

We met up with Amanda from New Zealand in Noosa - a beautiful swanky surf town up the coast and also randomly bumped into a couple we met in Patagonia buying slurpies - Mad! And joined Alice for the last leg of the journey up to beautiful Cape Tribulation - where Cooks Endevour hit the reef, and a sailing trip on the Whitsundays.

The Whitsunday trip was a giggle - we sailed for three days, with a spot of snorkling, hanging on the odd deserted beach and climbing waterfalls. We met a couple of crazy Irish girls, so you can imagine plenty of goonbag was drunk and we had quite a messy farewell night in Airlie beach after the trip - hic hic.

The snorkling on the great barrier reef from Port Douglas was out of this world and we were so lucky with the weather - it had finally stopped raining! We spotted sharks and so many fish on the beautiful colourful coral. We looked like complete freaks in our stingersuits, but it was deadly box jellyfish season so we had to wear them for safety. Getting in the water was a little scarey at first and the ocean was full of microscopic jellyfish I had to look past them in order to swallow my fear and have one of the best days of the trip so far.

After a farewell in Cairns we flew to Tokyo for a noodles and oodles of culture. We spent three days wandering the city and experiencing some weird and wonderful foods. We met up with Terry,s friend Dan from Japan.

Me and John are now on a whistle stop tour of Japan which has been awesome so far. We visited hiroshima yesterday which was really moving especially the childrens memorial and the 1000 oragami cranes! Yeasterday we stayed at Nara which is filled with temples and shrines some dating back to 750AD, with the largest wooden temple in the world and a huge buddah. We watched as grown adults tried to squeeze through a hole in the temple which apparently brings you enlightenment. the best thing about Nara though was the abundance of deer everywhere. We fed them which was......interesting. I always thought deer were peaceful and scared of people but these are crazy - butting and biting us to get their deer crackers. The mad thing about these historical cities is that you find a vending machine selling beer and cigarettes on every street corner. The people are much more quiet than I expected and everything is imaculate and runs on time. The strangest thing so far has to be the remote controlled heated toilet seats with recorded sound effects...he he he.

We arrived in Kyoto this afternoon and have two days to wander the streets for temples and shrines and the odd glimpse of a Geisha Im very excited!

More to come - time to visit another temple!