THE LAST BLOG OF OUR TRIP AROUND AUSTRALIA; KEEP TUNED FOR MORE COMING LATER ON...
Temporary New address: 39 Kelly Street, Nelly Bay, Magnetic Island, Queensland, 4819
Dear pals and readers of our blog;
Louise here at the helm, and sad to say this is our final blog of the trip, as we have at last, landed at Magnetic Island, in Far North Queensland, to stay with Matt's mum and dad, until such time as we either buy or build a house; more on this endeavour later in the blog...
Firstly let me say to everyone who has left comments and viewed out blog; thank you! Knowing our pals (and even people who found us by accident) were reading it, made Matt & myself continually say to each other 'lets take a photo of this for the blog'.
Well, a lot has happened in the last few weeks, and as its the last one, this may be a bit long, so please get seated comfortably. It's going to be a bumpy blog.... (to paraphrase Bette Davis).
We last put out a blog on March 13, and then headed north west and decided Tamworth (the country music capital of Australia) was maybe worth a look; we only stayed for lunch as we are not country music fans at all, and then made our way to the Yuraygir Nat. Park to stay the night; lovely park, right on the water.
Our next stop was Ballina NSW where I found a hairdresser to do my roots (relief) and then onto Byron Bay on Fri 18 March; This is an area of Australia where the rich and famous have homes, (Paul Hogan and Olivia Newton John) and its a bit of an old hippie place too. But as I have never been here before I wanted to have a look at the place to see what all the fuss was about. The first thing we noticed as we drove into BB at 730am was that the place was packed with the people in lycra jogging and running around... I was worried it may be compulsory, but we parked at the famous BB Lighthouse, and had breakfast in our van and then walked up to the top. But horror! It started raining, and being somewhere warm and raining is something I have not done since Singapore in 1977! But as you can see by the photo, there is a first for lots of things... As we looked out over the beach we could see a pod of dolphins swimming with the local surfers... Magic; just a shame the weather was awful... Byron Bay is a odd mixture of hippies, stoners and trendy coffee drinkers in somewhat equal measure. Throw in some European backpackers and you can get the drift... I like the place, but I have no idea why it has become so trendy...
On Sat 19.3.11 we decided to go to Brunswick Heads about 10km from Byron, and check out the free camping spots (if any). Byron Bay was very camper van unfriendly and we did not want to risk getting fined. We found a spot at the rear of the local surf lifesaving club, with other vans like ours also parked up; Lovely; Just to illustrate how the locals are a weird mob, on sun 20.3.11 at 830am, as I was getting dressed a man knocked with a bicycle banged on the side of the van; Matt attended as I was trying to get dressed, to find some chap about 50 asking him if he wanted to buy the bike; sensing a nutter, Matt politely refused, only to be told by said bicycle seller, that the other people in the van next door, worked for the CIA and to be wary of them! Matt said OK and waved him goodbye. Too many magic mushrooms ingested earlier in life? Who knows? But at 10km away from Byron bay, nothing here would surprise me...
Later that day we went to the real stoner's paradise: Nimbin! Now this really is the place where the old hippies go to die to get stoned, whichever comes first. Its about 40km away to the west of Byron Bay and tourist buses run there all day, every day. After walking down the main street for five minutes, we were offered hash cookies and dope by 4 different people! We had lunch in the Rainbow Cafe and decided to cross this place off our list of places to go and head back to Brunswick Heads...
On Mon. 21.3.11 we headed north towards Queensland and just over the border we arrived at Springwood in the hills, where Matt's Aunty Lyn and her husband Gary live, in the middle of a rainforest. They bought a plot of land in the early 70s and have a fantastic house here. Fortunately for us the local parks service has sealed most of the road leading to their property, as our poor van would not have made it there without it. The last 100m or so was unsealed but despite the ruts in the road, we made it... We spent 2 nights with them and enjoyed their hospitality and lovely walks around the area with the new dog they have, Tully. Matt and I were also able to catch up with some of Matt's cousins, who live nearby; Thanks Dale and tim, and Beau and Hope; it was great catching up with you guys again.
From here we went further north to Broadbeach Waters where we had a lovely lunch with Michael and his wife Alison at the Club Tale Surf Club, then a quick dash to Vince and Tony's place in Broadbeach Waters (our home for a few days) and Matt then got a call from another pal, and he dashed off to see him for a few hours! Phew... Tony and Vince live right next to one of the canals, and we enjoyed their hospitality for 2 days before heading for Brisbane. Thanks guys!
Our next port of call was Darran at Wellington Point; I met Darran in September 1994 when we joined Sydney City Council as a Law Enforcement Officers (Rangers). We became work colleagues and friends and Dazza left to pursue bigger things, but we managed to remain chums. We stayed with Daz for 4 days, enjoying just lazing around the pool and taking the doggies for walks, it was all very relaxing. Thanks Darran.
Hereon we decided to drive inland and check out Toowoomba (site of the awful flash flooding a month or so ago) and follow the Carnarvon Highway north. Not much evidence of the flash flood in Toowoomba, but I was amazed how big the town was and how it is perched on top of a huge plateau. We spent one night up the road from here in a town called Chinchilla, then made our way to Ijune. Not very van friendly Ijune - in fact so bad we had to spend the night at the road adjoining the local cemetery! The last time we did this was at Tanunda in the Barossa Valley way back at the end of last year... The great thing about camping at these venues is that the neighbours never complain... Now we assumed our cemetery parking days were over when we left the next morning - but no; we had to do the same trick again at Clermont up the road. Surely the good burghers of the towns should realise that if they put in free rest areas, the grey nomads will come and spend money in their country towns...
So on Friday 1st April 2011 we are only 50km west of Townsville and our ferry trip to the island. But do we charge ahead like maniacs to finish our odyssey? Do we bugger! Instead Matt promises himself a huge pub counter meal at Charters Towers, which I think was mentioned in Blog 1 at the start of the trip? Willing our van onwards, we arrive at 1pm dead and rush to the Molly McGuire pub on Gill St and Matt orders the biggest steak on the menu. Me? I plum for Guinness battered fish with chips, which I have to say was fan bloody tastic. Matt realises he looks a complete wreck and dashes to the local barber to get himself looking fab again. It was a lady barber much to our surprise, but after parting with $20 my lovely husband was back to looking his handsome self.
Next stop was the Reid River rest area, where in pouring rain, Matt and I washed the van as next day we were taking it to a car yard in Townsville with a view to selling it. I wish I could say here that the next day the salesman went into raptures and offered us a great price for it; but it was not to be, and it took days of waiting for them to eventually offer us a paltry $25,000 (we paid $41,000) - an offer we, of course, politely refused. We need all funds possible to help us build our dream home here on Magnetic Island.
I am getting ahead of myself here, and after washing and scrubbing for ages, our little van look great and we fell into a deep sleep at bedtime; Next day, we got up early and made our way to Townsville and the local McDonalds for brekky, then went to the car yard above, then caught an earlier barge to Magnetic Island; We stopped at the local bottle shop in Nelly Bay and bought a cheap bottle of champagne to celebrate our end and arrived at 39 Kelly St, to find the family cleaning the granny flat downstairs, (our new home) and they were much amazed to see us arrive so early. We opened the champers, and toasted the end of the journey.
Its now 10 days since we have been here, and in that time, I've had a major chest infection, that I had to get antibiotics to clear up from the local doctor. We have our van and Matt's Mitsubishi Mirage for sale and getting the registration changed on Matt's Mirage and my Daihatsu Charade, was to put it mildly, a complete pain in the arse. All states in Australia have their own state rules and regs regarding vehicles and if you are living interstate for more that 3 months (which we are) you have to change rego over to your new home state. On Friday 8.4.11 we caught the barge to Townsville, with the van (to get a new windscreen fitted) and to attend the Queensland Dept of Transport offices to get our 2 sedan vehicles re registered for Queensland - a Herculean labour it turned out.
The process of getting this done would take a complete blog of its own, suffice to say Matt's Mitsubishi car was ok and has new Queensland plates, but mine (Daihatsu Charade) has a discrepancy with the papers and I am, as I type, awaiting the Maggie islands one policeman to come and verify my engine number in my Charade against the paperwork. The plan was to keep my car and sell Matt's one, but although several people have viewed his Mitsu Mirage, so far - no sale; (Its going for $3600 if anyone out there is interested.)
Before I forget, I will get ahead of myself again, and explain the last photo of Matt's Dad Tom in that wheelbarrow. Cyclone Yazi went through here a few weeks ago and lots of trees in gardens all over the island have branches hanging out of them, and these need to be removed before they cause problems.
Hold that thought.
Tom decides last Sat 9th April, to get up the massive trestle (3m high) he uses in his painting business and lop down a few branches with a handsaw; so far so good, only I get the weirdest feeling that something is about to go amiss that I say to Petah, (Matt's mum) 'is that ladder roped to the tree Tom is chopping down?" She informs me that all is OK as Tom is on a trestle (i.e like an A shape) and has been a painter for 40 years and has no hassle with ladders.
Still this nagging feeling persisted, and later about 5pm, and on the very last part of a half dead palm tree he was chopping, disaster struck.
I watched the whole thing from the upstairs balcony. It was very odd, like a bad dream played in slo-mo, I saw poor Tom fall from the top of the trestle and then over the wooden fence into the neighbours garden next door. I yelled out and ran down the stairs as fast as I could. Matt who was just drying himself from the shower heard me shout 'Your dad has fallen off the ladder" and Matt managed to sprint past me like Usain Bolt on steroids and leap over the 2m fence. Poor Tom was white as a sheet and fortunately was conscious and holding his leg. Matt (who like me has a Senior First Aid certificate) told me to grab a blanket and some pillows which I duly did, and Petah was onto the ambulance. The funny part here is that the ambo station is literally on the next corner opposite the house, and the other good thing was that the neighbours next door were away, and oblivious to Tom making a hard landing in their garden. The ambo man was fantastic, and luckily for Tom it was only his ankle he had sprained. The next hard part was getting Tom home with one good leg; this is where the wheelbarrow came into play, and as we knew we would probably never get Tom like this again, the camera had to come out!
So today Tues 12th we have visited the local real estate agent, whose husband is a house builder; we are meeting him tomorrow at our block of land next door here (yes, we bought the block of land next door to Matt's parents - Think I may have mentioned this in an earlier blog?) to see how much we will need to spend to build our 'dream home'. Not that we are fussy; a simple 3 bedroom jobby would do us very nicely, and of course all homes here have to be cyclone proof. They only get a bad cyclone here every 30 yrs or so I am reliably informed, but the cyclone has brought down the price of land here too, and we are trying to sell another block we have here to pay for the house! Wish us luck eh?
So it is with a heavy heart I say goodbye to all our readers of our little blog of our big trip over the last 9 months or so. I will be doing another blog of our adventures on the island (so look out for that) - I will send everyone a link when I get that up and going. I am also toying with the idea of doing a post by post autobiography over the next 12 months or so? Again I shall keep everyone informed when (and if!) I get that happening.
take care amigos; much love Louise and Matt
Louise with Byron Bay NSW main beach in background; shame it was raining! 18.3.11
Matt peeling some spuds in our van, 19.3.11; so happy I married a man that cooks...
Matt's Aunty Lyn with Tully (doggie) at Springwood, Gold Coast, Queensland - 21.3.11
Matt with the Gold Coast in the rear; 24.3.11
Now here is something I have never seen before; its a boiling water dispenser, at one of the parks at Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast Qld. Those gates are child proof! Just the thing for making a quick cuppa on the road... Do they have these in the U.K? 23.3.11
Here's Matt with Darran at Wellington Point, Qld; 26.3.11
Darran's 2 doggies, Zac and Sam 26.3.11
Matt with the van on the Magnetic Island vehicle barge going to the island; 2.4.11
Coming into Nelly Bay where the ferries dock on Maggie Island; 2.4.11
Matt outside his folks place at 39 Kelly St. Nelly Bay; 2.4.11
Poor Tom (Matt's dad) who looks pissed here, but he fell off a very high ladder (see rear of shot of it leaning on fence) and landed over the next door neighbours side; we called the medics, and luckily he only has a sprained ankle; we had to carry him around in a this wheelbarrow as he was a bit heavy to carry on Matt's back! Had to take this photo to show the world! (9.4.11) ++also note the broken Hills Hoist washing line behind - this was damaged in Cyclone Yazi when a tree landed on it! Our 2 cars parked outside the house luckily remained unscathed...
Love louise and matt; new blog re our Maggie island adventures coming soon....
