Monday 5th April 2008 I didn’t feel too good this morning so I spent most of it sitting around the hostel. I did get out for some breakfast, which was a challenge because the big Woolworths was closed for the Bank Holiday. I managed to find orange juice and snacks in a “reject” store and…
Sunday 4th May 2008 My ear plugs didn’t manage to block out the creaking on the carriage so I only managed to get sleep in bursts of a few hours. We arrived on time in Brisbane, I picked up my bag and then collected my ticket to Hervey Bay. I couldn’t check in my bags…
I spent the morning looking around the Australian Museum, which contains skeletons, dinosours, birds, insects, reptiles, a huge collection of minerals and a big exhibition about indigenous people. I ate my lunch in Hyde Park and then had a look around the Anzac memorial, which had a good exhibit about Australia’s involvement in wars. I…
A few free drinks last night turned into a few more not free drinks! So after a lie-in I spent the morning sorting out travel plans, booking trains and enquiring about changing my flights. It’s going to be cheap to change my flight to travel home directly from Japan, but that means I’m not flying…
Thursday 1st May 2008 After my sensible early night I was up at a reasonable hour and walked down to the Opera House. I signed up for the 11 o’clock tour and waited outside passing the time trying to figure out the multitude of rail timetables for my planned itinerary. The tour was really good…
Wednesday 30th April 2008 It turned into a late drinking session last night so this morning didn’t really exist – good exercise for the liver though! I walked down to Wooloomooloo Bay, grabbed a pastie with mushy peas and gravy for lunch and sat and ate it admiring the miliions of dolars worth of boats.…
Tuesday 29th April 2008 The first job this morning was to drop off the car in town. They confirmed that I’d done 5,632km – not bad going in 28 days! I got the Airbus Express for free because it’s run by the same company that I hired the car from (Explore More). It took longer…
Monday 28th April 2008 After a phone call to Ady and breakfast I spent most of the morning clearing out the car and sorting out my bags. I then walked into the city centre and found a post office to send home the old Lonely Planet books that I no longer need to carry. I…
Sunday 27th April 2008 It was pretty overcast first thing, but after breakfast Rose from the hostel gave Mike from Gungha II a call. He confirmed that he would be sailing so I and a couple staying at the hostel booked on the day trip. We were supposed to be joined on the boat by…
Saturday 26th April 2008 After waking up to rain there was no chance of getting out for a sailing trip so I drove up to the Treaty Grounds at Waitangi. I spent a couple of hours looking around and reading all the information about James Busby and the signing of the treaty. Since the weather…