Ho hum

Not much to tell sorry.

We are working hard - 6 days a week at the moment for another 6 weeks.  The hardest part of this is the heat, its hot at work as we dont have air conditioning and guess what happens when you mix sugar with sweat - hmmm gone are the days of candy floss we just turn into toffee these days.

During the day we are either cooking our tea for that night, sleeping to try and catch up on what we missed out on becasue it is too hot to sleep, or relaxing and enjoying doing nothing at all.

Got swopped on my a magpie which was the highlight from last week - not a pleasant experience I can tell you.  They did have warning signs up but we saw these after the thing had a go at me.

Oh and still arguing with the Victoria police about the traffic fines that ARE NOT mine - talked to the lovely lady at legal aid yesterday and it looks like my only option is to fight it in court - and this mean going to Melbourne OR I can just pay the fines (2 at $140) because in the long run it will be cheaper to pay them than travel to melbourne for 2 court hearings - BUT this is now a matter of principle and I am not paying!!!!!!!

So thats about all folks, hope all is well in NZ and you are not suffering from RWC withdrawal symptoms.

Welcome back to Mackay

Yes we decided with the help of Sugar Australia to delay our trip around and over the top.  wer had been talking about whether it was a good time of the year to be going to Darwin/Perth and then Sugar Austalia rang and asked if we could go back and work for 8 weeks so change of plan - just because we can. 

Friday was our biggest trip to date in George - travelling the 872km from Cairns to Mackay ready for work on Sunday.

On the way down we saw quite a few bush fires which seemed a little scarey being so close to the road and left the horizon a smokey pinky haze

and I saw my first cane burn off which was far more impressive than the photo

and so for the next few weeks we are back in Mackay, where we have visited old feiends and really noticed how much drier and hotter it is since we left - determined that after this we will leave Queensland and find ourselves another state to visit....lol

Snorkeling in Cairns

Arrived back in Cairns on Wednesday after having spent a couple of weeks in NZ – thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and good wishes.

Thursday we headed off early to board Passions of Paradise and head off on a day snorkelling trip. 

Tony feeling right at home

Had a safety briefing with all the forms to fill out etc – normal all care no responsibility stuff. First person we talked to was a lady from Napier who’s dad lives in Rotorua – gee it is really hard to escape the place!!  First stop Michaelmas Cay – a small sand spit that is 90% bird sanctuary, so the deal is we moor at sea and get ferried to the beach by glass bottomed boat –and already we can see some cool bat fish and huge trevally. 

So over to the beach where I got to pose – excuse the squinting!! In the background you can see Passions of Paradise.

So off we went into the sea which apparently was 24 degrees and wow what an amazing experience – huge clams, beautiful fish and coral of every shape, size and colour in beautiful clear blue sea – so cool and something which I had sort of decided was really confined to postcards and brochures but here I was snorkelling amongst it.  After and hour and a half we headed back to the boat for lunch, a lovely smorgasboard and then relaxed in the sun for a while before heading to our next snorkelling spot, a mooring 10 minutes away – this time we needed to jump off the back of the boat, something I am not that good at but I wriggled my way into the water and off we went again.  Quite a different spot, a lot more open with bigger canyons and an amazing drop off which made my tummy flip when I got to the edge as I thought I was going to fall off – hmmm….

feeding frenzy

fish from onbaord Passions - the reef is the dark spot at the top of the photo

So a fantastic day and now we head back to Mackay having accepted an offer of 8 weeks work at Sugar Australia. 

Cairns

An interesting town, very touristy possible because it has an international ariport and alot of people seem to arrive or leave from here.  Very ineresting walking down the street as you can here so many languages - not that i recognise half of them apart from knowing its different.  Hundreds of hostels for backpackers and booking centres to book tours, sky diving etc.  Interesting markets where we had quite a nice massage for $15, lots of options for dining and relaxing on the street. 

those hanging things on the tree are shoes!!



Chalk art





From Carins we did a day trip up to port Douglas and the Mossman Gorge.  Tony had been to the gorge a 'few' years ago and was interested to see the changes.





old and new bridge on the Mossman Gorge walkway



And of course we went for a swim, the water was beautiful, clean clear and a beautiful green - although it did take a while to get in....

Tony contemplating the water

Janine playing whales



From here we headed back to Cairns and I flew home to NZ for a couple of weeks, once again leaving Tony to fend for himself.