Janet and John on a Roadtrip

Today was a transit day really but because Janet and I are so excited about the start of our road trip through Central Queensland I thought I'd do a quick update.

The first leg was from Rockhampton to Airlie Beach which is about a 5 hour drive.

We broke up the trip by visiting Mackay for lunch overlooking the harbour.

Mackay harbour was lovely and most notable for the mutant oysters they served us for lunch!!

We arrived in Airlie beach just in time to catch the sunset. Our bargain cabin at Magnums Backpackers  has turned to to be lovely overlooking a creek teaming with wildlife as well as mosquitoes (reaches for the DEET)

I'm enjoying a brief return to the backpacker scene that took up much of my year travelling so cheers!

Janet and John do Rockhampton Day 4

With another auctioned packed day ahead off us Janet and I set off early for a trip to Rockhampton Zoo in the Botanical Gardens. It was closed off in a lot of places for renovation work, but as it was free we couldn't complain too much!

They did least have some kangaroo. Proving to me once an for all that they're not a myth....

Next up was the Archer Park railway museum.

bizarrely this was recommended to us by a tram driver in Melbourne as it contains the only remaining working steam tram in the world. We especially went along on a Sunday as it's the only day it runs. Yes I am sad!

Next up was a trip to the seaside! Firstly to Yeppoon for yummy fish and chips then along the coast to Emu Park for the Festival of the Wind. A family day on the beach with many kites. First though we stopped to view the plot where Janet's folks are building their new house. The views are amazing!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=laHiGH-ujKw

The Festival of the Wind was a treat with lots of niknak stalls and a little funfair along with kites being flown on the beach.

We escaped the crowds by heading up the coast slightly for a dip in the sea 

For our last evening in Rockhampton, Andrew cooked up a steak BBQ, a fitting end for now in the beef capital of Australia.

Janet and John Do Rockhampton Day 3

We had another action packed day in and around Rockhampton.

I started off going solo whilst Janet and her Mum went shopping. I went for a slow stroll around the main high street in Rocky as well as exploring the riverfront with the oldest buildings in town.

Rockhamptons riverfront is a great insight into early Queensland colonial development, it feels almost unchanged in 150 years, well bar the pleasant boardwalk added along the river.

I managed to squeeze in a cheeky scooner (okay pint...) before heading off to lunch with Janet's dad's brother, sister and other family.

In the afternoon we scaled Mount Archer just outside Rocky (in a car unfortunately, I'd have loved to walk up) for some amazing views.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bPNrRK28BVg

We then headed back to Janet's folks for a lovely walk in the Botanical Gardens to see the sunset over the lagoons. I have to say Australia certainly knows how to do sunsets!

Janet and John Do Rockhampton Day 2

I've mentioned a few early starts not his trip so far but nothing will top the 3.30am start I had today to attend the ANZAC day dawn service with Janet's dad and uncle. The 4.30am service was incredibly moving and I was astounded that it was attended by over 2000 people. The service itself was similar in many respects to a Remembrance Sunday service back home but was a little less formal and certainly better attended. A truly incredible way to experience the pride Autralians have in their country.

Today was an exploration of Rockhamptons local history and we started off with a visit to Janet's Great Great Grandfathers grave. He was an early Rockhampton businessman and it's first mayor.

This was followed by an trip to Mount Morgan, the disused goldmine that was key to Rockhampton wealth. Mount Morgan was a great example of the impact on world history that a small place like Rockhampton has had. One of the first shareholders in Mount Morgan was a young Rockhampton lawyer William Knox D'Arcy, who returned to England once he had made his fortune from gold to invest in early oil exploration in Persia. This expedition was successful and the resulting company became BP, the energy giant we know today!

Mount Morgan the town sadly has more in common with many North East English towns with a feeling of decline that comes when the only employer disappears.

As if that wasn't enough to make anyone sad...

It had been a long day but we still found time that evening to head out for a few beers with some of Janet's old friends.

Janet and John rock the Hampton's (Rockhampton Day 1)

With a very early start, JT and I boarded the Virgin Airline flight to Rockhampton, where more warm weather awaited us. Mum picked us up from the airport and gave us a quick drive around town so JT could get his bearings...

Mum took us back to. Their new house where a familiar face appeared. Celedon the cat came to greet us. 

JT and I spent the afternoon driving around, and I did showed him our old family house, my old place and other key sights of the Beef Capital.

When Dad finished work, we had a feast of oysters, bug and raw mushroom salad and ice cream... Not all together of course!

And that was our first day in Rocky!

Janet and John do Brisbane Day 2

Hi guys! I have hijacked the blog to tell you about what we did on our second day in what the locals call Brisvegas! I think from JT's last post, you could tell that Brissy was pulling out gorgeous weather for us. 

The little one's were recovering from a bout of illness, so we had the delightful Amanda as our host for the morning. We started our chauffeured tour of Brisbane at a well knowned boutique bakery called Brumbies where we stocked up on coffee and Lamingtons. Our first point of call was driving into the city and across the bridge to see Kangaroo Point and views of the city coming over the Story Bridge in the Valley. We travelled through to New Farm park and had a little picnic after exploring the Brisbane Powerhouse, which as the name suggests is an old powerhouse converted into various theatre, performance, bar and restaurant spaces. It's raw finish is delightful. Then it was on to St Lucia where we visited the University of Queensland campus and the colleges that surround it. Amanda toured us through a few of the houses where John, Amanda, Alister, Margot and I rented.

We had a yummy lunch (A burger with beetroot! Yum!) and a walk in the afternoon. In the evening we went to the Regatta and caught up with my old friend Sarah Landis and her boyfriend John. It was great to catch up!

It was a great night but an early one as we had to get up to head to Rockhampton! 

Stay turned for our road trip portion of the holiday! 

Janet and John do Brisbane Day 1

So onto steamy Brisbane. Again we seem to have brought the weather with us it has been steamy hot!

 

Janet's sister Amanda and brother in law John have kindly put us up for our time in Brisbane and I got to meet Janets nephew and nieces, Monty, Peggy and Sabinewho have kept us entertained. Or us them!

We started the day with a trip to the Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art. GOMA which had so fantastic interactive kid areas

Here is the disc that Monty and I made...

And here is Janet's effort....

After we explore the GOMA, Janet and I had an explore of Central Brisbane, keeping out of the sun... We strolled along the south bank, wandered in the City Botanical Gardens and visited the Commissariat Store. Which is a convict built reminent of the original Moreton Bay Penal Collony that predates Brisbane. 

That evening whilst Janet's was on babysitting duties I found the time to go for a bit of an evening walk  down Mt Coot-tha

Here is the amazing view from the lookout point.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8su-dW62RTQ

The walk down to Slaughter Falls (which was more a Slaughter dribble) was a lovely way to spend an evening. It included an aboriginal art walk which was worth a look.

After that we still had time for a lovely night out with Amanda including some fantastic food and a few drinkies!

Janet and John in The Mountains

Today was a road trip to the Blue Mountains on Easter Sunday. Alister and Amy kindly drove us to the couple of hours from Sydney for us to get a taste to the Blue Mountains national park.

We headed to Katoomba to visit Scenic World where we were able to see the iconic Three Sisters as well as head down into the cool valley for a bit of an explore.

Janet handled herself with great decorum as we caught the steepest railway in the world to the valley floor.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VcHsuMxd5sc

But not before some fantastic view across the valley of the Three Sisters

And some serious business exploring the old coal mine!

The Blue Mountains were lovely somewhere I'd definitely go back to.

We the headed back for a last exhausted night in Sydney before our flight to Brisbane.

A huge thanks to Alister and Amy for hosting our entire Sydney stay especially their stearling driving efforts on Sunday. Thanks also to Andrew and Penny who put up with us in a lovely hotel in Surry Hills and to John and Sally who it was a pleasure to meet.

We've had an uneventful flight to Brisbane. Queensland has been quiet so far it's certainly warm but a chilled out day was exactly what we needed!

Janet and John Do Bondi

So we were certainly lucky with the weather for this trip another beautiful day for us to head to the beach!

Alister, Andrew and Penny joined as we  cabbed it out to Bronte beach and then strolled along the cliff to Bondi for a dip.

Our first shock was quite how crazy the surf was! The first two beaches were closed but watching the sea was entertaining enough!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7qOYAfNc7LI

We made the most of our stroll in the sun...

We stopped for lunch at Iceberg on Bondi for lunch and the views!

Before we finally found the tiny bit of Bondi they had opened for a swim. The pics and videos don't do it justice it was crazy!

That evening we had dinner at Customs House overlooking Circular Quay the good was amazing and in was accompanied by one of the greatest views I've every seen (pic to follow)

And there was still more fun to come as I dragged everybody including Amy's parents to the pub to watch Spurs. Just when everyone thought the day couldn't get better...

 

Janet and John On a Train!

Our last day before Sydney was the most beautiful day in Melbourne so we took the opportunity to head out to St Kilda, where we strolled along the prom and had a little paddle for most of the day! Punctuated by a beer or two along the way of course.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PlYQMsdveoo

It was a perfect way to end a really memorable part of our adventures made all the better by the friendly people I met along the way! See you soon Melbourne!!

That night we had the excitement of a sleeper train ride overnight to Syndey. We had our own cabin and being told off for train beers aside, it was a pleasant way to make the journey between the two.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TrwHHQfXfxQ

We met up with Janet's brother Alister and his wife Amy bright and early on Good Friday (sorry about the 7am wake up on a bank holiday...) and after a yummy breakfast we were joined by Janet's mum and dad for a trip to Watsons Bay where again in beautiful sun. (Yep I'm as red as a beetroot...) we had a lovely seafood lunch.

Janet and I then caught the ferry back to Curcular Quay in Sydney.  

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=asHKBJC0ueU

And there was still more excitement to squeeze in as Alister took us to a fantastic Japanese resturant where I had my first raw fish experience. I'm a definite convert I'll never cook it again....!

Janet and John Do Melbourne Day 3

Thanks to the lovely Craig one of Janet's oldest friends who lives in Melbourne we had an adventure in the suburbs today.

We started off with a trip to Brighton Beach to see the beach huts... Yes really. Apparently they are so desirable that they sell for $250,000 each, which is a tad over the top. You can't even live in them!!!

The other thing we being at a beach, even if it was only a "freezing" 20 degrees, was the chance to play with the GoPro underwater getting ready for our trip to the Great Barrier Reef!

Here is my favourite of the efforts. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HUFVxwOnAsw

After much paddling and beach high jinx we head further into the depths of Melbournes suburbs to visit a really fascinating outdoor modern sculpture gallery, the McClelland Sculpture Gallary, which had some fantastic pieces (and some less so) set in a beautiful park.

Then back in civilisation again we met up with Janet lovely friends for our last night in Melbourne until we head back before we fly home.

and then ate some amazing pizza. I was certainly happy....

Janet and John Do Melbourne Day 2

Sleep was still lacking going into day 2 but we managed to make the most of it. as we were up bright and early we took the opportunity to visit the Queen Victoria Market

The market had great fresh produce but was on the pricy side. That said we had some juice ate some bakery so we were content!

Next up before we went our separate ways for the afternoon we had time to visit the Victoria State Library which had a fantastic old reading room reminiscent of the reading room in the British Museum.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RQDsZL14YIU

The library also had exhibits on the history of Victoria state and one on Ned Kelly. I got to try on the famous armour! Well sort of.... 

The afternoon was set to be sportstastik for me whilst Janet caught up with Craig over a little Japanese food and Gin Garden Cocktails at Madame Brussels, and wandering the streets and lane ways of this gorgeous city. And later the one and only Trudi joined us on our wandering. And then we met Eng who was a delight!

I stopped off to pay respects to the great man on the way to the MCG and the Australian National Sports Museum.

The MCG itself was underwhelming as an empty venue having been almost entirely rebuilt as a modern bowl in the 2000's although I imagine when full it's a great specticle.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rEgUS1h7hwc

Next up was the sports museum, which was brilliant, the Aussies are rightly proud go their sporting heritage and this museum more than did it justice.

Here I'll indulge myself with a picture of Cadel Evans's bike on which he road up the Champs-Élysées during the 2011 Tour de France before the domination of the British began...

It's safe to say I was in my element and there was barely any mention of the Ashes....

While I was having all this fun Janet was drinking gin. So everyone was happy!

Janet and John Do Melbourne

We seemed to have lost Sunday but we finally arrived in Australia at 6.00am on Monday... I think...

Thanks to the lovely, lovely people at our boutique hostel we were able to check in 8 hours early and to prepare for an exciting days exploring until we drop...

We started off by exploring the hostel itself here is Janet admiring the sun deck!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fdulacwI4mY

When we arrived it was actually colder in Melbourne than it was in London which was irritating as I, in my infinite wisdom, only brought one light jumper and a gillet ( Sherwood love obviously...) but it soon brightened up.

So here we are strolling along the Yarra and er drinking beer...

We didn't actually managed much else before the journey caught up with us but here I'll leave you with an arty farty view of the southbank.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SwKXWP09yLY

Laters!

Janet & John

Janet and John at KL international

So here it is the moment everybody has been waiting for a new blog!

The plan is to update this blog daily (although I admit the old track record is well....) with some interactive deets of our trip across Australia.

The idea is for less text more pics and videos. Although probably less of the pics at the moment as Janet left her SLR battery at home....

Starting off with me looking er studious while starting a new blog in the fancy pants airport lounge 

And more realistically here is me drinking the free beer in the fancy pant airport lounge... I could get used to this!

Still an 8 hour flight to come to Melbourne so I need all the free beer I can get!

So this is JT and Janet checking out until tomorrow!

I just spotted our plane so whoop!