Wishing you all a happy new year and all the best for 2008! We’re off to the harbour in approximately 45 minutes – we’re booked on a cruise, which should give us unimpeded view of the fireworks

Hugs & Kisses!

We have finally been to the beach in Australia and actually not seen a single cloud! Arrived in Sydney yesterday, and we spent today on Bondi beach – it is after all a famous beach, so we had to see it. The beach isn’t all that long, but pretty wide, and crammed with people. It mostly reminded me of the beaches full of sea lions as shown on nature programs on Discovery channel, what with everybody lounging around, and the men puffing out their chest muscles for the many groups of impeccably groomed rich men’s daughters There were of course normal people there too, but they weren’t half as fun to watch. And small speedos for men are obviously all the rage for the strutting men… I think you could do a study on the entire social hierarchy at Bondi.

Mario and I were super careful and applied sunscreen 30+, where as Ivan was determined to catch up on all the tanning he missed in Brisbane. Olya settled for the middle road. Guess who’s the least red? I only have a slight hint of burn/rash on my thighs, and Mario’s shoulders are slightly red. Ivan has lobster legs. Considering that this is the first day Mario and I have spent an entire day on the beach without the calming shade of a private bungalow nearby, we’re not so badly off I think. Guess we’ll know for sure tomorrow morning

Our hotel here in Sydney is (unfortunately) pretty far outside the city centre (we’re in North Ryde), but it was the only one Olya could find when she booked our tour. New Years Eve weekend is a pretty busy time for the hotels here (oh, the surprise). The hotel offers shuttle buses in to the city centre in the morning and return in the afternoon though, so it’s not too bad. And there are the regular buses, and we can always opt for taxi. The hotel itself is very nice.

After installing ourselves yesterday, we took the bus into Circular Quay, and wandered around the water front, and around the opera. Did all the mandatory pictures of famous landmarks – you know the drill. We also had lunch at Doyle’s down by the Rocks, as this was recommended by the Traveling Gurus we met on Ouvea: Ken & Steve. They claimed they had the best fish & chips in the world, and even I, who generally dislike this particular culinary experience, had to admit that it was very good. Thank you Ken & Steve! We then wandered about a bit, keeping an eye out for an open shop where I could get a jumper. I got a bit carried away when I saw that the sun was actually shining here in Sydney, and only after wandering around in my skimpy top for a while did I realise that sunshine does not necessarily equal tropical heat. I am still in South Pacific mode. And now I think I might be getting Mario’s cold. Damn it!

After I felt sufficiently clad, we went for a couple of drinks, and then a light night snack, before heading home. Restaurants were still open and serving dinner at 23:30! Hooray! Civilised city, this.

We’re back at the hotel now applying soothing aftersun lotion, and then we’re heading back to the city centre for some dinner. Tomorrow, we thought we’d try to climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Yep.

Our departure for Fraser Island was at 6:45 in the morning; a grueling hour for our well adapted friends on vacation. But we were still pleased because this was our only possibility of experiencing the World Heritage and tourist attraction known as Fraser Island.

We left Brisbane in a normal sized jeep; our group, the guide and three English girls, making us a total of 8 people. Still we consider our tour a much better alternative to the tourist buses filled with Japanese tourists that also were available – we were a small group and could therefor enjoy the attractions in relative quiet – as long as we made it to the sights before the bigger buses. The day was thus set for long drives in a fast pace

Our guide had the look and attitude that you would immediately associate with an Australian surfer – tall and slim, with his hair in dreads and some large sunglasses covering the rest of his face – and he like calling everybody “mate”. Although he had a formal education in landscape design; his spare time he devoted to surfing.

After a 3 hour drive from Brisbane we finally arrive at Fraser Island. We arrived at high tide, and due to the bad weather forming lately and a full moon the high swells were especially bad. A large number of jeeps had thus lined up waiting for the tide to recede and the main highway on the island – the beach – to become available. The rumors were that they had to cancel their tours the following day because of the bad swells. Due to our one day excursion WE had a schedule to uphold, and our tour guide/driver would not let bad weather get in the way of our investment in the tour. So we headed onto to the beach for a fast, exciting – and a bit wet – drive through the high tide.

Driving along the beach we noticed how there were no surfers on the beach, although the waves looked impressive and in our eyes would have been an obvious choice for surfers. It turns out the shores along Fraser Island are a breeding ground for sharks, and anybody stupid enough to surf in these waters would be told off by the many people passing by. Still our guide surfed there frequently, but admitted it was only worth the potential risk when the waves were good. Erica safely tucked away her swimming gear.

The limited time we had available as part of a one day tour meant that we would only get to experience two of the many attractions on the island; A walk though the rain forest and a swim in lake McKenzie. Our guide was joyful and informative and told us about the many plant and animal species that were unique for the island. Lake McKenzie is practically dead of plant and animal life due to the acidity and minerals in the water. Thus all nutrition to the water was provided by insects landing on the water and very few species survived under these harsh conditions. We were told the minerals in the water was good for our skin and for rinsing jewelry, and were encouraged to go for a swim – but had to remember to not add any nutrition to the water and thus be responsible for changing the environment. Wee wees in the water were strictly forbidden.

During the day we also got to see two dingos on two separate occasions. These wild animals look like dogs, and walked casually amongst the many swimmers at the lake. Still one was advised not to try to treat it as a dog – it is a wild animal after all.

Well. It will probably shock you all, but Christmas Day in Brisbane? Not too much happening. We were originally planning to do Christmas Aussie style, by lounging on the beach wearing Santa Claus hats, except that this year, of all years, the weather has been (according to the locals) abnormally cool. Apparently it is usually pretty hot on Christmas Day, and a struggle to eat the big traditional lunch. This year it was cloudy, fairly windy, and not beach inspiring at all – and easy-peasy to eat the big lunch. Personally, I would have preferred scorching heat, as I only have one jumper – a white hoodie that is currently sporting a large coffee stain. Mario has even managed to get a cold from being insufficiently clad in this cold-hearted city.

In hopes that the mercenary Gold Coast would still be open, we opted for spending the day cruizing around in the car. We had to use it, since we’d rented the thing, right? We drove down to a place called Point Danger, and from there, followed the coast up to Surfers Paradise, making several stops on the way, ogling the locals having Christmas BBQs by the sea. Think we have admired enough beaches to last us a life time now

None of us felt any particular need to cool down, but Ivan decided to preserve our dignity by taking a couple of dips in the ocean. We also got to see the life guard in action, when someone thoguht they spotted a person in trouble. We rounded off our trip with a wander around Surfers Paradise, where more or less everything was open for business, and Ivan tested the power of the waves that is the source of the name “Surfers Paradise”. The waves looked pretty small when scrutinized from the beach, but once Ivan was out there to give some perspecitve, we realized that they were huge.

We polished off Christmas Day with a dinner at the hotel restaurant, which we had booked in advance. Based on our experiences with restaurants in Brisbane, we were pretty sure we wouldn’t find a single place to eat, so we felt a lot safer by booking a table here at the hotel. We naturally went for the Christmas menu, which at least featured turkey and plumpudding, though the turkey was pretty far removed from the real deal (green tea marinated). And our family recepie for plumpudding is of course superiour to the one we were served, though I finally had some feeling for Christmas while eating it.

Boxing Day

Boxing Day is a public holiday in Australia. Or so we’ve been told. I wouldn’t have known it from walking around the city centre though – it felt more like the craziest Saturday ever. All the shops were open, and every shop had a major sale going – most of them had signs stating that every item in the shop were available at half price. And dude! People were off their hinges. It was like a feeding frenzy amongst piranahs. There’s been a long queue outside the Guess shop on Queen Street all day, and I could only dream about getting into my favourite shoe shop, Nine West.

We had reserved the day for shopping and perhaps a little sight seeing, so for the shopping, Mario and I tried to hedge around the worst of the crowd-gatheres. I am pretty pleased with the results though: a very cool handbag, two tops and a pair of cool pumps with a matching handbag. So that means two handbags in one day. Hee! My shopping need is well satisfied. Olya bought a pair of wicked shoes, and Ivan some shirts. Mario was being difficult, and were not interested in trying any of the sandals I tried to push his way. Silly man. I also tried to find a jumper that would be a little nicer than my coffee-hoodie, but no luck.

After the shopping we headed for the local Brisbane mountain (or hill if you like) of Mount Cooth-tha, to get a panoramic view of Brisbane and the surrounding area. Supposedly, on a clear day, you are able to see all the way to the ocean from the lookout point, but the weather is still being really unhelpful, so we basically saw Brisbane. After admiering the view for a couple of minutes, we headed for the Planetarium situated at the foot of the mountain, thinking that it would be excellent on such a stupid, rainy day. Obviously, the Planetarium does not share the money making instincts that characterizes the shops, so that was closed. Of course. The planetarium is just next to a botanical garden. Deprived of planet-gazing, we went for a botanical wander in the rain, and were frustrated by the promised Bonzai garden being closed. Damn it people! At least we actually need the rain ponchos we bought in Norway. The idea was that we shouldn’t need them if we brought them, but that usually fool prof logic is failing us.

We had some pretty bad and ridiculously expensive pancakes for dinner, and then went into a Chinese massage parlour to make up for the dinner. Not too bad a day, all in all. Tomorrow we are getting up super-early to go on a day-tour to Fraser island, which is, according to LP, surrounded by waters inhabited by man eating sharks. Yay. Departure at 06:45, return 19:30. Looong day! Should probably bring our ponchos, in addition to sunscreen lotion.

Good night!

Yesterday was Christmas eve, though it was easy to forget. Even though Brisbane is much cooler in climate than the South Pacific, it is still summer. And what do you do on summer days, even though it might threaten to rain? You go to amusement parks. So we wanted to spend Christmas Eve at a place called Wet’n'Wild down by the Goald Coast, to properly flaunt Christmas

Before we could go however, we had a couple of logistics to sort out, so we headed for the Brisbane Information Centre situated in the middle of Queens Street. We had to discover if there was anything at all to do do on Christmas Day (answer: not really; go to the beach), check if we could possibly manage to go on a day trip to Fraser Island (everything was sold out, but since we were 4 they set up a whole new tour for us, yay!), and hire a car so we could get around a bit. And inquire where we could get the best deals on tickets to fly from Brisbane to Sidney. All of this took us a grand total of 3 hours, and we then had to pick up the car, so we were pretty late driving off to the Gold Coast. We got there around one o’clock, and the park closed at 5, so we had to be efficient if we were to catch all the rides. And before you people at home become too jealous, it was pretty darn cold running around in a bikini yesterday.

Due to our amazing talent for planning, we just got off the last ride when they started to announce that the park was closing. We rule! They had some pretty cool rides, especially the ride we dubbed “The Funnel”, though it’s official name is “Tornado” – a 4 person ride on rafts. I slipped through the hole I was sitting on when we went down the steepest part of the ride (my arse is not fat enough), so I expect to have a huge bruise in a couple of days. Sexy

After the park closed we drove down to the Gold Coast proper, and had a stroll around Surfers Paradise, where we also had dinner – kangaroo and crocodile, as mentioned in yesterday’s post. Kangaroo was very tasty, crocodile didn’t taste of much at all, with a texture between chicken and crayfish.

Today, most of Brisbane is closed as everybody is celebrating Christmas, so we don’t expect to do much. We’ll probably go for a drive outside Brisbane, maybe go back down to the Gold Coast, but it might be a bit too cool for beaching. Booked a table at the hotel restaurant for tonight, as that was one of the few places we know are open for dinner, so at least we shouldn’t starve. Perhaps we should go from window to window, look in on the Australians enjoying their holidays? Perhaps they’ll donate some food to hungry tourists? Christmas is after all about giving

Enjoy your holidays everyone!

Australia is all about koalas and kangaroos, right? So priority number one was to go to the Koala Sanctuary situated upriver from Brisbane. Of course you could also argue that we had to go there the first day, becuase of Christmas opening hours, but that would be no fun. Personally, I only came to Australia to cuddle a koala. Yep. There is this boat that goes up the Brisbane river to the sanctuary in the morgning, and takes you back in the afternoon. As you go up the river, you get a little information about Brisbane history, and the places we go past. Totally the tourist thing to do, but very pleasant nevertheless. There are some really nice houses along the river, and a big island that is home to a large colony of fruit bats. As we were wandering oaround the Brisbane that evening, we could see large groups of them flying in over the city to eat. Awsome.

Once we arrived at the sanctuary, we were perhaps ridiculously exited by our first meeting with Australian wildlife: a couple of water dragons that had used the pier as a resting spot. They look really cool, and I want one! Sadly, Brisbane decided to show us it’s cool and rainy side, so things were a bit wet. It actually felt like a rainy Norwegian summer day. And we forgot our ponchos at the hotel. We have carried them around for 4 weeks, but we keep on forgetting to bring them whenever they are needed, which, you know, is typical. We didn’t let that stop us of course, so we braved the park, and got to see a bird of pray show, ogle funny Australian animals such as the cassowary, feed kangaroos, and most importantly: cuddle a koala. My koala smelled really nice, and when I commented on this, his keeper told me the smell came from his scent glands, which he uses to attract females. It is obviously working

After being perpetually damp (and a little chilled) at the sanctuary, we went back down the river, changed our clothes for something slightly warmer, had a huge lunch in Chinatown, and headed off on the walk through the city centre suggested by our Lonly Planet guide. Brisbane is very clean, and seems to have lots of room, so the tall buildings are not towering over you like they do on i.e. Manhattan. It seems very well planned for modern western life, and leaves me with the impression that it was all built during the last 20 years or so. Even the old buildings look kinda new

Our wanderings eventually led us to the botanical gardens at dusk, and we were in an excellent position to see all the flying foxes come in over the river. I was just waiting for Batman to appear amongs them… I like bats! At this time, we were becoming slightly concerned about our dinner options, as we were afraid that the restaurants would all close, even though it was just 7 in the evening. Making our way back over and up the river, we were informed by friendly locals that there would be a firework show on the river in an hours time, so we risked our dinner by slowing down and joining the crowd. The show was well put together, and it almost gave me a feeling of Christmas. I just lacked a coat, a hat, gloves and icy cold feet for the feeling to be complete. We then had to hurry, and barlely made it to a restaurant in time

Mario and I then spent quite some time on the hotel computers, catching up on our blogging. The hotel charges ridiculous rates, although that is no surprise. We have now found a better place to work from though – a 24/7 internet cafe. 24/7! It doesn’t close at 19:00 like all the others, and it is even open on Christmas Day, when the rest of Brisbane is a ghost town. The internet never closes, and these guys knows it. Excelent place!

Also, I have spotted the local IBM office very close to our hotel. So I could go to work. If I really wanted to

2 days ago, we flew into Brisbane, and as my mobile is once again operative and the bedsheets are no longer damp, we are well and truly back in the world we were born in. We also have internet connections that are up to par, and do not require a great dose of Island Time patience – excellent! We flew in with Solomon Airlines, and consequently we were 3 hours delayed. We might have suffered from a mild shock if it had been on schedule. Going through all the Australian border security, I once again had to defend the coffee I bought in New Caledonia (I have done that every time we changed country since I bought it), and Ivan ended up doing a lengthy chat with a officer on duty. Naturally. Also, we had to explain what we had been doing in the Solomons. Once we were through though, Ivan got a very enthusiastic greeting from his girlfriend, Olya, who had spent the last 2 days waiting for us in Brisbane. They were very sweet

After settling in at our hotel, we were feeling pretty peckish and thoght we’d have some dinner. Not an unreasonable request, you might say. Even though it was just after 22:00. It was after all a Saturday. Brisbane is a pretty large city. It should be doable, right? You all agree? Good. Cause most kitchens in Brisbane seem to close somewhere between 20:00 and 21:00, even on Saturdays. No food for you! I am sure the concierge at the hotel tried to call every restaurant known to her in the city centre, to no avail. Kitchen closed. Even Oslo has places where the kitchen is open until 23:00! I never thought I’d see the day where Oslo upstaged a place like Brisbane. Sigh. However, not all was bleak, as we did manage to locate a place with an operating kitchen after wandering up Queen Street – the main street in Brisbane. Afterwards we went for a little stroll, and a drink, just to get a feel for Brisbane night life. It was fairly bustling but not over crowded, and also very laid back. Actually, very nice.

We didn’t stay up too late, since one of the few things that we did do when lazing about at Fatboys was to plan our stay in Brisbane, and on the schedule for our first full day in Australia was… The Koala sanctuary!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas here from Australia! We had kangaroo and crocodile for dinner today, to celebrate the occasion.

Updates on activities to date here in Brisbane will follow in about 10 hours, after some much needed sleep.

– Mario & Erica –

Recap: 20.12.2007 — 20.12.2007

Sadly, the 4 days at Fatboys went by all too quickly, before we had to turn our noses towards Honiara once more. Jemma and Sascha had to return to catch their flight for Bellona on the 21st, which meant leaving the Westeners alone in Honiara for a day and a half. This was just the way the schedule worked out, as the inter-island flights are usually overbooked this time of year with all the islanders trying to go home for Christmas.

As is standard procedure when dealing with Solomon Airlines, we had the hotel call the airport roughly one hour before we would have to leave to check for any delays, as you seriously do not want to spend more time at the local “airport” than what is absolutely necessary. There is a reason for it being called an “airstrip terminal” and not an airport And as anything can happen here at the Solomons, we were told that the flight would be 30 minutes early. What?!? I am still puzzled as to why they could not hang about on the airstrip to get back on schedule, but apparently not. This message struck like a bomb, resulting in a mad dash to get everything ready, collect all our expenses, and to pay our bills before rushing off in the boat. As it turns out, we actually forgot to pay for the dive and snorkeling, so we need to sort that out somehow.

Once at the airstrip terminal, we waited. And sweated like pigs in the heat. And waited some more. And you know? The plane was not early coming in after all. So much for trying to be smart, people! Checking in, we had to weigh ourselves in addition every item destined to fly, as these things really matter when you’re on such a small flight. Interesting experience. And the weight of your luggage, hand luggage and yourself is duly shouted by the person doing the weighing, and noted down by the person behind the desk, halfway across the terminal building. If you’re embarrassed about your weight, you shouldn’t fly from Gizo!

Halfway to Honiara, we did a stop on some island, and I felt that this little airstrip was the pinnacle of island airstrip mentality. The airstrip was all grass, and not primarily hard packed dirt, as they had in Gizo. And it was pretty clear that our flight interrupted the local children in the middle of an important football match, as a bunch of them were impatiently passing the ball back and forth, waiting for the flight to get out of their football field. Rather, I should say as impatient you can be, if you are born and bred on Island Time. Then, for take off we had to wait while two of the locals tried to catch their dog that was apparently using the airstrip as her special playground. I think the dog had a fantastic game of catch-me-if-you-can, but at least the results were less macabre than if they didn’t catch her, and she decided to play a game of bite-the-wheel as we went up the runway. I had no idea you could put an airstrip to such diverse use

On our return to Honiara, we were once more treated to the exiting side effects of local politics, as parliament had just elected a new president. Everyone we talked to seemed to be very pleased with the new president, and they were feeling optimistic that this one would be really good for the Islands. At the same time the mood in Honiara was a bit restive, with lots of people milling about – faced by an equal amount of military and police presence. Hmm. Apparently there were some worries that all the unemployed people would use this as an excuse to do some more rioting, torching and looting. All of Honiara’s shops were closed, and you could see several people that were obviously guarding them. Some of Jemma’s family were even locked in a Chinese shop for quite some time, as the shop immediately closed when the election news were published. Apparently not a pleasant experience, as there were no aircondition. However, as there was heavy rains in the afternoon, the rioting accumulated to a bit of rock throwing off a bridge. Nobody wants to riot during heavy tropical downpour

Jemma’s stepmother, Marie-Louise, works for RAMSI, and bought an old truck of theirs to use when transporting larger groups of family and friends, and we used this dubious vehicle when we went to have our farewell dinner at the local Indian restaurant. Usually, the car is pretty well suited to it’s task, but perhaps not when driving through town at night, after a meal? There is no way the locals could see that we were in fact not Australian RAMSI soldiers. And as Australian RAMSI soldiers aren’t very popular with the crowd that were threatening to riot, we had the slightly chilling experience of someone throwing rocks at us as we went by.

Oh, and the boys tried to chew some betel nut on this last day. Apparently it first tasted foul, but after you work it for a while, it’s not so bad. I decided to refrain from having my teeth stained a rusty red…

Our solo day in Honiara was mind-numbingly boring, as it rained all day, and we had nothing to do but swim a bit in the hotel pool and watch TV — a first in 3 weeks… We did try to go to the Lime Lounge for some quality brunch, but they were closed for Christmas. Instead we ended up in a slightly less appealing eaterie in some rundown building – but hey! It was food. Would have been nice to spend that day at the Fatboys instead!

Our final day in Honiara passed much the same way – by hanging around waiting for our plane to leave. It was 3 hours delayed — of course.

Recap: 18.12.2007

Up once again after breakfast, we received the news that an urgent e-mail awaits us by Grant. Sadly because the mail was written in another language he was unable to inform me of the content of the mail, and since his printer did not work he could not hand me a copy of the mail. Sascha and Jemma had lost their bags the day before during their flight to Gizo, and were awaiting the arrival of their bags in Gizo city today. So we decided all of us take a trip into Gizo city, to check out the city, mail and other tidbits. All except Erica that rightfully argued that the city would be much too hot on this beautiful day.

Traveling in dinghy we were surprised and delighted to see dolphins swim along our boat as we head for Gizo city. This would not be the last time we would have the joy of seeing dolphins.

In Gizo Sascha and Jemma’s bags were waiting for them, and they were happy of the thought to finally change to a clean pair of clothes and other much missed necessities. I got to check our mail and quickly realised that the “urgent” mail was a request from our family…
“what’s happening… we haven’t seen any updates on the blog for days?”

Gizo city is the second largest city in Solomon Islands. As we have learnt from our travels in the South Pacific the second largest city is usually a whole different ball game from the capital. The city consists of a main street with small shops on both sides of the road, and can be comfortably walked through in 10 minutes. There is a market that sells fruit and vegetables, and a variety of coloured fish you did not know existed. Some people gamble along the street; the dealer announcing the results in a megaphone to give an authentic feel to the game, although the 5 people around him would probably have an easier time playing if he had dropped the electronic assistance.

As we were in the city we thought we might visit the local dive shop and have a talk with them before our dive with them the following day. Entering the dive shop we find it empty, and ask the people outside who we may talk to regarding our dive. One of them rush of to get hold of the person that may help us… half an hour later a Swedish woman appears.

Erica and I have come to the conclusion that people that choose to stay in the South Pacific become affected by Island Time and gradually change. After some time in the tropical climate you will notice that your hair colour becomes naturally bleached. Some think this is a result of your hairs exposure to sun and salt water, but we have come to a different conclusion. The affect of Island Time is like a slow brain drain and with time makes you “blond”. Our Swedish woman was blond.

Recap: 19.12.2007

For the first time during our stay at Fatboys, the 19th of December we finally got around to have breakfast. The fact that we got up early was not by accident though; this was the day of our dive at the nearby reefs. Sascha and I were going scuba diving, Ivan and Jemma were snorkeling and Erica; she was very unsure how this dive trip would affect her phobia of sharks. I tried to calm her and reason with her and eventually she decided that she would at least accompany us in the boat.

The reefs had been heavily affected by the aftershocks and tremors of the tsunami, and sadly had the look of a graveyard of corals. Still it did not seem to have affected the fish population and we got to see plenty of colourful tropical fish. It was great to scuba dive again! Sascha and I got to see Clown fish, Barracudas, Sting rays… and a shark.

Emerging from our dive Sascha was eager to tell everyone about what we had seen, and before I could stop him he tells everyone of our encounter with a shark… in front of Erica. Erica went from a nice tanned look to pale white. Drifting in a small boat in the South Pacific she started to feel very uncomfortable. While having a calm talk to Erica we head off to a nearby island for lunch. The delicious fruit we had for lunch must have helped as one hour later Erica was back in the boat. One point to Erica – Zero to shark phobia!