Day 18: Cairns

After four days in Port Douglas it is time to fly back to our friend's home in Buderim, about an hours drive North of Brisbane.

Before we went back to the airport in Cairns we had time to visit the Esplanade area of Cairns.  We found a really nice shop selling gelati, ice-cream to you and me. I had raspberry and white chocolate, oh yes!

Fortunately Mrs B didn't get any photographs of me eating my ice-cream but let me tell you it was scrummy.  :-)

When we were flying back we manged to spot some of the Great Barrier Reef through the window.  The colour of the sea was just amazing.  I'm sure Mrs Brooks and Mrs Kelly would be able to tell me the exact shade!

Day 17: Port Douglas

After the excitement of seeing salt water crocodiles yesterday we decided to have a leisurely day exploring Port Douglas.  First of all we climbed up to the look-out point that looks out over the beach.  The monument in front of me has the mileage to lots of different cities around the world.

London is just over 15,000 km from Port Douglas.

The beach looked so inviting from the View Point that we decided to walk along it.  The beach was lined with Palm trees which gave the beach a very different look and feel from the beaches we visit in Great Britain.

If you look very closely at the photograph what can you spot that we have to buy in a shop?

Day 16: Daintree

I've been on yet another boat trip on a river but this afternoon I saw several crocodiles...gulp!

Here in Australia crocodiles live in rivers and the sea.  The one in my photograph is called Lizzie and she is a salt water croc.  I'm glad she was sleepy when we sailed past because salt water crocodiles are, apparently, quite ferocious. Luckily for us Lizzie was in a good mood!

Day 15: Sky Rail

I have just been on an amazing journey over the top of a rainforest to the Noth of Cairns and then travelled back through it on a the Kuranda Railway which gives some jaw-dropping views of the valley that we travelled over earlier this morning.

The Sky Rail is a cable car railway that takes you above the tree canopy of the rainforest.  It is in three sections that takes you high above and over the top of the rain forest.  The ride takes almost 90 minutes from the bottom of the mountain to the village of Kuranda at the top.

Once at the top we had some lunch and then took the train back through the valley and the rainforest. The ride was great and we saw lots of spectacular views including this one of a beautiful waterfall.

Day 14: Brisbane to Port Douglas

This is the third section of our holiday. We are flying from Brisbane to Cairns and then driving from Cairns to Port Douglas.  When you look at the map it is amazing to see how much of Australia we have visited.

I'm writing the first part of this post as we are flying on a Jetstar A320 plane. 

We hired a car a drove with with our friends to Potg Douglas where we are staying in an apartment for a few days.

I'm sure the best part of our adventure will be just as exciting as the last 14 days.

Day 21: Off Roading

Wow, what a way to finish a fabulous holiday! Today I've been off-roading in a 4x4 Toyota Land Cruiser in a special 500 acre off roading site deep in a forest.

Mrs B and her friend went out to meet some other girl friends for lunch whilst I went off-roading. I've taken lots of videos which I will upload when I get home in about 24 hours time. I've never been off-roading before...it was exhilarating. Some of the hills that we drove up and down were so steep I thought the car was going to topple over.  On one of the hill climbs one of the front wheels comes off the ground. Great fun.  :-)

If you ever get the chance to have a go...grab the opportunity with both hands, you will not regret it. 

Day 19: Maloolaba

Only two more days before we have to start our long trip back to Drakes Broughton.

The sun was shining so we decided to visit Maloolaba. We decided to walk along the beach up to the marina. I didn't realise how far it was, but fortunately I tracked how far we walked with my phone, 4.5 miles!  We decided that because we had walked so far we deserved a gelati.  I had a Mars Bar flavoured one this time.

Some of the houses, and boats that border the marina are huge.  Much bigger than our houses in Worcester.

We then walked to the other end of the beach and found a sheltered, sunny spot to eat our lunch looking out between two trees at the Pacific Ocean. Bliss. :-)

Day13: Mapleton Falls, Kenilworth & Eumundi and gravel roads

After a lazy day yesterday we decided to push out out the coast and drive into the hinterland, it's what the Aussies call the bit of land back from the coast.

We decided to visit the Mapleton Falls National Park.  Great views but not much waterfall!  

Our journey then took us to Kenilworth which boasts a Cheese Factory, well worth a visit and then on to Eumundi which is a lovely market town.

However the most exciting part of the day was when travelling on the major road between Mapleton and Kenilworth the road changed from, as the Aussie's say, bitumen to gravel.  We were literally off-roading! Slight exeraggeration, but not much. Bring back the M5! :-)

Day 12: Coffee, Cake & Coast

Today we had a lazy day.  We started with coffee & cake in Peregian and then had a leisurely walk along the beach.

Our friends that we are stopping with in Buderim have a beach house in Peregian so we stopped there and ate our lunch overlooking the beach.

We then had another walk along the beach in the opposite direction.

Bliss, a lazy day in the sun! :-)

Day 11: Mt Coolum and Noosa

I've had another exciting day.  I've walked up and down a mountain, visited yet another fantastic beach, seen whales and dolphins off Dolphin Point near Noosa and been to a fish and chip shop like well I've never been to before!

We started the day visiting the Mount Coolum National Park and walking up Mt Coolum.  The path was extremely steep but we stopped a couple of times as we were walking to the summit.

The views at the top were fantastic!  I could see for miles and miles.

We then visited Noosa which is a very nice seaside town and visited a very different fish and chip shop in Noosaville for lunch. This fish and chip shop had a counter full of different types of fish.

There were so many types of fish you could choose from it was amazing.  I choose a fish I had never eaten before, snapper.  You could then choose how you wanted it cooking and whether you wanted bread-crumbs or batter.  Mrs B had pearly perch. We had to wait a while whilst the fish and chips was cooked but when it was ready it was gorgeous.

We then went for a walk along the beach in the Noosa Country Park until we arrived at Dolphin Point...and yes we saw dolphins and two whales too.

I didn't manage to get a photograph of the whales but I did take a photograph of Mrs B and our friends underneath a tree at the beach.

Day 10: Mooloolaba

This is the first day of our Aussie Adventure that the weather has not been warm and sunny but that still didn't stop us going out exploring. We decided to visit the seaside town of Mooloolaba, brilliant name don't you think?

Once we got there the sun came out, yippee...just in time for us to have a walk along the beach.

After our walk along the beach guess where we went next?  Any ideas?  Ok, I will tell you, we paid a visit to the Sunshine Coast Grammar School.  Here in Australia it is winter and all the schools are working.  Last night at a dinner party I met a teacher at the school who invited me to visit today.  Wow what a school.  Their school field is three times the size of ours.

I've been invited back on Thursday to talk to the teachers about how we use our iPads at St Barnabas.  I will take some more photographs and show you what the classrooms look like.

Day 9: The Glass House Mountains (Fruit loaf or an orchard in dough)

Our friends took us out sight seeing around their home town of Buderim. They took us into the Glass House Mountains which are a stunning range of mountains of various shapes and sizes.  They got their name from Captain Cook who thought they reminded him of the glass house factories of Yorkshire. I've got to say that I couldn't see the connection but the mountains were very striking and unusual. 

But before we wet off we had breakfast.  Nothing unusual about that is there...but on this occasion, yes there was, because we had the scrummiest toasted fruit loaf ever or as Dave, our friend said, an orchard in dough.  I hope we can have some more tomorrow!

One of the things that I've noticed since we have been here in Australia is that lots of natural phenomenon like mountain ranges have lots of look out points for visitors to stop at to view the landscape.  Each of the look out spots has an information board to explain what it is you can see.  Just like this board below.

Day 8: Brisbane

Today we met up with Mrs B's friends in Brisbane who emigrated to Aiustarlia nearly 25 years ago.

We had an exciting time exploring Brisbanne on the Sea Cats which are fast boats that travel up and down the river that flows through the middle of Brisbane, a bit like the River Severn flows through the centre of Worcester.

They then drove us to their house in Buderim which is about an hours drive to the north of Brisbane.

Since we arrived in Australia we have driven 1017km (631 miles) north from our original starting point in Sydney.  

Day 7: Road Trip 3 Coffs Harbour to Byron Bay

Today we have visited several very beautiful beaches on the the third and final section of our road trip along the Pacific Highway.

All of the beaches we have visited have been deserted because here in Australia it is winter and not summer as it is in the UK.  All of the the children are in school, not like us on holiday, so every where seems quiet.

The weather is great and the temperatures are quite high so I decided today to go for a paddle in the Pacific Ocean.  When I was small I thought the Pacific would be be warm  because when I looked at a map of the world, Australia was in the South, which meant it was hot and the sea would be warm. So I decided to wear my shorts and go for a paddle. 

Yes, I know my legs are very white! :-)

So was the Pacific Ocean warm or as cold as the Irish Sea when I used to paddle at Blackpool when was a young boy growing up in Manchester?

Leave me a comment to find out. :-)

Day 6: Road Trip 2 Forster to Port Macquarie

Today we have seen some fantastic beaches, eaten possibly the tastiest, most scrummy sandwiches ever, seen a fantastic sunset over a distant range of mountains but the best bit of the day was meeting Steve the Koala. 

Port Macquarie, which was probably the half-way point on our three staged journey to Brisbane, is the home to a Koala Hospital which looks after Koalas who are poorly or that have had the misfortune to have been hit by a car.

All of the Koalas are given a two part names. The first part of the koala name is the place/Road where they were found and then the prison who finds the koala can name the second part. So my namesake is Newcastle Steve because he was found in Newcastle Road and the finder named him Steve.

I'm not a great fan of animals and birds but it has to be said that Steve the Koala is top notch! :-)

Day 5: Road Trip 1 Sydney to Forster

Day 5 of our holiday saw us moving away from Sydney and driving up the Pacific highway.  Our final destination is Brisbane where we are going to meet some friends who live out here but because Sydney to Brisbane is more than 800km we are making the journey over three days.

With the help of the GPS, it's what the Aussies call a Sat Nav, we drove over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and out of the City.  Our first stop was Terrigal, a very pretty town with a fabulous beach. We had a coffee and watched people enjoying the sunshine and the beach.

We then went to a place called Entrance, which is the entrance to a series of salt-water lakes.  We decided to eat our lunch by the side of one of the lakes and saw some pelicans!

The final leg of today's journey was to Forster but we went a little bit out of our way and so arrived when it was dark, but we did see some kangaroos hopping about in some of the fields next to the road.

It is winter here in Australia so it gets dark by about 5:30 p.m.

Day 4: Last Day in Sydney

We had a very busy final day in Sydney...we did loads of exciting things.

We...walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, had lunch sat outside the Opera House, visited the Customs House and saw the model of Sydney buried in the floor, went on a ferry to Manly Bay and walked along the beach with an ice-cream and to end the day we had a gorgeous meal sat overlooking the harbour and the bridge!

That was a fantastic day, but do you know what was the best bit for me?

When we we were walking across the bridge we found a Geocache! Get in! :-)

Day 3: Bondi Beach

It was a lovely sunny day so we thought we would like to visit the coast.  What is the probably the most famous beach in the world? Yes you are right...Bondi Beach.  Where is Bondi beach? Only 6 km from the centre of Sydney.

So, early this morning Mrs Booth & I walked to Central Quay, which is very close to Opera house, and bought tickets to travel to Bondi on the bus.  Travelling on a bus is something that I don't do very often so I was quite looking forward to the journey.  All the buses in the New South Wales have started to use an electronic ticketing system which means that you can't just walk onto the bus amd buy a ticket.  You have to pre- buy your tickets from a newsagent or an official  ticket kiosk.  We found an official ticket kiosk quite close to where we needed to catch the bus.

The journey took about 30 minutes taking us through some of the different suburbs of Sydney.  A lot of them are named after places in London such as Paddington and we passed a lovely park called Hyde Park just like the one in Central London.

Bondi Brach is famous for the amount of surfers who go there to enjoy the waves.  When we arrived at Bondi there were not too many waves so we decided to follow the coastal path to Tomaloola.  

Tomaloola is a very pretty beach just around the headland from Bondi

After lunch we walked back around the headland to Bondi and we pleased to see that that there were lots of people on the beach and in the sea.

Sadly I had forgotten to pack my wet suit so I had to settle for a walk along the beach! :-)

Day 2: Watson's Bay

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Today I went to Watson's Bay.  Watson's Bay is famous for lots of things but I wanted to visit the world famous Doyles Fish and Chip Restaurant that sits right on the harbour wall. The restaurant is so popular that visitors will often queue for 30 minutes or more to wait for their food.

Today we didn't have to wait that long, although we did have to queue for about 10 minutes.  I have to say they were really tasty.  The fish was different to the fish we have in our fish and chip shops but the biggest difference was that there wasn't any vinegar. Instead the chips were served with chilli plum sauce.

Can you guess from the following photograph whether I enjoyed my fish and chips?

 Before we had our fish and chips we decided to go exploring. We walked from the harbour across to Signal Point.  On the way there were several points where you could look back towards Sydney. Some of the views were jaw dropping.  Here's an example.

Day 1: Sydney

I have had the most exciting first day of a holiday ever.  I've been on a ferry that took me under one of the most famous bridges in the world - the Sydney Harbour Bridge and I've stood in front of the Sydney Opera House.  How cool is that?

I also walked through the Royal Botanical gardens too.  Some of the flowers, plants and trees were breathtaking.

Welcome to my Australian Adventure

Welcome to my blog about my holiday in Australia.

I am so excited about making this trip. Since being a little boy, yes even I was little boy, I have always wanted to visit Australia and in particular Sydney.

I have always wanted to walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge and guess what?  In a few days time I will be doing exactly that!

If you would like to read about my adventures then check back here to find out what I have been up to.

Don't forget to leave me a comment or ask me any questions.  Perhaps you have visited Australia and could give me some suggestions of where to visit.

You could tell me where you are going on holiday.  So Year 7, I am off on a very exciting adventure...wish me luck!