Mr Hendry reporting to all of you bored enough to be reading it.
Since entering Northern Queensland in Nov we have had a fairly fast scuttle down to Brisbane missing out loads in between. The reason for this is all based on us returning our camper for refurbishment and re-sale. This leaves us the decision to buy something else to continue in Aus and then ship to Europe to tour there, or not. All this sucks up an enormous amount of time. To see any campers we had to get to BB, hence the quick shift down the coast. We poked around loads and eventually left Aus with our limited brains burling. So, the decision has been stalled for NZ while we rest up from these awkward decisions.
We had our most unusual experience 2 weeks ago when we went to stay with my cousin Sarah and husband Darryl . They live 2/3 hrs south of Brisbane and 400m up in the hills with a great view from their terrace. We suddenly realised that we were inside a house, quite a novelty, the first thresh-hold that we had crossed in 3.5 months. We took 4 strides and stopped not appreciating that suddenly we had gone from our travelling box to infinity for strides. We also had a great thrill of a “real” bed, our 2nd experience in 3.5 months. J&K were too overcome with the transition and immediately moved into a cupboard under the stairs. They remained there with the dogs whenever possible. We got them out with ice cream and sealed the entry. We invited ourselves into S&D's for the maximum time limit which was flying out to Auckland on 12th. They helped us enormously and let us leave all our kit around their house and garden until return. Little do they know we aren't returning for the valueless pile.
We attended a Christmas carols concert in a wildlife park that Sarah works with one night. It was probably 15-20deg and very odd. It did occur to me at that point that in fact it is Christmas. It is very avoidable when you are doing what we are however, the Aus types like the Brits do cover their houses in some very bad lighting combinations. We have seen some bad enough to turn around and re-visit.
We are currently in NZ on the Bay of Islands in Russell where Jen and I almost bought a house in mid 90's. We luckily managed a house swop for France 4 weeks ago and here we are FOC for 10 days resting our weary brains and attitudes. There is no question that constant moving creates a potential crabbit environment. On day 3 in a house in Russell it's already obvious that the daily traveling tensions have gone and Jen and I are lighter hearted. We only have a domestic 3 times a day now, quite superb.
Jack and I have had 2 days sailing now and Jen and Kate 1. Our house swoppers are professional sailors and are living on their 40' yacht while we have the run of their house. Oh, we have invited them up to their own house for a BBQ Tuesday night. An interesting evening to come. The B o I has 144 islands so superb sailing terroritory. We had dolphins 3' off the hull yesterday jumping right beside us for 10-15mins. An excellent experience, they were a lot larger than the Aus dolphins. Kate and I saw a pair of them jumping 12' out and somersaulting.
We move to Tauranga(Doug and Ange's) for Christmas on 22nd and are there for 2 weeks. We do have my niece Conor flying in tomorrow for a week with us as she is off school.
While we are here we will head to the most northern tip of NZ where there are huge dunes. You can rent sand boards and then surf the dunes picking up a fair mouthful of sand as you go I expect.
We clear NZ shores on Jan 7th back to BB and currently we don't know what after that. We still intend to be in Trevignon February for a bit before moving on again. We will be back in NZ south island continuing on our original tickets when we clear Aus.
Pics. Kate with a large stick insect that Jack found on a tree.
Jenni and I with Byron Bay lighthouse in background. Australia's most easterly point.
J,K&I on the pontoon out on The Barrier Reef.
Bay of Islands lunch stop. Our yacht showing between the two islands.
Gary

Barrier Reef

Gary.
We have been in Airlie Beach which is famous as the access point to the 74 Whitsunday Islands now for 3 nights. We have had one day sailing for 10 hrs around the islands and swimming on the untouched White Island Beach. It is famous because it gets no jetsom and flotsom as the tides around don't come into the beach so it's pristine, except for boating tourists. Yesterday we motored 65 miles off shore to The Barrier Reef to a huge permanent pontoon which has the most amazing facilities. You could dive, snorkel, water slide, be massaged, glass bottom boat and semi submersible while out. We had 3 hrs there as it takes 2.5hrs each way. We saw some wonderful fish and coral and got some great professional pics. The pic of Kate behind the rasse(fish) is as it was. The rasse is 1m long x 60cm tall and Kate was about 2-3m behind it. A good 11hr day so an early bed last night.
We camped up on Saturday night at a speedway meeting which was a good way to combine the two. J&K enjoyed watching the m/bikes, m/bikes and sidecars/quad bikes and go carts racing on dirt for 3hrs. Jen cowered inside the camper quite delighted to get caught up with a diary and avoid the meeting.
Queensland is covered in sugarcane, bananas and mangos(60p each) with small railways all over transporting the cane to the processing mill. We have also bought Java bananas which are huge and taste quite different to the bananas we get at home.
Kate has a mango obsession which fortunately is cheap fodder.
We had an excellent dinner out last night which is only our 3rd since arriving in Aus.. Upstairs dining overlooking Airlie water front, no side to the building more tent like so airy. J&K had steak, dessert and a drink for £3.50, guess where we are going tonight?
Airle is absolutely moving with boats and yachts which provides a good gawk for Jack and I up and down the pontoons, drooling. We may come back in Jan on a 3 day trip which sails around the islands and you live on-board. Snorkelling and swimming as much as you can take. J&K certainly fancy it on an older clipper with lots of room and tarzan swings off the mast. I think J fancies a bit of pirate walk the plank treatment.
We have had an easy day today catching up on school, e-mail and internet related stuff. Some camp grounds have wifi internet access which means that you can connect up from your camper without having to move anywhere. We watched a film tonight outside in the campground free naturally, J&K delighted.
Moving south tomorrow and we aim to be in Brisbane around the weekend as we have a few camper showrooms to visit. Having had our toilet replaced for the 2nd time it lasted 4-5 days and has since given up.
Just had 2 possums running around our camper, J&K straight onto the case with the torches.
Kate reporting.
We went on a catamaran called Camira and we saw the Whitsundays and Whitehaven Beach. At eight o'clock we were on Camira and ready to go with 70 people on the 85 foot catamaran. After 30 minutes we arrived at Dreamtime Island and on the way people had been making use of the free drinks. At Dreamtime Island we picked up a few people. We set off again and had morning tea and then we keep on going until we came to Whitehaven Beach where we went swimming and played beach games for an hour it was great fun in the water with a football. Whitehaven Beach was so white and clean that it reflected the sun and the sand was not hot! We had lunch back on board that was great! Adults thought it was great because they gave you free wine and beer. Then we went to the snorkelling site that had a few fish but nothing else and it was rubbish. We came down the Whitsunday passage and a sort sail and then it was back to Airlie Beach.