New South Wales to Queensland!

Hello, Family and Friends

We have come up with a rough plan for our Australian adventure. We were in Sydney, which is full of activity and back packers galore; the job market is tough there. We have enjoyed our time taking in some of the sights, Sydney Harbour was beautiful. We saw the famous Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, which you can see in our photos. There is a tourist activity that people partake in that was pretty cool to witness; you can actually climb the bridge and we saw a large group of people climbing on a very windy day! We also saw an “Aboriginal” guy playing an instrument and trying to sell CDs. He was encouraging all the onlookers to take photos of him, which of course we did. We met a native Melbournian who gave us a very unbiased and intelligent education on aboriginals. Apparently, with the setup of ‘reservations’ they exist in a fashion much like that of Native Americans. Some are integrated into mainstream society, while most remain in their own territories. But we digress…the plan!:

We have purchased a “get on get off” bus pass from Sydney to Cairnes. We can get off and on at our own leisure within two months but cannot back track. So, we will work on farms as we migrate north towards Cairnes where we will make arrangements to experience the Great Barrier Reef. We currently are in Maroochydore (our second stop after Sydney). We stopped in Byron Bay on Monday. We had a fun time there which included such activities as 'boogie boarding', toured the local town, went bike riding, seeing the lighthouse on Cape Byron; the most easterly point of Australia. We left Byron Bay on Wednesday, just as the rain arrived and headed north to Maroochydore. Maroochydore is a quiet little suburb with all the fun things every town seems to have in Australia - beach, surf, snorkeling, kayaking, etc. We may have a farm job here in the coming days. The full season kicks off in March so we are hopeful. We want to work here for a bit and then make our way to see some koalas and go sailing - http://www.koalaadventures.com/. We get deals through our organization. Internet isn't always easy to come by, so bare with us. Tons of pics to come.

Julie and Tim

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