- Queensland Australia '05-

- First Impressions in Australia -

We sailed into Bundaberg on the Burnett River in Australia's Queensland on December 8th '05. After enormous amounts of rumor mongering and anxiety about Australia's apparently draconian formalities on arrival - it was quick and easy. After overnighting at the Bundaberg Port Marina - lost in the middle of nowhere - we came up the river where we have a pleasant mooring right by the nice small city, really just a town, of Bundaberg.

We came here and plan to head further south in Oz - a couple hundred miles down to Brisbane - to stay away from any cyclones that might develop during this South Pacific Cyclone Season.

Here's a little chart that shows our trip - from the right side onward - from Tonga to Opua, New Zealand, then up to Fiji and on westward to Vanuatu, down to New Caledonia, and finally to Bundaberg, Australia.

What a happy surprise it's been here in Australia so far!

It's been positively hot, not warm but hot. That's a delightful change from freezing New Zealand during our last cyclone season!

After the scarcity throughout the South Pacific islands of local fauna, the mad proliferation of animals here, and especially bird life, is a wonder! Huge flocks of noisy chattering colorful little parrots fill the sky morning and evening as they go to and return from yet another hard parrot's day's work. Waterbirds? It's stunning. Creepy huge fury flying fox bats fill the sky each evening after sunset as they cruise in their thousands down the river to some unknown destination.

There is "a however," however, and that's that we are back into the realm of dangerous critters too. We haven't seen that since leaving Trinidad and South America. Around here, there are around a dozen varieties of venomous snakes, there are bull sharks, and offshore there must surely be Great White Sharks too.

But, happily, we don't have to contend in these parts with the infamous salt water crocodiles or the man-eating flies that live north of here.

So here are a few quick photos that we've taken since our arrival. . .