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Post by chech on Oct 14, 2015 21:16:11 GMT
I will tell them to stock up with it down here. Sounds like you had a great day! LOL. I saw a litre bottle in Woolworths but I'm flying to Darwin tonight and didn't want that much. Luckily, my search for sars means I've been drinking less pepsi...which itself requires some searching. And yeah, these guys have their stuff together. A lot to do for free or pay. Cost me and extra $300 for the dive, a scuba safari, an underwater camera and all the photos on a cute USB. Well worth it. Looking forward to doing it again in Fiji.
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Post by 1jhwks on Oct 14, 2015 23:08:14 GMT
Is this the same Woolworths that we used to have in the states? There may still be some here. They use to have a lunch counter.
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Post by chech on Oct 15, 2015 6:24:24 GMT
We had that too but this Woolworths is a supermarket....unless there was a second level that I missed. And I found where I had bought the sars the other day - Gloria Jeans.
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Post by chech on Oct 15, 2015 6:27:18 GMT
Oh, and I've come across a new low where selfie sticks are concerned. People are using them to get close to animals in the zoo or wildlife parks. One guy at Featherdale was sticking his Go Pro right up into the face of the koalas. Today, at the Cairns Zoo, there were signs everywhere telling people not to do it. I mean, if you want to get close shots, get a camera with a zoom. Cause this is what you can get! According to the biologist, the koala can't see me at the distance I was when I took this shot. I would be just a distant blur. But a camera on a selfie stick would be fairly clear and frightens them - especially if the flash goes off.
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Post by tassiedevil on Oct 15, 2015 7:34:02 GMT
I will tell them to stock up with it down here. Sounds like you had a great day! LOL. I saw a litre bottle in Woolworths but I'm flying to Darwin tonight and didn't want that much. Luckily, my search for sars means I've been drinking less pepsi...which itself requires some searching. And yeah, these guys have their stuff together. A lot to do for free or pay. Cost me and extra $300 for the dive, a scuba safari, an underwater camera and all the photos on a cute USB. Well worth it. Looking forward to doing it again in Fiji. You could have taken it to Darwin with you! Also something for you to drink on the flight!
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Post by Oz-T on Oct 15, 2015 13:20:57 GMT
Is this the same Woolworths that we used to have in the states? There may still be some here. They use to have a lunch counter. Woolworths is one of the two dominant retailers in Australia. They have supermarkets as well as variety stores. Whilst definitely borrowing the same origin of the name, the Australian Woolworths is totally unrelated to the US corporation.
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Post by Oz-T on Oct 15, 2015 13:31:29 GMT
Don't ever expect too much from koalas, Chech - they're pretty dumb animals. Koalas have one of the smallest brains compared to body mass and they don't do a lot more than eat eucalyptus leaves and sleep.
And they are not bears, as many visitors seem to think; they're marsupials.
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Post by kiwigrandma on Oct 15, 2015 19:26:49 GMT
They might have little brains but they are so gorgeous. Remember being so excited when seeing a few up trees not in a zoo. Such a great experience.
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Post by Oz-T on Oct 15, 2015 23:10:11 GMT
They might have little brains but they are so gorgeous. Remember being so excited when seeing a few up trees not in a zoo. Such a great experience. Yeah, they're pretty cute. So much so that other animals will try to cash in on their popularity...
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Post by chech on Oct 18, 2015 4:55:50 GMT
LOL...well they're cute and don't move fast. Great for photos! Busy couple days in Darwin and Uluru. Trying to fit something in to every spare minute....camel ride for sunset last night. Sunrise and Uluru partial base walk this morning. Olgas now in few minutes with sunset. Stargazing at 9 tonight and it is topped off with helicopter sunrise flight tomorrow before I leave for Alice Springs.
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Post by Oz-T on Oct 18, 2015 5:39:08 GMT
Plenty to see out there, Chech. Aren't the massive, 360 degree views of the desert spectacular?
We did the full base walk around Uluru and it's quite tiring and takes several hours.
Good luck with this evening's sunset - the sky is supposed to be clear so you should hopefully get some great photos. With no cloud your astronomy session should also be good (although the crescent moon in the western sky will 'drown out' many stars due to the light reflected from it. Just in case you're able to access this forum before looking, the only planet worth seeing is Saturn and it's below, and slightly to the left of the moon tonight. Try to look south (opposite part of the sky from where the moon is) and you'll see constellations you'll never see in Canada. Especially the Southern Cross and the Pointers. If the moon isn't too bright you might also see the two Magellanic Cloud galaxies - the light from them takes 70,000 years to get to Earth!
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Post by chech on Oct 19, 2015 10:52:28 GMT
Yeah, the moon drowned a lot out. I was hoping to see the Milky Way but the moon was much too close. They guys had two telescopes and showed us some stars and clusters. Impressive. I took the helicopter sunrise tour this morning. Not even two days there and I didn't stop! Uluru... And Kata Tjuta.
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Post by Oz-T on Oct 19, 2015 11:19:18 GMT
Magnificent photos from the air. You captured these monoliths in all their glory.
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Post by chech on Oct 19, 2015 20:54:26 GMT
The sun was a little higher by the time we got to Kata Tjuta and boy did it light them up!
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Post by Oz-T on Oct 19, 2015 21:04:00 GMT
The Aboriginal name for The Olgas, Kata Tjuta, means 'many heads'. Your aerial photo portrays that better than what you see at ground level.
I found it interesting that Uluru and Kata Tjuta are connected, being the above-ground sections of a massive rocky plain.
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Post by chech on Oct 22, 2015 1:42:42 GMT
Yes...still here. Haven't stopped long enough to turn on computer...LOL On the way to visit the 18 Sow Piglets. Oh wait....12 Apostles....LOL
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Post by Oz-T on Oct 22, 2015 6:25:54 GMT
For those members who may be concerned that Chech has succumbed to any of Australia's many dangerous critters, her appearance here today should allay any fears. I can assure you that she is happily making her way around this vast continent at a pace that leaves limited time for sleeping and travel tale writing. And when it comes to making a choice between the two, the long awaited travel tales will no doubt follow later.... p.s. I could hear the snoring from my place...
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Post by Oz-T on Oct 22, 2015 6:28:56 GMT
.... On the way to visit the 18 Sow Piglets. Oh wait....12 Apostles....LOL The 12 Apostles is a remarkable coastline destination on Victoria's southern edge. The rock formations out at sea attract visitors from all around the world.... ... some of whom may have been expecting different shapes.
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Post by chech on Oct 22, 2015 10:46:53 GMT
LOL...I kept looking, but couldn't quite make them out. The pilot wasn't happy when I asked him to go around again. It rained up to Otway, then got cloudy and the sun came out as we got to the area. Our driver was awesome with his timings, skipping the Twelve Apostles and going to the other formations first while the other buses all went to the Twelve Apostles first. By the time we got there, the crowd was virtually none existent and those of us that took the helicopter ride only had to wait like ten minutes. Absolutely spectacular!
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Post by Oz-T on Oct 22, 2015 11:18:01 GMT
It sure is a long day doing what you did today! How was Apollo Bay? If you remember seeing the rocky breakwater or the pier there, that's where I used to go fishing with my dad, many, many years ago as a kid.
The Port Campbell area where the 12 Apostles are is the shipwreck coast of Victoria - it was a treacherous region in the early days of sailing ships.
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Post by chech on Oct 22, 2015 11:28:17 GMT
We got a chance to visit the Loch Ard Gorge just as the sun came out. By the time we got to the Twelve Apostles, the sun was a bit lower and in the wrong direction. The driver wasn't keen on the idea of a sunrise Apostles' Tour. LOL
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Post by Oz-T on Oct 22, 2015 12:15:26 GMT
When I was a kid I walked across 'London Bridge' (with my mother in panic that I would stray too close to the edge whilst stomping around up there). Here's how it looked in the top photograph... The bottom photo shows how it looks now (renamed 'London Arch'). The first span collapsed in 1990 due to erosion, although geologists could never quite discount other causes such as ten year-old children stomping around what should have been a protected area several decades earlier....
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Post by chech on Oct 22, 2015 21:32:28 GMT
Yeah, we got to visit the London Bridge. Our driver told us the story about a "married" couple who got stranded on the rock when it collapsed. They got seen and a news helicopter was tasked to pick them up...but found them oddly avoiding the camera. Turns out the "married" couple were married...but not to each other. LOL
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Post by Oz-T on Oct 22, 2015 22:17:07 GMT
LOL. Don't believe all you hear from locals and coach drivers, Chech. The stories get more exotic the more they're passed on. The two stranded people were actually cousins. If they looked sheepish at being rescued, it'd be because the guy was stomping around up there like I did when I was clowning around more than 20 years earlier. Maybe I started a few of the (wise)cracks? www.standard.net.au/story/1726914/london-bridge-collapse-survivor-relives-fateful-day/
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Post by chech on Oct 23, 2015 0:47:40 GMT
LOLOL..iI always wonder about some of the stories. Jetstar terminal is chaos!
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Post by tassiedevil on Oct 23, 2015 1:24:13 GMT
LOLOL..iI always wonder about some of the stories. Jetstar terminal is chaos! That's the problem when airlines grow quicker than airports can build new terminals to hold them!
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Post by Oz-T on Oct 23, 2015 4:26:39 GMT
You sometimes get to see funny things in airport terminals.... .... and also on the way there.
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Post by chech on Oct 23, 2015 8:29:54 GMT
LOL! Well, I've really gotten the personal touch on this tour! I got an evening stroll around downtown Melbourne with OzT and Mrs. Oz with dinner and amazing views from the Eureka Tower...plus a few photo stops of everything and anything that looked cat-like....and today Tassiedevil and brother gave me a great tour of Hobart....including a taste of Hartz Sarsaparilla and spectacular views from around the city...including from Mt. Wellington: What a spot!
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Post by Oz-T on Oct 23, 2015 9:26:14 GMT
LOL! Well, I've really gotten the personal touch on this tour! I got an evening stroll around downtown Melbourne with OzT and Mrs. Oz with dinner and amazing views from the Eureka Tower...plus a few photo stops of everything and anything that looked cat-like.... It was great to meet up with Chech over dinner. And I had a backup plan ... The waiters were on standby with 313 saucers of milk in case she brought along some friends...
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Post by californian on Oct 23, 2015 15:08:27 GMT
Don't be shy Chech, Oz-T and Mrs Oz-T, a picture of the three of you would be great! Please??
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