Sandy Straits, Queensland Australia

After five years sailing in the South Pacific, we have finally made it to Australia. The six day passage from New Caledonia to Bundaberg was a really nice downwind trip. Much more pleasant than the five previous trips to New Zealand! We joined the Sail Down-under Rally (a first for us) from Noumea. It was a fun week in Bundaberg with the 40 other boats. Many activities, presentations and evening events. One of the first things we did was look for some other musicians.

Jamming with Norm and Steve

We hit it off with Steve and Norm, playing a few jam sessions together. John, the rally organizer, heard one of the songs Liliane wrote (Friends) and insisted that she play it at the closing event of the rally. Brent and Ana, on Impi, also asked if they could use the song on their YouTube (here is the link) blog. They raise money to help the volunteer veterinarians in the islands. The song is featured about halfway through and again at the end of the video. The version of the song we used was the one we recorded with Dave earlier this year in New Zealand (thanks Dave and Margaret!) If you want to hear it, go into the page “Songs By Liliane”.

Closing the Rally with the song “Friends”

Australia is a very different country and huge (hey, not as big as Canada though). Bundaberg is sort of half way down the east coast. That means we still have about 1,200 miles of sailing to do to reach Tasmania, our objective this year. We will do it in a few hops. Lot’s to see and do along the way.

Wish we could have jammed with him

Australia also has a lot of things that can sting, bite or eat you. We got a sense of this at Snakes Downunder, a local zoo that features some of the worlds most venomous snakes, salt water crocs, as well as kangaroos and cute koalas. Here are a few pictures from our day at the zoo:

Cute when they are little, but still bite

A “nice” snake

You don’t mess with Momma

Is that your tail inside my shorts?

Big grasshoppers!

A pet for Cole and Eleanor

Also, here are a few pictures from New Caledonia since our last post. We really enjoyed the Southern lagoon and Ouvea in Loyalty Islands. We would have liked to stay longer, but had to rush back to Noumea for medical and chest x-rays for our Australian visas.