QANTAS TRAVEL WRITER COMPETITION “GREAT BARRIER”
I entered this competition today with the following article:
http://travelwritercomp.typepad.com/enter/2008/12/great-barrier-by-princey.html
Chances are when you saw the above title you immediately thought of the Great Barrier Reef. Did you? The words Great Barrier are synonymous with the Great Barrier Reef, a world heritage listed coral reef system that lies along the east coast of Australia.
However, the Great Barrier I am writing about is Great Barrier Island, New Zealand’s 4th largest offshore island approximately 80km off Auckland in the Hauraki Gulf.
Great Barrier was aptly named by Captain James Cook as it forms a natural barrier between the Pacific Ocean and the Hauraki Gulf. New Zealand’s indigenous people for generations have called it “Motu Aotea” which means island of the white cloud.
Locally it is simply referred to as “The Barrier”
The Barrier is 285sq kilometres in area and is home to roughly 850 people who mainly make their living from farming and tourism.
The island boasts unspoilt forests, natural hot springs, surf beaches, sheltered bays and anchorages. One of the attractions of the island is its isolation. The Barrier is only accessible by boat or light aircraft. Ask people in the street, on the mainland, most will have heard of it, and perhaps even know how to get there, but very few have ever made the journey.
This year in late February I finally made the trip aboard the Island Navigator, a 4 1/2 hour journey from downtown Auckland. Four wonderful days traveling by bicycle, four nights enjoying backpacker and resort accommodation, sumptuous food and meeting fantastic people.
On board the Island Navigator
CJ Crossing the stream
Awana Bay
Queensland Road Deaths as at Dec 7th 2008
https://www.webcrash.transport.qld.gov.au/webcrash2/external/daupage/weekly/roadsense.pdf
Total number of deaths so far is below what it was at the same time last year but still most are unnecessary.
Accidents involving heavy vehicles is up as are the passenger deaths. Quite scary really even pedestrians are not safe.
Dec 8th 2008
Well it’s back to Mt Isa again for 10 days tomorrow. Will be a bit hotter than Germany was that’s for sure! Will be my last trip away for the year. It has been a long and tiring year so looking forward to the break at Christmas. Next year promises to be full on too.
Xstrata Technology won a National Export Award last Friday night in Melbourne so this was a good result for everybody’s hard work.
Mt Isa - The largest city in the world
Will be doing some cycling, riding to work and catching up with some good mates, so looking forward to that. Will miss being in Brisbane though.
JB called up today with a brilliant idea to fly to Adelaide for the Australia day long weekend to get up close with the stars of the Tour Down Under, who knows maybe we will even spot Lance Armstrong. So thought about it for about two minutes and told him to book the tickets……………