Offroad-Express

Hi guys, made the hop across the ditch about three weeks ago. So hot over here 24/7 whether it's pissing down with rain or not a cloud in the sky.
Probably gonna be here a few years and will either bring my truck over here early next year or sell it and get a new one here.
Heres some photos, awesome scenery here.
Lookout over port douglas (ony about 50mins away)



Palm cove



Lookout over cairns little towns


Pretty cool place to live, been out to the great barrier reef snorkelling last sunday and got a game fishing charter next sunday which i shall post pics of my catch in fishin'

Already managed to hit one kangaroo on the way to work and narrowly avoided another one. Saw a lifted hilux smack one right in the middle of his truck. Had his bullbar off to get painted so it hit his steering rod and bent it a lot

nice 1, what sent you over there work? or just cause you can?
me uncle owns a resort at Port Douglas

J_Dub wrote:nice 1, what sent you over there work? or just cause you can?
me uncle owns a resort at Port Douglas

Got made redundant at work, then got a job offer about two days later which pays way better than NZ so couldn't refuse. Port douglas is nice, went there last saturday and going back next sunday cause that's where the fishing trip leaves from. Which resort does your uncle own?

...And the 4wd shops are awesome over here!! I can get an arb front bar for $1000!!
And i can give the aussies heaps of crap about losing to scotland at work

Salt Water i think is the name a his resort, sweet you can be our Aussie based 4x4 parts courier service provider

J_Dub wrote:Salt Water i think is the name a his resort, sweet you can be our Aussie based 4x4 parts courier service provider

Cool might have to check it out. Sure can be parts supplier, Arb and tjm just 10mins down the road.

Yea Cairns and Port douglas are very nice, What is the charter boat you are going on and are you chasing Marlin.?? Been game fishing twice there now and every trip the boat landed at least 2 Blue or Black marlin over the 1000 pound mark, Awesome place just to Damm hot.!!

going on Fishing Norseman, apparently targeting Giant trevally, spanish mackerel, Tuna and Wahoo. Thought we were going on one targeting marlin but just read the brochure again dammit. Plenty of time for another though.
You are very right about the heat, but i think i have it covered:

Thankfully they have steinlager pure here

Grew up in Nrorth Queensalnd, good part of the world. Heading up that way next July for three weeks in Cape York 4wd safari.
Al

I also worked at a Mine 250km west of Townsville and the heat out there was shocking, All you do on your time off is drink beer and chill in the pool.

J_Dub wrote:Salt Water i think is the name a his resort, sweet you can be our Aussie based 4x4 parts courier service provider

That could work. I come through Cairns airport once a month on my way to and from work in PNG. If it is not to big, I could carry it in my luggage. I usually have 10 kgs spare.

albundy wrote:Grew up in Nrorth Queensalnd, good part of the world. Heading up that way next July for three weeks in Cape York 4wd safari.
Al

Oooh is this an open trip? Will hopefully have either my truck here by then or have a new one. So close to the outback and there must be some awesome roads out there. On my list of things to do is the "Savannah Way" from cairns to Broome which I'd imagine would be epic.

haydgq wrote:I also worked at a Mine 250km west of Townsville and the heat out there was shocking, All you do on your time off is drink beer and chill in the pool.

There are mines that close? Will have to look into that.
will be moving to a place called Palm Cove in the new year into an apartment which is part of a massive resort, huge pool, 2mins walk to the beach, and i'll be spending a lot of time in both for sure.

Oooh is this an open trip?

Can't see why not, I will check with my mate who is organising it.
Al

Still lovin life in the tropics
Got me a new car last week, but unfortunately not a 4wd They all seem to be so overpriced so will wait a while and just get an old piece of crap (that i'l probably pay too much for) that i can thrash around and keep car to drive in comfort. Went for a drive today in the new car (V8 commodore ) there is some seriously awesome scenery that the weather decided to let me be able to see today. Drove up a massive range (19km long 263 corners) in 18minutes with v8 goodness and stopped at the lookout




Stopped at tinaroo lake which is huge!



Which had some very nice sounding boats pulling skiers way quicker than anyone should go on water

And some of the wildlife that visit at home

Right, thats it, I'm not going to work tomorrow, I'm comin to camp at your place for a while

Seen that lake dry once in my youth when I lived up that way. There is an old town at the bottom of it.
Al

DieselBoy wrote:Right, thats it, I'm not going to work tomorrow, I'm comin to camp at your place for a while

There's just bound to be some good tracks in all that bush. especially now during wet season pretty much raining non stop for the past two weeks, weather break yesterday and back to the drizzling rain again today.

albundy wrote:Seen that lake dry once in my youth when I lived up that way. There is an old town at the bottom of it.
Al

geez I couldn't imagine seeing that dry, that would have to of been a seriously hot dry year. It just seems to keep going with signs on the road with turnoffs

seriously hot dry year

Try seven years of drought in the eighties. I grew up in Townsville, Lake Tinaroo in the Tablelands dried up and Ross river in Townsville and the dam both dried up. They had to put a pipe in from Ayr at the Burdiken river to supply Townsville with water. All the locals were putting down bores so as to water the lawns etc and the Nickel refinery had to get the council to stop them as it was taking all their underground water. Makes me laugh when Kiwis say there is a drought, wouldn't know one if they tripped over one
Al

Well after an awesome 3 week holiday to NZ came back to a redundancy letter with my name on it. Saw it coming, was told before my holiday that they were downsizing from 24 electricians to 10, and when you're fighting for your position against guys that have worked there for 6, 7, 8 + years, haven't got a huge chance.
Never mind though, got offered a job about two months back which I said I'd have a think about, and whatta ya know, got a phone call no longer than ten minutes after my redundancy meeting asking when I can start .

So on Wednesday I start the 3,000km journey to Canberra, where I go from a Far North QLD dry season that has a minimum of about 18-19° to Canberra which only last week got down to -2°!
Will take some photos on the way of hopefully some nice sunny east coastline. Think I'll be visiting the snowy mountains as much as possible depending on work cause they're only about 2 hours away. And will definitely be going to bathurst and summernats Since they're so close.

So if you're coming over let me know and I might be able to show ya around

Good that you got to spend time up there though..Cairns is nice and really easy to get around. I worked there as a labourer a few years ago just before the rainy season kicked in, went through about 7litres of water a day. Went diving off Port Douglas on the Outer Agincourt ribbon reef, is about 60k's off shore. My brother in law is in Mackay so would love to get back there some day.

Thinking of going there next year,In november for total eclipse of the sun, best place in the world to see it.
Auckland will only get 87% obscure.