Socceroos v’s Indonesia – Wednesday 3rd March 2010

When the offer of a free ticket comes your way you don’t refuse it do you!?

And when it’s a ticket to a top football match (or soccer as it’s called out here in Australia as there are so many other version of the sport it’s unbelieveable!) you grab it with both hands.

Tonight’s game at Suncorp Stadium was between Australia (or more affectionatly called the ‘Socceroos’) and Indonesia. A bit of a pre-World Cup knock around but well worth a visit all the same.

Kerri from Tourism Queensland managed to get a couple of tickets from Brett Towers, manager of TTF Australia, a company dealing with Transport and Tourism in the country. We made our way through the massed ranks of 20,000 Aussie supporters, all decked out in their yellow merchandising, to our box high above the pitch.

What a superb view it was too, looking right down on the superbly green pitch below we watched as the tension built prior to the teams arrival, the crowd cheering, mexican-waving and flag waving!

The game wasn’t actully that much to write home about with both teams struggling to find any form or momentum, Indonesia struggling the most with numerous dives and pretend injuries. Football/socer is probably THE most frustrating game when it comes to this! Why do players have to feign injury so much!

The final score ended 1-0 to Australia which was really a well deserved victory. They did put the pressure on throughout the entire game. My prediction may have been a little ambitious at 3-1!

It was definitely enough to light to fire inside of me to watch some more live sport as soon as I can though! Watch this space

Ben

Next stop on the world tour – Japan

Land of temples, the bullet train, geishas and sashimi. These were my preconceived ideas of what to expect and I wasn’t to be disappointed.

The second leg of my tour around the world promoting Queensland was to be a little different from that to the USA last month where I’d mainly given presentations to the travel industry. Here we’d arranged to speak at some high profile events with the CEO’s of major companies, the Foreign Correspondents Club and a press conference.

I left the warmth and humidity of the Gold Coast aboard my Jetstar flight direct to Tokyo and had a surprisingly pleasant experience.

I don’t have much expectation from the low-cost airlines around the world, but maybe that’s because I’ve been subjected to Easyjet in the UK that is the ultimate in chicken-freight travel! Cramped legroom, no food at all and grumpy attendants who treat every hour of the day as if it’s their Monday morning.

My Jetstar flight was so very different and I arrived in Tokyo feeling relaxed and ready to take on a new country (number 56 according to Bre).

I met a gentleman in the UK by the name of Anthony Willoughby. This was back in January 2009 just after I’d returned from my trip around Africa and had managed to get my Land Rover stuck in a ditch outside his house in Hampshire, England. We chatted at length and exchanged emails over the next few months until he decided to come and visit me on Hamilton Island with a plan up his sleeve.

“How about you come and make a few presentations to some of the companies I work with in Japan to talk about the Best Job in the World and how you came about getting it?” Anthony enquired. Well why not I thought.

The timing worked out just about perfectly. That was back in October and now here I am typing this from onboard the Bullet Train, or Shinkansen as they call it here. It’s amazing how time flies by…as does this train.

Tourism Queensland had always intended a visit here as part of the media tour but this gave added incentive to the journey. Japan is a hugely important market for the tourism industry and this was a chance to continue the campaign and speak at some high-profile events along the way.

We caught the limousine bus from the airport into Tokyo; as is the norm here. Taxis are mind-blowingly expensive so it was back to a means of transport that I’m more accustomed to and I love travelling with real people. You gain a much better understanding of all things local this way.

Brrr it’s cold here though, ok maybe not so bad today but at the beginning of the tour a week ago we had snow cover the ground for the morning. So getting used to a significant drop in the temperature meant getting used to things such as cold ears, frozen fingers and dry skin once more.

Our first night in Tokyo exposed us to all the things you’d expect from a city with just under 20 million people; heavy traffic, droves of people and a multitude of electricity everywhere. Neon lights flash, huge billboards blast messages to those that care and steam pours from the roofs of the skyscrapers – of which there are many.

Architecture is crazy here. There’s a blend of the classical Japan you’d expect but then thrown in alongside can be the most state-of-the-art glass fronted building. Old meets new face on. Angles, swage lines and structures burst from otherwise flat western-style office blocks giving each a more distinguishable appearance from the next.

As we wander through some older parts of the city we find a tiny little sushi restaurant and wander in. Bre is in heaven as she loves the stuff! We order a range and fill up with what has to be one of the healthiest fast foods in the world. We’ve truly arrived in Japan.

Over the next few days we wander progressively further afield from our hotel and discover lots about the people, foods and lifestyle of the Japanese. It’s a remarkable culture that is clean, efficient and productive. The people are calm natured, polite and respectful and it feels good to be talking to a market, which up until now I knew very little about.

The series of presentations I’ve given since arriving here have been angled at a range of different audiences. Anthony works for a couple of different companies who provide inspiration and motivational lessons to allow businesses to get the best from their staff and he sees me as a good example of someone who has gone out there and achieved their goals!

My audience’s range from the CEO’s of major international corporations to the candidates on the books of the top recruitment companies in Japan. It’s a chance to tailor my presentation each time I make it adjusting the angle to suit.

There are two other important talks to give; the first for the 30 assembled Japanese press at the Foreign Correspondents Club where the likes of Ronald Regan and Hamed Kasai have recently spoken. The second at the Apple Store in downtown Shibuya – the most fashionable district in Tokyo where you see all manner of people, clothing styles, piercing and people. Both extremely different in their format!

Whilst at the offices of Tourism Queensland, the team there have organised a number of interviews for various media publications. The interest in the Best Job story comes from far and wide – the national newspaper, Nikkei business, Women Online and even CAR magazine to talk about my golf buggy on Hamilton Island!

I meet up with Mieko, one of the finalists from the Best Job, to make a couple of speeches, she’s looking really well and a whole lot bigger than last time I saw her – in fact she’s seven months pregnant and glowing from the experience! Her energy is still there and it felt as if it was only yesterday since I’d seen her last.

We’re lucky enough to be treated to a traditional Japanese Samurai tea ceremony whilst were here. An intricate lesson in how to prepare green tea which is steeped in history and tradition…my knees were stiff after this one!

One of the best parts of the entire Best Job campaign is the fact that there are 15 other people around the planet who I can go and visit when I want. Next on the list is Clarke from New Zealand when I take off for there in the middle of March.

After spending a few days in Tokyo slowly building the confidence with my presentation and I’ve been networking with some really interesting people in the evenings. One of them. Michael Anop runs a talent agency and asks Bre and I if we’d like to do have some publicity shots taken in a photographic studio. Why the heck not? So on the Saturday afternoon we trundle down to his workshop, strip down to our Queensland best of boardshorts and bikini and David snaps away…

Another little piece of publicity that comes our way is the chance to film a short piece for one of Tokyo’s many electronic advertising boards. We film a few different pieces, all 25 seconds long, all promoting Queensland and all with a slightly difficult challenge in them – to deliver a Japanese sentence announcing the time on Yodobashi Vision! Not that simple at all…we take a fair few takes to get the pronunciation right! The finished product will go live above the streets of Tokyo sometime in March so if you’re there keep your eyes peeled!

There are two parts to this trip and the second half of it involves taking a particularly exciting means of transport to get to Osaka, our second destination – The Bullet Train. Ever since I was young I’ve heard about this crazy fast thing and have always wanted to go on it. Now was my chance.

We step on board (at exactly the advertised time of course), settle down into our seats and leave the city without the usual noise I’ve become used to when riding a train. No “ker chunk, ker chunk, ker chunk” here. Instead just a weirdly quiet whoosh as we accelerate. The route the train takes is below, please click the picture to see more of it!

Well I can tell you it’s everything I hoped it would be, we hit speeds at up to 270km/h (that’s 168mph!) and reach our destination in just under two and half hours, travelling 280 kms in 1 hour 15 minutes! Absolutely awesome. I even spot Mount Fuji in the distance that epic icon of Japan. One day I will climb it!

Having the Sunday afternoon off give us the chance to explore Kyoto, famed for its huge number of traditional Japanese temples, and its well worth the stop. We make our way to Mt Otowa and the Buddhist temple of Kiyomizu-Dera where we spend a few hours marvelling at the architecture from the 8^th century. Can you believe they built this without using nails at all?!

It’s good luck to drink from the waterfalls that flow here, they have done so for thousands of years and would be considered extremely bad luck to the city if they ever stopped.

We walk through the pristine streets marvelling at the shops selling all manner of Japanese wares, from pottery to the most intricate sweets. They certainly do things in a unique way. Attention to detail is everything.

After a couple of days we return to Tokyo and have a chance to meet the British Ambassador David Warren and the Australian Ambassador Murray McLean at the Australian Embassy. It’s a great meeting between us three Ambassadors – although they’ve been in their posts much longer than I have! We discuss lots over tea and biscuits, from global warming to the tourism industry and leave after a few photos in the impeccable garden.

There’s one last job to do before leaving the country. Promoting the Gold Coast marathon. Our final weekend in the capital happens to coincide with the Tokyo marathon, unfortunately I have to get back to Queensland for work business without competing in it but instead attend the registration Expo to gather interest in the Gold Coast event in July.

Having completed the half marathon last year, this year I have set myself the challenge of the full 42km race this time around and spend a couple of hours talking to other potential runners. The aim is to have 2,000 Japanese fly out for the event which is the sister marathon of the Tokyo event. Judging by today’s efforts we could well do it!

My first ever visit to Japan has been a busy one with 14 presentations, 6 interviews and a couple of filming sessions thrown in to the mix. I’ve presented to very different audiences here; the top guns from major international corporations, massed ranks of the press and even a purely Japanese-speaking audience with a translator.

The fantastic trip comes to an end as Bre and I board our Jetstar flight back to the Gold Coast equipped with seaweed, dried squid and pickled plums – all Bre’s favourites for some unknown reason!

Next stop New Zealand in March…

Oh and if your interested I recently did a radio interview with Richard Fidler at ABC 612. To hear it visit the link here and my segment starts at about the halfway point. It’s a little insight into my life before the Best Job in the World.

Men’s Adventure Tour – Day 3

There’s nothing like saving up the adrenaline smashing activities until the last day is there! We’ve had a couple of days of really interesting things to do but nothing that really raises the heartbeat by more than about 20%.

Today however would be different. No more messing about, this is the stuff that sorts out the men from the boys – I mean it is supposed to be an adventure tour isn’t it!

First stop Skydiving. Skydive Cairns are to be our hosts for the stomach-churning adventure and we rock up to their office in the centre of Cairns for the pre-jump brief and to find out who we’ll be paired up with as our Jump Master.

My man of the morning is Max, a parachutist of 15 years who has made well over 15,000 jumps and obviously has an exemplary safety record (we just don’t talk about the five close shaves he’s also experienced!). He runs me through the procedures involved; how I should tuck my head back and my legs away when it’s our turn to sit in the door, when to spread-eagle in the air on the way down…and when it’s almost over – how to land.

I feel in a pretty privileged position really, having jumped a month ago with Skydive Airlie, but there’s a couple of pretty apprehensive faces wandering around the office!

We all get into our harnesses, sign our lives away and then make our way to the minibus waiting outside the office…sitting there like the vehicle which will take you to meet your maker!

As we pull onto the airfield our awaiting plane is already fired up and ready to go, there’s no going back now. I mean there’s pride at stake here. Forming an orderly, if bouncy-adrenaline-filled queue we await our fate…

One by one our Jump Masters load us into the plane, there are seven of us jumping so that’s 14 people in total. We clamber inside the plane and take our places between, the person in who our future now lies, thighs. This is all very cosy!

As we taxi down the runway some of the Korean media are talking to each other in Korean. I find out later that the editor of AB-ROAD magazine turned and told his cameraman “I love you!” Classic.

The scenery below is stunning as we make our way south-east, away from the city and out over the rainforest once more. We spot our some of our locations from the day before, landslides on the hills and churning waterfalls off in the distance. It’s a very different view to that of the Whitsundays, but equally as beautiful.

14,000 feet above the ground doesn’t take that long to get to and before we know it the roller door has been opened, the rush of the cold air fills the cabin and the first victim, sorry jumper, has their feet out of the door. Then before you can blink – GONE!

It’s surprisingly quick with these guys you know. No time to say you’re pulling out which is probably a damn good thing. I’m fourth up and before I can look down we’re falling down at terminal velocity towards the ground.

220 km/h of face distorting wind is rushing against my face and body and the only thing I can do is laugh and love it. The feeling never ever changes no matter how many times you do this – adrenaline is coursing through my veins and the natural high it causes is totally addictive.

This time there’s around a minute of freefall but it passes by oh so quickly when you’re tumbling at that speed. In fact it really does feel as though it’s over in a matter of seconds before that crutch-jerking tug on the harness and the entire freefall is over.

Once I’m hanging under canopy floating gently to the ground, Max offers me the controls of the parachute and I get a chance to steer this baby. Scary thought I know but it’s so cool being able to fly yourself down to the ground and towards the landing zone.

We pull full circles at speed and eventually come close to our landing site before Max takes over, gives the last instruction to lift my feet and with a fast approach we make it down onto terra firma once more.

Incredible – absolutely amazing – “can I go again please!”

Seeing the other guys come down to earth is wicked too, I can hear Juweon before I see his face – he’s had a great time too and shouts and screams as he approaches the ground.

The most incredible transformation has take place with another of the group too – Choong Keol Lee, the editor of GQ Korea, was a pretty quiet guy before this jump. This has brought him out of his shell totally. From total fear to total enjoyment and a huge number of very funny jokes too. I like this guy a lot.

Remember this is supposed to be an Adventure Tour so there’s no time for sitting about. No sooner are we through with our jump then it’s back to the office to collect our bags and onto the next activity…

Well strictly speaking we did have lunch first and it was back to one of my favourite haunts in the city, Café China and its ever-welcoming host Harry. Treated to his very special function room we all tucked in a spread worthy of the finest Chinese Emperor, finished off with a very different but tasty mango jelly. You have to try it!

With our final mouthful just about down the itinerary kicked in once more – we were off to the final installment. White-water Rafting.

Now I know it’s not the most impressive of all the rafting waters in Queensland, but with the rain the surrounding hills have had over the last few weeks, the Barron River is still putting down some serious white water. Enough to challenge those first time rafters amongst the group…and there are a few!

Raging Thunder are again our hosts for this our last adrenaline-filled activity and we jump in their minibus, complete with trailer and rafts, which takes us on the hour long drive up the valley.

The Korean media group all head off to one raft with their translator – there are certain things that you have to understand when rafting! I join up with another group of English speaking tourists led by Ash the guide. Once we’ve kitted ourselves out with lifejacket, helmet and slap on the sunscreen it’s down to the water’s edge to prove we can swim, float or at least not drown. The large yellow raft is big enough to fit eight paddlers and a guide in, there’s holes all over the bottom of it but fear not. They are there to let water out…not in.

The paddling drill is then given to us with a number of different instructions necessary to take on the rapids of varying intensity. They range from “paddle” to “PADDLE!!”, there’s “get down” and finally “GET DOWN, PADDLES UP”.

These are all in order of desperation as Ash our guide decides how we should be approaching, or attacking, the next rapid.

We do pretty well to start off with, riding the first and second of the falls with relative ease and then one of the big ones approaches – The Rooster Tail. So called when the water is flowing like it is, as the spouting water looks just like a chicken’s tail.

On approach it all looks pretty good, it’s only when we drop onto the beast that the raft is flung up in the air, all of us grab onto the centre ropes and get as low as possible. As we smash into the water below the raft almost flips but we just manage to hold on and save a wet ending happening.

Further downstream we’re not so lucky and get sucked back into one of the falls we’ve just dropped down. This is known as surfing! The raft is pulled right under the cascading water and immediately fills right up but these things are designed to do just that and instead of sinking, just sits there and with me being right at the front, I bear the brunt of the torrent!

We struggle to get free and in the end Ash has to jump out with a rope attached to him to act as a human-anchor, thereby giving enough resistance to pull the raft free from its temporary parking spot. No such luck.

So now it’s my turn to help out. In an effort to add more resistance Ash asks me to jump ship too, holding onto the line he’s clinging onto downstream. I take a leap of faith into the white water and join him gasping for breath 10 metres away on the end of the line. Eventually our efforts are rewarded as the raft breaks free from its watery pit-stop and we clamber back onboard.

Another fifteen minutes later and it’s all drawing to an end. The river levels out, the rapids disappear and we take the opportunity to bath in the waters, relaxing the tired muscles we’ve used all afternoon.

What a cracking way to finish the tour! It really was the activity I enjoyed the most and would love to do it all over again – but with some bigger rapids maybe!

The night was taken up with devouring one of the best steaks I’ve had in a long time courtesy of the Salt House Restaurant. Yum yum.

Let’s go sailing…

I must firstly offer my apologies for the fact that this blog has taken so long to get out. We took part in this fantastic day trip around the Whitsundays back in November but I’ve been waiting for some of the footage I have used in the blog to be released!

The Whitsundays – picture perfect location and a sailor’s dream for the weather. Add to the mix one of the most famous yachts in Australian maritime history and you’ve got the perfect ingredients for a superb day on the water.

It’s been a busy week, so far we’ve hosted media from three different countries and today is another one, not so bad when you think we’ll be out enjoying their company from the deck of an old time racing yacht.

We all make our way across the Whitsunday Passage onboard Fantasea’s fast boat. Arriving at Shute Harbour we disembark and make our way along the jetty to where Ragamuffin leaves from. As we arrive we spot her straight away, she’s an imposing figure in the marina and easily the largest of all the yachts moored here, measuring in at 24 metres long.

George the captain is equally as imposing – with a huge Merv Hughes-style moustache his tough exterior soon melts away as he welcomes us onboard. The rest of the crew run through the basics we all need to know, the shorelines are thrown off and we motor out into Shute Harbour ready for a day’s adventure.

With 25 other people on deck there’s load of room to enjoy the sunshine and the usual crew tasks are handed out to us. First thing and most important in order to propel us to our first destination of the day, is hauling up the sails and Cameron (the host of China’s Getaway holiday program) and I have been picked out as the likely candidates for bumping the sail.

On more modern racing yachts this operation is done using grinding winches to take up the slack of the sheets (ropes to the rest of us!) but here on Ragamuffin it’s those good old tools known as your own hands. We take it in turns to haul in as much as we can until the sail is right at the top of the mast and ready to fill with air. Now that’s one heck of a feeling – shoulders burning, heart racing and the satisfaction of providing the power for today’s sail. Well almost.

The sail across the Whitsunday Passage is awesome, the wind is right up, the sun is out and we are flying! Spray breaks over the bow of the boat and we’re heeling over dangling our feet over the side to provide ballast – just like every professional sailor does.

The wind is still pumping so we head to one of the more sheltered bays on the leeward side of Hook Island, the second largest of the Whitsundays, and drop anchor to check out the conditions. They’re virtually perfect.

Ragamuffin offers the chance to SCUBA dive, which is unique for a day trip sailing adventure out of the Whitsundays. We stop in Mackerel Bay and get dressed up ready to head overboard and down into the depths below. I’ve dived here before with Islandive and it’s a good introduction into what the fringing reef of these islands has on offer.

We spend 45 minutes filming for the Getaway program which is great, the idea of bringing the media out here is to showcase the spectacle that is the Whitsundays gaining publicity for the area and hopefully making people think about it a a holiday destination.

The afternoon draws to a close far too soon and before we know it the sail is flapping in the wind and our course has been set for home. The sound of the water lapping on the hull is one of those things that’s so perfect about sailing, a noisy diesel engine just doesn’t do the same for me!

Once we’re tied up at the marina we bid our farewells to the crew and thank the for a very memorable day out on the water. Time to head back to Hamilton Island.

Men’s Adventure Tour – Day 2

An early start in Cairns can only mean one thing…waking up on a park bench with a hangover after a BIG night (I saw a guy on the beach this morning doing exactly that!) or the other thing it means to me is HOT AIR BALLOONING!

The alarm call at 3.30am wasn’t the most welcome I’ve ever had but I dragged myself from my pit, met the Korean media guys and Michelle downstairs and staggered onto the Raging Thunder courtesy bus ready for the hour’s drive up to the Atherton Tablelands just inland from Cairns.

Dawn was yet to happen but the early signs of a colourful horizon were starting to appear out to the east as we arrived at Mareeba, the town close to the launch site for our trip up into the sky.

I’d been up to do this once before with my girlfriend Bre and we’d had the most incredible experience together as Jay our pilot flew us over the patchwork landscape of the area. To read about it click here.

This time I’m flying together with a few other people so the balloon is that much bigger – in fact it’s huge and to boot there’s a cute little Koala on the outside. As the ground crew prepare our balloon, filling it with fans and then eventually heat from the burners, our group desperately try to avoid the plagues of carnivorous mosquito’s hovering all around. This is a game in itself!

As the elegant balloon starts to fill it’s our time to go. There are three other balloons all launching from the same site and the sound of firing burners fills the otherwise quiet morning air. We clamber into our basket, take loads of photos of each other and wait…

One final burst on the gas and the basket starts to skip across the ground below – we’re off! The last of the tethering ropes are thrown clear and we gain height quickly as our super-warm ball of air heads up into the heavens above.

Below us the lay of the land becomes that much clearer, the swirling streams and rivers lined by their lush green banks of bushes and trees. The patchwork of agriculture disappears into the distance with crops and fields making up the bulk of the landscape. This is farming territory.

As the sun broke the horizon the light changed with warm orange and yellows beams thrown onto the other balloons, the clouds above us and the peaks of the surrounding hills. This is the way to witness sunrise.

Our pilot the told us it was time to find a suitable landing site, he’d spied one around half a kilometre away in some rough ground behind a residential block. The shifting winds at altitude can vary over the ascent/descent of just a few metres and it’s these that he used to bring us closer to the site. Until finally the basket dragged over a group of bushes, scraped along the wet grass for a few metres and unceremoniously popped us over on our side. All of us are now lying flat on our backs!

As we clambered out of the basket and swapped stories about how good it was, there was one more job to do – pack the entire balloon and basket back onto the trailer.

What a way to spend the very early hours of the day!

After a hearty breakfast back at the Heritage Museum we all jumped onto the courtesy bus back to the city and an hour later arrived at the car park of Skyrail.

Now Skyrail is something, which has intrigued me for months. I’ve been to a few awards ceremonies for the tourism industry and almost every time it’s the destination awarded the prize for ‘Sustainable Tourism’. I had to see this place…

Skyrail opened in 1995 and consists of 114 gondola cabins that travel along a cableway for 7.5kms, and is much like a ski lift, albeit over slightly warmer more tropical conditions! The cableway starts off at the base of the Red Peak Mountain and climbs up 545 metres to the first of the stations.

We’re lucky enough to have a special ride for our trip, there’s a ‘marketing cage’ that does away with the usual sides and roof and instead each rider wears a harness and is secured to the metal framework. It’s a little scarier travelling this way but for the sake of the unrestricted photos we can get it’s well worth it!

As we leave the lower station Skyway whisks us up and over Tjapukai Aboriginal Centre where I visited last year and steeply up the side of Red Peak – the start of the tropical rainforest.

It’s really quite beautiful travelling in near silence so close to the canopy of the forest. The sounds you’d expect from this sort of environment flood up to us and the humidity rising up from the trees below is really noticeable.

Over the last week there has been a serious amount of rain falling on this area but today we’re lucky to have blue skies and sunshine…what this does do though is evaporate the moisture from below and that’s what were feeling. Nature working!

We stop at Red Peak station and are met by Lance…the wealth of all knowledge here at Skyrail. He’s one of the rangers who takes groups around the boardwalk here, educating them about the rainforest and flora & fauna that call this place home. It’s one thing visiting somewhere like this and being amazed by the trees and landscape but I think it adds another element altogether when you’re actually learning loads about the whole eco-system too. The rangers who work here love what they do and you can tell by the way they present about it!

In the distance the Barron River cuts through the forest as it has been doing for thousands of years creating the steep sided gorge through which it runs. It’s really impressive seeing it from up high especially at this time of year as the recent cyclone that passed through dumped a good few inches on the surrounding mountains resulting in loads of water coming over the falls.

Once we’ve travelled along Skyrail to the next station at Barron Falls, it’s time to leave for the next destination…Rainforestation.

After wolfing down lunch (this is tiring you know moving about all of the time!) we had the time for a quick tour of what’s on offer here…and I wish we’d had more.

The whistle-stop tour introduced the Korean media to everything Australian in the hour we had. We held a koala and crocodile, learned how to play a didgeridoo, threw a boomerang, and tossed a spear. Once we’d cleared the animal park it was time to explore the rainforest from a very different angle…down on the floor!

The DUKW, or DUCK, is an ex-army amphibious vehicle that can move on both land and in the water. Rainforestation have a fleet of around 15 of them and they are so impressive.

A track runs from the centre out into the forest and Muzz our guide and driver talked to us all about the history of the forest and some of the interesting creatures and plants, which are found here.

My particular favourite (as it’s so horrible) is the Stinging Tree. Now it’s no a piddly little nettle which irritates the skin for a few minutes – this thing hurts and for ages! There are tiny spikes, almost like fibreglass, which are on every leaf and branch which should be avoided at all costs as the sting hurts like hell to start with and once that’s gone, irritates you for up to a year afterwards. Not very good!

Our tour takes us into the valley into a large wet area at the bottom…there’s no stopping this DUCK though, Muzz simply engages the propeller and our truck becomes a boat! We drive around the waterway seeing freshwater turtles and lizards on the banks that scurry away as we approach. We’re up close and personal with nature once more.

The clock is ticking on our afternoon and we have to make a rushed exit in time to catch our train from the town of Kuranda back to Cairns – we’re travelling Gold Class and it’d be terribly rude to turn up late you know.

Kuranda station has to be one of the most beautiful in the whole of Australia; the plants and flowers that fill the platform only add to the colonial feel, of this the last stop on the line.

We board our Gold Class cabin onboard the Kuranda Scenic Railway and settle in for a journey back down the dramatic valley the Barron River has carved out. Our Hostess Beth pampers us with drinks, nibbles as the commentary plays on the television screens mounted in the wall.

As we travel down the line we’re told stories of the construction back in 1891 when the early pioneers decided they needed a way of getting from the inland gold fields out to the coast. The line clings to the edge of the steep sided hills, with huge drop-offs, raging waterfalls and delicate-looking bridges built along its length.

My Mum and Dad would have loved this part of the adventure. It’s a very special way of seeing the gorge. We stop off at a couple of photo spots, both of which focus on the dramatic waterfalls that are full to capacity:

It’s been an exhausting but thoroughly entertaining day and as we make it back to the hotel, there are a few sleepy bodies waking up around me – and I’m one of them. It’s amazing how the heat takes it out of you!

We reconvene an hour later ready for dinner at another of Cairns famous eateries – Barnacle Bills Seafood Inn

. Owner Tony has been here for 27 years and loves what he does. Tonight he’s prepared a special menu for us – suits me as there’s no complicated choosing from the menu.

I love my seafood and am not disappointed; oysters, scallops, Moreton Bugs, prawns and Coral Trout grace the table and as ever I eat the very last one!

Waddling back to the hotel, much like a Moreton Bay Bug, I sleep particularly well.

Day Two of the adventure complete.

Men’s Adventure Tour, Cairns – Day 1

The title says it all – this was something I’d really been looking forward to and to add to the excitement Juweon, one of the Best Job in the World finalists, was flying out from Korea to join me for the experience!

Taking a week long break from his usual morning radio show Juweon has travelled out with some important people from the Korean media including:

• Mr Choong Keol Lee – editor of GQ Men’s magazine, Korea
• Mr Myung Hyo Chung – editor of AB-Road, one of Korea’s top travel magazines, and
• Hyun Woo Sun – a ‘power’ blogger from Korea

The aim of the trip is to introduce the adrenaline-filled adventures which are possible in tropical North Queensland to their markets and over the course of the next few days we’ll be lucky enough to trial some of the more exciting adventures out.

First stop however was to let the local press know our intentions so we met journalists from ABC Radio, Channel 7 News and The Cairns Post to give them a heads up of how our trip would inform the market back in Korea of the experiences which can be found here.

It was great to see Juweon again, I recently took part in an interview for him on his radio show and after chatting on the phone it was great to see him again in person.

No rest for the wicked though, this is going to be a seriously busy few days and our first appointment is with Sunlover Cruises, one of the tour operators who leave Cairns on a daily basis and head to the Great Barrier Reef to give holiday makers and tourists the experience of a lifetime. It doesn’t matter how many times I go out to enjoy the reef, I still get little butterflies of excitement in my stomach as I prepare to head out there. Today was no different!

We make our way down to the dock and after a few press photos make it onboard the custom built catamaran, which whisks us out to Moore Reef in just over 90 minutes. Sunlover are hugely popular with tourists from Korea, China and Japan and the entire boat is virtually full as it’s almost the Chinese New Year celebrations and lots of people visit Cairns at this time of year.

On the way out all of the options for things to do during the day are offered, accommodating all levels of experience and confidence in the water; there’s snorkelling, glass-bottom boat trips, touch-pools, underwater viewing chambers, SCUBA diving and the excellent Seawalker experience. It’s been nearly two months since I had my last dive on the reef and I’ve been missing it hugely. I think it’s one of those things that once you’ve tried it you just can’t stop wanting to do it – have I really become addicted to diving? There could be worse things I suppose…

As we arrive at the pontoon that the catamaran ties up against, the staff onboard go about their business looking after the excited customers all wanting to get off and get involved in their chosen activity. Most of the media crew I’m travelling with have never had the chance to dive before, so after very little persuasion they all decide to give it a go – bar the one unfortunate chap who can’t as he’s taking medication for high blood pressure. It’s good to see that the dive-master stops him from going due to the safety implications, much to his despair and infuriated protesting!

We make our way down to the pontoon and into the dive area, kit up and prepare to enter that hugely exciting underwater world once more. As I am the only certified diver onboard out of 243 passengers I get Vance, the dive master, all to myself! We make our way down the steps and into the warm (30 degrees C!!) tropical water. Cyclone Olga, which recently hit the coastline, came through this area only five days ago but there are no ill-effects visible on the reef, maybe the water has slightly less visibility than usual as the bottom’s been churned up, but there’s no damage to the coral or delicate sponges which are abundant here. It’s totally wicked getting back under the water again and within a few seconds I feel at home again, hovering above fish, watching Cleaner Wrasse at work and staring at the Anemone Fish close-up as they protect their bizarre stinging home.

After an hour of swimming around with my excellent divemaster Vance, we return to our entry point and surface on the steps of the pontoon. As ever I gush my story of what I’d seen to the nearest person – that being him. It’s the only disappointing thing to me about diving you know, not being able to speak to the person you’re down there with!

Meantime the Korean crew have been having some fun of their own, they’ve tried out SCUBA diving for themselves and spout their own reports of just how good it was. That’s the plan you see – tempt them with the good stuff so they return home and tell everyone about it.

We’ve all built up a bit of an appetite being part of the watery world below and head for the buffet to fill up on some food. The spread on offer is just what’s needed – pasta salads, cold meats, prawns and fresh fruit.

By the time 16:00hrs arrives we’re all ready to head home, the announcement comes over the speakers that were off and we bid farewell to the Sunlover pontoon. There are no Reef Rats living out here unlike the Fantasea one so all the staff who’ve become friends over the course of the day head home with us. We grab our photos from them and find a seat to fall asleep in. It’s been a long day…

Once we’ve had the chance to shower and freshen up the unrepentant itinerary kicks in again – this time with dinner at the Blue Sky Brewery just down the road. A short walk away we arrive at one of Cairns’ hotspots it seems as there’s loads going on!

The brewery was opened by a local Cairns family around two years ago and is one of the most successful micro-breweries in the country having scooped a handful of awards at the Australian Beer Awards in 2009. The bar and restaurant are wide, open and as you approach the bar a daunting line-up of barrels takes centre stage to greet you!

We all sat down and enjoyed a social dinner together and it was good to chat to another blogger, Mr Hyun, about his work, websites and interaction with social networking. Something that has become a big part of my job.

If the remaining three days of this adventure tour are anything to go by then we’re going to have an incredible time together – I just hope some others within the group have enough adrenaline reserves to get through it!

Running around Brisbane…

I’ve been back from my trip to the USA for a few days now, the coverage the Best Job campaign still receives is excellent news with the media interest focusing on:

“So now that it’s all over – how was it? No really how was it?!”

“Tell me how do you follow the Best Job – surely nothing comes close?!”

They’re all the standard questions but everyone wants to know the answer of course and I honestly tell them it could never be matched, well maybe the next eighteen months won’t quite match it but if the first one is anything to go by then it’ll come pretty damn close!

The P.R. value achieved through the TV and radio appearances go a huge way to reminding the public about Queensland and the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef but the other side of the tour is the presentations I’ve been making to the travel industry in each of the locations I’ve visited.

These are targeted at the most important part of that industry, the travel agents. For it’s them that help convert a customer’s mere thought into a booking, which is what we’re all aiming for.

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I’ve set myself another goal for 2010 and that’s to get properly fit again. If there’s one thing that the last six months have done for me (apart from the obvious good stuff) it’s drop my fitness back down to a level I haven’t seen for five years.

Completing my Afritrex expedition around Africa involved running five marathons and to do that I needed to be fit….really fit and the pinnacle of this challenge was the Comrades Ultra marathon in South Africa. 56 miles or 89 kms of running hell…

Comrades Route Map

…so I thought I’d set myself the daunting task of doing it again this year.

Why you’re probably wondering? I’m not 100% sure really; I love the idea of trying to mentally battle through the 10 hours of hell that the race is, taking it through the pain barrier and pushing myself to my limits once more.

The race takes place on May 30^th between Pietermaritzburg and Durban in South Africa and I’ll be taking some time off work to attend two weddings and to run the race.

But in order to up my fitness level to anything barely resembling that which I’ll need, I’ve been hitting the streets of my new home city, Brisbane. There’s a huge network of tracks, cycle paths and boardwalks covering the city and the sights and sounds of an urban environment are actually very interesting to run in – coming from the countryside of Hampshire I thought I’d never say that!

Brisbane's boardwalk

I’m also trying to find somewhere to live in this great city, getting to know and recognise new places and suburbs is tough when you don’t have a car so combining my training and a reconnaissance mission were the order of the day on Saturday as I took to the streets to investigate further:

To prepare for the Comrades I have to find at least one half and one full marathon between now and the day of the race in May. I’ve already decided to head back to my old stomping ground on Hamilton Island at the beginning of May to run the descriptively named ‘Hamilton Island Hilly Half Marathon’ which should be a stern test.

Hilly Half route

Half marathons are never easy but this one goes up and down the many steep sections of the island and heads off road for a good part too. I’ve trained on these hills and love them…but they hurt.

Why not enter yourself? Combine a week away in paradise with a testing, gruelling run – further details for the event can be found here:

Hilly Half details

To download the PDF of the event please click here

With only 4 months to go I’m trying to find another full length marathon in Queensland which I can enter – does anyone know of one?!

Back soon with some outtakes from my original Best Job application last year…

Ben

The last leg of the USA trip…

What a week it’s been! After the most amazing storms I’ve seen in a long time, California has been cleaning up the mess whilst the hills surrounding Los Angeles have been reaping the rewards.

Snow upon snow has fallen with 7ft of fine powder gracing the slopes of Mount Baldy, out to the east of the city. Over the weekend Ben Fleming (from TQ in the US) invited me to go and try out the snowboarding there….so of course I jumped at the chance. I won’t go into too much detail suffice to say it was an amazing day out – bar the constant queues, but when you have that much snow around a city it’s bound to happen.

Here’s just a few of the photos I took whilst I was there:

Back to business at the start of the week with a trip up to Toronto, Canada to make a presentation to the industry and to appear on some of the local television networks, this time Global TV and CP24 to discuss about the experience of the last six months in Queensland.

What a nightmare the travel to Toronto from Los Angeles was though. Now I consider myself pretty lucky in the fact that I haven’t ever really been delayed when flying before – and I’ve done a fair bit of it over the last ten years, so I suppose by the law of probability I was due my dose and boy did I get it.

I left LAX an hour later than scheduled (not so bad you’re probably saying) due to bad weather in Atlanta, which of course can’t be avoided. All flights in and out of the city had to be delayed as there was a tornado and two planes were actually struck by lightening. A good enough reason to stay firmly on the ground. As my connecting flight had also been delayed there was still a chance I could get to it in time…

The chain of events went something like this:

• Arrive at Atlanta airport with 20 mins before scheduled departure of connecting flight to Toronto
• Sit on tarmac meantime the arrival gate is changed from A to E. My next flight was departing from A so a race through the airport to get to it was in order
• Get to gate hot and flustered with minutes to spare
• Announcement made to delay flight by 30 mins – 10pm
• Announcement made to delay flight by 30 mins – 10.30pm
• Announcement made to delay flight by 30 mins – 11pm
• Announcement made to delay flight by 30 mins – 11.30pm
• Announcement made that we would be boarding in 15 mins
• Bemused flight crew board plane and start checks
• All information screens around gate turned off
• Flight gate airline representative disappears
• Wait 10 minutes until…
• Another passenger notices our departure gate has changed from 19 to 33!
• Race through terminal to new gate followed by even more bemused flight crew now off plane
• Announcement made that flight would leave at 1.00am
• Flight crew board new plane due to technical problems with other one
• Announcement made to delay flight by 30 mins – 1.30am
• Still no airline representative present, flight delayed by a further 30 mins – 2am
• 2.30am – flight crew walk back off plane as they have ‘timed-out’ and due to maximum number of working hours being reached can no longer fly plane
• Uproar amongst passengers – told need to rebook for the morning
• Trapse through terminal to customer services
• Join queue of approx 500 people all suffering the same problem with other flights
• 5.45am – reach front of queue and told new flight departs at 7.25am
• Make way to gate and board new flight
• Depart Atlanta 7.50 a.m.
• Arrive Toronto 10.00 a.m.
• Make way to baggage carousel
• WAIT
• WAIT MORE
• NO BAGGAGE TURNS UP!!!!!!!!
• Fill in forms and told bag will arrive at hotel before 9 p.m.

So you see the amazingly disruptive time I had trying to cross the US. into Canada. With my first television interview just a few hours away a quick shower and freshen up was in order. Shana (Tourism Queensland’s Regional Director for the America’s) had very kindly been out and bought me a set of fresh clothes and we headed straight to the studio.

I was shattered, with no sleep from the entire night before, my favourite double espresso was all that kept me going that day and by the time I’d got back to the hotel after my travel agent presentation I was ready to flop. One more twist to the tale though – MY BAG STILL HADN’T ARRIVED! ARGHHHHHH.

The next morning was an early start to make the Morning Show at CP24, one of Canada’s only 24-hour news channels. I loved this interview, really relaxed and with two hosts who were really interested in the whole Best Job story.

To kill time while the promised hour of 11 a.m. approached (my new expected time of arrival for my bag), Shana and I headed up one of Toronto’s famous landmarks – the C.N. Tower, or Canadian National Tower. Bre would be very jealous right now, not only am I on her land of birth but I’m taking on that fear of heights again. Something she’d have no problem with!

Even though it was a typically grotty northern hemisphere day the views were awesome. At 447m high it’s an imposing building which just about kept it’s head beneath the clouds during our visit. Walking on the glass floor still filled me with ‘the fear’ though…

Back at the hotel my bag had finally arrived – 36 hours later than it was supposed to. I’ve managed to hold my tongue throughout this whole experience about who the carrier was and the appalling service that I and the other passengers received. All we needed was for someone, anyone, to communicate what was going on and to keep us informed but noone did and that is where major companies fall down far too often. Maybe even a hotel for the night, a breakfast token or even a glass of water would have been good and taken the edge off the shoddy experience but nothing was forthcoming. Hugely disappointing.

I’d suggested to Shana the idea of a road trip may be good to get us from Toronto to New York, I love long drives and it just gives a much better understanding of the country you’re travelling through compared to flying there. So we hired a car (which was upgraded to an SUV – very stateside) and at 11 a.m. left Toronto for the border. Travelling with us was ‘Snappy’ – a particularly cute toy crocodile who we’ve been using as the Tourism Queensland mascot on the trip and it was our job to shoot him in some interesting locations…how did we do?!

It was great fun, we stopped off at Niagara Falls on the way, that famous landmark, and what an incredible place it is for two reasons.

• Firstly it’s stunning attraction with millions of gallons of water pouring over the edge into the mist below, there’s hardly anyone else there in the thick of winter with the temperature just below freezing. The banks of the river are frozen solid with huge lumps of ice floating down stream.
• Secondly because to me it is an example of ‘How not to do Tourism’. Take something as stunning as a natural waterfall and surround it with what can only be described as a disgustingly tacky theme-park with McDonalds, Burger King, Wax works, tacky shops, a Hard Rock cafe – in fact everything you do not want to see when you go to admire nature. Have a look at the street leading to the falls:

We had another appointment to take Snappy to. Lunch in the town of Buffalo for some famous chicken wings. On a recommendation by the border police we hunted out a restaurant and ate some of the spiciest food I’ve had in a while.

The road trip continued all the way to New York and 11 hours after leaving we made it to our hotel in the city – we both had a great time and took in some of the important sights too.

This morning I was up bright and early for another media appearance, this time on the Gayle King Show. Gayle is Oprah Winfrey’s best friend and after appearing on her show a few months ago it was time to visit XM Radio which broadcasts right around the planet via satellite, to have a fifteen minute talk all about the Best Job and what the future holds. She’s a really lovely, receptive lady who beams energy and we bounced well off each other making the final interview of the trip a total pleasure – thank you to all involved for arranging it!

And now I’m sat on a flight back to Los Angeles (using the inflight Wi-Fi system which every single plane should have as it rocks!) where I’ll spend the night before departing for the warmth of Brisbane tomorrow.

More adventures in the tropics of North Queensland are fast approaching as I have a Men’s Adventure Tour to take part in with my good friend and fellow Best Job finalist, Juweon Kim at the start of February. It should make another great blog!

Ben

Experiencing California in the rain…

If you have enjoyed the work and blogs/tweets I’ve been putting out over the last few months would you be kind enough to follow the link below and vote for me as I’m up for a Shorty Award! Thank you

http://shortyawards.com/Bensouthall

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I’ve been in the USA for over a week now and ever since I arrived here the weather hasn’t exactly been what I’d expect from California at this time of year – in fact it’s not exactly what the locals would have expected either!

There’s been torrential rain, huge squally winds, the odd tornado and lightening strikes aplenty and that’s just here around Los Angeles. Up in the mountains, which surround this vast sprawling city, snow has fallen unabated with around 20 inches / 50 centimetres in some resorts. Winter has hit here with damaging results. It’s all been pretty easy for me to deal with though, coming from the UK you could say I’m used to a little rain and wind!

Just have a look at the way the pressure dropped on the graph below and the resulting rain that arrived:

So I’ve tried to deal with it as best I can. Not wanting to hide in my room and waste this opportunity to see a new location, and with a busy 2010 on the running calendar coming up (including the Comrades Ultra Marathon, South Africa in May) I grabbed my kit and headed out onto the sopping wet streets of the city. Normally I’d use the Runkeeper application on my iPhone to show me where I’m going, but being on international roaming it doesn’t make good financial sense to constantly download Google Map images.

I headed out with my GPS, a paper map, by backpack and camera and made for the coast – the mecca of Californian surfing….well on a good day anyway! It took me an hour to get there running into a strong headwind all the way and I didn’t see one other human being ‘outside’ of their car the entire time. I must be mad.

The beach was a mess; huge charging surf, flooded car parks, washed out beaches and the odd bird struggling to make headway in the gusting winds – it was a little different to the picture perfect Baywatch scene I’d imagined. Oh well it made a damn good run and witnessing the planes battling to land as they came into LAX airport was a sight to behold. It still amazes me that these huge lumps of metal actually stay in the air…

I’d spent the morning visiting another television station for an interview, this time KTLA in Los Angeles. There’s been so much interest in the ‘Best Job’ campaign right around the world since it started a year ago, that the story has been followed by media outlets far and wide all wanting to know about the experience and I’m only to happy to oblige. This one was pretty simple; a friendly trio of presenters, easy enough questions and just a hint of jealousy from the viewers…that’s what we’re trying to do after all!

Whilst over here I’ve also been giving some presentations to the travel industry about the job, Queensland and what happens next…that very obvious question. It’s a really new role I’ve taken on and hadn’t really done much before, bar at a wedding a few years ago, and one that becomes easier the more I do it.

G’Day USA is taking place at various locations with the next stop being Toronto, Canada for a couple of days before an overnight in New York and then back to L.A. for the flight home to Australia.

This part of California has impressed me you know; ok L.A. is a sprawling, vast mass of buildings and people bisected by roads, overpasses and freeways but it’s on these roads that there’s a noticeable difference. I’ve long been interested in looking after the environment and have considered owning a Toyota Pruis once I get back to Brisbane. They’re environmentally friendly and have a hybrid engine which significantly reduces the consumption of petrol. It switches between electric and engine driven power and as an Automotive Engineer fascinates me!

They are everywhere out here in California, there must be one every 10th car, and in a nation which loves the SUV and huge V8 engines it’s quite a statement. The ‘Arnie’ government have helped out the public as well by reducing taxes on owning one and have allowed them to travel in the ‘Car Pool’ lane – usually only for vehicles with more than one person. In my mind the USA wasn’t doing enough to reduce its carbon footprint but this goes a long way to at least making a visible start.

‘Best Job’ goes around the world, first stop the USA

I headed out of the Queensland summer on the 12th January aboard V Australia’s a flight from Brisbane to Los Angeles to start the first leg of my new role as the Global Ambassador representing the state of Queensland and the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef.

During the trip I’ll be making presentations to the travel industry and hopefully lots of excited customers all keen to find out more about the islands and the experiences I’ve had over the last few months. G’Day USA is an annual event introducing to Americans the experiences and everything that’s possible in Australia through trade and business. Tourism, being Queensland’s second biggest employer, is high on the agenda so together with Anna Bligh the Premier, we’ve been embarking on a media tour to tell New York, Los Angeles and beyond all about why Queensland is so good and discussing the options that are available for those people wishing to holiday in the state.

There are links below to the two appearances we’ve made on the Today Show and Fox & Friends, two of America’s biggest morning programmes.

I’ve since flown back to L.A. and over the weekend made a number of speeches to the public and representatives from the travel industry here, all about Queensland and the experiences I’ve had over the last few months as the Island Caretaker.

Having taken so many photos during that time it’s easy to choose the ones I need in order to make a good, light hearted presentation, and the reception I received was pretty good! Having a substantial prize to give away always helps to fill a room (not just the fact that I’m talking!) and Qantas had been kind enough to donate two return flights to Cairns as part of it along with two nights accommodation at Thala Beach Lodge, and a packed house awaited me in the theatre. The huge backdrop of the Great Barrier reef really enticed people to come and find out more about it and the children loved the touch pool with real life star fish in it!

Saturday night was The Gala Black Tie Dinner taking place at the Hollywood & Highland Grand Ballroom in Los Angeles, a celebration of all things Australian and what a fantastic night it was! With 900 people attending the room was filled with an electric atmosphere and kicked off with a presentation by the Qantas Children’s Choir with their rendition of “I still call Australia Home” – very uplifting and truly angelic voices all round.

The evening recognised and rewarded some of Australia’s best known Ambassadors who now live and work in the USA, Greg Norman was the first to be recognised and the speech presenting his award was made by none other than John Travolta! Wow I’m in the presence of greatness here!

As dinner was served the feeling across the room was one of expectation and excitement, what a start to the evening! The next award of the evening was to Simon Baker the actor who’s starred in movies such as The Devil wears Prada and the more recent CBS series The Mentalist, and the role-out of stars continued with Aussie legend Nicole Kidman giving the speech. Then when it couldn’t get any better she and her husband Keith Urban sang a ode to Simon himself….here it is below:

The final award of the night went to the actress Toni Collette whose movies include In Her Shoes and Little Miss Sunshine and the very amusing Cameron Diaz strutted on stage to make a very amusing speech and presentation. Things got even better for Toni last night as she collected a Golden Globe as the Best Actress in a Television Series for her role in United States of Tara. It appears the Aussies are taking the USA by storm right now!

After the awards had been made it was time to dive into the desserts and also time to take our chance socialising with the stars. Shana (Tourism Queensland’s US Director), Wendy (Tourism Queensland’s stand-in CEO) and I headed into the crowds to go and meet the celebs!

It may appear a huge amount of fun, and it was, but at the same time the event raises Australia’s profile in the US and opens lots of doors for trade and tourism alike. Please can I go back next year!?!