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A few days in Newcastle with a sneaky stopover in Brisbane... Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), Brisbane
 Mount Isa to Newcastle with a stopover in Brisbane
Merewether Baths to Anzac Memorial Walk
Our day begun at 3am when we woke and bundled ourselves into Cherry and headed up the highway to Tullamarine Airport and onto a 6am Jetstar flight bound for Hobart. At Hobart we hopped onto a bus into town then boarded the MONA ROMA to the museum. We ate beautifully delicious fresh and local foods from a berry smoothie at the Salamanca Markets, to pasta at the Museum cafe, sardines and rare beef at the MOMA restaurant, Faro and fresh Atlantic salmon back at Salamanca. Our flight was delayed; we ended up getting back to Florence at 4am, having been awake for 25 hours, but we made the most of our additional time in Hobart and finished off the day with a dark chocolate fondue and fruit. Wonderful. mona roma posh pit
museum of old and new art
David Walsh is a frickin' genius. What an amazing idea to create a museum from your own collection in a gallery built under the home of a local Hobartian wine maker, Claudio Alcorso on the Moorilla Estate. The original home of which was designed by Australian architect Roy Grounds, who was most famous for his work on the National Gallery of Victoria and the Melbourne Art Centre designed in 1959. MONA was opened in 2011, with the original home being used as the entrance to what is currently the largest private museum in Australia. We had the most incredible time at the museum, using our GPS audio guide iPods to navigate through the catacombs of underground rooms, into a sublime world of thought provoking art, Egyptian tombs and original artefacts. Nothing compares to what has been created at MONA, it is hands down one of the best experiences to be had and even if you don't 'enjoy' art go just to marvel at what can be created with an open mind when you are only limited by your imagination. hobart
We took another leisurely Sunday journey into the city of Melbourne. A feast of Gnocchi at the Veggie Bar for lunch, a stroll around the city, a visit to the library to witness Ned Kelly’s armour and a chocolate fix at Max Brenner. After getting our buzz of chocolate goodness, we went to achieve today’s objective, taking off into the virtual skies on a flight simulator. After a briefing in the main room, the instructor took us into a replicated cockpit of a Boeing 737-800, running just like you would see if you look in before you take your seat on the plane. The instructor sat me in and explained the main controls of the aircraft. We were placed at JFK International Airport, lined up on the main runway. We set up the aircraft for takeoff and pushed the throttle forward, a pull back of the stick put us into the sky of many pixels. The flight took us over pleasant views of a virtual New York City, circling around the city we lined up to land at LaGuardia Airport. We lined up with the runway and eased the wheels onto the Tarmac. With the instructor happy with the skills, he put me on an airport in Aspen, Colorado, USA, which is notorious for its challenging terrain through mountains and dense weather. Set up for take off again, we virtually took off as hard as possible to lift up over the nearby mountains. Clearing the mountain peaks, we leveled out and flew over the well-known Colorado terrain. After a few turns we were lined up with the runway and had to descend steeply over a large nearby mountain. After the mountain, we straightened up the nose again with the middle of the runway and hit the tarmac nice and firmly. We taxied back to the terminal and shut the engine down, the fasten seatbelt sign is switched off which meant we made it to our destination. I had a ton of fun taking to the virtual skies with an amazing instructor who got me in the air and back on the ground. A massive thank you to Gumby for making this special moment happen, love you babe xxxx
                              The "City of Bunbury" was landed in Longreach on 16th of November, 2002. This 747 was named after Bunbury to mark the 150th anniversary of Western Australia. The city of Bunbury went into commission on 10th of December 1979 until its last landing in Longreach. During its service it flew over 82.54 million kilometres and clocked just under 20000 landings. Most of the Aircraft's life was with Qantas, while doing some time with Air Pacific and seeing out the end of its service with a Bali bombing rescue flight in 2002.
Exploring around one of the world's most reliable aircrafts and seeing behind the panels and inside compartments tells you that taking a flight isn't just about you, the passenger getting from one place to the other and ensuring that you get a window seat. It's an engineering masterpiece, a city of hydraulic lines and motors with busy motorways of electrical wiring, to turn 300 tonnes of aluminium and send it in the right direction at speeds just shy of sound. Going from one end of the 747 to the other makes you realise that a lot can change in just a 71 metre walk, seating for over 400 passengers, toilets and kitchens to accomodate them all and an upstairs bar to let the good times roll miles into the sky. Sitting in the cockpit was next level sophistication, it felt like there was a endless sea of gauges and switches. Putting our feet on the rudders and hands on the control wheel made us feel like the world would turn with every move we make. Walking out on the wing was the lookout of this flying city, looking back you get the best view of all the plane. Looking out you can see the history of the 707 that brought us into the jet age, the DC 3 that muscled its way through World War 2 and in the distance the Royal Flying Doctor Service's Beechcraft King Air putting the wheels on the tarmac.
In 2006 the Qantas Founders Museum purchased this aircraft, which was a British Airlines reject, left to rust away at a scrap yard in England for £1 plus VAT. It took 10 days to fly from England to the Australia as it was only capable of flying short distances and enjoyed a stop over in America, where it was paired up with a fellow Boeing 707 owned by John Travolta.
 This particular Boeing 707 Jet built in America in the 1950's serviced Qantas under VH-EBA for many years before being operated by other airlines and private operators. With an abundant and varied history this aircraft definitely has some stories to tell. For example in 1981 an American firm decided to refurbish the aircraft and sell it to the new emerging market of private jet ownership. In its infancy the only people looking to purchase in this new market space were Saudi Princes. Therefore, the firm went Opulent with a Capital 'O' decking out the interior with teak timber, gold trim and white leather seats. The asking price was $51 million... But, when taken to a Saudi airline expo it didn't sell. Not for the enormous price tag, but because the American firm had used pig skin to cover the seats. The Saudi's weren't interested in sitting on what they deem to be a filthy animal so the aircraft was taken unsold back to America. A few months later a Perth business man purchased the magnificently lavish plane for an undisclosed price. It doesn't appear the price paid though was anything close to the asking price, as the American firm went bankrupt shortly afterwards. The gold has since been removed and the leather seats replaced, but the teak timber detailing still exists, which makes it hard to imagine why it was left derelict. Amazing work to the volunteers that worked tirelessly to bring it back to Australia and restored it with life.
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