Snow time like the present.......

So we finally managed to get jobs and somewhere to live in QT, after coming close to leaving with funds running low and no jobs in sight.

Laura worked as a massage therapist in Aspects day spa.......the hours were a little slow until the ski season really kicked off but the hourly rate was a good one!!

Mike eventually found work out of QT in Arrowtown and had to resort to approaching random builders in the street asking if they knew of anyone with work!! It paid off and he spent his season painting Mon - Friday and riding all weekend!!

Laura's hours were a little more intense. As the massage work was a little thin. A friend of Mikes boss found Laura work on breakfast shift waitressing three (early) mornings a week. Laura was oncall 7 days a week, yes 7 days a week, 9.30am - 8.30pm with the day spa also!!

Once the work picked up Laura was pretty much working every hour god sent. When she wasnt it was straight up the mountain!!

We managed to get riding time together night skiing or in the morning on weekends and this was largely thanks to our investment in Ola, our little Toyota Corolla.

She was an olden but kinda a gooden. 1800cc Diesel estate auto who did a steady 15 mph up the mountain letting out a James Bond smoke screen to warn off tail gaters behind wanting to get up the mountain at a normal speed like 30mph!!

Ola may have had a wonky smile but she was our little work horse. She got Mike to work everyday, took us to the supermarket so no more 20 min walks with heavy bags (Laura eats alot) and up the mountain which which was a good 20kms away and up some dodgy unsealed mountain roads!!

The house was 15 minutes to town and 20 mins home (up a very steep hill) and we lived with Eran and Mikie. Eran was from Israel but had lived in QT on and off for 8 seasons. Mikie was from Japan and had been in the house a couple of months. The house had pros and cons. Clean and friendly yes, warm no!! We had a nice wood burner in the lounge but this was the only heat source for the whole 3 bed house!! Our first night in a room with no heating was a sharp wake up call to buy more clothes, bedding and heat!! So thats exactly what we did. The sally army shop clothed us for the winter and kept us warm in the cold perma-frost house. We also brought a heater for the room and a decent blanket which made life alot more comfortable but sleeping fully dressed became the norm.........romantic!!??!!

We settled into our new existence though and once Lauras hours picked up we were never home long enough to worry about heating and once our heads hit the sack we were usually exhausted and out for the count.

We had a pretty good life style once we had brought all our snowboarding stuff and each friday pay day would come around meaning we were cashed up for a good weekend. We made some nice friends who we would live with, work with, drink with and ride with and the weeks flew by!!

we started boarding up coronet peak, known by the locals as concrete peak, due to it's hard/iciness. we felt like we had conquered coronet, so for laura's first day off in a month good old ola took us to cadrona, this had faster lifts and longer runs, it also had a baby park that tempted us in for a few jumps and some boxes. We also mastered 180s on the piste here, and so it began mike's love of park. We both found that we preferred going up the mountain with each other.We would often watch snowboarding dvds and lessons on you tube by seirra snowboards, before heading up. We loved the mountain, and although we did have a few bumps and bruises it appeared the mountain loved us back as we came out of a whole season relatively unscathed. we spent our last week at the remarkables, which was great for mike as he improved in the park, managing to almost land a 20ft jump!! Laura was happy to stick to the baby park, occasionally having enough speed to make it all the way over a box!!Our last night in queenstown we decided to do the thing we had loved most about queenstown....you'll be surprised to hear it wasn't drinking!! We headed up coronet peak for our last night riding session, and truly shredded up the slopes, with a dj playing and mike using the natural features on the slopes to pull off some gnarly 180s and indie grabs. what an awesome way to say goodbye!!

Ode to Queenstown

It feels as though you are living in a post card every turn uncovers more remarkable natural beauty. The vast lakes and rugged mountains make the perfect back drop for the trees alluring strip tease, which throws explosions of autumnal colours throughout their show.

The air is fresh and crisp, and if you let it catch you in the shade is not afraid to nip at your fingers and toes. The smell of wood burners wonders through the streets and draws you to their warmth.

Amongst the people there is gentle buzz of excitement about the blanket of snow that has laid it's self over the mountains, and the snow fueled adventures that are yet to come. Regularly you meet an adrenaline junky dying for his next hit. Deep white water diving in 8 degree waters. no thanks you.

Laura's top 5 ways to stay warm in Queenstown (when you have no money)...
1)Stay in bed.
2)Put all the clothes that you own on.
3)Dance/skip everywhere you go.
4)Get as many people as possible in one room.
5)Go to the pub and enjoy their heating.

Things you have to eat when in Queenstown....
*The Ferg burger, (try and eat the big Al in under 5 mins, we like them so much we are trying to work our way through the whole menu before we leave)
*Winnies Pizza esp montonara, such a cool place the roof opens so you can see the stars!!
*Montys wedges...oh or their hotpot. yum!
*Hot chocolate at Patagonia.
*A steak or ribs at Flame.
this is making me hungry!!

Wanaka/ Puzzel world

We met up with Deano and his lovely girlfriend Amy, who helped us to get a lovely double room...what an extra special treat after being in dorm rooms for pretty much the last month!!

We headed out to puzzle world where we got taken to school in the maze. We had a competition to see who could finish first. Amy and Deano v team mclou. The losers had to do 30 push ups. we dropped we gave them 30.After our beating we headed into puzzle world. Really cool place check out the pics.

we then had some of Amy's amazing brie cranberry and chicken pizza. And helped some of the locals celebrate Anzac day!!

We then headed to queenstown....

South island antics!

After arriving in the South island we headed to Abel Tasman. En route we went through the Marlborough vineyard region. We stopped for a little bit of wine tasting. Being the wine connoisseurs that we arent we decided that we preferred the australin pinot noir,We were told that the Otago wine region has excellent pinot noir, this excited us a great deal as this is where queenstown is...our final destination. We stopped very briefly in Nelson. Then arrived in Abel Tasman just before night fall.There was a glorious red sky that welcomed us to this beautiful area. That night we had opted to camp as it was a whole $10 cheaper. It worked out quite well as we ended up with a tent for just the two of us. result!

That evening we enjoyed some local green lipped muscles and marshmallows toasted on the camp fire. We had been very organized and arranged a group dinner... what a team. Jamie made a tasty spag bol.what an awesome chilled out evening.

The next day we were up early and on a beautiful hike with sea views, after a relaxing walk we were met by a catamaran that we sailed to explore the coast line. It was so beautiful, just a shame the water was icy cold!! A few brave lads from our boat ventured into the water to get a picture on the split apple rock! We saw some seals and mike had a go at sailing the boat. Good fun had by all!

We had another team cook that night and Merressa made some mean chicken fajitas. we also celebrated isreal's independence day with champagne bought by our isreali friend/ stray bus player Eli. We had another night in the tent, best nights sleep we'd had in ages!!

up the next day heading to Barry town.... Now Why Barry town you may ask yourself... it really is in the middle of nowhere the only thing in the village is a pub! well it turns out that the guy who started the kiwi bus and stray actually comes from barry town so he made this stop so the locals would be able to generate some funds from the tourist industry...genial!!

It was a long day of driving punctuated by a couple of stops to see pancake rocks, some blow holes, oh and a colony of seals.
Laura was ridiculously excited at the prospect of Barry/Baz Vegas and the chance for her to dress up as a beauty or a geek! When we stopped for a shopping stop we managed to find a charity shop/op shop with some wonderfully geeky clothes, including a just jeans jacket for $1 that's 50p to us English folk!! what a result!!

An awesome night was had by all, we played the drinking game roxanne and bunch of dubious beauties (ie men dressed up as women)and geeks danced until the wee hours. it was a night of romance for some(in our room), but fortunately it didn't wake us!
lots of post drinking dramas ensued, as i'm sure you can imagine.

The next morning Laura and few other girls got up early to make bone carved pendants. Laura was very proud of the pendant that she made for her brother.

That day we headed onto Franz Joseph all feeling a little hungover!!
Franz joseph is a small village situated near the fraz joseph glacier. The hostel that we stayed in was pretty comfortable, with a cool bar on site. Unfortunately the beds were pretty uncomfortable every time laura so much as breathed a great big earrsssoersss noise would follow.. not conducive to a good nights sleep.

The next morning we were up early ready to face our full days hike on the glacier. We had to go and get all kitted out with specialist equipment such as water proofs, crampons, gloves, hat and a very fetching red bum bag. Now maybe the best time to mention that there is a lot of rain around franzjoseph and today was not an exception.

The Glacier is not quite as beautiful as we thought it might be there was alot of dirt on the ice. The rain didn't let up for the whole time we were on there and the water proofs we'd been given weren't really living up to their name. It was also kinda like being in a massive freezer, so pretty chilly. Due to the rain and it's persistence getting the camera out to get snap happy wasn't really an option. We stopped for lunch but only for 10 mins as the guide was worried about us getting too cold. We did mange to go on an ice slide and fall/climb down an ice tunnel which was pretty exciting. Needless to say we were more than thrilled when it was over and we could get into some warm dry clothes.

That evening we went to the bar, mike played pool with eli, and laura took part in some piggyback races where she won a t shirt, a white water rafting trip, and a bar crawl! not bad for a nights work!!

The next day we headed to Makarora, unfortunately the rain wouldn't let up and the windows of the bus was steamed up we couldn't take in the beautiful scenery around us...we couldn't even see mount cook, or Fox glacier.. a bit of a bummer but we kept ourselves entertained on the bus with a bit ipodoke.(this where you put your ipod on and sing to the song...only you can hear the music...only the audience can hear what you really sound like...awesome/painful)

We arrived in Makarora, now this place really is in the middle of nowhere they don't get mobile or tv reception...they don't even get radio reception!! Team mclou went for a gentle stroll down to the river. then returned in the evening for a bit of karaoke...our last night with the stray gang! Mike broke his karaoke duck to serenade his woman with a bit of Dakota...he's getting brave in his old age!!

The next day we headed on to Wanaka were we decided to leave the stray bus and say goodbye to all our lovely new friends.

Stray bus adventures - north island..

So by the end of this section it may become more apparent why we have been so slow updating the blog this month!!

We left Auckland with only 2-3 hours of sleep under our belts heading south. Our new driver for this leg was metro. We boarded the bus which was absolutely jam packed with Strays. We were probably reasonably shabby company for that first day or two with sleep never being far from our minds!!

The first day took us to Hahei where the warm water beach is. This is a beach where the hot springs feed lovely warm water into the sand. You have to dig down then you can enjoy being warmed by the nice sand (apparently).......Unfortunately not for us as we missed out on this experience as tides were not in our favour. We did get to sea kayak out into Cathedral cove, some huge white cliff face along that coast line. The kayaks were two man and team mclou managed pretty well as there were some big waves around the shore line. Highlights were definately launching out from the beach head on into the big surf and the hot chocolat prepared for us on the secluded beach. Not to mention tom and teds attempt to get through a little cave..hitting against the edges the whole way through. A nice experience but one I'm sure is supposed to be enjoyed on a sunny summers day when the wind is not blowing the wrong direction creating the big swells, but we kinda liked that!!

We did have a nice BBQ that night but early to bed was unavoidable as we were falling asleep in our diner following our previous nights excesses in Auckland!!

The next day was back on the bus and heading from east side to west coast (and slightly south to Raglan. This is one of the top surfing destinations in NZ. We stayed in an amazing hostel in the rainforest, with zip line through the forest and loads of facilities. A good place to kick back and enjoy get to know everyone on the bus. We had some offical teammclou to attend to. we got our IRD number and kiwi bank account sorted thanks to a lovely lady in a post office.

The next day we headed down to Waitomo caves, a place with a zillion or less caves to explore and some pretty good hiking. We all had the chance to do some exploring, abseiling, caving and see some glow worms in their hundreds. We chose to take the cheaper option and go off on a couple of hour walk, explore our own caves and stop by a local shop to watch the Rabbit shearing!!

That evening we had a cultural evening in Uncle boys place Maketu, we were welcomed to and stayed in a Maori village. It was a nice evening the boys got to learn the Haka, dressing up in traditional wears (a see through skirt and your undies) and the girls learnt to do a Maori dance in traditional dress. We were fed by the chief and his villagers for that night we were to follow the traditional village rules.we all slept in a village hall on a matress, we all got to know eachother pretty well.

The next day we headed down to Rotorua, a cool looking town but one we decided to pass through. It smells a bit like rotten egg, caused by the sulphur due to all the geothermal activity. we visited the bog of eternal stentch. We would have loved a day to spend on the world class mountain bike tracks but apparently we would have to wait four days for the next stray bus which we decided was a bit too long.

Enroute to Taupo we stopped at the hot springs these were incredible, so hot and we all struggled to get out of the beautifully warm water. Taupo was a sky dive destination for some on the bus but we waited with great difficulty while the others made their jump as we had planned to do ours in Queenstown. We were impressed with our discpline not to jump with the others but still green with envy when they all returned to the hostel that night high as a kite.



The next day proved to be our second favourite activity in NZ to date...........The Tonagariro crossing. This is sold as the world number one day hike!!.....and it didnt disappoint!! We had a fantastic day, hiking and in places climbing through a valley with a stream running along side, then we caught a glimps of mount doom...an active volcano we climbed a grueling ascent towards the volcano,to earn the right to take in some of the most amazing vista we think we'll ever see!! With signs warning that if it starts spitting rocks, smoking, or pouring with lava that you should RUN!

Once we'd climbed up we walked through a crater of a volcano, once over to the other side we caght a glimps of emerald lakes, they were really green due to the sulphur. As we reached the next peak the wind picked up, which was a little unnerving, the desent was on loose rocks that kind of fall down with you as you walk down, laura got a little freaked out. once on solid ground again and after walking past the lakes we then walked over shrubland and ended the walk going through lush rainforest. unbelievable!! It was a great day and one we wont forget for a long time. We headed back to the superb hostels hot tub for a much deserved soak then feed and beer!! The stray bus had conquered the volcano and we were a tight nit group at the end of this day!!

From the Tongariro hostel we headed south to Wellington where we enjoyed our last night in the north island, before we crossed over to the south island the next day!!

NZ Baby!!!!!!!!!! Auckland, Bay of island, dolhins and top food!!

We took the flight from Fiji with Air Pacific........a big plane with friendly staff but unreassuringly dated. They still have the ash trays from on the seats and in the toilets very retro!! watched blind side awesome film.

We arrived in Aukland the city of sails very excited indeed. We booked up a trip north to Bay of islands, Paihia pretty much straight away keen to get out of the city which was a bit of a culture shock after the peaceful slow pace in Fiji.

We were picked up by Daisy (male) the stray bus driver early the next day. We had a few stops enroute hugging 800 year old kauri trees which were massive, and a ride on a glass bottomed boat in goat island marine park seeing some pretty big fish!! Daisy was a good guy and kept us all entertained with games while the kilometres passed by.

We stopped overnight in Paihia, the location where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed, which is basically a legal document from way back that set the rules of how land would be governed between the indiginous Maori and us invaders. In true form we stitched 'em up good and proper and this has left NZ with ongoing disputes to this day!! We had a few pics taken at the site and felt ourselves to be satisfactorily culturalised!!

The next day was an early rise to have a day that provided the absolute highlight of the trip (and as you maybe aware we're a month late writing this and that fact remains!! We spent the morning aboard the dolphin explorer. After an hour aboard our optimism was dwindling especially given that they informed us only 20 percent of the rides end with actually swimming with dolphins but then........we found a pod of bottlenose dolphins. They were swimming along side the boat as we hurridly put our snorkels and masks on but no wetsuits. Luckily the adrenaline from the sight of the 3m long dolphins kept us warm (kind of) as we waited for 15 minutes for the ok to jump in. Once in it was amazing, we had two sets of 20 minutes swimming with the pod feeling very slow and overwelhmed by their size and speed in the water.

After the swim we were dropped in a small town called Russel where we had some hot chocolate and lunch sitting by the beach revelling in our experience.

The buzz didnt wear off all afternoon and we bored everyone to tears on the bus ride south to Auckland that afternoon!! We stopped at Haruru falls, which translated into english means'big nose' as you can imagine mike was in his element, finally seeing one much bigger than his own. The ride added to our day though, stopping in a small wild bird sanctuary. We got to see and pet the Kiwi bird which is apparently quite rare, and a first for our driver Daisy.

We were keen to get back to Auckland that night as we had planned to meet up with Nicole, a friend from Fiji for a night out before we board the bus again in the morning to head south.

As excited as we were to be meeting up with Nicole we were a little concerned with her choice of destination when we were informed it was one of the more expensive restaurants in Auckland and we were on our travelling budget. Mike managed to crack out his shirt for the first time since leaving the UK for the occassion and even managed to remember what the iron was invented to do. Our journey there on the bus was spent planning how we were going to be frugil travellers and keep the costs down.
When we arrived Nicole was with a few friends and we all got on well had a few glasses of wine and some very tasty pizza. At the end of the meal we were waiting to pay to find Nicoles friend had settled the bill and treated us to a great meal to round off a great day. We went back to his house (mansion) to find ourselves in something from MTV cribs. This obviously seemed a little out of the ordinary and it was then revealed why the boys had been talking so much about cricket.......we had been treated to diner by an ex Kiwi international cricket player!! We enjoyed a few more drinks with our new friends and the night ended very late. When our heads hit the pillows we only had three hours until we were due on the Stray bus for the next leg of our journey. What a surreal day, one that goes down as one of the best days since leaving the UK!!

FIJI TIME ON THE YASAWA”S!!

FIJI TIME ON THE YASAWA”S!!

So the clocks went back during our last night, for once we were well informed, clocks changed, alarms set and off to bed. So we first wake up at 5am to the hostel alarm as two girls leave the hostel with wheely suitcases in tow!!??!! Then an hour later theirs a knock at the door and a rather anxious receptionist telling us that its 7am and our transfer is due any minute. He was clearly concerned given our light was off and mike was half asleep in his undies!!
So in a panick mike tries to wake the sleeping beauty up and get his phone to check the time and find out why the alarm hadn’t gone off when mike realized everyone had been told about the time apart from the receptionist and the two girls who were probably still standing very bemused at the bus stop and the receptionist who was frantically working his way around all the rooms waking up his lazy guests and wandering what he had done to deserve such a lazy bunch of tourists on his early shift!! He was clearly a little embarrassed with himself when Mike managed to point his mistake out. This was Fiji time gone mad!!
We got to the Ferry terminal and boarded the Yasawa flyer which is a huge yellow cateraman that delivers tourists to the beautiful pacific Fijian islands everyday.
We had a 5 hour ride ahead of us to Oarsman Bay resort, Nacula island. The Ferry stopped in the bay and we were collected by motor boat and taken to the island. It was a result, we were greeted with drinks and our bags all taken to the Bure (bungalow) we had been given a free upgrade from a dorm room to a private bungalow on the beach looking out to sea.
We were given lunch and then spent the day snorkeling on the reef just off our beach. All meals were signaled by the staff hitting the Fijian drum. At diner we sat on communal tables which turned out to be an excellent idea as we all got to know each other very quickly!! It was kinda like speed dating for couples. We had some really interesting and fun people there.

While at Oarsman bay we took part in all the activities, the first one was a boat ride to caves where we had the opportunity to climb, crawl and swim through a network of caves. It was pretty adrenaline fuelled given the complete lack of safety gear, pitch black darkness and only one flash light held by the guide who only managed to get lost once. Needless to say Loo escaped with a bit of a lump ontop of her head from the cave wall, but great experience. Mike escaped unscathed as he didn’t actually make it into the caves cos he wasn’t feeling too well. Poor bunny.
That afternoon the boys decided to get their fishing rods out and go catch diner. Jimmy took us about half an hours walk from the resort to a point where tide ran fast and we set to work while the girls sunbathed.

In the evening we played potato racing(which Laura won a beer) and musical chairs ( which mike won a beer) and every evening al the guests and staff would gather on the patio with the sun setting over the sea and drink kava and chat late into the night.

Kava is a mild narcotic, which is used in the western world to treat depression and anxiety, it tastes and looks a bit like muddy water, and as far as we could tell its main effects were a numbing sensation of your mouth and throat. They grind tree roots and add water. The chief drinks first then the spokes man then everyone else drinks one by one in the circle. The chief initiates the drinking by saying taki . they hand around the kava in a half a coconut shell. I don’t think it’ll take off in the uk.

We visited a traditional Fijian village community while there , meeting the doctor and seeing the health centre, local school where the children sang songs for us in their assembly. We walked around the houses and brought some homemade mementos from the local ladies.
As much as we loved Oarsman we did have to sneak off to the competition resort next door with was a contrast owned and operated by a successful Ozzy businessman (who we later met on another island). We were tempted across by the Vonu beer and afternoon snacks on sale as the food wasn’t always enough to get you through the hole day at Oarsman. We had some secret sign language amongst the group and had to operate a covet mission as we felt a little guilty giving money to the enemy!!
After one session on the vonu we all swam out to a boat moored off the beach and had competitions for the craziest dives into the crystal clear water with sun setting behind- magical!!

We made friends with some lovely people Kate, Ed, Manuel, Alana, ash and Pauline. But like always when you’re travelling you say goodbye to people just as much as you say hello. We were sad to see them go as we had all got on so well. It wasn’t quite the same without them.

Oni our Fijian mother type figure tried to cheer us up and showed us all the uses for the coconut. We got to make things, eat all the different aged coconut, climb the tree and drink the milk. They even use the roots as medicine for food poisoning from fish.

We loved Oarsman bay for its connection to the traditional side of Fijian life. We were there for Easter weekend and the Village has a mix of catholic and Methodist which is at the heart of their community, so we visited the church for the Good Friday service. We thought our mum’s would be happy to hear this. We also watched their Easter day parade where a huge wooden cross is carried by the villagers across the island the different tribes give offering for the other tribes then it’s taken to the water where they would swim across with it to the other islands. This was a tribute to the peace and unity that Christianity had brought to their culture. It’s definitely much better than them cannibals!!

With a heavy heart we left oarsmans bay and headed back onto the yasawa flyer next destination mantaray resort. Here we were staying in a 34 bed dorm. We had heard the food and snorkeling here was amazing… the rumors were true the food was fantastic, and snorkeling was out of this world!! There were day time activities of jewellery making and basket weaving… I think we could make pretty good OTs ! Our first night there we went down to the beach for a romantic walk. We heard some splashing in the water and we looked out to sea…. Only to see 8 baby black tipped reef sharks beach themselves in front of us…. Unbelievable!! The next night the shark beaching event had caused quite a stir so that night we went down to the beach with 20 people keen to see these sharks…. Unfortunately the sharks were a no show…so we went up to play some limbo and a good old game of ring of fire… the best made-up rule being finishing every sentence with “in my pants”… so funny!

The next day we hopped back on the yasawa flyer this time heading to the poshest resort in the yasawas octopus resort… woo hoo what flash packers we are! We had arrived… a dorm with air con and only 15 beds this time!! It was like being on holiday! Every evening there were games organized. The first night we played a bit of volley ball and every time you got a good shot you got a shot. We made friends with some lovely girls from California they reminded Laura of her and kimmy. We also made friends with a real Australian guy who lives in the bush and goes wild boar hunting, and a funny Norwegian girl called Hannah.
The next night we played more silly games with balloon dancing, pig king horse donkey and relay drinking! We managed to win pig king horse donkey and our prize was a two handed massage for both of us valued at F$200. Awesome!
We headed back to the mainland and back to blue water lodge resort for some more of their amazing food. Nicole and Meredith joined us for dinner for our last night in Fiji.

As always we were sad to leave but really excited about the next step….new Zealand!!

Ah Beautiful Fiji

We had to leave the hostel at 3.30am to make the flight from Cairns to Sydney where we picked up the connecting flight to Nadi, Fiji!!!!!!
We were both ready to leave Oz, we’d had an amazing time but with the exchange rate and recently elevated shop prices oz was rediciulously expensive to live and travel and had hit the bank accounts hard!!
We landed in Fiji in the evening and Al the friendly taxi driving was there waiting with our names on his board- luxury travel, or so we thought he led us outside to his wheels, we were lightly surprised to find him loading our bags into the little old bangar. It was difficult to identify the car but Al told us it was a Toyota mark 2, probably 20-30 years old, with more rattles and knocks than a tin can full of stones!! Al turned out to be a really friendly guy and luckily his wheels didn’t reflect at all the quality of our hostel. We pulled into the gated property, to the friendly welcome from the Fijian staff and British owners. Jessie was playing his guitar and doing his version of singing in the back garden by the pool. We dumped our bags in our huge room and gave each other a high five. It was hotel quality rooms for hostel prices!! We went to the pool side where a few others were eating and joined them for an amazing restaurant quality meal for about 6 quid!! The beer was cheaper - we had a great nights sleep!!
The next day we awoke to sunshine and our nice complimentary breakfast. We finished this then took the local bus to the town centre. I wish we had a picture to show the bus it was a real classic with a bicycle bell to get the drivers attention when you wanted to get off!! We went to the market with Ferdinand and Holly, a Swede and a Brit. Ferdinand put our trip to shame having already travelled the trans Siberian railway through Russia, Mongolia etc and having spent time in China so we felt we were in the safe company of a seasoned traeller. The market was cool, we discovered the cultural mix of Fiji was so diverse for such a small country. Their was a mix of Indian and Fijian and just about every religion known to man practiced. The market was filled with roots sitting on the tables. We were a bit mythed as to what this was but as we got to know Fiji we discovered became very familiar with what turned out to be Kava the drink of choice in Fiji. We all had a taste in the market, it was a mouth numbing taste of muddy water but the Fijians are mad for it.
We brought loads of fruit and bread at the market and headed back to the hostel/ hotel and had a feast. In the afternoon we called Ali and agreed a price for him to take us to the hot springs for the day.
For 25 dollars Ali rattled and shook us all to the hot springs of Nadi. It was a bit of a surreal experience as we were taken to the second springs past the usual sign posted springs up a rough road into some land were their appeared to be a volleyball tournament. We pretty much drove right through the middle of the games and down to the bottom of the garden- I don’t think we were expected but after some discussion between Ali, our driver, and the apparent land owner we were introduced to a young girl who was to show us around. The first thing to do was climb down into a pit dug into the ground and cover ourselves in mud. Then we got out and dried the mud in the sun, while the locals all played volleyball right behind us!!
We then had to clean off and go over to the hot springs. The water at the source was too hot to sit in so they had channeled the springs to another “swimming pool” or pit as it really was to swim in the bath temperature waters.
The kids came and watched the tourists flap around and seemed a little intrigued by us. We dried off and Ali was ready and waiting to take us home via the supermarket, a nice but very random experience!!
That night we had another amazing meal and music and ‘singing’ by Jessie and lots of chat and beers.
The next day we were boarding the Yasawa flyer and heading out for our island experience!!

Diving with Diana!!

We took a transfer to Cairns for the last week of the Australian leg of our adventure.
We stayed a little out of town at a Nomads backpackers hostel, the Serpent, which had a pool, a nice bar and was the cheapest we’ve had throughout the whole of aus! It had a few cubs staying there. (Cashed Up Bogans(similar to chavs)) Cairns it’s self was an interesting place, it obviously had a high unemployment rate there are a lot of drunk aborigines roaming the streets and a lot of bogans drinking in the various bogan watering holes dotted around town. There was no beach and the mud flats at the sea fronts had a lot of signs warning us about crocodiles, but the lagoon was a nice place to hang out.
We spent the first day in Cairns camera shopping for Laura to replace the love of her life…. her camera, which the rat pack had brought Laura, and our travels destroyed with a mixture of sand and hard surfaces.
So we’d met up with Diana in Cairns and headed off into town to book up our next few days.
We found Peter Pans and sat down with the sales guy we’d met on the greyhound earlier in the week. We had managed to get a fantastic deal. This might be because the sales guy was sweet on Diana. Thanks Diana our aussie hunny trap. We had bought a couple of days of adrenaline fueled fun. We hung out by the lagoon and had a delicious but not nutritious dinner at the hostel, followed by a game of darts with some randoms.
The next day we went white water rafting down the Russel river. First we hiked through the rain forest with our rafts on our backs and paddles in hand. It was only 5 minutes before we needed to cross a river and the threat of leeches was hanging over us. Mike was frantically checking his legs every couple of minutes. Diana had two leeches that mike helpfully got off for her with his paddle. Laura proudly announced when she reached the river that she had escaped leech free…. Until she took off her shoe and discovered the biggest leech out of everyone there! Being the mildly competitive type she was obviously jealous that Diana had two, but was happy in the thought that hers was by far the biggest even though the majority of its mass was indeed blood sucked from Laura’s leg!!
Once in our two man inflatable kayak we were a force to be reckoned with. Before each rapid our guide would stop us and tell us how to take the rapid… some of them grade 4!! On route we stopped at an aboriginal cave with a waterfall and painted our faces with tribal war paint. Then we carried on down the river. Diana did manage to get stuck wrapped round a rock at the top of a grade 4 rapid. She had to let her boat go and walk around instead. One of the guides jumped off the land crocodile Dundee style and wrestled the raft back to the land….amazing to watch that narly dude. We went out that night to listen to a bit of live music….. what an awesome day!!
The next day we were up early ready to dive the great barrier reef. The staff were very friendly, but it was a very busy boat. We managed to do 2 dives and Laura was very excited to see a giant clam. She also had a 1.3 meter sucker fish stuck to her leg for the duration of her first dive. Usually they sucker onto sharks but unfortunately we didn’t see any of them. Mike was really excited by the food especially the cheese platter. We had a great night out that night playing guess the nationality and convince someone that they know you game…. Diana what a legend!! Diana almost convinced this guy Elliot that he knew her.. she put in ground work and talked to one of his friends to get some deets…. So funny!! Diana got some yummy pineapple sweets at the end of the night. Laura liked them so much she happily obeyed the three second rule for them and may have eaten a few of them off the floor…very messy night!! It was sad to say goodbye to the lovely Diana, who headed back to Sydney.
Our hostel ensured we had a good send off on our last night they had an aussie night. Were they put emu, crocodile, and kangaroo on the Barbie. They also had an animal show were we saw indigenous species and got to hold a crocodile!! It was sad to say good bye to Australia but with Australia being so expensive and Fiji calling we were excited to leave.

you have to kiss many toads before you find your prince!

After yet another over night coach we arrived in Port Douglas more than a little jaded! Fortunately our room was ready so we shoved our stuff in and did what any normal couple would do... hired bikes to cycle round port douglas and orientate our selves. We were not surprised to find another bit of wild life to fear... there are signs everywhere saying Danger do not swim crocodiles inhabit these waters. We had been told on good authoritiy that port douglas is beautiful... unfortunately we had come in the wrong season to see it in all it's glory the waters were really merky and the threat of a grade 4 cyclone made any sea related sports more than a little risky. we also learnt that this is where beloved steve irwin died... if he couldn't handle the waters here...then niether can we. Fortunately our hostel had a pool and good company to keep us entertained.Needless to say we had an early night that night.

Mike enjoyed a good bit of man time the next day with Manny and created some new swim strokes namely the sofa swimming, the modified sofa swimming, and the back wards dolphin. They also did other manly things like lift weights. Laura enjoyed a very girly day of mooching round the shops...and ofcourse a little bit of shopping.

We had an awesome night out on st Patrick's day. started in iron bar with our new friends from norfolk sam and nat. we went to cane toad races.

This is where you have to pick up a toad give it a kiss then when the cane toads are released from a bucket you encourage them to jump off the table with party horns, you then have to pick up the toad and the first toad in the bucket wins. you'll never guess who got called up first round.... yes mike!! he was a little shy when it came to being affectionate with the toad in public...(ie on stage in front of an audience of around 60 people).... but he really came up trumps and his toad was first in the bucket, winning him a beer!!! May i take this moment to explain to you that mike did not actually need to touch his toad, it actually jumped from the table into the bucket...well done jerry springer. The american that came last was no where near as lucky having to chase his toad around the audience calling come here 'gay freddie'....very funny!!

we headed on after the toad racing for a few more beers and begged a bakery to give us food as there was no keebab places open. yummy fresh sausage rolls.

we had to get up early the next day heading to cairns to meet up with diana and weather permitting dive the great barrier reef... woo hoo so exciting!

captain crankey and whitsundays!!

After an amazing nights sleep (?) on the greyhound we arrived in Airlie beach around 7am and headed for the YHA. We couldnt check in until 1 so after breakfast we decided to be productive and book our whitsundays sailing trip!!

Tina our booking agent had good and bad news for us!! The bad news was the weather was looking aweful at the end of the week, the good news was Tina had a boat leaving in two hours we could jump on to miss the bad weather and definately go to whitehaven beach. After much debate (slightly heated) we decided to go for the one boat on offer. We raced back to the YHA cancelled our booking, brought new towels (as we had lost our other towels at 1770) and showered, packed a weekend bag, dragged our other bags to storage, trekked over to the marina picking lunch up on the way and enough beer for the 3 day trip. We made it bang on time to meet the crew and other 23 passengers and head off out to sea on our home for the next few days the Habibi.

We had warning s from the crew that the weather was looking pretty aweful and we would need our sea sickness tablets so Mike downed a cheap tblet he'd bought in Thailand and when combined with loss of a nights sleep on the greyhound spent the rest of the day drawling on himself in a zombie like state, but atleast he wasnt sick!!!

The boat was pretty budget. We did get ourselves a double cabin which was lot more private than all the other bunks but did have a locked door into the smelly toilet, so we had the smell and sound of everyones bodily functions to look forward to as we lay in bed - the whitsundays were looking to be a truely romantic experience!!

Fortunately, Tina was right about the weather though. The first day was beautiful and we snorkelled over a couple of reef systems wearing our all in one black stinger suits looking like extras from a star trek episode!!??!! Slightly bad timing on a second front not only was it cyclone season so bad weather likley but it was also stinger season, deadly jelly fish season to you and I!!! We developed an unhealthy fascination with these little creatures over the next few days!! The captain had a few books so we educated ourselves on what to look for which proved to be a bit of a mistake. The deadly stingers can be as small as 1cm and not always visible to the naked eye, this combined with the budget stinger suits which did not cover the head nd had many large hles and gaps did not add to the enjoyment of snorkelling......and to think we were worried about the recent increasing shark attacks around the whitsundays!!??!! Sharks were the last thing on our minds!!

That night was early to bed everyone very tired after the first days excitement. It was an interesting night in the flee ridden bunk. Mike decided to partake in a little sleep walking and obviously didnt get far in the 6 x 6 cabin. After a couple of hours in the near cooking heat and smell Mike decided to sleep up on deck, and it was a gooooood sleep!!

The next day we awoke to the early call from captain cranky to "get our arses out of bed and down to breakfast"!! It would appear that someone had forgotten totell captain cranky that we were on holiday and not part of a paid crew there for him to vent his angers on!! After breakfast captain cranky got the maps out and weather print out and told us the news. The wind was looking to be blowing 40knots and the captain told us the weather would be hitting whitehaven beach therefore their was no point heading over there and he had selected a few sheltered bays for us to enjoy teh next two days!!??!! Obviously we were all disappointed but accepted our fate as we all agreed we would rather be safe!!

So we headed to our next snorkelling spot opposite some rich and famous resort filled with Brad and Angelina types. The captain herded us hurridly into the water as we were apparenty on a tight schedule. We enjoyed a short snorkel before we were surrounded by jelly fish and got the fear and swam back to the boat asap!! This was much to the captain cranky's annoyance. Even though he told us we only had a short time to snorkel and we had been in the water for 30 mins he was incredibly pissed off with us for not staying off the boat longer!!??!! He seemed to show no care for us being surrounded by stingers in the water but when asked why he wasnt joining us he confidently told us he never swims in stinger season!!??!! Good old captain cranky- damned if you do, damned if you don't!!

Next stop after snorkelling was a spit of sand that was only visible at mid to low tide. We set up a game of beach cricket with the other 3 brits and an ozy and Mike took them back to school!! Before leaving the boat we had another warning from cranky which really added to the enjoyment of the experience and further reminded us what a wild country we were in. Cranky showed us pictures of shells which we were not to touch as these little creatures fired a poison that would kill a man in minutes!! Great, another deadly ozy species to worry about, this time on the beach, our only safe haven in oz or so we thought!! What was more interesting was Mike had been collecting shell fish back on fraser island and prizing them open with a knife using them for bait only a few days earlier when fishing!! lol!!

The sand island also gave us chance to get to know the other people on the boat which was great and as it transpired we were not the only people to have developed a feeling that captain cranky should be made to walk the plank and we should take our chances with our own way home!! We also made friends with the local turtle who swam up and down the beach as we played cricket by the waters edge. Very cool but not much of a fielder, he droped every catch!!

We returned to the boat via the little motorised dinghy for lunch and some more moans from cranky that everyone was being too slow!! Little did he realise everyone was just enjoying time away from him and plotting his downfall!!

The winds were indeed picking up so we were taken to a resort island for the afternoon which was very relaxing. We took full advantage of the pool with swim to bar, jacuzzi and sauna's!!

We got to chat with the cook from the ship a littl more, Mel, a kiwi who was new to the boat and she was pretty cool!!

When we got back to the boat we were moored off of lovers cove, a beautiful spot for our last night on the boat. Captain cranky and his first mate (Dominion Dave, a real captain cranky in the making) were clearly very relaxed and suspiciously red eyed!! The BBQ was great and we sat around the table all 25 of us and had a great evening chatting and drinking into the night!! one of our drinking rules was no one can hold thier own drink. Matt and Jay the two Brits looked like they were enjoying this rule. laura told them "that is the gayest thing i 've ever seen" they said "no this is" and proceeded to pretend to snog with choclate cake in their mouths...very funny boys. We slept up on deck under the stars that night, so no toilet smells and luckily no sleep walking from Mike!!

The next day we were again awoken in the same fashion, had breakfast, snorkelled then headed back to harbour in the 3m swell with sails up and sea crashing over the front of the boat- good fun!!

We got off the boat, took some pics, and dragged our salty, sleepy selves back to the lagoon and counted our flee bites. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the lagoon pool with our shipwrecked mates!!

As soon as we got in we boil washed all our clothes to rid them of bed bugs. we had showers and cut eachothers hair. we were spruced up and ready for a good night out.

That night we got free pizza with our new pals in one of the bars, had a boogy to live music, and caught up with fraser island crew the Argentians, Liam and Tom. Whom had all made it into port!! We ended this night with a mad rain run...good times.

1770 hogs!!

We headed north the next day sharing a lift again with Liam and Tom. We were gunning for a little place called 1770. The place where Captain cook first landed.

We had taken it under good advice from Kelly and others that we could do a cool motorbike tour. We booke into the hostel and booked straight on the tour the next day.

We spent the rest of the day looking around 1770, its a very peaceful place. The beach was a little rough but we had been spoilt for very good beaches lately!!

The next day we did the scooterootour.com tour. We joined a convoy of 40 odd others doing the same and rode mini chopper like bikes around the island to the sea to watch sunset over the water. It was a cool experience. A bit start stoppy and our lights didnt work which made the drive back a bit of aggravation having to argue a little to get Laura and I on bikes with lights but all in a good time hairing around up to 50mph on the little choppers. I can't imagine ever having that many people in a bike convoy again in my life time especially not on english roads!!

We returned to the hostel around half seven pm and got ready for the greyhound overnight night bus picking us up at 9pm taking us to our next adventure, Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays!!

Fraserf island, 4x4's and Dingo sticks!!

We shared a lift to Hervey Bay with Liam and Tom in their Ford Falcon a real Beaut from the early 90's that they had brought to drive the east coast!! Hervey Bay is the jumping off point for Fraser island. Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world. We had booked a 3 day self drive trip in a 4 x 4 with camping gear included.

We arrived in Hervey Bay to find out our booking had been lost so we were only on the standby list for the next day. This was not a big issue as the weather forecast was for rain and we were told we would have free accomodation if they couldnt get us on the next day!! We had to wait until the morning to find out!!


We arrived having heard a few horror stories about the driving including crashes where people were air lifted to hospital so Liam and I decided we would ensure we would be the drivers in our group. Liam seemed a pretty good person to be with as in his real life back home he is a mechanic and also has spent some time in 4x4's. We also saw a few people from the previous trip arrive back on crutches following Dingo attacks!! The only thing for it was to prepare ourselves, so we headed to the nearest camping store and stocked up on torches, fishing gear and mosquito repellant.

We then returned to the hostel and cooked a big roast to ensure we would not starve over the next few days on the island camping if the Dingo's bullied us and stole all our food!!

We had to await for the first day to find out who we would be sharing the 4x4 with as we needed another 4 people to fill the Land cruiser!! So we had a tentative look around that night for possible people to share the ride with and kept our fingers crossed that we would be on the next days trip and we would be put with some nice people!!

We woke up at 7am to find out we were on the trip as some other people had cancelled. We went along to the morning presentation and were taught all the rules and regulations, given advice on driving on the island and warned about the local wild life (Dingo's)!!

We met the rest of our group 4 Argentinian girls and immediately we all hit it off, things looked promising!! Laura was pleased to get some girl time and Mike pleased to get a chance to practice his spanish!!

We took our Land cruiser to the shed and met some inbred "mechanics" who showed us where to stick all the camping gear and then we headed off to Woolworths and filled it with food and drink. The girls were deployed to get food and did a great job. The boys just brought a load of goon and beer. We drove onto the ferry and our adventure began.

We arrived on the islands west side. Liam drove the first day, along some pretty extreme tracks, certainly more extreme than we had bargained for. We stopped at Lake Wabby and all had a swim in the fresh waters!! 6 trucks in total left the hostel and we all stuck together so we had quite a big group to mess around with!!

We drove onto the East side and up the beach to find our first nights camping spot. We put our tents up with another van in the same spot, set up the camp stoves and sat around eating and drinking late into the night, no Dingo's to be seen, but we were ready for them with our big dingo sticks. Liam and mike went out digging for bait to go fishing with the next day at about mid night as it was low tide.

That night we had a bit of rain which tested the tents claims of being waterproof to find they were very false claims. Laura was well medicated so slept well but Mike awoke to the Dingo's outside tearing chunks out of each other and thought it was lucky for the drunken swiss guy we found lying asleep on the sand outside and stuck him in the van. He would have been attacked for sure and was in no fit state to fight!! A little scary!! When anyone needed the toilet we went in pairs and took the Dingo stick for protection. Luckily it was only ever needed to dig the toilet hole and never used in anger!!

The next day started as it meant to go on- rainy!! We hastily packed the tent up and headed north up the east beach. This time with Mike driving. We stopped at the pinnacles a really cool look out along the beach and champagne pools, a rocky area where the huge waves crash in and form a really nice champagne effect over the rocks but protected enough to swim ie no sharks!! Swimming in the sea is strictly prohibited due to stingers and more worringly tiger sharks!! The girls looked after the boys very well and made lunch to keep our strength up to do man things like make camp and fish.

Liam and Mike did some fishing catching a couple of fish but unfortunately not big enough to feed everyone for diner that night!!

We headed back south to find our camp site for the night and took some pics of the ship wreck along the way etc. The rain made driving the beach quite hard work as it was difficult to see the changing surface. We found a nice sheltered spot trying to protect ourselves from the elemenents as best as possible. We helped the others set up camp. The rain was heavy and almost horizontal with the 30mph onshore winds!! We made pasta and had some beers with some of the other people from the other trucks that had parked up in the same area. NO Dingo's that night, obviously they only attack the tourists in the good weather. We slept in the van that night as the tent was soaked through.

The final day brought with it sunshine, we slowly packed up camp and dried out a little before heading to Lake Mackenie. Laura drove on the beach doing a great job. Mike then took over to head in land through some pretty exreme off road track- he loved it!! Lake Mackenzie was a beautiful place to spend the day in the water and on the lush sands. We had some lunch then headed back to the ferry!!

We got to the ferry in good time, sad that our adventure was nearly over, but happy to have met some realy good people and had a great little adventure!!

We got back to the hostel, all jumped straight in the nice warm showers and passed out for a good nights sleep, safe in the thought we had survived the Dingo's, sharks and dodgy roads!! :)

Noosa in the rain :(

Mike had been harping on about Noosa for the whole trip and how he had wanted to spend at least a week there as its his favoutite part of Oz.......so when we arrived to find sunshine he was very pleased!! We were put into the rainforest room however a 14 bed dorm which smelt of old wet socks, we were a bit sceptical but had little other options as the place was fully booked!! Unfortunately after that day of orientating ourselves we awoke on the second day to the sound of rain!! :( This sound was to be a familiar one for the next 48 hours. Rain Rain and more rain. Non stop rain, neither of us have ever seen anything like it!! The guide books said the rain started on the 1st of March, it was the 1st of March the rainy season really was very punctual!!

This limited our activities somewhat in Noosa. The surf was too big so nowwhere would hire boards so we opted to just body board and hang out at the hostel. This turned out just fine, Liam and Tom from Byron Bay caught up with us and we had the chance to hang out at the hostel and meet some pretty cool people We had a night in playing ring of fire with some Irish girls and we had a good night out with our new friends Denise and Mattheus from Germany and Liam and Tom where Laura finally got to wear her dancing shoes, she was so excited she nearly wore her dancing shoes out that night and was definately the last to want to leave. Denise i think will be avoiding mixing TimTams (australian chocolate Penguin bars) and beer for a while though after her late night turn for the worse which she could really hide in the 14 bed dorm!!

the big dorm turned out to be ok as it was pretty sociable yet quite so we stayed in there for the whole 4 nights in Noosa. We cut the stay short as the weather wasnt really improving and headed to Hervey Bay to begin our Fraser island adventure that we had booked to do with Tom and Liam!!

Some family time in Brisbane

We got off the Moreton ferry and took the train to Indooroopilly (pronounced Indrapilly) where Brenda (Laura's auntie met us). We got back to the house to find a nice big double bed waiting for us. We were made to feel at home straight away and had a big roast beef feed - yum!!

Brenda lives with her daughter Beverley and husband Mark in the huge house. Laura lost Mike for a few days as Mark and Mike had a bit of man time doing man things and talking about man stuff!! We also went into Brisbane which is a gorgeously clean city and walked along the southbank of the river, which puts Londons southbank to shame. They have created a huge man made beach along the rivers edge into swimming pools. As it was the weekend it was full of people and had a great atmosphere.

We met up with Sophie and Brendan while in Brisbane, Laura did camp america with Sophie and loved catching up with the kids camp's favourite councillor and meeting Brendan they're a great couple. We had a blow out lunch of steak as Sophie had 2 for 1 vouchers, a few too many beers then home for a curry.....the first one we've had since leaving the UK, it was lovely!! We've missed you curry India!!

On the third day we got back on the greyhound and headed north Noosa bound!!

Ah Moreton Island.........sand sea and relaxation (thank you Shazza)!!

We woke up nice and early to get our connection to the ferry terminal where we would get the cateraman to Moreton Island. Laura's sister treated us to a bit of luxury booking us into a hotel on the Tangalooma resort for a couple of nights!! The catarmaran crossing was cool seeing Brisbane from the water and getting a bit of knowledge from the crew on the surroundings.

As we approached the jetty we could see what a beautiful place Shazza had sent us to.......a palm lined beach with crystal clear waters and activities going on everywhere you looked! We instantly relaxed let out a sigh and immersed ourselves into a little bit of luxury. We were met by a resort rep who gave took us to check in and gave us a quick guided tour en route, no heavy bag with our lives for the next year in to lug with us for once as the bags were being delivered to our door...we felt like we had landed in paradise!!......thanks Shazza.

We quickly made ourselves at home in the huge room before we headed out to sign up for all the free tours and activities then do a little snorkelling around some ship wrecks just off the beach. This was idyllic until Mike saw a fin about 30m down the beach- ut oh. We opted to abort snorkelling and did a spot of shark spotting from the beach instead. The shark fins appeared once more and in hind sight may well have been more dolphin fins than shark fins but the fear was well and truly set in!!

That night we headed out to the jetty and dolphin feeding before diner. That was v cool the dolphins are wild but have been getting fed every night at the same time for many years and bang on time swam into the bay and awaited diner. We got to wade out into the water with around 11 dolphins. And took it in turn to hand feed them fish. Mike dolphin was a 17 year old, with a few battle scars from shrak attacks a from a few years ago. 
 
 
 

We splashed out and ate in the resturant that night, eating as much of the buffet as physically possible, inhaling our food after a busy day!! Two deserts my have been a little greedy but Strawberry cheesecake and pavlova were tasty!!

The next day we got up in time to do a bushtucker walk with a local guide, getting to eat some wild passionfruit and some weird looking berries.  
 
 
 

After lunch we played some B'Ball, archery and yes Laura I'm man enough to admit you were better than me. 
 
 
 

Then we went out to the beach and tried to catch some diner. Unfortunately, it seems frozen Octopus is not a favourite of the Nemo's in Moreton bay, so after a couple of hours we headed back to the shop and made do with sausages for the BBQ that night (much to Mikes disgust having to watch the guy next to him land two snappers while we were not getting a sniff on our rod)!!

 

Before we had our BBQ we headed back to the jetty to hang out with dolphins for their dinner time. The time had flown by, we had our last night of luxury before we were to leave. We did manage to fit a sand safari and sand boarding in prior to the 4pm ferry. The sand boarding was cool 60kph on a piece of wood down a huge dune!! It took a few days to get all the sand out of our ears, noses etc!!

 
 
 
 

We got on the ferry sad to say goodbye to Moreton island a place we could have spent alot more time getting to know.
 
 
 

if carlsberg made bays...byron bay would be it!!

 

We arrived in byron bay late at night....a bit of a calamity as mike thought we'd booked one hostel and laura knew we booked the other, we wondered the streets at night with our packpacks in the rain looking for our hostel. A couple of helpful girls walked us to the hostel.. We knew we were gunna like it from then onwards we just had a good feeling about the place.


 
That morning we hired surf boards...the surf was up, with a nice off shore breeze holding them up nicely....unfortunately we are not surfing pros as we discovered we were battered royaly by the waves. we both managed to stand up a couple of times...then fall off. we were pretty tired and bruised after our day of surfing/ drowning...happy to have an early night.

 

The next day we had to move to the other Byron YHA, Cape Byron. A bit of a result as we had our own double bed in the upstairs loft type part of a six bed dorm!! We had a day of boogy boarding that day much easier than the surfing and let our upper limbs recover a little from the previous days battering. That evening we made friends with our room mates Liam and Tom by bribbing them to be our friends with Mikes pancakes. One thing led to another and a few pancakes led to a case of beer being necked at the hostel then onto the beach and a drunken trawl round the bars trying to sneek into a club but even with Lauras amazing stealth mode failing miserbly to get past the bouncers without paying!! We finished the night off in classic ozzy style with a few meat pies and not so classic ozy style a cake fight on the streets ned kelly style. A top night with our new buddies!!

 

The next day we had booked onto a tour to Nimbin a hippy town.. The bus pulled up a little late to find us two very hungover and not ready for a bumpy hot ride on the 1950's wagon!!

 

Nimbin was a classic tourist trap. With a few of the old hippies its famed for but heavily diluted by lost unhappy souls, junkies who probably need sectioning, crims looking to get some tourist dollar for 'cookies' and weed.......all a bit disappointing really not quite the hippy free love feel we were expecting!!

 

The ride home made the trip worth while however getting a nice BBQ and stopping at a waterfall where we could cliff jump and swim at the bottom of the falls....... it was quite magical when it started to rain while we were swimming on the warm fresh water!!

 

When we got back to base we had a night out in cheeky monkeys where we met up with Liam and Tom and some of the others from the tour. Cheeky monkeys- what a place. $3 brought you steak and chips that put weatherspoons value to serious shame!! Happy hour and the hula competition.....Gotta love cheeky monkeys!! Of course once happy hour finished off we trundled on a bit of a pub crawl around the Bay - loads going on and a great atmosphere!!

Sadly, we had to leave Byron Bay and the next day we took our battered and hungover bodys to the greyhound.

Surfers paradise is a bit of a misnomer. Its far from paradise. A bit more Benidorm really, not really set up for backpackers the YHA being a long way from the shops and bus terminal. We did take advantage of the beach that was only across the road though. The place would probably make a good holiday for an australian wanting the resort experience with loads of shops, bars and restaurants and high rise hotels. We also had our first night in seperate dorms which was ok for loo but a BO filled night for Mike sharing with all (unshowered) weirdos!! Slept with one eye open!!

 

We gladly left Surfers the next day and headed to Brisbane. Only a 30 minute trip as the clocks went back on this trip!!

Brisbane YHA is phenomenally good. A new well oiled machine. Mike and Loo back together in their shared dorms and life is all good.Its a clean and friendly place full of life! The place had a roof terrace with POOL and amzing views of the city!!
 

 

We went to sleep that night happy with the world and very, very, very excited at the prospect of the next few days of luxury on Moreton island courtesy of Shazza!!

Valentines weekend in Sydney and coffs harbour

Back at the MacDonalds we unloaded some serious verbal diahrrea on Louise updating her on all our exploits since we last saw them in what must have seemed to Louise to be one very long breath. We went to the kids school to pick them up and spent the afternoon charging around the play room with them.

On friday we planned and booked the east coast leg, the last part of our Oz adventure.

We then decided to have an early valentines day as it looked like we would be on the bus Sunday (14th Feb) for a long haul from Sydney to Coffs Harbour (7hrs).

We went to the Lindt chocolate cafe in Darling harbour then to the movies and watched Valentines day (chick flick but Laura seemed to love it and Mike might have thought it was ok too as long as you don't tell any of the lads)!! Scored top browny points!
 

 

The next day we had a day out with the Macdonalds to palm beach (where they film home and away). Cool to buy some drinks in the Summerbay cafe and see where they filmed it all, but no celebs made an appearance while we were there :(

 

As it turned out we had a chilled day sunday. Laura loved her card and Lindt bunny ( delivered a little late and after alot of unnecessary prompting), Mike had a look around and eventually found a card that Laura made from her note book- nice!! The romance isn't dead yet!!??!!

We took the overnight bus that evening saying a fond farewell to the MacDonalds and Sydney!!

After a full 20 minutes sleep that night we arrived in Coffs harbour jaded and ready for bed at 8am!! Luckily once the hostel opened they had a room ready so we crashed and caught up some of our sleep. In the afternoon we hired bikes and cycled about 10km looking around the place...........it was ok but a little sleepy and cut short as no gears or breaks gets a little boring unless your on a hill then a littl scary!! So we swopped bikes and headed back and to the beach and body boarded the rest of the afternoon. Laura tried to book a scuba session but we got the call to say it was cancelled so missed out on getting eaten by nursing sharks!! We drowned our sorrows in the Y Knot cafe looking out over sea!!

 

we moved into a shared dorm that night and made friends with a nice couple...you'll never guess where from......ipswich....and one was a physio...so we felt quite at home with them....Maybe a liitle too at home.. as Laura was packing up her stuff in the dark without her glasses on trying to be quiet, she managed to pack away one of trudi's flip flops!!! without realising!! they were leaving early the next morning. fortunately mike wasn't as quiet and woke them...which started the mystery of the missing flip flop....much to laura's embarassment she discovered it in her bag before they left... we're pretty sure they believed that it was a complete accident!!! whoops!!

The next day the surf was a little lame so we hired a stand up paddle board.....easy to use on the flat but sooooo difficult to surf in waves, Mike has the grazes to prove it, but 10/10 for effort!!

 

It was a very sad day though and one Mike will not be able/allowed to forget for some time...........Mike got sand in Lauras beloved camera!!!!!!! Laura would like to say she was very brave but Mike feels he is still suffering the repercussions and may continue to do so!! Some wounds just don't heal quickly!! This is further exacerbated by the grinding noise and inability to focus the camera now has.........Mikes in so much trouble!! :(

After the paddle boarding it was back on the coach and heading to Byron Bay, alot shorter jouney only 4 hrs!!