Candice and Besie get punctured (In the pouring rain)
We are in Sydney!! and it is wetter than home!!!!
Byron bay was a little dissapointing, there wasnt much to do, or much to see so we had a quiet few days there, but we did manage to make friends with nice people who were goign to surf camp with us so it wasnt a complete waste. As soon as we left Queensland and crossed into NSW it started raining and the weather has been pretty naff since then.
We got on the bus for surf camp annoyingly early, and found out that we had Trigger as our driver ( we have heard lots of good things about him, and hes the brother of Frat one of the other drivers weve had) He was a blast and had a wide range of cheesy 80’s pop on his ipod 
We got into Surf Camp about 1ish and got pretty much straight into wetsuits and into the water. The waves were quite a bit smaller than in Noosa so the wipeouts wernt as bad. Because there were about 22 people surfing and only 5 instructors we got a chance to catch waves all on our own ( somethign we struggled with before) We are now so good at surfing that there have been talks of sponsorship, but nothing official just yet.
After that we went back to the camp and hung out till Dinner. Another oz bus turned up driven by Frat, so we had the two brothers keeping us amused all evening. They even brought their girlfriends along ( Candince and Besie the blow up cow and sheep)
We got into Sydney last night in the pouring rain, traffic was pretty bad because a few roads and lanes had been flooded. We are now off out to check out the sights and landmarks. I think tomorrow we might head on a vineyard tour and go wine tasting.
Lots of Love
Steff & Rach x
Fourex is better than VB
Weve left it a while to do an update so theres quite a bit to report.
While we were still in Brisbane we went to see Cobra starship and the Academy is, and bar a few sound issues they were surprisingly watchable so that was quite a cool night. We also saw Miss Siagon whilst we were there which was really good, but not a classic, and a tad depressing in parts.
On our way out of Brisbane we were lucky enough to have Forest as our driver again ( the one we had for Kroombit) so that made the drive fly by far too quickly for our liking.
After that we spent 4 days in surfers paradise. We had a wander around and a look at the sights, and on Monday we went to Dream world theme park. Its quite a bit smaller than Alton Towers but there were enough rides to scare us quite alot, especially tower of terror which broke whilst we were on it and we got wound back in and heard the really comforting words “Something went wrong but we will try again and it will probably be ok this time” While we were there we also got the see the tiger demonstration (which includes the most adorable baby cubs in the world) and the cougar demonstration (the only down side to the day was getting back to late to watch neighbours :P)
This morning we had lots of time to kill before we hopped back on the oz bus to Byron, so we though we would check out the wax museaum. I have never been more dissapointed and angry at a tour guide in my life. She knew nothing you couldnt learn in 20mins at Gallaries of justice, didnt tell us anything we didnt already know, and lots of her facts were obviously wrong or suspect. (she was talking about “some university in London” and when I asked her which one, she just said ” oh i think it teaches science or something”) She was also extreamly anti european and had a silly voice, and the guide who took over half way through was worse!
We are now in a nice little hostel in Byron that has free bike rental so tomorrow I think we plan to cycle to the light house that marks the most Easterly point of Australia, which is nice.
Despite inept tour guides we are still having a really great time and meeting lots of nice people. Another blog will follow soon with our exploits in Byron
You miss us
Steff & Rach x
Oscars in the goon…. (someone does dallas)
Hello from Brisbane.
Its a very odd city and not much like vegas at all, more like birmingham. Although it is nice to be back in a place with buildings over 3 stories high.
Weve been here about 5days now, and spent far too much time in the hostel bar. We met a guy called Dj ont he bus on our way into Brisbane and through him we met a great group of people, who were all Irish and all had ridiculous nicknames including The Chief, Dallas, Minks, Superman and Jakeycakes(jaffacakes) and becuase the bar was loud when i first got introduced everyone thought my name was Geoff, so that stuck for the next 3 days. (Rob and craig were also in that group but they had nice normal names, but were equally lovely) They have all moved on now which is the unfortunatly the backpackers curse.
As well as drinking and stealing peoples hats, we also went to check out the Australia Zoo, the cultural and science museum and we have just got back from the tour of the XXXX brewary.
The Zoo was awesome even though we dont liek steve irwin (which can get you lynched in this country) and also they have his little daughters face plastered all over the zoo and its very very creepy. On the plus side we did get to see a giant toitoise sneeze.
We have made a change to our plans, so we will only be in Surfers and Byron for 4 days each, 5 in sydney and then a week in melbourne ( so we will be able to fit in the tour of the neighbours set) I will post the changes at some point so you can see where we will be.
We are off to the hotel tomorrow which we have been bought for rach’s birthday (thank you!) Then we have the planatarium and a concert on wednesday, and a trip to see miss saigon on thursday.
See you all soon
Steff and Rach x
Yeah yeah no dramas (sorry its late)
Hello all!
Its been ages since we have done a proper blog entry, i think its as far back as townsville.
Since then we have been to Airliie Beach, Krombit, Hervey bay, Rainbow Beach and now we are in Noosa.
Krombit was AWESOME!! its a cattle station out in the bush and you get to ride a mechanical bull, crack whips(very hard) go on a horseback goat muster, lasso goats and go clay pigieon shooting with a really shotgun. We had so much fun there, partly because we had spent the last two days with the same bus full of people and we got on with them really well. We also had officially the best oz experience driver called Forest, (who once had rabies) and he kept every one amused for the 11hr bus drive to kroombit with quizes and trivia about Australia ( Fraser island is made up of sand which eroded from the top of the great dividing range and was washed into the sea and carried by the current where it collected around the volcanic plugs that were left on the continental plate after the ice age. :p)
After kroombit we recovered from our string of 6am wake ups, and then booked onto a whale watching boat. Its only the start of the migration season so whales are a bit sparse but we did manage to see one, and some dolphins so it wasnt a wasted trip.
Rainbow beach was just a one night stop over but we had a good time having a drink with people off the bus and the second best oz experience driver Frat.
Now we are in Noosa. We have just finished our 3 day surf course. WE CAN SURF!! (a.ka. we can stand up on the board and ride it most of the way to shore before wiping out) I never realised surfing was such hard work, especially getting past the breaking waves to get out ready to paddle in. We are both coverd in grazes brusies and board rash but it was definatly worth it. We have some photos taken by the surf school on a cd which i will try and get up when possible.
Few more days left in noosa before heading the brisbane. The plan is to catch up on the good weather now its not raining and hopefully go kyaking on the river.
Hope everyone is well
You miss us
Steff & Rach
x
Townsville
Townsville is awsome, although no sign of the powerpuff girls which makes us sad!
Yesterday was pretty cool, we vistited the aqaurium and got to see loads of cool fish and even a giant turtle.
Today we had an early morning to head off to the koala sanctuary, where we got to hold both a koala and a wombat, and we got some really nice photos taken. We also got to feed some more kangaroos, and some angry angry geese who ran off with the bags of seed.
Off to Airlie beach tomorrow, where we will do a proper entry. The computer we are using has a really really slow connection
we will update properly and at length as soon as we can
Love Steff & Rach
p.s. hello nana if you have your laptop and are reading this
p.p.s post cards are written and will be posted tomorrow
Mission Beach
Getting up to walk into town for 7:20am bus is not fun, but we managed it. We are now safley in mission beach. There isnt really very much to do, especially today since its totally overcast and a bit nippy out. We have been chilling out on the sofa outside our dorm reading and doing very little, whihc is always nice. We are nearly completly out of books betweens us though.
Yesterday we got taken to a croc farm by the bus company. It was awesome, they came onto the bus as soon as we parked and threw a baby crocs on a girls lap. We got to feed the kangaroos, and watch while they fed all the big crocs they have. Gregory is the biggest croc in captivity any where. Hes about 5.5meters long and fooking massive, and the owner mad mik sat on him :s
We also got a chance to see some cassowarys and lots of different kinds of snakes (pictures going up soon) ooh and we ate crocodile satay, very nice tastes a bit like squid.
Thats about all there is to report, we are getting the bus to Townsvile and then magnetic island tomorrow.
Love
Steff & Rach
p.s. not impressed by the amount of comments being left. simply not good enough.
Root
Just got into the hostel in cairns after getting back from cape trib.
Was a bit of a mess trying to get back. The bus company that was supposed to pick us up never showed. When we rang them they claimed they had driven up to reception and rang up, and there was no one waiting, even though we had be sat outside reception for over an hour waiting for them. Luckily the hostel managed to book us on the last bus back to cairns. Which was late, and then dropped us off at a random stop on the side of a main road and told us another bus would come get us soon. Whihc luckily it did. That bus had to stop once for some one the get off and be sick, and then turn around to pick up someone it had forgotten. Ill never complain about the rainbow 5’s again.
Not much else to report. Had a quiet last few days in Cape trib since it seems to be mostly families over the weekend, and the other people we had met had already left.
Bus to mission beach tomorrow whihc should be cool.
The blogs a bit boring really but lucky for you we are about to upload pictures.
Love
Steff & Rach
How ya going?
We finally managed to get to cape trib via a rather indirect bus route. There’s no phone signal up here, so no texts or calls for a while.
The place is really nice. Theres a nice beach just down the path, and they have some fun stuff going on most evenings. Tonight apperently is hippy night, so we have to find some hippy stuff to wear.
We met some really nice people last night. Yasha (spelt with a J apperently) aka Herman the German (but not to his face). Sam, Jason and Sean were some delightfully hilarious drunks we laughed at. Also met a guy called Tristan, who we need to find today to give him his hat back. We also met a guy who used to roadie for U2 and the Rolling stones, or so he claims. He seems nice and fits the roadie profile so we believed him. He got chased by a cassowary the other day, so he gave us the useful tip to stick your arms out to make yourself big and shout alot.
The bar shuts at 12, so a biggish group of us headed down to the beach, which was so pretty. Huge moon, lots of stars, and a tempermental bonfire.
We cant get any photos up till we move on because there is no USB slot here.
Right we are off to the swimming hole in the lovely sunshine. We will make sure we watch out for crocs and cassowarys (and drop bears)
You miss us
Love Steff & Rach
Australia!!
Yay we are finally here and out of Hong Kong, even though we had to get up at 4am to get our selves to the airport.
The big buddah was awesome, lots of photos to come at a later date.
Hostel in Sydney was really nice, but probably not local enough for us to stay in when we go back through. Glebe is a really pretty suburb, you could easily live there. We got our first view of the bridge over the water in the park near where we were staying which was cool.
We arrived in Cairns a few hours ago, and have just been for free dinner at the pub, not much else to report. Off to cape trib tomorrow on an early bus. (could be interesting coz a guy we spoke to at the hostel here said it was very much a party place and we wouldnt get much sleep. although hes been living in hostels for the last 5 years so he seems an odd and therefore unreliable source :p ) what ever its liek there will be lovely beaches and nice weather so im sure we will cope.
Will update again soon from cape trib.
Love Steff & Rach x
Way too hot
I have decided I am not Hong Kongs biggest fan, its far too hot and it feels generally unclean. We went to Disney land today which was fun but painfulyl hot which ruined it a bit. By the time we were done there we both felt too icky to bus to the buddah statue so we are now going to do that tomorrow.
I will be glad to get on the plane to Australia on wednesday, there is nothign really wrong with the place, Hong Kong is just not for me.
Steff x
Took lots of piccies in disney land today, but probably wont get a chnace to upload those today.
Hong Kong | Comments (3)