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Debbie and Alec go around the world!
Hi everyone! Yet another update where Debbie and I have to remember what we did a month ago even though I cant remember what colour socks I'm wearing (none actually, its too hot and they dont go with
flipflops or "thongs" as theyre known here! flipping aussies!) but this is our own fault for not doing more frequent updates! anyways...
Since our last update, we have covered a pretty substantial number of kilometers of the eastern coast from Byron Bay, all the way to Mission Beach (my mapwork skills calculate this to be around 3 trillion kilometers, give or take a few miles).
On the Tuesday (21st November) we bypassed Tweed Heads and went straight to Surfers Paradise. It is worth diverging slightly in the early stages here to explain the Australian event called "Schoolies". Schoolies is what happens around this time of year when all of the students finish college and leave their local towns for drunken celebrations at big cities on the other side of the country. For most this is their first holiday away from home without ma and pa and so it can become a bit messy. This year, the Australian equivalent to Spring Break in the US (or a pint down the local followed by stressing over the UCAS website in the UK) was focussed on Surfers Paradise, a small city on the gold coast with a long 20 or so km of beach backed up by skyscrapers. We managed to time our arrival alongside the main week of schoolies and so the streets of surfers paradise were lined with drunken 16 and 17 year olds and a surprising number of elderly gentlemen, all of whom happened to arrive here by coincidence (not what the local papers would have you believe!). We spent the night joining in in some of the festivities, though more as observers, enjoying the live music which was playing on the beach. When we found out that since we were out of the 16-18 age bracket, we would be known from then on as "Toolies" we decided to tuck ourselves into bed around 10:30.
The following day (22nd November) we spent some time enjoying the beautiful weather by topping our tans up on the beach and Alec enjoyed what would end up being his final surf on his lovely board. After this we headed north to Brisbane and after a few wrong turns, we managed to find ourselves at our good host Aaron's house. We met Aaron in Kruger Park (all you hardcore www.offexploring.com/alecanddebs fans will already know this!) and he foolishly stated that when we arrived in Brisbane it would be cool for us to stay with him, so we did! On the first night there we were introduced to Aaron's mum Bertha who had cooked a beautiful meal for us after our long afternoon's driving, his sister Bro who would be very kindly putting us up in her lovely new house, her husband Erik who stated early on that he would have nothing to do with our van if it broke down, even though he is a very skilled mechanic (and obviously a very sensible one too!) and Aaron's dad Ron who arrived a bit late since he is a very very hard working estate agent! (who even tried to sell us an apartment, it was a very good investment though!). After the lovely tea and some wine, we all retired to our respective bedrooms, ours being a beautiful guest room with en-suite, a slight upgrade from our van with mattress and malfunctioning tap!
On Thursday (23rd November), after breakfast at Aaron's place everyone foolishly left for work, leaving us on our own with no restrictions on their sattelite TV. Five hours of british property programs later (and some snoozing on the sofa!) we decided that it was time to do something with our day (it was 3pm after all) so we headed to the Wicked Camper garages to get our van a routine check up at their request and then found a coffee shop in town where we read our books for a bit (not the most exciting day ever but it has been 3 months since we watched TV so give us a break!). After this we met with Aaron and Ron and went for tea at Jackpot Noodles (one of Aaron's favourites). After tea, Aaron had a pressing extreme netball game to partake in so Aaron's dad took us both up to the penthouse suite of one of the newest blocks of flats dead in the centre of Brisbane. This beautiful apartment had very little cooking or cleaning facilities but a huge living area with almost the same amount of space again given as balcony. If your aims in life were to host parties rather than eat or wash clothes then this is definately the flat for you.
After our lazy Thursday, we decided on a more productive Friday (24th November) and so went into town with the intention of booking some trips for further up the coast and rectifying some of the problems caused by our mentally challeneged travel agent in the UK. This involved calling around some youth hostels in Sydney to see if any of them could fit us in over new year (which we did much more successfully than STA Travel in Durham could). That night, Aaron took us out to a restaurant called Gormet Pizza (guess what they served) to meet up with his girlfriend Jess. After some lovely wine and pizzas, we all headed through the the English Themed pub called the Pig and Whistle for some mucky pints and some sticky floor dancing with a large contingent of the visiting "Barmy Army".
On Saturday 25th November (happy birthday mummy berry!) we went to visit the Southbank cultural area of the City where we visited the fake beach which was built by Walls Ice Cream and the Museum and then met up with Aaron after work to have tea at his house. As well as this being the birth day of Alec's mum, whilst we were waiting in Aaron's car for him to get Jess from her apartment on the way home, we managed to give birth (figaritively speaking) to a new form of entertainment - social issues: rock paper scissors. To anyone who is interested, we will educate you upon our return. For tea we were treated to tandoori chicken which has inspired dribbling from both authors as we remember it! mmmmmmmmm! (dribble)
On Sunday 26th November we took a city catermaran tour around the river and stopped at new farm park for lunch where Alec was let loose with Aaron's beautiful digital camera for the day (I'm thinking about buying one when I get back to the UK) which led to lots of arty funny angle photos of things which you wouldn't usually step on never mind take 36 different photographs of at varying shutter speeds to see which one came out the best (the strange thing is that it is Alec who is writing this and yet I seem angry with my own geekyness). For dinner we were treated to Roo burgers and the final of Australian idol. The burgers were much more tasteful than the program and did not result in an Irish guy with a receeding hairline singing like a unic on helium (nice guy all the same).
On Monday 27th November we popped into town with the intention of having a quick visit to pay for our STA travel bookings and confirm some flight changes with Air NZ before a trip to Australia Zoo for the day. After this took much longer than expected (bloody credit cards!) we decided to spend the day in town. Alec needed a hair cut and we needed to get some pressies for our very deserving hosts. Once again, we decided to save money and send Alec to a college of hairdressing but this time was the actual first time that the barber had cut anyone's hair - it took 3 hours of consulting with his boss but only cost $10 (excluding the various coffees and magazines it took to keep Debbie entertained!). After this we went to the Myer and got candles and wine for Bro and Eric, a christmas hamper for Bertha and Ron and a framed photo of us in the Pig and Whistle for Aaron. That night we left Aaron's house around 11pm and drove up the coast to Caloundra where Aaron had a beach-side apartment which we were going to be staying in for his day off.
On Tuesday the 28th November we got up to enjoy several episodes of the hit tv series scrubs (its our favourite and Aaron made the mistake of telling us that he had the box set). We then went to the park for a sausage and egg sizzle followed by some cricket (in true Aussie style). We then headed to the jetty for our first ever fishing lesson. Though neither of us caught anything (Aaron caught two fish - show off) we both had a great time and realised that fishing can be quite exciting, especially when the guy behind us caught a sting ray and flung it onto the jetty and we both stood well back fearing Irwin like consequences! For tea, Aaron took us to a local chippy for a feast of fish, calamari, prawns and (of course) chips by the beach. We then went for a stroll along the boardwalk and returned to Aarons for more couch potato time whilst watching the unfortunately pap M:I:3.
On Wednesday the 29th of November we bid Aaron a tearful goodbye and headed towards the famous Australia Zoo, home of the much missed Steve Irwin. Our fun packed day included feeding Kangaroos, stroking Koalas, taking baby goats for walks (not really native to Australia but fun
all the same), laughing at small pigs, smelling the camels and watching the croc show. The experience did not seem tainted by the absence of its inspiration and if anything it was a good dedication to Steve's life and all he believed in - CRIKEY! CROCS RULE! After this we headed towards Noosa Point, the final safe surfing town for those heading north where we set up our van in the car park at the rear of a youth hostel. Although we almost forgot to mention, we then visited a local doctor's surgery that evening to try and find the cause for the ringing in Alec's left ear which had been annoying (the word torturing seemed a bit extreme) him for the previous 4 days. Alls fine now though, it turned out that it wasn't caused by Debbie's nagging but an excessive waxy build up - nice!
For ease of reading, we are breaking this update up a bit so look out
for the next postcard coming soon!
We hope that you are all well, lots of love, Alec and Debs
flipflops or "thongs" as theyre known here! flipping aussies!) but this is our own fault for not doing more frequent updates! anyways...
Since our last update, we have covered a pretty substantial number of kilometers of the eastern coast from Byron Bay, all the way to Mission Beach (my mapwork skills calculate this to be around 3 trillion kilometers, give or take a few miles).
On the Tuesday (21st November) we bypassed Tweed Heads and went straight to Surfers Paradise. It is worth diverging slightly in the early stages here to explain the Australian event called "Schoolies". Schoolies is what happens around this time of year when all of the students finish college and leave their local towns for drunken celebrations at big cities on the other side of the country. For most this is their first holiday away from home without ma and pa and so it can become a bit messy. This year, the Australian equivalent to Spring Break in the US (or a pint down the local followed by stressing over the UCAS website in the UK) was focussed on Surfers Paradise, a small city on the gold coast with a long 20 or so km of beach backed up by skyscrapers. We managed to time our arrival alongside the main week of schoolies and so the streets of surfers paradise were lined with drunken 16 and 17 year olds and a surprising number of elderly gentlemen, all of whom happened to arrive here by coincidence (not what the local papers would have you believe!). We spent the night joining in in some of the festivities, though more as observers, enjoying the live music which was playing on the beach. When we found out that since we were out of the 16-18 age bracket, we would be known from then on as "Toolies" we decided to tuck ourselves into bed around 10:30.
The following day (22nd November) we spent some time enjoying the beautiful weather by topping our tans up on the beach and Alec enjoyed what would end up being his final surf on his lovely board. After this we headed north to Brisbane and after a few wrong turns, we managed to find ourselves at our good host Aaron's house. We met Aaron in Kruger Park (all you hardcore www.offexploring.com/alecanddebs fans will already know this!) and he foolishly stated that when we arrived in Brisbane it would be cool for us to stay with him, so we did! On the first night there we were introduced to Aaron's mum Bertha who had cooked a beautiful meal for us after our long afternoon's driving, his sister Bro who would be very kindly putting us up in her lovely new house, her husband Erik who stated early on that he would have nothing to do with our van if it broke down, even though he is a very skilled mechanic (and obviously a very sensible one too!) and Aaron's dad Ron who arrived a bit late since he is a very very hard working estate agent! (who even tried to sell us an apartment, it was a very good investment though!). After the lovely tea and some wine, we all retired to our respective bedrooms, ours being a beautiful guest room with en-suite, a slight upgrade from our van with mattress and malfunctioning tap!
On Thursday (23rd November), after breakfast at Aaron's place everyone foolishly left for work, leaving us on our own with no restrictions on their sattelite TV. Five hours of british property programs later (and some snoozing on the sofa!) we decided that it was time to do something with our day (it was 3pm after all) so we headed to the Wicked Camper garages to get our van a routine check up at their request and then found a coffee shop in town where we read our books for a bit (not the most exciting day ever but it has been 3 months since we watched TV so give us a break!). After this we met with Aaron and Ron and went for tea at Jackpot Noodles (one of Aaron's favourites). After tea, Aaron had a pressing extreme netball game to partake in so Aaron's dad took us both up to the penthouse suite of one of the newest blocks of flats dead in the centre of Brisbane. This beautiful apartment had very little cooking or cleaning facilities but a huge living area with almost the same amount of space again given as balcony. If your aims in life were to host parties rather than eat or wash clothes then this is definately the flat for you.
After our lazy Thursday, we decided on a more productive Friday (24th November) and so went into town with the intention of booking some trips for further up the coast and rectifying some of the problems caused by our mentally challeneged travel agent in the UK. This involved calling around some youth hostels in Sydney to see if any of them could fit us in over new year (which we did much more successfully than STA Travel in Durham could). That night, Aaron took us out to a restaurant called Gormet Pizza (guess what they served) to meet up with his girlfriend Jess. After some lovely wine and pizzas, we all headed through the the English Themed pub called the Pig and Whistle for some mucky pints and some sticky floor dancing with a large contingent of the visiting "Barmy Army".
On Saturday 25th November (happy birthday mummy berry!) we went to visit the Southbank cultural area of the City where we visited the fake beach which was built by Walls Ice Cream and the Museum and then met up with Aaron after work to have tea at his house. As well as this being the birth day of Alec's mum, whilst we were waiting in Aaron's car for him to get Jess from her apartment on the way home, we managed to give birth (figaritively speaking) to a new form of entertainment - social issues: rock paper scissors. To anyone who is interested, we will educate you upon our return. For tea we were treated to tandoori chicken which has inspired dribbling from both authors as we remember it! mmmmmmmmm! (dribble)
On Sunday 26th November we took a city catermaran tour around the river and stopped at new farm park for lunch where Alec was let loose with Aaron's beautiful digital camera for the day (I'm thinking about buying one when I get back to the UK) which led to lots of arty funny angle photos of things which you wouldn't usually step on never mind take 36 different photographs of at varying shutter speeds to see which one came out the best (the strange thing is that it is Alec who is writing this and yet I seem angry with my own geekyness). For dinner we were treated to Roo burgers and the final of Australian idol. The burgers were much more tasteful than the program and did not result in an Irish guy with a receeding hairline singing like a unic on helium (nice guy all the same).
On Monday 27th November we popped into town with the intention of having a quick visit to pay for our STA travel bookings and confirm some flight changes with Air NZ before a trip to Australia Zoo for the day. After this took much longer than expected (bloody credit cards!) we decided to spend the day in town. Alec needed a hair cut and we needed to get some pressies for our very deserving hosts. Once again, we decided to save money and send Alec to a college of hairdressing but this time was the actual first time that the barber had cut anyone's hair - it took 3 hours of consulting with his boss but only cost $10 (excluding the various coffees and magazines it took to keep Debbie entertained!). After this we went to the Myer and got candles and wine for Bro and Eric, a christmas hamper for Bertha and Ron and a framed photo of us in the Pig and Whistle for Aaron. That night we left Aaron's house around 11pm and drove up the coast to Caloundra where Aaron had a beach-side apartment which we were going to be staying in for his day off.
On Tuesday the 28th November we got up to enjoy several episodes of the hit tv series scrubs (its our favourite and Aaron made the mistake of telling us that he had the box set). We then went to the park for a sausage and egg sizzle followed by some cricket (in true Aussie style). We then headed to the jetty for our first ever fishing lesson. Though neither of us caught anything (Aaron caught two fish - show off) we both had a great time and realised that fishing can be quite exciting, especially when the guy behind us caught a sting ray and flung it onto the jetty and we both stood well back fearing Irwin like consequences! For tea, Aaron took us to a local chippy for a feast of fish, calamari, prawns and (of course) chips by the beach. We then went for a stroll along the boardwalk and returned to Aarons for more couch potato time whilst watching the unfortunately pap M:I:3.
On Wednesday the 29th of November we bid Aaron a tearful goodbye and headed towards the famous Australia Zoo, home of the much missed Steve Irwin. Our fun packed day included feeding Kangaroos, stroking Koalas, taking baby goats for walks (not really native to Australia but fun
all the same), laughing at small pigs, smelling the camels and watching the croc show. The experience did not seem tainted by the absence of its inspiration and if anything it was a good dedication to Steve's life and all he believed in - CRIKEY! CROCS RULE! After this we headed towards Noosa Point, the final safe surfing town for those heading north where we set up our van in the car park at the rear of a youth hostel. Although we almost forgot to mention, we then visited a local doctor's surgery that evening to try and find the cause for the ringing in Alec's left ear which had been annoying (the word torturing seemed a bit extreme) him for the previous 4 days. Alls fine now though, it turned out that it wasn't caused by Debbie's nagging but an excessive waxy build up - nice!
For ease of reading, we are breaking this update up a bit so look out
for the next postcard coming soon!
We hope that you are all well, lots of love, Alec and Debs
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