Hello us again,

So after we flew to the Gold Coast we stayed in Surfers Paradise, drove them to Australia Zoo, chilled in my favourite- Byron Bay for a few days, stopped in Port Macquire and eventually made it into New South Wales. I cant believe in 2 weeks we managed to show them Victoria, NSW and Queensland!! We bypassed Sydney at first and went to the Blue Mountains. We stayed in a ‘boutique hotel’- more like a Granny flat- but strangely we decided to use all the facilities- spa, hot tub, sauna! Out of all the places we have stayed we decide to do that here. We were a bit peckish on the night and decided to go to the hotels Indonesian restaurant- which we all thought was a bit strange. I think we were the only people in the hotel and I can honestly say I ended up having one of the best meals I’ve ever had in this random, deserted little restaurant. I think the others would agree with me as well- I’ve never seen Joe eat so much and I’m sure he tucked away some vegetables!! This little woman came out with her hairnet on and told us what she recommended- it was all delicious and totally unexpected!!

From there we went to our final stop- Sydney. We were interested to see if they would prefer Melbourne or Sydney because apparently you like one or the other!! We did all the touristy things and had a wonderful last couple of days there. Unfortunately for me I think one of the highlights was when I got drenched at Bondi Beach. I said to Phil ‘Ill just stand here while you take a picture of me infront of these rock pools’ and BAM I got taken out by a huge wave!! Ive never heard this lot laugh so loud! We had a scrummy final tea at Darling Harbour- where Tricia and Joe tried kangaroo! It was a great way to end a wonderful holiday! We were all very lucky to be in Australia having a wonderful time.

We said goodbye and we ended up staying in Sydney for another 5 days or so. We tried staying in Kings Cross but considering the drug scene and living in a complete s**t hole wasn’t really for us we moved back to the city centre thank god! The best bit about Kings Cross was walking down this little street next to Richard Branson!! Hes a scruffy git. Very random. We visited Manly, Cronulla (where I stayed with Annika & Tom a few years ago) and finished off the touristy bits in Sydney.

From there we embarked on a overnight train to Brisbane- which was fun! We didn’t get much sleep but it was a good way of getting all the way back up into Queensland. We were making our way up the east coast again to meet Rachel and Matt that we had met in Melbourne. They were coming down from Cairns so we agreed to meet in Hervey Bay to do Fraser Island together. It turned out that the weather was too bad for Fraser so we booked a whale watching package instead which was fantastic. The next day we got jet skis, kayaks and lunch included as well so it all worked out ok. Staying in a 4 bed dorm together was the funniest bit- especially because Phil had the flu and was snoring so much we all couldn’t sleep- bless him. The place was full of possums- basically bigger furrier rats!! Yak!

We said goodbye to them and headed up to Agnes Waters and 1770. It’s a really small little place- off the traditional tourist track which is great. We stayed at Southern Cross Retreat (like a small centre parcs but full of spiders, snakes and other scary things!!). We were only meant to stay 2 nights but loved it so much we ended up staying a week! We need to do ‘farm work’ for 88 days so we can apply for our second year visa- we have been searching for ages and finally we have found some! Its on a cattle farm near Rockhampton on the East Coast. Phil gets to ride around on quad bikes feeding animals and I just have to do a bit of house work so it should be fine!! So we did Scooteroo (the little motorbikes on our pics) and our surfing lessons and headed up towards Rockhampton.

Wish us luck for our farm work……… And after that we leave Oz on 8th December to head to Thailand and then home!!!!!!!