Okay, so another update. We are currently in Surfers Paradise and absolutely loving life! Other than the disappointing weather Australia is everything we hoped it would be. We have been here for almost 2 weeks now (although it feels like so much longer) and we've had the best time. We arrived on the 8th August to a wet, miserable, rainy Sydney and had a busy day opening bank accounts (our first joint account eh), getting Aussie numbers and sorting out our travels for the next 6 weeks or so… Then after a BBQ at our hostel it was time for a really early night (I was asleep by 8pm - Oops)!! We woke up the following day really excited to explore the city so we got up really early and walked through the Botanical Gardens to a good view point of the opera house and harbour bridge. We then took way to many typical touristy pictures before walking back though the gardens to the opera house. It was really cool to see but once you've seen it you've seen it. We were planning to walk the harbour bridge but that idea quickly evaporated when we saw how big it was and well we really couldn't be bothered as we were so tired, instead we walked to Darling harbour and got some lunch before heading back to the hostel. We literally walked all day and my feet hurt so bad so we took a well deserved nap before getting ready for dinner! That night we met my gorgeous kiwi friend Emma and her boyfriend Luke for dinner and drinks at Darling Harbour Margaritaville (I was so excited haha). It was SO good to catch up and I need to make sure we make it back to Sydney to catch up again! After that we went to a casino to meet some of Max's friends before heading back to our hostel to lay in bed listening to people having sex upstairs (we LOVE hostel life). The following day was the annual city to surf fun run so we decided to get in on the action and got up early and went to Bondi. The beach was packed with runners but such a good atmosphere! We decided to do the Bondi to Coogee walk which is 6k each way but it's not as easy as it sounds as its along the coast and so so steep! After taking almost two hours to walk there (we did stop for lots of pics of the gorgeous coast and a few selfies of course) we walked back in about an hour! I was so so happy to see Bondi when we got back I was knackered! Then we met our lovely friend Alex who we met in America last year and was taking us in for a few days!

Getting to Alex's house was like arriving in paradise! A house was such a novelty - Especially Alex's gorgeous cosy house! That night we all got cosy on the sofa and had a movie night before going to bed in our very own room! The following day Alex took us to a place called Kiama which is down the coast a bit from Sydney and is famous for its blowhole. It was really spectacular, i've never seen anything like it before! It was sooooo windy though and we didn't stay for too long. We looked around the town and had a lovely lunch before going back home for the BEST meal ever. Alex cooked us our first homemade meal and it was so so good! Pulled pork and sweet potato - Yummm. Fortunately the weather wasn't too bad the last few days so of course it was time for it to rain… ALL DAY. But luckily we were at Alex's so a cosy day watching films and eating was actually really nice!! Then it our last day together so we took Alex's beautiful dog (and my new best friend) for a walk on the beach before we made our way back to the city. We had such a lovely time catching up on the past year and reminiscing about Contikii and we are so grateful for Alex looking after us for a few days!

Then we had a few hours to kill in Sydney before our 12 hour bus journey up to Byron bay!! We just wandered pretty aimlessly and got some snacks for the journey before setting up camp in Starbucks and catching up on some TV! We arrived at the coach station to find there were only 5 people on the bus so we had a nice comfy journey and I slept like a baby for a solid 8 hours! We downloaded some films at Alex's so decided to watch Soul Surfers on the bus since we were doing surf lessons in Byron - BAD IDEA. Its basically a film about a girl who surfs and has her arm bitten off by a shark… Great/inspiring film but terrifying for someone who's already pretty scared of the sea. Max didn't get much sleep so was a bit of a grumpy boy the following day but since we arrived to torrential rain it was a good enough excuse to sit in our room and sleep/watch more films all day. Byron is lovely but not really anything to do when it rains all day! But we did come out of hibernation in the evening for $5 pizzas and a few drinks, seemed like our hostel was full on Canadians and they're all pretty friendly people so we got chatting until we decided it was time to hibernate again (sounds like we have been really lazy but I promise we haven't)! The day after we went on a trip to Nimbin which is the Amsterdam of Aus! We got on a very colourful bus which took us on a bumpy ride to Nimbin where we wandered around the town and brought some very special cookies before getting back on the bus and going for a BBQ in the rainforrest! We did a little hike to see a waterfall before feasting on so much food! Was a really good trip would deff recommend to anyone in Byron! That night we went to cheeky monkeys (another place i'd recommend) for dinner and a few drinks and much to our delight we left $3 richer! On thursdays they do $10 steaks and a free drink which was splendid and very yummy (bear in mind $10 is 5 pound)! In the bar they have loads of board games so after a few competitive games of connect four a guy who worked there challenged us to a game and the winner gets the drinks… Well of course team Katie won… After that we were feeling pretty confident so Max entered a pool competition and WON! It was only $40 but that's a lot when you've travelling! So a few more happy hour drinks and we decided to leave whilst we were up a few dollars up as we had surf lessons in the morning… Not something I fancied when hungover! So back to bed ready to become pro surfers in the morning. This one was deff more for Max than myself but was totally worth it watching him fall on the board every 30 seconds! Admittedly it was horrific weather and really rough conditions so he did pretty well as he got up and caught a few waves! I on the other hand wasn't so good so basically just body boarded on the surf board for a bit before getting bored and annoyed with the rain and just sitting in the water watching Max. The water was so warm 22 degrees compared to the 14 degrees on the beach so I just sat by myself on my board despite many funny looks from fellow surfer (yes we are surfers now)!! That was our final day in Byron so we deiced to go out that night to cheeky monkeys again in the rain with people from our hostel.

Then up bright and early to catch a bus up to Surfers which is where we are now! We watched the butler on the bus which is such a good film! Would deff recommend watching if you haven't already! As soon as we arrived on the Gold Coast we knew we'd like it here… The sun was shining and it was absolutely stunning. We arrived at our apartment and were over the moon with it! We have our very own kitchen, living and dinning area and a balcony with gorgeous views! Its perfect for us, we want to live here! Once we sorted all our bits out, we showered and headed to the beach to see the night markets and have some dinner. We wandered around for ages and totally fell in love! The next few days we got up early to make the most of the winter sunshine, our first day we got up and went for a run along the beach and did a food shop for the week before spending the afternoon by the pool and a few hours at the beach! That night Max cooked a gorgeous dinner and we watched films on the sofa. The following day we went to Sea world and had such an amazing day! The shows and animals were amazing and despite what people say about sea world in the US they seemed very well looked after. Luckily the sun was still shining so Max managed to persuade me to go on the water rides although we were bloody freezing after! But all in all was a good day and we now want pet dolphin and polar bears! On the wednesday we went to a wildlife sanctuary to see some Koala Bears and Kangaroos (and various other animals)… We decided this would be better than the Steve Erwin zoo but after we'd seen the Koalas and Kangaroos there wasn't much to do tbh and we were only there for a few hours… still was such a special experience. I was SO excited to cuddle a Koala, was something I said I 100% wanted to do in Aus… The Kangaroos were so lovely to.… We got to feed them and play for ages and get a few selfies!! Yesterday we went to Movie World which is Warnerbros version of Universal Studios and it was SO MUCH FUN! We love a theme park (we've done Disney, universal and now these just since we've been away) and as it's winter here there were no queues so we made it onto every ride and even managed a few 2-3 times! My fave was a Scooby foo ride it seems really lame at first you just go on a baby roller coaster then when you think it's coming to an end you're taken up a lift and shot backwards into a massive indoor roller coaster! I made Max go on it three times! We even treated ourselves to a burger for lunch as we've been making packed lunches everyday… Oh and a Ben and Jerry's ice cream!!

We still have a few days left in lovely surfers… unfortunately we have woken up today to really miserable weather so just catching up on a few bits and sorting our tax numbers out so we can start working! Then we are going to get some yummy food and have a movie day I think! We still have tickets to wet n wild so tomorrow we will either go there or I might try persuade Max to go back to Movie World! Then on Sunday its up to Brisbane for the night before we head up to beautiful Noosa and then onto Fraser Island!

Hope everyone is good at home…. Missing you all xxxxx