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The 7th of April was our last night at Hardie Street, we had to pack our Sydney lives away into the newly purchased rucksacks which were smaller than our original ones so we had to get rid of a lot of stuff. After managing to get everything in our bags we went for our last walk around Sydney,we wanted to see if we could get some extra clips to attach our sleeping bags to the bottom of our rucksacks so that they would fit comfortably there, but when we went into the shop we bought them from we realised that the rucksacks we bought had gone into the sale, we were not impressed so we spoke to the manager and explained the situation to her, she eventually said that she could refund the difference back to us which was cool. We then realised that we couldn't get the right sized clips from that shop so walked down a bit further and found another camping shop where we bought our sleeping bags from and then realised they were in the sale as well and were 50% off, so we had another discussion with the people in that shop, and they were not as accommodating, we there for like an hour as no-one could make a decision they had to call the manager. Eventually they agreed to give us store credit, which will come in useful when we hit New Zealand in the winter.
We didn't do much for the rest of the day; we had dinner and then headed to Central station to catch the Greyhound coach to Byron Bay. It left at 9pm stopped a couple of times and we arrived in Byron Bay on the 8th April at 9am. We checked into our hostel and had a wander around the little town. We met some Scottish and Geordies in our room and then met a friend of Seema's for dinner as she was in Byron for a festival.
On the 9th we woke up to pouring rain, and as this is a beach town there isn't much to do. A little bit later the rain had stopped so we decided to walk up to the lighthouse. It was a nice walk up, but as soon as we got up there the rain started and continued for the rest of the afternoon!! We got soaked even with our raincoats!! We then got back to the hostel to warm ourselves and spent the night chatting to people from Leeds and Canada.
We got up on the 10th to check out of the hostel and to catch the bus up to Surfers Paradise. We arrived there and checked in to the scummiest hostel we have stayed in so far. The shower was not appealing and the kitchen was tiny!! We were getting ready to go into the town when we met a girl staying in our room, Lukke from the Netherlands, who came with us. We headed for the tourist information booth to get our discounted tickets for all the theme parks we wanted to visit. Lukke was only in Surfers for another day so bought a ticket for one park. We walked around the town for a bit in search for an open supermarket, but seeing as it was Good Friday that was impossible!! Everything in Australia comes to a stop on Bank Holidays!! The weather wasn't that hot either so we spent the afternoon sorting out the rest of our dates for our travels up the East Coast. That evening we found out that there was a free outdoor cinema on the beach, so we dressed up ready for winter and walked to the beach to watch 'Mamma Mia', we think that has to be the cheesiest film we have ever seen, but it was free and the atmosphere was great. We got to the hostel and then finished off the night by playing cards with a few other people from Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.
On Saturday 11th we went to Dreamworld with Lukke, it was about a 40 minute bus ride away and was a bit like Chessington World of Adventures as it had rollercoaster's as well a Wildlife World. We had been on most of the big rides when the rain started. Again. We were beginning to think that everyone who didn't want us to come away has cursed our weather!! We come to the Gold Coast and haven't really seen a lot of sun!! So please can we have some wishful thinking from everyone!!So because we are British we carried on but there were two other thrill rides that we had yet to go on, but one did not operate in the rain and the other was having technical faults, it really wasn't our day!! So we kept our fingers crossed and went to see all the animals, we saw some more Kangaroos and watched people feed them and then Lukke paid to cuddle and get a photo with a Koala, by the time we did all this the rain had let up, so we rushed to get on the rides that we couldn't previously go on. So apart from the rain a good time was had by all.
On Sunday 12th we took a 15 minute bus ride to SeaWorld armed with some mini eggs and a cream egg as it was Easter!! We watched a Sesame Street show and then went to watch a Dolphin show and then a Sea Lion show. Before the Sea Lion show started a member of staff was giving away prizes to people who did a good animal impression, so Seems being Seems thought 'I want to win something and I don't mind making a fool of myself' so on the count of three she stood up and did a Dolphin impression. The guy thought she was 'amazing' so called her and two others to the front and asked them all to do their impressions again in front of an audience of 300 people!! The crowd loved it, and Seems was then given a Sunset Cruise voucher worth $35 as she was that good!! What a result a free cruise with a glass of bubbly!! So the rest of the day was spent on rides and watching some more shows, including a water skiing one. We then had to purchase a ticket for Sheens to get on the cruise, so we did that and thankfully we didn't pay for both tickets and it wasn't really worth it, it was very cold and it had started to rain again!!
On Monday we went to Warner Bros. Movie World in the hope to meet some characters but we as soon as we left the hostel the rain started and did not stop all day. But we plodded along and went on all the rides, but then because it was raining the characters didn't do their usual parade as their suits would get ruined so that was a bit pants!! As the rain didn't stop all day we just went to the hostel to dry off and spent the night chatting away to some Dutch girls in our room.
On Tuesday 14th the sun came out, well we were all ready for the beach about to leave and then the clouds came over....though we were still a bit lucky as it didn't rain, so as this was our last day in Surfers we had a mooch about the town purchased some rash vests so we don't freeze to death on our canoe trip and got a free ice cream from Baskin Robbins. We met a few of Seema's friends from her first year of camp late afternoon, they took us for a drive around the Gold Coast, we visited a spot where you could see all of the sky scrapers of Surfers and the ocean but the clouds were present so the photos didn't come out that well, but it was a spectacular view. The next part of our tour included a long country road drive to Natural Bridge National Park, this is famous for glow worms, so as it was dark already we headed down a very dark path towards the cave where the works live. Lucky for us Seema's friends came prepared with torches and Seems had the light on her phone to lead the way!! After about a 10 minute walk we were at the cave and saw millions of glow worms, they were so cool. We were very fortunate that we had people take us there as people normally pay $80 for a coach trip there and back. We then went for dinner at the local Surf Club and then hit a bar to play some pool.
On Wednesday we left Surfers and got the Greyhound to Brisbane. We arrived at the hostel, had brunch which was a cooked breakfast (mmmmm) and hit the roof as the sun was blearing, we had to take advantage as we never know how long it would last!! On Thursday we went for a wander around the city, took the bus to Mount Coot-tha which had a spectacular view of the city and river, then went for a 4 hour walk around the main attractions of Brisbane. We cooked dinner back at the hostel and then took a ferry ride across the river, and took some lovely night landscape photos. Friday was then spent just roaming around the city again. We have been very lucky that is hadn't rained since we got here.
We have come to the conclusion that Brisbane is trying very hard to be London, they have a Southbank, a wannabe London Eye, a River through the city, a building similar to the National Portrait Gallery (their City Hall) and a Tower Bridge wannabe. We have to say though it's just not as cool!!
So that's all for now, the next stop is Noosa where we will be doing a canoe trip along the Everglades, more to come after that expedition!!
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