Archive for April, 2010

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Are you carrying any food? yes… half a bag of rice.. ok… join the queue


2010
04.30

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Last day in fiji was pretty much immense.. after hating south sea cruises for cancelling the day trip, it was made up for by the trip itself which was well worth the 40 pounds ( i reckon!). WE only just made the bus though as it arrived at the hotel next to ours 10 mins early! shock – we had been expecting fiji time! It rained on the bus, but by the time we got to the port the sky was tres blue and there wasnt a single cloud. The same woman was there and the check in place and tried to be really nice to make up for her poor service the other day grrrr…. and then we were on the boat. A high speed catamaran for about 20 mins then we were dropped on our island for the day, south sea island, the smallest (and cheapest… ssshhh) island in the mamamuca island group. It was tiny! like 70m from end to end in a circle shape, but it was very nice and kept us entertained for the day. And the best part about it ? the free bar! jokes, although it was awesome and at the end of the day we snaffled a good supply of sprite and orange juice LOL. After the welcome most people wandered off to grab a sun lounger but we thought we would rather go for a submarine trip! as you do! we got taken out to this boat then climbed down a level to a very squishy section with windows on both sides and we drove around through a coral reef and saw LOADS of fish, some of them pretty big and the colours were really vivid and bright! i think it was maybe my highlight of fiji! just coz it was something we hadnt done before…

After that it was back on the beach for snorkelling times (all included in the price) again there were really cool fish but the current was quite strong so it was lucky we had flippers :) Followed by a buffet lunch (my fav!) which tribal singing and dancing! filled up, it was time to blob for a bit in the sun, but it was a hard decision where to go, facing the beach, or the pool, or a hammock in the trees…. :) Inbetween blobbing we did some sea kayaking which was fun because the waves were big and you got proper splashed! and we didnt get attacked by sharks…. phew! It stayed sunny but windy all day which was nice as it didnt get too hot and enjoyed ourselves muchos! also, because of the way the trips work, most people had left the island by about 2 so for the last 2 hours there was only about 20 people left! I got some good tannage- maybe our last— sob sob!

All of our old friends had left the hostel by the time we got back, but we made new ones and had another fun night at the bar (the same bar .. yes were practically locals by the end of it) and when we got back we looked under our bed and discovered a cat had given birth to 3 kittens… !! toby was instantly in love and obviously it meant we had to spend ages watching and moving and cuddling them, they were so small they couldnt even walk properly! finally got to bed then up at 5:45am! ! ! for the flight

Boring boring flight, arrived early but then because apparently 4 flights arrives at once we had to queue for ages to go through customs and after that a thing called biosecurity which was the biggest joke ever. You get a list asking if you have any of the following… food? hiking/ walking gear? and wood amongst others. We realise between us we have 1/2 a bag of rice, tobys pair of walking shoes and our tiny wood carving from fiji (i knew it would come back to haunt us!) but apparently that was enough so we had to queue for 90 mins!!!! for them to do a 1 min check and say thats fine. Knobheads! i was not happy and it wasnt until we were in our campervan an hour or so later that i could chill out.

Yes i did say campervan! its awesome and we love it and we slept in it last night after driving around with no map trying to find a campsite in the dark after a 3-4 hour drive straight away! eek. but we found one, after stocking up on lots of yummy snacks, and im happy with the one we found, it even has about 4 hot pools— really really hot, like 40 degrees! because where we are staying (rotorua) is a place with loads of thermal activity and geysers and mud pits and sulphur so the whole place stinks like egg.

Had a good nights sleep in the campervan got on our way by lunch and i went to the mall to finally buy some shoes ! yayyy we then went to a park for another awesome picnic lunch with funky steaming pits and stuff then we drove to a creek literally in the middle of nowhere where you can swin the natural hot pools and now we are here and have no doubt starting to bore you with these 3 massively long blog posts. if we’d have waited any longer we would have started to forget so good times for it being done! and the photos are almost done loading… and we have booked our grade v (the highest) white water rafting trip for tomorrow morning! eeeeeeeek

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Toby says hi :) (he’s still reading!)

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BULA! Gravy… aahh gravy!


2010
04.30

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So, we got off the plane after flying the words ‘friendliest” airline air pacific (good chocolate cake!) not sure what to expect of FIji, we had booked two nights in Nadi, the main town close to the area, with no idea how to spend our time there, but it ended up being pretty awesome! Our flight was almost two hours late, but we had emailed the hostel from the airport to warn them.. WE arrived, with me thinking they may have gone home,, but there he was, with a piece of paper saying Toby Andrews at the arrivals gate. IT is VERY COOL to have someone waiting for you , especially when you are a cheapskate backpacker paying a tenner a night (the cheapest). We apologised for the delay, and he said, oh, ive been waiting about 2 hours…. but dont worry, its fiji time! oops! We pulled up at the hostel about 10 minutes later, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, and got a lil worried when the place was deserted  and we werent even given a key to our room, but within 10 mins of getting there someone knocked on the door and said tea’s ready (turns out breakfast and tea were included !!!) we ate, surrounded by cats and dogs that seemed to turn up, and then the said, do you want a lif to the bar.. sure! this is where the fun started. WE had seats pulled up for us on a table full of english people who were staying in our hostel (phew… it wasnt deserted) and had arrived the day before… pretty soon the drinking games started (1 pound a drink) and the music got louder and basically everyone got drunker, and at some point, probably between chugging competitions, toby earned the nickname Gravy… because we are from ‘up north’ and all they drink there is pints of gravy. LOL! It was almost 10 when we got the bar, but by 12 we were on our way to a local fijian nightclub with the owners of the hostel ( a family) with 10 of us in a 5 seater car, (3 in the boot). It turns out people from fiji know how to party as they beat all us english lot we had to retire just before 2.. but not before a drunken run to mcdonalds with rachael a girl stayin in the dorm at the hostel, only to find it was closed so we had to go back to an all night bbq takeaway for cheesy chips… only to find they had ripped us off and there was no cheese involved. Gutted! Back at the dorm, a game of cricket somehow started, inside the dorm!, but we gave in and headed to our room before it finished.

The next day, we managed to make it up at 11 which was a lot earlier than all the other guys! WE walked into nadi town (about 50 mins) and had a look round, before toby made the mistake of talking to a guy – everyone says bula (hello) on the street and everyone is REALLY friendly, cept this guy, who wanted to sell us stuff, so we ended up upstairs in this shop thing, doing a kava ceremony which is a special fiji drink which numbs your tongue and then had to have a look around, feeling guilty already for wanting to leave without buying after the whole ceremony thing, but then he tied necklaces orund our necks.. how do we get out of this one??? You dont is the answer and after lots of bartering which basically turned into begging we held our ground and ended up with a wood carving thing with our names written on it and the two necklaces for ten pounds, which was good considering he was wanting to charge about 30. Its weird how they can change though and be sooo nice to you but when you refuse to pay more, they look at you like your scum and barely shake your hand. OH well, we learnt not to do the same thing again and the carving is cool…. and my necklace was an awesome turtle.. except ive already lost it :( Nadi doesnt have too much going for it so we wandered, got some food, did some internet and then started the walk back…. That was most of the day gone, and we got back in time for a snooze and then got shipped off to the bar where everyone from the night before was… More drinking games, more, cricket, good times! and the bar ran out of beer… outrage!

Sunday was the next day and pretty much everywhere shuts as fiji is quite religious, also it was very grey and rainy :( but we didn’t wanna do nothing, so in the end, at about 1 we got a taxi with rachael and a new guy…david from the hostel to these mud pools, even though everyone had told us they would be closed… and im pretty sure they were. Not sure what our taxi driver said, but the guy basically opened it up (his garden) for us and there was a mud pool then a hot spring pool thing. We had loads of fun slopping mud everywhere and the warming up in the hot pool and i think a rainy day was the best day to go otherwise you would be too hot, also we were the only people there! Our taxi driver was amazing, he hung around for an hour and a half, being our official photographer and after he drove back, dropping us at mcdonalds where we had the nicest server ever! he couldnt stop smiling! and ending up asking for what worked out to 2 pounds more (between 4 of us) for having to wait around! Good times! we think the pictures of this may have ruined the memory card so they might not get put up but i think we’re headed to more mud pools tomorrrow whoop!

That night was a quiet one at the bar as we were up early for a boat trip we had booked to the islands the next day (most people choose to spend basiclaly their whole time in fiji on the islands but its so expensive so we chose to stay at drift in hostel pretty much the whole time except one night because everyone was so nice .

Anyway, we awoke for our day trip and got the bus at 7:2-!!!! to the port for the boat, only to be told, im sorry, all days trips have been cancelled today due to the weather forecast… there was barely a cloud in the sky at this point.. GRRRR.. and also, we apparently didnt even have a booking. the women was most unhelpful but i did my best, this is a problem that YOU need to fix voice (i learn from the best dad) and we ended up not losing our deposit .. despite the dodgy agent who’d booked it.. recommended by the information desk! Big faff though, and very disappointed, we ended up booking it for two days later even though it meant we had to be picked up from a place about an hour an a half away that we were staying at for one night. There was no way to get back to the hostel as the port was quite a way away so we went to a booking place next door and said, what can we do today. Not a lot apparently unless you want a 300 dollar horse riding or rafting trip, or a 60 dollar look around nadi town ( no thanks, we did that the other day for free!) We ended up renting out another moped, this time black and amber, with a very good roar to the engine! we drove up to another town to have a look brought some muffins and cake then drove to this place called gardens of the sleeping giant were there are loads of orchids and a walk through a tropical place and a very nice spot for picnic…we did have lots of nice pics :( from there headed back to the beach by the hostel, not at all impressive, very dirty water for a couple of hours tannage and a man tried to get us to sponsor him (sign) so he could get a visa to england. I think not. Had tea at the hostel and then headed out in the dark to pizza hut :) :):) for a second tea, pepporoni pizza! i told them i worked there and had a good ol chat with the manager and he seemed auite excited and was asking about standards and everything and they thanked us very much for choosing pizza hut as we left (awwww)! back to the hostel where we watched a film with the guys who had by this point forgotten toby had a name aside from gravy… aah gravy (aah gravy being the surname), the new clash of the titans. Its rubbish! do not see it! but it was cool because the hostel owner junior, who seemed to be taking a night off getting absolutely hammered at the bar :P went at got the dvd player especially and set it all up for us… Not a good film though!

We dropped the moped off early the next morning and got a local bus which was sooo pimped… really loud hip hop playing through good speakers… and funky red seats. Also the rule seemed to be that people could pay what they wanted, i.e a women threw a dollar in and said thats for two.. no no for three…. whereas other people paid 2 dollars for 1. Also the driver was dropping off cigarettes and food along the way like a delivery man. We got to see little villages that i reckon tourists rarely go to which was cool,, and we got to nadi town and it only took about 5 times as long as a taxi would have!

Our bus to the coral coast left after a while and a taxi on the other end, dropped us at our bungalow for the night (felt like a holiday from our home at the drift in hostel) it was right on the beach – a nice beach -and we had a whole bungalow to ourselves even though there was a dorm upstairs. We grabbed some free snorkel stuff and went to have a look at the coral that was all on the shore, in about waist deep water. You could see loads of really cool and colourful fish and these scary things which look like snakes underwater with tentacles for heads which are apparently called sea cucumbers. YUCK they were scary!!! tannage in the afternoon… and then bed early to be up for our day trip (it better not be cancelled again) in the morning, which involved setting an alarm for 6:15 am ouch!

…

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We promise we went to sydney… honest!


2010
04.30

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Unfortunately we don’t have much proof as ironically, Toby’s memory card has become all corrupted, luckily only a few days after making a back up at his uncles (phew) but we lost most of sydney and some of fiji… but we did go :) Apologies in order again for the shocking amount of time since the last blog, too expensive in australia, fiji there never seemed to be time but finally, we are sat in Rotorua, New Zealand, with the campervan parked outside and a rate we can afford :)

Yay, so ill do this blog in three parts to make it easier, sydney first… we arrived on the greyhound, me with a bandaged leg that kept falling off (not the leg that is… just the bandage…) and had a wander to a nice park place for a picnic (packed by tobys aunt! — thanks :) )- We put down our trusty beach mat we’ve been chugging around since thailand and felt very sophisticated! Sun still shining, maybe we can forgive australia for the rain at the start… although im still not sure ….We then walked over to a house owned by tobys family’s friends which was right in the middle of sydney (woah) because they had said we could say (also woah, and thanks!) So that was awesome and saved us lots of money and they were very nice and helpful. WE pretty much jumped straight out to Bondi beach, because apparently you can’t go to sydney and NOT see it, so we did :) and treated ourselves to yet another mcdonalds cone and watched all the surfers, toby saying, i could do that, look how small those waves are! (they were not small, and i highly doubt he could’ve surfed them :P ) stayed a couple of hours (we actually have a couple of pictures from here! and then headed back… OOOh but before we left i swear i was stood next to Maz from last years shipwrecked (remember??? Lor- im sure YOU do!) i was convinced, but she did have really big sunglasses on so now guaranteess….

Anyways, that night we headed out again for a walk around at night, going to look at the opera house and the sydney harbour bridge and an area called the rocks… there were loads of really cool bars and restaurants all really posh.. too posh obvs so we settled, at about 10ish by which point we were both knackered… for slushees from 7/11 and a massive bar of daily milk from woolworths…. it doesnt take much to make us happy!

Up early (well 10ish hehe) the next morning for another filled day of sightseeing, we walked through the botanic gardens  (very pretty) to get to the ferry port and we got on a ferry to manly which basically everyone had told us to do. think its more because of the ferry ride where you get to see lots of the harbour than the actual destination although it was very nice. Another beach, and i managed to fall asleep again ! oops- also saw some very pro beach volleyballers… and had a massive picnic (deli counter obvs) so i basically had to roll my way back to the ferry port.

That pretty much filled the whole day and when we got back we spent a couple of hours wandering around fairly aimlessly, although toby did get to look in the apple shop which made him very happy.. (he wont be participating in the writing of blogs today, as he has found a trilogy of books that he loves more than life itself… no jokes.. He started on the 2nd and i swear i saw tears of joy when the 3rd was found lurking on the bookshelf…. who knows, he might actually talk to me again once he finishes hehe (j/k)

We decided to go wild and treat ourselves to a meal out for our last night in australia.. our first meal in a restaurant, so not bad going, we went for steak and chips for $10 we which yumyum which a $5 beer to accompany (ouch) but nice, and then strolled along to another bar for another beer also $5 and got told off for wearing flipflops.. numpty bouncer, its not like we have any other shoes lol! This was in the kings cross area which is supposedly the red light dodgy district, but it didnt seem too bad at all!

ANd that was about it for SYdney, we got up early the next morning and then paid the extortinate fee or $17 about 11 pounds for a 10 minute train journey to to the airport, only to discover it had been delayed almost 2 hours … what a good finish!  Anyways, FIJI times !!!

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Surgical consults and doctor mcdreamy (i wish ;))


2010
04.23

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Having spent the our last week staying with family and then their friends we are saying goodbye and heading off to Fiji! Our flight is delayed for an hour an a half due to technical problems, but at least there’s no volcanos going off..

So what have we been up to since the last post. Well I was up very early on Sunday to go and watch Jack and Wills Duathlons, Jack did very well in his and Will decided that he should have gone faster at the beginning as he wasn’t tired enough at the end! A good sign as his crazy long anaconda (all day mountain biking, kayaking and running!) is in just over a week. There was a great fry up of egg and bacon rolls that I tucked into despite not competing! In the afternoon we went out to the wildlife park for a picnic followed by a quick game of cricket then I finally got to see my Kuala bears and Kangaroos :) Was worried that I’d leave Aus without seeing them, but we did. Another suprise cool animal was the Wombat that was asleep and very nice. After the park me and Will went out on a fast paced mountain bike ride. Was great fun with some great technical parts and plenty of windy downhills :)

On the Monday we spent the day with Jack and Grace. Playing down at the outdoor pools as I mentioned in the last post. I went and watched Jacks football practice in the evening, in which he scored the winning goal! Some of Will and Sarahs Dr friends recommended Polly went to A & E the next morning to get her leg seen to properly. So up early the next morning to try and avoid the long wait.. There was still a 3 hour wait, but not to bad. The Doctor had a good look and took Pols details then called for a surgical consult (like in Greys Anatomy) as she wasn’t certain whether to operate or not… We were relieved when  the surgeon gave the go ahead, then the curtains were drawn and the trolley of sterile instruments brought in… They then did some injections, made and incission then squeezed out lots of blood and puss (eugh) After lots of cleaning she was satisfied with it and bandaged it up but left it so it could ooze!! So after a quick minor surgery we had a day out in Newcastle :) Fish and chips on the harbour front, visited the beaches and pools before returning back.

We had our bus earlyish the next day, but had enough time to say our goodbyes :) Luckily not too long until we see Will & Sarah again (and Jack and Grace) as they are over to England this summer so just after we get back! Got on our bus with no problems and headed down to Sydney… We will tell you about Sydney next time! Going to queue to get through customs.. fun times!!

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New Batch of Photos :)


2010
04.19

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Have just put up a new batch of photos for all you guys and gals! Will put up the final load tomorrow as we’re then going down to Sydney on Wednesday morning… Have had a very busy and tiring day looking after my little(ish) cousins playing around the house and garden in the morning then out to one of the outdoor pools for the afternoon. Believe it or not its one of the last pools still open as they shut them all over winter.. Today it was only in the mid twenties, so I guess definately freezing. The pool, was well actually there were 4 pools, were all nearly deserted! Even though it was the last day of the school holidays and we thought it was super warm! Has been a fun day though, but both of us are pretty knackered and we are up early tomorrow. Polly has already gone to bed and I am about to go! Will write again tomorrow, hope you all have a good day :)

On another note, if anyone is a part of HSBC bank, leave. They are terrible.

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Tonsillitis and a Abscess- Good Times!


2010
04.17

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Hello people, sorry for the long delay in posting, we’ve been to Byron Bay and Forster since last posting and are currently in Newcastle having just got back from the doctors :( but more on that later… We set on from Surfers Paradise to Byron Bay and arrived there only an hour later! Hardly even a journey :) We were staying in the YHA as that was (suprisingly) the cheapest. It was very expensive to stay, but we were only staying one night as are bus was at midnight so we still had 2 full days :)

We went out for a wander around BB and went out to the lighthouse which is on the most easterly tip of Australia!  The next day we wandered around the hippyish (but very upmarket hippy) stores and found that we couldn’t afford anything! We then spent the afternoon relaxing on the beach as the weather was nice and Pollys leg was hurting.. In the evening after some more gourmet home cooking :) we wandered into the cinema room just as the 2nd transformers movie was starting. This was a good film for both of us as it starred Megan Fox and Shia LeBouf and it finished 30 mins before our bus left so was good. The overnight bus ride was fine, we arrived at 6:30 in the morning so I had to wake Carol and Bob (Sarah’s parents, Sarah is my Auntie, for those not in the know) and they came and collected us.

We had a quick tour of Forster and then went back to their house. We built and under tree house out in their yard with Jack and Grace (my little cousins) and then went out with Jack and Grace to the beach.. Had a great time at the beach bodyboarding and playing in the sand. Polly went off with Grace to explore the rocky area.. We then wandered back up the beach to their house. In the afternoon we drove over to see the incredible house that Carol and Bob are building. It will be finished in about 6 weeks so all the structral building was finished. The view out over the sea and the mountains has to be the best in Forster as it is on the higest plot and the house is amazing!

The next day in Forster we didn’t get of bed till after 11! Was our first lie-in in ages and very nice :) Bob drove us out to the shops so we could see his pharmacy and we explored the other shops and bought some Stawberry Milk :D We had bit of a lazy afternoon watching Bewitched with Jack and Grace (Everyone but Polly thought the film was a bit rubbish!)  Will arrived in the afternoon from Newcastle so was nice to see him and find out about all his training for his crazy endurance events he is training for! I didn’t sleep very well that night and so wasn’t feeling very well the next day, but we still went out on the lake in a boat on the morning. The drive down to Newcastle was nice and we stopped off at where Will and Sarah got married, which was a church in a forest with a lake behind it! Pretty cool.. We got ice-cream on the way down and arrived in the afternoon in Newcastle. After having a tour of the various beaches we arrived back and Will and Sarah’s huge house! It is very cool and quite open plan :) Unfortunately I started to feel worse so went to bed early and was sick a bit later on :( (I was ill enough to skip tea..) Didn’t have a very good nights sleep and Polly woke up this morning with her leg feeling very sore so we rang our insurance people and Sarah booked us a Drs. appointment. So it turns out I have Tonsilitis and Polly has an abscess in her leg :( Not good times.. We have both been put on different antibiotics in the hope that it will just go away, but if Polly’s get worsed she may have to have the abscess drained :( It is very lucky that we took out in insurance as just the cost of one doctors appointment and the drugs has cost more than our insurance! Hopefully we will recover quite quickly, but we have a few days to see how things go.. We’re not exactly the best guests to have atm so hoping that will improve! Don’t want to end on a bad note so will point out that it has been quite a while since we have been out in rain :)

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I am 19!!!


2010
04.11

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yup blog post numero dos you lucky things!

The day we left Brisbane was my birthday :)   and it started with a bus. Actually it didn’t thats a lie, it started firstly at 2am with Polly waking me up for the second night in a row thinking it was morning and trying to get me out of bed, the it secondly started at 6am with my phone going off with a text from my family and a big cat grinning at me from the card that Polly had left on my bed in the night :) Then when I woke up with my alarm at 7 it was time to get ready for the bus…my first act of being 19!

To be fair it was hardly a bus ride only a couple of hours so basically a lift round the corner as far as we’re concerned. We arrived at Surfer’s Paradise – which is actually a biggish city with lots of mini skyscrapers - we we’re expecting a small beachy town thing.. Anyway we went to the info zone in the bus stop and asked how to get to our hostel.. She had my name on a list! She gave the hostel a ring and said that the driver is just on the way to get us :) So we wait in the bus place and then this limo pulls up! Yes I’m getting picked up in a strech limo on my birthday, result, first limo trip in my life and it lasted about 2 minutes as the hostel is right around the corner! But was fun and a very stylish way to ride! The beds wouldn’t be ready until about 1:30 so we decided to go straight out to wet n wild world :) We have been looking forward to this for a strangely long time! It is a basically a big water park (hence the name) and another first in my life! Spent the day there – without eating $18 burger and chips I think not! – The best ride for me was a big orange and blue one that shot you out of a ramp thing in your rubber ring into a big swirly thing that you zoomed around then splashed into the water below! Can’t tell what Pollys fav ride was as she has gone to squeeze Pus out of the cut on her foot (thought you’d all want to know that!) Anyway we got back a bit tired, from our long day, but ready for a bit of night out :) We had tea and Polly had bought me a cake with candles as well as 450 matches to light them with (you can’t buy single packs!) The cake was very tasty and we still have some left for tonight! We also had sparklers and I got 2 super sized Australia shot glasses :) We had bought a box of Goon (cheap boxed wine, $10 for 4 and a half litres!) Mixed with lemonade or lime its not actually that bad so we drank a fair bit of that! The hostel was running a free entry and drink at a nightclub at 10 so we thought we would go along.. Got the stamp and things and then the rep said that I had to be wearing trousers and shoes! I was in shorts and flip flops.. Didn’t think I actually had either of those so we went back and after a min Polly said I could wear her trousers…. I said thats a ridiculous idea so instead we just drank at out flat…. I lie I lie, no I wore her trousers and my hiking shoes and we walked (somewhat uncomforatbly) into town! Got into the club called the bedroom, after through ID inspection (if you thought York was strict…)  it was quite busy and we had a good time coming back latish but not too late as we had a mega night out the next night!

Only have 5 mins internet left so will have to briefly do the next bit.. So Saturday we went down to the beach for the day and lied around there. Booked our next hostel in Byron Bay.. I booked a surf lesson for today and then we got ready for our night out! Forgot to mention that despite paying for an 8 bed mixed dorm we have our own room! Its our own flat that we share with 2 other rooms with its own kitchen and bathroom and stuff – its basically immense :) The big night out started with pre driking of free goon at the hotel then a party bus the 1 minute into town then four nightclubs with a free drink in each.. Also free cowboy/girl hats and glow sticks :) Polly couldn’t really walk unfortunately due to a cut on her foot, but we enjoyed regardless!

Today, up suprisingly early! Then down to the beach just after some sausage sandwiches :) I’ve just been surfing – stood up and rode a wave all the way into the shore, they’re aren’t that big waves, the biggest being 1 metre but was very fun (Polly thought they were big when she was jumping in them!) Anyway we’re going to eat now and I’ve gtg or else this will cut off! Sorry its not spell checked! Will try and post in BB, but maybe in Forster as never know how much things will be!! Byeee Xxxx O thank-you for all the birthday messages :) much appricaited :)

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Mmmmmmm…Deli Counter Picnic & Ham Steaks


2010
04.11

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Must apologise for the shocking lack of blog posts this past week but then maybe it should be australia apologising to you for the shockingly expensive internet. Our current hostel reckons $6 (4 pounds) is acceptable! jokesssss luckily we have finally found somewhere for 2 …phew. So Airlie beach seems like a very long time ago. The boat trip was fun although the weather could have been better…suprise! at least it stopped raining for when we got to whitehaven beach on whitsunday island which was a very nice beach (maybe not quite up to thailand standards though…burn!) We had a buffet style lunch thing there which was our first proper meal in like a week so we ate like true fatties as it was included in the price. Also the boat was like a speedboaty thing with 4 engines so went really fast and we got the stomach flippy feelig sometimes when it went over big waves. Oh yeah and we did snorkelling as well with full on sexy stinger suits…yummy…. It was better than in asia because there were more fishies some of them quite big and colourful and also toby liked the way that the coral stopped at like an underwater cliff and dropped away and the fishies kept swimming into oblivion….SO yeah that was that good times… not totally convince i had my 70 pounds worth of good times but i admit i am a hard person to please.

Another overnight bus awaited us that evening, and i must say… of ALL the buses we’ve been on overnight so far, it was deffo the most uncomfortable literally no leg room and the seats were hard and headrests uncomfy…greyhound, you must do better! needless to say, great nights sleep was had by all for when we arrived in hervey bay. For the limited few who know kemptville, ontario…. i was very much reminded of it, in fact australia in general seems very similar to Canada, they even have IGAs! It was probably one of the smallest towns we had been to so far on our travels . But… the weather was actually nice for the first day !!!! yayyyyyy so the afternoon was spent on the beach obvs…. however, first we had an awesome game of mini golf to cheer ourselves up after the night on the bus and the succession of rubbish weather we had had. lets just say… I (polly) won!!!!!! whoooopppppp. However, toby would like me to point out that after 18 holes we had tied! (can you believe it!) So we did a reply of hole 18 which i did in 2 and he did in 3… AHAHAHa it was pure skill! and my prize was getting to choose which discounted easter chocolate we got to buy from the shop.

That night we had an EPIC meal which was more like 3 meals as toby actually had plates surrounding him :) we had bought 4 ham steaks, 2 massive potatoes, a red wine pasta sauce and pasta and a carrot for healthiness! oh yeah ! and sweetcorn , go us! and we ate it all! followed by our easter bunny which was eaten in the free cinema room where we watched american pie 4 and confessions of a shopaholic (tobys fav :) ) We had planned to go to a place called rainbow beach the next day, but , fearing it may be smaller then hervey bay and wanting to have time to make surfers paradise we made the decision to move straight on the next morning to Brisbane less than 24 hours after we had got there….

The bus took until about 3 so there wasnt too too much day left but we had a good look around and toby got his pasta fix went to check out china town with un china town prices and got our customary 50 cents mcdonalds whippy cones- pretty much the only treat we can afford here. And yeah.

The next day, was really nice and sunny whoooooop, cue blob by the man-made beach and swimming lagoon for quite a while getting a tiny bit lobstery, and also having a very yummy picnic made from the deli counter… toby is convinced the workers at the deli are always very happy :) Checked out the other side of the city then headed back to the hostel. A little while later we went our separate ways for about an hour or so which is very scary when you think that that is the most we have been apart since we started, as i had some not – so- subtle birthday shopping to be done, and i made toby go out and buy and then cook tea to keep him occupied hehe… I arrived just in time to nachos chilli and rice yum yum our cooking is deffo getting better. After, we took the river ferry for about 10 minutes (it goes very quickly) to get some good photos of brisbane. Toby is getting a pro at night time city shots. Its quite a cool city really with loads of outdoor bars and restaurants shame everything is so expensive. Toby liked it because everyone seemed to cycle … and on cool bikes apparently (fixed gear whatever that is ) although obviously i couldnt tell the difference.

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The rain continued so commence PDTA


2010
04.04

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PDTA: Pre-Drinking times Australia! Not offical PDT obvs as the right people weren’t there :( but was still great fun! There were about five Swedes, 3 Aussies and us 2 Brits! We started off with a few rounds of Pyramid then played this game that I don’t know the name of but was very simple. Pick a number, the dealer looks at the card and says higher or lower then you get a second guess. You then drink the difference between your guess and the actual card.. very simple! We then went out into Airlie Beach to sample the bars and nightclubs :) Glad that we had bought are cheap(ish) wine to pre-drink as a single vodka mixer was $6.50!!! The Aussies said that that is normal out here! We managed to not buy any drinks :) and just paid to get into one nightclub – rating: Good Night!

Our overnight bus from Cairns that left at midnight broke down 6km from Airlie beach :( and it was raining! The driver wasn’t very nice and was like, ‘you can make your own way if you want’ We didn’t want to as we had paid for a ticket to Airlie Beach, and so wanted to go to Airlie beach! Arrived only a couple of hours late and checked in at our pre-booked hostel.. glad we booked as it was mega busy! We’ve booked our next hostel down on Hervey Bay as reckoning it will busy in general. This weekend the weather has started to improve, still showers both days, but this morning we sunbathed! Granted it was cloudy, but at least it didn’t rain for a couple of hours! We went in the huge lagoon that they’ve built by the beach and did a bit of reading..

We have booked ourselves onto a trip out to the Whitsunday islands and some snorkeling in the reef.. (Not sure if its technically the Great Barrier Reef, but the women said the reef is very spectacular and unless we’re scuba diving no need to go on the other trip) The trip is still horrendously expensive! But kinde got to do it :) Plus it is a really cool, fast motorboat that we’re going on :) :) The weather forcast for this week is also a lot better! Not meant to have any rain :)

Our cooking skills are majorly good. Compared to other backpackers who only eat noodles, we have had beans, potatoes, toasties, sausage sandwiches and also noodles! Going to get a pizza tonight as a treat :) Think that is about all and the internet place shuts in 5 mins so better go!

On a photos note, we have decided to just do them all when we get to my uncles in a couple of weeks, so you’ll get overloaded with them then! Byeeee xxx

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And on the 1st day, it rained, and the 2nd, and the 3rd :(


2010
04.02

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Yayyyy we are finally in australia- and it has rained non-stop since we got here, not even a hint of blue sky, unhappy times!!  The thing is, maybe we haven’t ventured far enough, but it seems that most things here are good weather related, hence it has been a pretty boring few days. But i suppose it is greedy to expect every day to be fully amazing :P It was a bit of an anti-climax though after asia, and the beautiful sunshine, and the exchange rate doesn’t help matters. We are officially poor- very :’( lol. No more restaurants for a while anyway :) Toby is happy though because he finally got a toby sized portion of pasta the other day, and the uno cards are happy because they have/ will be getting lots of usage. The tan- not so happy. Fingers crossed things improve. Rant over !!

SO kuala lumpur and Singapore. It seems all these people do is shop. I mean seriously! the whole city is just a shopping centre in each case, crazyyyy times. And we did our fair share of wondering aimlessly around them. At KL we had our first thunderstorm, very big and exciting at the time (little did we know…. hehe) and explored pretty much everywhere, staying in little india/ china town area. We did some cool stuff,  which we wrote about before… and then the sky bridge. Long queue= big hopes= massive let down. Basically we were herded around and did some more queueing for a while, then were made to watch a 7 minute ad basically for petronas- the company that own them… up to level 41 in a lift that went up to 90- something floors, then about 5 mins running around on the platform to get some photos and then we were herded down again :( good times, we barely even managed to get any film grain photos which would have been horribly disappointing!

And that was about it for KL. Singapore, to be honest was quite similar only more expensive, once we made it to the centre that was. The bus dropped us at customs and we assumed it would pick us up on the other side, thus left our water on it… was the bus ever seen again?? i think not lol. It took us quite a while to figure out which bus to take but eventually we found one which had a sign for the M.R.T the big tube-y monorail system thing that runs around the whole island…and made it to our hostel which we actually had reservations for for once! our first dorm though. Whoop how exciting. DId the usual sight-seeing checking out raffles museum just down the street, although the riff-raff like us had to resort to walking around the grounds as the actual posh reception bit was reserved for residents only. OH well :) accidentally went to the cinema again (oops) this time to see remember me…. yayyy i got toby to go to a Robert Pattinson film :) :) and he actually enjoyed it… get in! it is quite good actually. For our only full day in singapore we went to the zoo!!! yayyyy it was immense and we got to see loads of stuff like polar bears and baboons which were my favs and white tigers (tobys favs) And it absolutely poured from 4-6 so we missed a couple of shows and had to race between sections to see everything without being drowned! Was good though.

Our last day in asia was a bit on wondering around really… first to chinatown then we spent a good couple of hours chasing round the endless shopping centres trying to find an australia guidebook. Epic fail… we did find it, but paying way more than the r.r.p- i think not! we have since decided to wing it since then. Then we went to the airport and couldnt even get a refund on our ticket deposit because the numptys had hidden the machine so tourists going to the airport lose their dollar each. RUDE! The next sad news was to discover we weren’t flying our lovely qantas with personal screen unlimited food and movies, but the dreaded budget airline jet star. We did however get given blankets and two free meals unlike everyone else for being special customers (our tickets said frequent flyer) so that was a little bit of consolation, until we landed in australia and it was raining.

We found a hostel from the noticeboard at the airport and they picked us up. Slept til about 2 then had a wander round cairns. Not our fav place to be honest, only beaten in worseness by Vientiene so far… BURNNNNN. Its basically just a small city and theres no beach, just a ;arge public lagoon swimming pool thing in the centre which isnt too fun when its raining. Yesterday was a very successful day, we achieved food shopping and laundry and uno and also a wildlife show thing at the hostel where we saw and got pics of a crocodile, a mini one though lol.Today was slightly more eventful with a morning walk to the botanical gardens and then a dip in the lagoon (cold, but had to be done!) and then we accidentally on purpose went to the cinema again, after toby very skillfully blagged polly a student ticket despite her forgetting her student card, to see Shutter island which we had both been wanting to see for ages…. Unsatisfying ending (in pollys opinion) but awesome nonetheless.

And that about brings you up to date, we’ll whack all the photos on soon at toby’s relatives because internet is too too expensive to spend lots of time on it here…

Hope you are all well :)

Hello everybody- its toby now :) hope you enjoyed Polly’s post, despite that maybe sounding like a slightly negative post, we are having a fun time and are in very good moods atm :) the dorm that we have been staying in the last two nights worked out quite well as no-one else was in the dorm! So it was kinde like having a private room :) We are still adjusting to australia prices (going from spending 4pounds each a night for a double en-suite a/c room with tv, pool and free internet to 12 pounds 50 each for a dorm bed is quite a shock) We waiting to get our bus tonight which departs at midnight! Down to Airlie beach, will be nice to get away from cities we’ve been doing them for nearly a week now! Have pre booked dorm beds so that we have somewhere to sleep as apparently its Easter! Who knew!! Going to book ourselves on a trip to the barrier reef despite the hideous cost of it (can’t come all the way to Australia and not go can we now!) So will have some exciting things to tell you all soon :) Hope everyone has a good Easter and Happy Birthday to Rose for tomorrow :D Byeee xxx