After leaving Carnarvon National Park there wasn't much to see other than huge coal mines and multitudes of dead 'roos by the side of the road. So really, we just drove for a couple of days, taking to heart how huge this country is. We thought about heading for a town called Emerald, where they let you dig for buried treasure and pan for rare stones, but it reminded us a bit of Barkerville, so we thought it was probably a hoax to sap tourist's money. Instead we drove through Emerald, and spent the night in a caravan park in Capella [View Full Entry]

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Brisbane to Carnarvon National Park We woke up Monday the 27th excited to start our great Aussie adventure. We took the train to the outskirts of Brisbane and picked up our van. The rental people were great, carefully explaining all the ways they will screw us if we crash their van. Finally on our way, we got onto the M1 highway (the main highway north) before quickly realizing we'd already made a wrong turn as we'd intended to head west. It's not so hard getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road, the worst part is getting used [View Full Entry]

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We'd booked into one of the main hostels in Brisbane a week ahead of time as it was Anzac day on Saturday and the city was packed. We were disapointed with the hostel but that was to be expected after leaving our home away from home among friends in Mooloolaba. Anzac day was pretty interesting. They held a parade downtown and we grabbed a spot amongst all the other Aussies honouring their war vets. The parade was similar to the ones you'd see back home except for the signs honouring service during WW2 in places like Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. [View Full Entry]

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The time has come for us to leave Mooloolaba and keep travelling. It's been a fun 3 months and we'll miss the friends we've made here but we've only got 2 months left in Australia and there's plenty to see. We've decided to rent a campervan in Brisbane and drive it up to Cairns then all the way down to Melbourne. First we'll spend a long weekend in Brisbane before hitting the road. [View Full Entry]

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We've settled in Mooloolaba for some time now. I am still doing night security and Jay has had a few promotions, from day cleaner to night cleaner and from that to receptionist. She now works 35 paid hours a week so we've been able to save up some cash. It's been nice to stay in one spot for awhile and form lasting friendships with the rest of the long-termers. We really love it here despite the usual annoyances that come with living in a busy hostel. So much has happened in the last few months that it all sort of blends [View Full Entry]

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The biggest tourist thing to do on the Sunshine Coast is Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. Usually, we're not too supportive of zoos (expecially some of the ones in Europe, recall the bear pits in Switzerland) but they've done a great job in conservation and none of the animals seemed 'caged in'. It's amazing how worshipped Steve Irwin is in Queensland. In Canada, we thought of him as a novelty act but he really has done great things for habitat preservation and awareness. His likeness is all over the zoo and his family still runs the show. Even his annoyingly cute little [View Full Entry]

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After getting our cash for 2 weeks work on the farm, we were out of there and excited to be headed for the coast. Chris and Ferdy (aka Munich Boys) had the day off so we borrowed a car and all drove down to the Gold Coast. We stopped at a beach just south of Surfers Paradise for our first Australia beach experience and boy was it ever glorious! The sand was bright white and very fine and the waves were pretty big for such a nice summer day. Despite only being a half hour drive from the farm, the coast [View Full Entry]

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Alex and I were super excited to stop traveling for a bit and settle into one place. We e-mailed a bunch of horse farms while in Europe looking for work and a fellow named Ulrich Klatte e-mailed us and told us he could employ us both. We took the overgound train from Brisbane to Beenleigh and called Uli from the station. We had never actually talked to him on the phone before. He had a strange German accent punctuated by Australian sayings like, "How ya goin' mate". We expected a burly fellow in a pick-up truck to pick us up. Instead, [View Full Entry]

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We made it to the land down under. The flights were surprisingly comfortable. We flew with Thai Air from Athens to Bangkok and then from Bangkok to Brisbane. Thai Air is one of the cheaper airlines yet their planes were really nice and their service included free drinks. The food was reasonable (not spectacular, to be expected) and they just kept it coming. It was an endless supply of meals and snacks and we couldn't even keep up. The second leg of the trip also had a seat-back video game system so we spent most of the trip playing classic Nintendo [View Full Entry]

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Everybody has now left us and returned to Canada. This is a time for mixed emotions; on one hand the visit from our family, which we had been looking forward to for so long, is now over, but on the other hand we are 1 day away from embarking on our next adventure. Our last night together was spent in the airport hotel which was quite nice. Mom's bags finally arrived (on the last day of their trip) so we exchanged some gifts that mom had packed for us. She was kind enough to bring us socks, underwear, hot chocolate and [View Full Entry]

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