Lauren Arlott

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Lauren Arlott




Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Taupo March 5th 2010

Today we went into town and got coffee in the morning. We looked around some of the shops and then went back to the house. Then in the afternoon, Dad, Jacque, Sophie, Sat, Madison and I went out in the van and drove the bike course that the girls would be cycling the next day. The road was really long and straight and it seemed like such a long way! Well it is a long way! 180kms to be precise! When we got to the turnaround point, we talked to a lady at a petrol station (or servo as they are known here) and she told us how to get to the turnaround point a sneaky way as the main road was shut so that the cyclists would be safe. When we got back to the ... read more

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Taupo March 4th 2010

This morning we got up and Sat cooked breakfast. We all got ready to go to the golf club in Taupo. When we got there, we got clubs and golf carts and headed out onto the course. I was driving one golf cart with Madison as my passenger and Richard was driving the other with Chelton as his passenger. Sat and Dad were walking as there wasn't enough room for them on the golf carts! They played nine holes of golf and at the end, it was Sat who won, Dad came second and Richard came third. We then went to Huka Falls (a really cool waterfall) and Dad managed to lose his bottle into the rapids and it ended up going down the waterfall. "The Waikato River which is normally 100m wide, is squeezed through ... read more
Golf course
Guys playing Golf
The Waikato River

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island March 2nd 2010

We woke up at 06:30 and Sophie went for a run in the rain. We got ready to go to the airport, which didn't take too long. We took all of our luggage downstairs to the front of the building and waited for the taxi... and we waited... and waited... and waited! Eventually, the taxi turned up, LATE. We got to the airport and Sat, Jacque, Chelton and Madison were already in the queue for our flight. We jumped into the queue with them and we all checked in together. There were 8 people and 9 bags! The poor check-in woman was getting very confused with it all! We had to take the bikes and the wheels to oversize baggage, but once we had got rid of those, everything was okay again! We filled out our ... read more
Me waiting for the taxi
Jacque and Chelton on the plane
Madison and Richard on the plane

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Brisbane » Southbank March 1st 2010

This morning we woke up at about 06:30 and after getting showered and dressed, Richard and I gave Dad a lift to work and Sophie got the ferry across the river into the city for work. We then had some breakfast and I made Richard a cup of coffee. We left for Southbank at about 10:00. We walked along the riverfront past 'Riverlife'. We saw loads of lizards on our walk, at least 25 of them! Richard decided that he was feeling brave, so he walked up to a lizard and thought he was being very macho... He was, that is until the lizard decided to move and he ran away screaming! It made me laugh so much! We crossed the river on the Goodwill Bridge and we walked a loop of the Botanical gardens before ... read more
Richard getting to know the lizard!
Metal Pelicans
Ibis on the bench

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Redcliffe February 28th 2010

We drove out to Redcliffe quite early in the morning and stopped at a scenic viewpoint. We all got out of the car and while Dad and Richard were playing frisbee in the park, Sophie and I walked down the path and around the corner where we found a shipwreck on a beach. It was really cool, and I took lots of photographs of it. We then stopped a bit further down the town and got some lunch from a bakery. We went and sat on the seafront and had our lunch while we watched the sea. The sea was very rough thanks to the earthquake in Chile and the tsunami that had hit New Zealand. There were rough sea and strong current warnings in place and none of us were going to dare to go ... read more
Shipwreck from front
Richard playing frisbee
Dad standing in the shade

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Maroochydore February 27th 2010

We got up at 05:30 and Sophie went out for a ride and to do computrainer. I phoned Chris and talked to him for a little while while Dad and Richard were getting the fishing gear ready. We then all got dressed and headed out for Bribie Island and Pumistone Passage. We grabbed some brekkie en-route and as it kept raining, we looked round loads and loads of shops until we finally found a little newsagents that sold ponchos. We bought three ponchos (and managed to get a discount as they had been there so long) and were then ready to go and get on the boat and start the fishing. We got to the marina and sorted out the boat hire with Robyn. We got everything we needed in the boat and headed out of ... read more
Lauren and the bait fish
Narrow Barred Mackerel
Richard's first fish

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Brisbane » Mt Coot tha February 26th 2010

In the afternoon, we went up to the top of Mount Coot-tha and looked over the cityscape. It was really sunny and hot! We took lots of photos of the city and the river We then went to Tent World and looked for a hat for Richard, but unfortunately couldn't get one from there. We then had to pick up some sleeping bags and tents from Dave-o. After picking up what we needed we headed down to the Valley Pool and picked Sophie up from her appointment with Faye. We dropped Dad and Richard off in the city and they went shopping for a while whilst Sophie did her swim and I sat on the bench and watched her. We had some dinner and then played some games of Uno Attack! It was really fun. ... read more
Lauren on Mt Coot-tha

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Brisbane » Kangaroo Point February 26th 2010

So, we left Heathrow an hour late on Wednesday evening. Our first flight was about 12 hours and I managed to sleep most of the way. We landed in Hong Kong an hour late, which left us with 5 hours to wait at Hong Kong airport before our next flight to Brisbane. The next flight went quite quickly and we landed in Brisbane about 10 minutes later than scheduled. We got through passport control quite quickly as the queue was not that long. We then got our bags from the baggage carousel and I got the bike box from oversize baggage. We then went through customs and because we had nothing to declare we were allowed to go through the K9 channel which meant we did not have our bags x-rayed, but were just sniffed by ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Wiltshire » Pewsey February 23rd 2010

Wow, I can't believe it! We are leaving tomorrow evening! Two days and we will be in Australia! I am really excited now... I can't wait to meet Sophie at the airport... She is not expecting me to be there at all! It is going to be amazing! I am still shocked that we managed to keep the whole thing quiet for a whole 4 months! Great teamwork going on there! I know we have all nearly given it away at least once, but we only have 57 hours to go and I'm sure we can keep it quiet just that little bit longer! I am looking forward to getting some sunshine! It has been raining all day here and it is cold! Bring on the sun and the beaches! Sophie: Tonight I am going to ... read more

Europe » United Kingdom » England » Wiltshire » Pewsey February 17th 2010

Wow, only one week to go now! This time next week I will be at Heathrow and there will be only 5 hours until take-off and then only 24 hours until Sophie's surprise Sophie: I know Dad had a bit of a go at you the other day because you didn't know if you were going to come to the airport to meet Richard, but hopefully by the time you read this, you will know why he really needed you to be there! :-D Hopefully it was worth it! I am really excited about getting to the airport, I keep imagining how it is going to be! Can't wait to see Sophie's face. Then I can't wait to come home on 19th March and be met at the airport by Chris I am going to be ... read more




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