14 days to Sydney........ Part 1!

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Before leaving Brisbane behind us in a trail of dust we met up with Uncle Pete for a few drinks and then a few more! He was in Brisbane on "business" if you can call going to watch the Rugby business! A short train and bus ride from the city centre, our home for the next two weeks was sitting waiting to be collected and given a new name. All suggestions were carefully considered so thank you Becca, Quinn, Malc and Gatesy, but to compliment our old friend Bruce the van was christened Shiela! After a stressful hour in the office sorting out paperwork and dealing with the formalities we were let loose on the road to sydney, the Gold Coast Highway. Naturally it took us a while to familiarise ourselves with our new toy but we eventually got settled. Shiela is a little baby compared to Bruce, the living quarters are slightly more cramped but we've got all that we need and are even managing to cook some decent meals in our kitchen/bedroom!
First stop was Surfers Paradise, it felt like we were driving in America already. High rise buildings, shopping malls on every corner and a McDonalds every 500m. We parked up and went for a wonder around the main high street and then went in search of a cheap campsite. After driving around for about an hour we eventually found one... except we were no longer in Surfers Paradise. We settled down for the night and cooked ourselves a gourmet meal... bangers and mash and a bottle of vino! The following day we decided to blow the budget and treated ourselves to a day at Dreamworld, Australia's answer to Alton Towers. We spent the whole day running around like 10 year olds from ride to ride trying to get on as many times as possible... again again! The highlights were 'The Giant Drop' 119 metres tall and once you're at the top they leave you hanging for a couple of minutes before you free fall for 5 seconds at 84 mph back down to earth! Similar to this ride was the 'Tower of Terror', you're shot at high speed across the park and up the other side of the tower to the giant drop and then you fall backwards to where you started. Our other favourite ride was 'The Claw' check out the picture, basically you spin around and around and back and forth until you are almost upside down! We both had a brilliant day but walked away feeling slightly sick and a little dizzy!
We headed further South to Coolangatta on the Queensland/New South Wales border. The sun was out so we spent the day driving along the coast and soaking up some rays. Our entertainment for the evening was a trip to the local cinema to watch Pirates of the Carribean 3! Heading further down the coast of Northern NSW we arrived in Byron Bay, a hippie beach town that came highly recommended on the list of places to see. We decided to stay for three nights so parked ourselves up at the First Sun Holiday Park. Its been raining on and off since we arrived but we did fit a surfing session in when the sun came out. Once again the surfing didn't go too well but we tried, everyone else makes it look so easy! We also had a random night out at the local backpackers party venue, Cheeky Monkeys. We were pre-warned that it was a bit of a dive but we went along and occupied ourselves by drinking cider and watching drunken englishmen dance on the tables trying to look good! We're back on the road tomorrow heading ever closer to Sydney.

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Photos

First night with Sheila
Good old bangers and mash!

Comments

[Daniel Lee Butler - IT Legend]

If Only
Malc, there are so many things happening in these photo's that I just wish were true, take the shark scene for example.... Glad your still having a good time and haven't annoyed each other too much... Love me xx