Oztastic to be here!!!

What could be said about Australia soon after arrival from another country? hot weather maybe?.....how about the flies? - they're particuarly rampant this year..........nope, its the cost of living.
Australia has to be right up there in terms of how much things cost.
Sure you can get fair dinkum deals on alot of things (that goes for most countries), but in general, especially Sydney, the cost of living is going through the roof.
It scared the life out of us when we were told that for a 3 night stay in Kings cross (yes, thats the seedy, drug infested, hooker haven kings cross), we had to fork out 78 quid for the privelage.
Now, 78 quid could get us almost a months accomodation in India and a considerable amount of time in China.....maybe that's why we noticed it more but still.

Having stayed here for a year in 2003, I knew Australia pretty well, (better than England in fact!)
Nothing but the prices have changed since then, so I took it upon myself to act as tour guide for Lisa.
In the 3 days we were in Sydney, we did a hell of alot of walking to fit in all the sights. A day at Bondi beach is considered a must but its by no means the best beach in Australia.
We wanted to get away from the cities for a while so a trip to Port Mcquarie went down very well. It takes around 7hrs by bus to get there up the east coast, and is situated halfway between Sydney and Brisbane.

Port Mcquarie is a tiny fishing village where everybody knows everybody - or so it seems!
The YHA was very homely and just a short walk to everything on offer. The koala hospital was both fascinating and sad with most cases extremely serious, meaning some koala's will never be released.
We happened to catch the busiest week in 'Port', as the triathlon was taking place shortly after our arrival. It was buzzing and a good time to visit.
Perhaps the highlight for us though was the kayaking trip where we were greeted by dolphins (magic).

We then headed up to a place called Kilkivan. Its a place that you are not likely to have heard of as it's off the tourist route, and just a short way from Gympie.
At this point, we should give a special mention to bill and his mum for taking us in to their pub (even though it was under renovation), and making us feel most welcome with our own room for the night - THANKYOU.

The next day, we were met by our first help exchange hosts and taken to Kilkivan. In the 5 days we were there, we hand reared baby joey's, learned to cook various vegetarian dishes, fixed fences and even drove a tractor...........something us city types found quite interesting.
We intended to stay a little longer but renovations brought our stay to a premature end.
This left us in a sticky situation as we banked on cutting costs for a further 10 days, and what with the cricket on at our next destination (Brisbane), meaning very limited accomodation, we needed a good 'plan B'.
We phoned a couple from the help exchange programme when we got to brisbane and to our surprise, they were more than happy to accept us on their coffee plantation for an immediate start.
Jill and Gordon offered us more than we had ever imagined.
Our own accomodation, use of the pool, tasting the home brew (that was the best bit), and incredibly relaxed hours in which we had to work.
We learned how to prune the coffee plants and weigh the beans in the varying bags for sale at the local boot sale, but it was the family that made it for us so THANKYOU SO MUCH for your kindness!!!

We left Jill and Gordon's on the last possible day as it was such an enjoyable experience. Lisa was the emotionally attached one and I was optimistic about our next destination on the volunteer programme after being impressed by our last host's.
We had a flight booked to Melbourne where we had to make our way to Alexandra the next day (around 90 minutes by car).
Before arriving, we had the most amazing experience. We met a guy (Leigh) on the way to the airport and struck up a conversation.
When he heard we were going to spend the night in the airport, he immediately offered us his flat that he shared with his girlfriend (Rachel).
We have learn't to be quite a good judge of character and we just had a good feeling about this kind offer.
We took him up on the offer and Rachel was ready and waiting the other end to drive us to our 'new home' for the night.
Coffee was enjoyed by us all at St Kilda before we said our goodbyes and left for Fawcett Farm in Alexandra. A BIG THANKYOU TO YOU GUYS TOO!

Fawcett farm was our third help exchange placement. A nice big smile greeted us at the bus stop from Margaret (the farm owner). Both Tom (the husband) and Margaret made us feel real welcome from day one.
I would go so far as to say that you won't learn more skills from any other host's on the help exchange programme, simply because there are so many different tasks for you to try and accomplish.
Some of the highlights here were milking Daisy the cow, egg hunting each day after those cunning chooks had laid eggs, cutting up a 400 year old tree with axes and chainsaws, cooking muffins and learning how to use Toms plethora of tools in his giant shed.
They really had heaps of time to explain things to us and were good tutors in that respect.
Margaret was an expert in the kitchen so we were always left smiling after a days work, and what with Toms humour, it was a great environment to be in.
Dylan (their foster son) was also entertaining and really added to the mix. Thankyou for the games of chess and use of your PS2 especially.
There were a whole host of Tom and Margaret's close friends that deserve a mention too. There's John (the ex-royal servant) who has a great sense of humour and has interesting stories to tell. There's stack-my-hay Bob who kindly gave us a cash bonus for helping him out. Theres heavy-handed Don (the gentle giant) with a simple life and Russell (the temporary logder in the shed) who liked to rub Lisa up the wrong way (all light hearted of course).
The other volunteers Zoe, Ann, Dennis, Natalie, and the 3 nice asian girls were great to work with too. All-in-all a memorable end to our stay in Australia.

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED US ALONG THE WAY!!!!

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