Going Places

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So, as usual a lot has happened since our last blog update: we have finished our Currumbin Valley home-stay, had a whistle stop tour of Byron Bay, my dad has been (and gone), we have completed our Fraser Island adventure and are now packing for Melbourne on Monday. It's all happening at the moment and time is flying past. We have now been in Australia for 5 months and are nearly half of the way through, it only seems five minutes ago that we were at Heathrow Airport and boarding our flight over here.

Now, where to start?

Firstly, on the weekend before we left Currumbin, Ellie and I squeezed a one night stay in at Byron Bay (just south of the Gold Coast). Ellie has previously visited the place during her last visit to Australia four years ago so she showed me around the main sights. I absolutely fell in love with the place and we had two beautiful days to enjoy it. Byron Bay is famous for its Lighthouse and we managed to get up there (fighting the tourist traffic on the way up) and once up at the top of the hill alongside the Lighthouse, we had an amazing view of the Byron Bay coastline and surrounding areas. We even saw dolphins 'surfing' on the waves just below us – total bliss. That evening before we stayed over, we had a lovely meal in a 'surf shack diner', drank lots of wine and enjoyed some great acoustic live music whilst we ate. Life doesn't get much better than that! The next morning we decided to set off early and drive up through Byronshire hinterland and explore some quirky little towns which are a little bit off the beaten track. So, with the aid of a Tom-Tom we weaved in and out of rolling hills, picturesque farms, stopped at small little dreamy Aussie towns and had some lunch on the way back at Currumbin Beach Surf Club overlooking the sea.

Secondly, after a brilliant three weeks at Currumbin Valley, the home-stay has come to an end. We were very sad to leave the village as we were made to feel so welcome but we have promised the family there that we will keep in touch and hopefully see them again at some point. Hopefully, we will take Rob up on his offer of rent-free accommodation at his holiday home in the Netherlands in the not too distant future. Obviously we will be working for the accommodation (gardening/housework – much the same as what we did before for the family) but it's not everyday that you get an offer of rent-free accommodation somewhere in the world! It will also be great for both sides to keep in touch as Ellie especially would like to see what Pia is up to and see her growing up. Penny has also promised us some contacts in Sydney (her sisters) if we decide to do a home-stay down there so we also have that option further along the road.

My dad is now back in the UK after two weeks in Australia and I think it is fair to say that he had a very relaxing time! He based himself in the Gold Coast with his cousin and his partner and so it was easy for us to see him as we moved back up to Brisbane after the home-stay. In fact, on one of the last days of our stay in Currumbin before we headed off, dad visited the Eco-Village to see where we had been working and fell in love with the place and it's setting. I think he is tempted to shut up shop in the UK and buy a place there!

What else did we get up to? We went to a show called Australia Outback Spectacular where we learnt about the Australian Lighthorse during World War One and a brief history of the Australian Outback, it's animals and the people that have lived there throughout the years and shaped the farming techniques that Australia uses now on the land. The show had a lovely meal included and featured an array of animals that performed various tricks; notably a horse which rode along on a back of a truck and a guy riding two horses at a time. Only in Australia, I guess...

We also managed to squeeze in a couple of other meals out into his visit, a couple of BBQs at my cousins houses (Ellie and I were well fed last week!) and my dad managed to thrash me at a game of tennis! Basically, where he had been staying with our cousin, there is a tennis court and each day he had been on the court with Sue (our cousin's partner) and playing a few games with her and her friends. On the final day, before he went back to Sydney for his flight to the UK, I was challenged to a game by him and I was absolutely trounced 6-1 6-2....not bad for a 53 year old! I definitely will have to get some practice in before we continue the rivalry back home!

On the Sunday before my dad left, we had a big family lunch at my cousin's house in Brisbane which was great fun and brought some parts of the family together for the first time in 20 or so years. It was so strange seeing family members not knowing who each other were! It was fantastic to see everyone together though and reminiscing on past memories and learning more about the complex family history.

Literally as soon as my dad left, we were boarding a coach up to Hervey Bay to embark on our Fraser Island adventure. For those of you who don't know, Fraser Island is the world's biggest sand island (27km wide at it's widest and 127km long) and is an absolute must for ALL backpackers and tourists to the Australian East Coast. So, for the last two nights and three days we have been on Fraser Island; camping and exploring the best the island has to offer. It is another of the places that Ellie has been to before during her previous trip and we both had a blast this time around. We were with around 25 other people (spread across 4 4x4 trucks) and spent each day travelling around the island, getting bogged in sand, marvelling at beautiful spots such as Lake McKenzie, Eli Creek, the Maheno shipwreck and Indian Head point (towards the top of the island).

The people we were with were also extremely friendly and were mainly European and Canadian so we had a good laugh over a drinks in the evening and everything made for an extremely pleasant stay on the island. However, I do prefer a hotel bed to a tent any day of the week... I'm sorry Mr. Powell but it's just not me!

Right, anyway I've rabbited on for too long and must start packing for Melbourne because it is my birthday tomorrow (thought I'd drop that in there!) and won't get a chance to pack before we leave on the 3rd. Wish us both luck with getting work in Melbourne as that is what we will be doing next week and it is also Ellie's birthday on Monday (4th) so I'll update again soon once we are fully settled into Melbourne life.

Chow for now!

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