Brisbane & The Gold Coast

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Ceri and I left Sydney on the long coach trip up to Brisbane, 16 hours. We were recommended by a friend of mine called Danny that used to live in my home town Newbury but now lives in Brisbane to stay at the Bunk hostel.
The first night at the bunk they had the Nintendo Wii champions on, being a Wii fan I had to have a go. I got to the final of the bowling but it was running late so me and the guys in the final were awarded a jug of beer each, which is nice but I hate beer and they would not swap it for a JD and coke ...... tight arses.

In the morning there was work offered to me by the hostel to move some boxes, this took me 1/2 hour and I was paid $15 for it. I was then offered more work for $15 an hour in the afternoon so the bunk took my number and I stuck around in stead of going to see the Koalas with Ceri. The only reason I needed to work was cus Nationwide had let 1000 pounds come out of my account that was canceled way back in Dec 08, so I had no money unless I withdrew from the credit card.
In the afternoon the $15 an hour went to free beer at the bar, which is no good to me and they would not let me have JD for free, so I pretty much have wasted a day waiting around.
With the hump on I did go for a walk around the city which lonely planted says is nice. Takes you all around the city and across to south bank where the beach is in the middle of the city and a London eye or a Brisbane eye and lots of nice little cafes. I cannot really say a lot about Brisbane as I did not get to see much of it Ceri and I were only here for 1 full day before I met up with an old friend back in the UK.... Danny Knight.

Danny had taken the day off work to take Ceri and I down to the surfers Paradise. We spent most of the day on the beech speaking about how much we both miss Thatcham and the wonders of Newbury........ Danny has done very well for him self in the year he has been in Brisbane and I respect him taking the dive by getting out of the UK as it must be hard to move country I have been travelling for 5 months and find it easy but to move country would be in another league of its own.

At night we hit the town and went to a club called the Bedroom which was pretty cool lots of beds around the place so if you fancy a quick nap or a quickie there a bed right there hehe. As the night went on we wondered in to a place called the beer Garden where there was a live band playing before heading back to the bedroom. I ended up for some reason going on a famous Derek walk about and ended up losing Ceri and Danny. I was just walking around the town watching drunks dance to homeless people playing some sort of musical interment, before getting a pizza and heading back to the Beer garden and the bedroom. After a while I thought it was time to go back to the hostel and the 10 min walk ended up taking my about 30 as i had no idea where I was or where I was staying but in the end found it.

V Festival
Today I would be losing my festival virginity. Ceri and I had booked tickets to vfest and I was dead excited about going. The line up was pretty cool I was looking forward to seeing Duffy, Razorlight, Keiser Chiefs, Snow Patrol and The Killers. Unfortunately who ever plans this show is a useless retard. The Keiser Chiefs, and Snow Patrol were playing at the same time on different stages so you had to make a choice on who you wanted to see. I was right at the front of the stage where Razorlight, Keiser Chiefs, and The Killers were playing so I was not moving anywhere, so I had to miss Snow Patrol.
Ceri and I lost each other half way through the day when we both went to toilet so I ended up spending my time with 2 guys from London a few girls from Coventry then at the end of the night i was hanging around with to Swedish students.
Near the end of the killers show it started to rain, poor it down in fact, lucky I bought a water proof coat with me but this did not really help, I was dancing in the rain to the killers a little tipsy as the drink was slowly wearing off but loved every second of it. I def will be going to other festivals in the UK when I am back home.

Byron Bay
I think I could rename this town to Byron Rain as that's pretty much all it has done here for the last 3 days. Ceri and I were staying at a place called Arts Lodge in some kind of tents things, I would not recommend staying in the tents as they were so damp through the rain that it was nearly impossible to get to sleep at night but that is all part of the fun when travelling. Byron is a little hippy type of town a very chilled out vibe and loads and loads of tourist but from all over the place which is a nice change. The beaches are super and the little town has everything you need apart from a McDonald's where if i had enough money to franchise a McDonald's here I would as with all the tourist it would be a gold mine and would make $1000s if not $10,000s.
There is not really a lot to do in Byron but Ceri and I did do about a 6k walk around the light house and to the most easterly point of Australia, walked through a rain forest to get there, was a nice walk. They also had a Liquid night club in Byron which shocked me, I was going to go in there see if it lived up to the Liquid club in Newbury but was to afraid that it might teleport me back to England which I am not quiet ready for yet hehe.

Hervey Bay
When Ceri and I arrived in Hervey bay the idea was to head for Fraser Island. We had booked the Fraser island hostel and thought everything was fine. What we did not know is unless you have a 4x4 on Fraser island you cannot get around as the whole place just sand. The prices of the 4x4 sharing with 6 other people was 75 pounds per day each with the extra cost of 20 pounds for the hostel so 95 pounds just to see an island, which most people that come back seem to be really disappointed with for the cost. So with money running short Ceri and I both decided to give Fraser island a miss. We explored Hervey bay the next day on bikes and saw the sites and the beaches.

This was Ceri and I last day together as I am leaving for NZ on the 8th Apr, Ceri decided to head for Cains early as there not much to do in Hervey bay. After 4 months and 21 days Ceri and I are going our own way travelling. We have spent more time together over the last 4 months than most couples do as we have had the privilege of not going to work. There have been times no doubt that Ceri wanted to rip of my head and shit down my neck, most would after 4 months with my talking. On a whole though we have worked out really well there has been times where we had our ding dongs but it was always over spilt milk and was always forgotten the next day. All in all its been a blast travelling with Ceri and could not of picked a better travell buddy.
So I am now a loner and I am looking forward to NZ in a couple of days time. I have my working visa for NZ so you never know this time I might get a job unlike in oz. When I left the UK NZ is the place I thought I would settle if anywhere so I am very excited to see what NZ has to offer, and you never know I might never leave...... (did I just hear cheering from the UK hehe)

So next blog entree will be from NZ, hope people are still reading this as I don't get messages anymore 😞 lol

When I was back in Brisbane for the day I also went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which was great fun not got much time on the net so will just post some photos up.

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Comments

[Nigel Woodley]

Keep the updates coming
Hi Mate Sounds like you have really had a blast so far and have no regrets about your decision to travel. Keep the updates coming as lots of people are reading your updates. Enjoy your remaining time Nigel

[derekw10]

Re - updates
Hi Nigel No Regrets what so ever just money has run out faster than I wanted it to. My Friend Greg has offered to put me up in NZ so I am going to try and find a job in Nelson and maybe save some money so I can finish my trip other wise I will be back as early as May time, so keep your fingers crossed for me. Hope all is well with you and work keeping you busy :) Derek