A Week in the Sun.

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For the first time in our trip, the group lost a member for a few days. Oli was invited to stay with his family as they went to a holiday home further down the coast. Sensibly, he took up the offer of luxury living for another few days. Myself, Zach and Alex were thrown back into the harsh reality of backpacking on Saturday 9th April. We booked ourselves into a hostel on the outskirts of Surfers Paradise. The staff were mainly English, sadly they were Northern and very loud! They bullied us into a club crawl that night and we dragged ourselves along after paying for tickets. To be brutally honest, none of us were in the mood and we went along for the free drinks. It was a pretty bad night out and we ended up heading to McDonalds before retiring to the hostel for a fairly early night.

The Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise is party central for Australia. To us English it is a good version of Magaluf or Ibiza, very tacky. However, we really enjoyed ourselves and spent a lot of time on the beach. Myself and Zach eventually got board of lying around and purchased a body board. We decided to pick the cheapest available with the worst design. Minutes later, we were running along the golden sand with our Dolphin body boards like mini David Hasslehoff's. I wasn't surprised at the funny looks I got when there were competitive surfers on the beach and I was riding along small waves on the most gay board concievable. It was well worth the money and we have agreed to learn to surf when we head down to Byron Bay.

A few days later, we were rejoined by Oli and it was great to all be reunited as a pack. Sadly, nothing interesting happened for the whole time we were in Surfers Paradise. We all had a great time on the beaches and in the sea. For our last night in the Gold Coast, we celebrated by buying a crate of Australian beer. We also managed to get hold of the necessary ingredients for a small BBQ, a truly Australian experience.

This morning it was back on the road. We have managed to seal a campervan for a week. This meant a bus and train jounrey to Brisbane to pick up the camper tomorrow. We are all really excited, the campervan idea looked out of the question on financial grounds. However, we manged to seal a 4 person camper with Jucy Rentals for a great price. If you type Jucy Rentals into Google you will be extremely amused. The campers are bright green and purple, extremely attractive in the flesh I'm sure. We have returned to our Brisbane hostel for the night, ready for pick up tomorrow. I believe Alex is our designated driver after putting down the deposit and hunting the deal. I'm not massively interested in driving, the responsibilty and thought of hours driving an Automatic is enough to put me off. I will probably settle myself into a co-pilot role as it is easy to pretend to be working! In order to get the best deal, we do have to drop the camper back in Brisbane. We are currently formulating a plan and working out how far we want to head down the coast before driving back up.

Today is the half-way mark for Australia and time seems to be flying by for us all. Alex, Oli and Zach are all looking forward to the relative cheapness of the US and I am starting to look forward to the idea of my own bed! Cost has been a big issue so far in Australia. the country is doing extremely well economically and is reminiscent of Britain a couple of years ago. Consequently, prices are extremely high and alcohol is massively expensive. In England, you can get 48 beers for 20 Pounds. Down under, 24 beers are $40 minimum (25 pounds). Although I am only half way through my travels here, I have already reached a firm conclusion that Australia is the love child of Britain and the US. We havce noticed a vast amount of similarities between the US and Australia, including the dodgy looks we get when crossing without 'the green man'. This is because 'jay-walking' (not crossing at a designated point) was illegal until 2 years ago. Another wierd querk of Australia is their coin system. The first time I bought food totally $9.98 I was given no change from a $10 note. This is because there are no 1 or 2 cent coins in circulation, so the supermarkets kindly round up your total. It's all very alien to us logical Brits!

Lastly, today is my Brothers Birthday so I would like to say Happy Birthday to the my little brother Sam who probably dwarfs me by now! I hope the English weather is still good for you all!

Love Jonathon

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