I Love a Sunburnt Country

Well, we have sent you all our blogs from all of our travels and I thought we may as well do one to update all the friends and fam now that we are pretty well settled into life back in Oz. After seeing so many beautiful places on earth you kind of forget or never get around to taking pictures of your own home. We wanted to share some with you.

It hasn't been the easiest of roads coming home but we have done well to tackle all the obstacles come our way so far and I think we've done the hard yards already anyway - travelling and living in each others pockets for so long with no escape from each other!!
Sam was lucky to have found work pretty much straight away at a well known bathroom company on the coast, but it took me a little longer to land a job as admin/reception work is around but many people want to do it. In the end it came down to who I knew and I landed work at a Real Estate Agency. Both of us are at the bottom of our companies but its all good, can only go up from here.

We managed to get a fairly cheap little duplex to live in not far from the centre of town in Maroochydore, its peaceful and convenient and a good place to get back on our feet. We are around the corner from my highschool and on a sunday we try to get down to the sports oval and hit golf balls, We have both become pretty stoked on golf, we have our own clubs and try to get about having a whack on 9 holes whenever the weather is good.
We enjoyed a very festive Australia Day back in February out at my good friend's parents farm. Huddo owns a few acres which were put to good use with a bit of golf and backyard cricket. Sam and I were amongst the last few still standing at 3 in the morning taking control of the karaoke machine - good times!!
As my brother has quite a few racehorses too, we hit the local track up at Gympie (no - people don't walk around in leather outfits) a few times for a day out at the races, country style complete with a dirt race track and quite a few hicks getting around with missing teeth etc. Sam wonders what he got himself into at times Im sure, he he.

Sam has struggled the most adjusting to coast life - allthougth the beaches are beautiful and a plenty, the public transport system is unfortunately nowhere near on par with old London town and if you live in Oz - you must drive. We bought a little Ford Festiva off a friend and I set off to teach Sam how to drive (as a Londoner there is no need for a license) I can't believe we didn't kill each other, they say couples should never give each other driving lessons but no fights yet funny enough - he puts up with my bossiness behind the wheel!!

After seeing so many national sports in our travels I felt bad for not have even seeing a game of AFL live in my own country. Sam was missing the footy back home and lucky for us a friend has season tickets to the Gabba to watch the Lions so we tagged along to watch them slaughter the Saints by 80 points. I hate to say it being an Aussie girl but the atmosphere's got nothing on Stamford Bridge, still we got lucky at half time and got to meet Bernie, the Lions mascot - not a bad day at all!!

We are back to saving money again but will always do little trips here and there to keep our sanity. About a month ago we did a road trip to Byron Bay in NSW on a long weekend to go diving out at Julian Rocks. We were supposed to be diving with Grey Nurse Sharks but unfortunately we went to another section of the reef due to strong currents. Instead, we got to see many Wobbegong Sharks laying on the sea bed and those buggars were impressive enough, they are huge some of them!!
Byron is one of our fave places to be, such a good lifestyle and it kind of felt like we were travelling again being amongst all the backpackers getting around down there. We are going to try to get there once a year at least to go diving and just chill out on the beaches.

When I was young, I attended the annual Sunshine Coast Agricultural show every year and as I got older, competed in the equestrian events. As Sam has never been to an 'Ag' Show, I couldn't resist dragging him to the showgrounds this year for a taste of all things country and bogan. We went to the woodchopping arena where all the boys (and some girls) decked out in their dunlop volleys, displayed their talents in chopping big ass blocks of trees at the fastest time possible. We also hung out with some chooks, lambs and even llamas and alpacas. In the arvo we were treated to a display by the Hilux precision driving team and a couple of boys from the Crusty tour (motocross freaks of nature) performing some fancy stuff in the air also. At the end of the day we smuggled some vino into the showgrounds (booze prices were extortionate) sat on a hill and watched some local cowboys ride bulls and broncos in the rodeo, followed by not a bad set of fireworks and a couple of monster trucks crushing over some wrecked cars.......Not bad for fifteen bucks I reckon!!

So life is good, a little slower paced and relaxed here on the Sunny Coast which is how I like it, unfortunately we have come home to a boom in the price of housing making it near impossible to afford a house in the place I call home. We have decided to just delay the whole seriousness of buying a property and work towards becoming more financial which will take time but we are in no hurry to get there. Noosa feels like a good place to maybe settle in the future, the beaches are more to our liking up in the north and there is plenty of places for me to keep my future horses Im hoping to have!!
Our next big planned trip is down to Melbourne for the Melbourne Cup in November. We are going down for a week of festivities and debauchery with a few of our closest pals. Melbourne is the closest city your going to get to London in Oz so I may have a hard time getting him to come home after that one.

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