Brisbane to Carnarvon National Park We woke up Monday the 27th excited to start our great Aussie adventure. We took the train to the outskirts of Brisbane and picked up our van. The rental people were great, carefully explaining all the ways they will screw us if we crash their van. Finally on our way, we got onto the M1 highway (the main highway north) before quickly realizing we'd already made a wrong turn as we'd intended to head west. It's not so hard getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road, the worst part is getting used to the different vehicle and getting it in the centre of the lane. Our Mitsubishi van is brand new with only 30,000km but it's not the most ergonomic vehicle to drive as it's essentially just ... read more

The time has come for us to leave Mooloolaba and keep travelling. It's been a fun 3 months and we'll miss the friends we've made here but we've only got 2 months left in Australia and there's plenty to see. We've decided to rent a campervan in Brisbane and drive it up to Cairns then all the way down to Melbourne. First we'll spend a long weekend in Brisbane before hitting the road.... read more

The biggest tourist thing to do on the Sunshine Coast is Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo. Usually, we're not too supportive of zoos (expecially some of the ones in Europe, recall the bear pits in Switzerland) but they've done a great job in conservation and none of the animals seemed 'caged in'. It's amazing how worshipped Steve Irwin is in Queensland. In Canada, we thought of him as a novelty act but he really has done great things for habitat preservation and awareness. His likeness is all over the zoo and his family still runs the show. Even his annoyingly cute little prodigy, Bindi, who now has her own recording album which they play on a loop in certain sections of the zoo. We took the bus there with the Munich Boys and another german mate, Timo. ... read more

Alex and I were super excited to stop traveling for a bit and settle into one place. We e-mailed a bunch of horse farms while in Europe looking for work and a fellow named Ulrich Klatte e-mailed us and told us he could employ us both. We took the overgound train from Brisbane to Beenleigh and called Uli from the station. We had never actually talked to him on the phone before. He had a strange German accent punctuated by Australian sayings like, "How ya goin' mate". We expected a burly fellow in a pick-up truck to pick us up. Instead, we got a fellow who looked more like an accountant who drove a Mazda car. The drive out to the farm was beautiful. The countryside reminded me of Montana, with rolling hills speckled with scraggly ... read more

Everybody has now left us and returned to Canada. This is a time for mixed emotions; on one hand the visit from our family, which we had been looking forward to for so long, is now over, but on the other hand we are 1 day away from embarking on our next adventure. Our last night together was spent in the airport hotel which was quite nice. Mom's bags finally arrived (on the last day of their trip) so we exchanged some gifts that mom had packed for us. She was kind enough to bring us socks, underwear, hot chocolate and Bailey's, books & magazines, everything a backpacker need most! There was a fantastic pool/spa/sauna area at the hotel so we spent the whole night up there enjoying the amenities of a five-star hotel while we ... read more