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Well, the final blog of Australia. The last six weeks have come and gone. I've had a great time and met some awesome people in Oz, it has definately been an experience in one sense or another. After Brisbane and Zorbing we went to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast. It was pretty cool there to meet up with Jamie, Maddie and Joe who are all friends from high school, they were all working and living there for their year out before Uni. Also at Surfers were Josh, Jonny, Dan, James and Dan who were all from home as well, so we had a right good catch up session and a few drinks at the bars there. The first night Manchester United also won the 10th Premiership title so as all the guys were United fans it was a pretty good night out. The days in Surfers were spent on the beach and hanging out in the town, however aside from seeing everyone surfers was a bit too built up, full of high rise apartments and grey buildings, it's growing constantly aswell. Personally I prefer to hang out in somewhere with a bit more character, but still it was cool.
Then we headed down to Byron Bay, our first stop in New South Wales. We'd heard many things about this little seaside town. It is considered one of the finest surfing spots in Oz and has also got a ban on fast food chains setting up in the town to preserve the small-town atmosphere of the place. We arrived pretty late about 6ish in the evening and after a quick shower went to Cheeky Monkey's bar, a cool little hang out which gave away a variety of free prizes and drinks to us on the Oz Experience and also free beer for trivia knowledge. Proudly I won two drinks and a whole jug of beer, which made me very happy to not have to buy any drinks. Can anyone tell me
a) The company who invented Traveller's Cheques?
b) Morracco's favourite drink?
c) Name all the countries in the world bigger in area than Australia?
Answers on the next blog. Anyway I was happy. Our Byron days were spent at the beach surfing, or more like trying. Ross, Nick and Kit were all very good and the whole standing thing, and after some practice on the second day
and got up for the first time properly and promptly fell straight back down. We also took a little trip into a small town called Nimbin, basically the hippy hotspot of the East Coast, full of Haight Ashbury style people and shops, and people which choose to live an alternative lifestyle. The bus journey was synced with good old rock and roll music which was a good laugh as well. The town was a bit strange though as it literally was in the middle of nowhere and everyone seemed a little oblvious to the outside world.
After Byron we went to surf camp for one night, which is a little something the Oz package throws in. It was pretty cool to get some tips on how to actually surf instead of desparatly trying to stand up anyway possible. Our last driver was called Muddy and he was an awesome guy, so easy to get on with. The next day there was an AFL game in Sydney which kicked off at 2pm. Sydney was 9 hours away, so Muddy agreed to leave at 3.30am to get the bus to the game. We left at 3.53am I had the passenger seat
so was talking him the whole way down. About 4.30 we drove through a town called Coffs Harbour, he explained it was a pick-up point on the bus, but only once in 7 months had he actually picked uup someone there and drove right on through. Kempsey is a small town where we stopped about 3 hours and 200km down the road, Muddy called the office which was now open and checked he didn't have any pick ups....2 girls were in Coff's Harbour and expecting to be picked up. It was a 90 minute drive one way, so we had to turn back and get them. We arrived in Sydney 12 hours after leaving too late for the game, which was a real shame, gutted we didn't get to see an Aussie Rules game. We came in to the city on the North of town which meant we drive over the Harbour bridge and saw the Opera House almost as soon as we were in the city.
Our first night we grabbed a meal and a drink before calling it an early one. The next day we toured around the city, got the famous postcard shots and did all
that. It's a really nice city and is full of cool skyscrapers and nice grassy areas, but I'm ready for NZ. We are flying on Wednesday in time for the Champions league final which is 7.45am in Christchurch.
Australia has been great. I've not enjoying every minute of it, but then that's life, towards the end, the small towns near the beach start too all look the same and I feel a bit beached out but aside from that it's been happy days. I've met so many people and have a huge road trip back in the UK to see everyone again. Fraser Island and The Whitsundays were awesome trips, as was the night at the cattle station, our taste of the outback.
A big G'day to everyone I've met; Luke, Dan, Bulby, Lucy, Mark Curtis, The Bank Manager in Cairns (Peter), Tom, Jess, Jack, Leon, Matt, Gillian, Sam, Martyn, Low, Gloria, Samara, Katie, Michelle, Charlotte, Jim, Sam, Bubbles, Lucy, Tom, Gemma, Jodie, Jenny, Charlotte, Dave, Alex, John, Wes, Ashley, Muddy, Sam, Emma and if I've missed you off it's not personal sorry!
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Rob
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OZ sounds great!
Glad to hear you learned how to surf. It will come in handy when you're in Santa Cruz. Bring on the bungee jumping and sky diving in New Zealand!