Come rain or shine...Brisbane to Sydney with Lois & Bryan

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G'day folks!

A warm welcome to our avid readers. This is our final blog from the land of Ozzy, we only have 3 blogs left until our return so lap it up while you can.

After leaving the lovely house-sitting job, we headed further down the east coast for a quick stop in Noosa Heads at the Flashpackers Inn. Here we had a surf lesson (both managed to stand up on the board; Gail can turn) and celebrated our two year anniversary by not eating pasta or noodles but something normal like fish. We also forgot to take any pictures here so you'll just have to imagine us surfing, sorry.

We then headed down to Brisbane for 2 nights in a dirty Base Hostel whilst we impatiently waited for Nikki's Mum and Dad to arrive and take us to somewhere clean! For the record, their real names are Lois and Bryan. The renunion was tearful as expected, we were even told by the train station staff that it was the best reunion they'd seen in a while! It's fair to say that for the next three weeks we saw more sights than we have seen in the entire year! There certainly is a difference between travelling and holiday sightseeing - it's taken us this long to recover!

With three packed weeks to report, we will endeavor to give you a rundown on our highlights...

Brisbane appears to live in the shadows of Melbourne and Sydney with many people claiming not to like it too much and finding it rather dull. We're pleased to report that it's modern, busy and very easy to get to grips with. Our first activity was a cruise up the river to orientate us and enable some gawping at the super expensive apartments and Southbank riverside beach landscaping. From the moment L&B arrived the weather turned against us creating a new record for Brisbane's most amount of rainfall in 60 years. Dammit. Remembering out British roots, we ploughed on and went in search of koalas at Daisy Hill Sanctuary, amazing (yet obscured by clouds) views up Mount Kootha and kangaroos on Stradbrook Island. Gail's still annoyed with the latter as after months of travelling around Oz the only wild kangas we've spotted are either dead/alive on the roadside, yet the moment she takes herself off to the toilet on the island, a wild kangaroo decides to hop out of the bush, pose for photographs with its adoring public and then hop off along the street. Bloody thing. To rectify, we were all able to spot the whales migrating out at sea. Other adventures included stumbling upon a music festival in the West End and rediscovering real ale (oh, how we have missed you). It was so refreshing watching Bryan's face when they charged 6 quid for a scooner (oh, how he missed the local pubs and the cheaper beer). Now, one of our fun days involved sunshine, TKC, beer, BBQ and lawn green bowls! Yes, you read it right. Lois' friend invited us to play and it turns out we are a) rather talented at it b) beer and lobbing bowls go together perfectly. Note-Gail and Bryan's team won. Also took a roadtrip down to Surfers' Paradise (rained) and Byron Bay (dry) which did live up to its name as a cool, alternative hub.

Sydney

After a close call at the airport's x-ray machine, they finally let Gail through without at $10,000 fine after discovering she was carrying a penknife in her hand-luggage. A flight and taxi journey followed and we arrived in Sydney a little sleepy & ready to relax in our apartment. Things didn't quite go to plan- Bryan & Nikki attempted to open the door only to find another family occupying it! Back in the taxi. What felt like hours later, Bryan emerged from the office and they had "managed to find us" somewhere to stay... it was only a luxary apartment! The scabby backpackers strike it lucky! So, we spent the next two weeks based in the lovely Coogee Beach subhurb with Sydney as our playground.

After Brissy, it took us a while to realise that the burning skin was caused by sunshine. Luckily we left Brisbane's weather up there so sauntered off to the Opera House in glorious sunshine. Good job really, Gail was losing her tan... The Opera House was obviously packed with tourists and we escaped the crowds by climbing the Sydney Bridge pylon which provides 360degree views of Sydney. This was followed by an afternoon of drinking in the pubs in the area called The Rocks with one of Bryan's old friends. We discovered during the three weeks of the parental visit that we have either a) lost our ability to drink for more than 2 days in a row or b) L&B are absoloute troopers when it comes to drinking. Whichever it is, we struggled to keep up sometimes! Taking advantage of the good weather and giving Lois a few well-deserved days on the beach, we enjoyed sun at Coogee and Bondi beaches. Bondi was... well, a bit like the Scarborough of Australia. We happened to be there on the first day of school holidays and whilst watching the surfing was amazing, watching the 10 police riot vans control the 'yoofs' of Sydney was not. Turns out teenagers are loud mouthed and self-important across the world!

Having spent two weeks together, it was mutually agreed that we should have a day apart. Whilst the parents made the most of their day by visiting more costal areas and trips on the ferry, we hopped on a bus, found the studenty area of Sydney, scoffed a burger and coffee, looked around the charity shops and then went to Gaysville in search of Drag Queens! After spending a naughty amount of money and Gail popping into a bar for a kareoke sing-song, we arrived at the Imperial Hotel just in time for the new Abba drag show. The show was fabulous and the gay men were.. gay. Having not bothered to invest in new footwear since India (don't judge us) Gail's flip-flop finally broke in the middle of busting some moves on the dance floor... how embarrassing. We managed to tie it to Nikki's foot with Gail's shoe lace. See picture if you're struggling to imagine this. A foot-fashion faux pas, you might say.

A long but lovely day was spent in the Blue Mountains. We stopped off at Echo Point for some stunning views over the valley and to gawp at the Three Sisters (3 rocks) and blue haze. We then took a bus to the local tourist attraction and bought a ticket for the World's Steepest Railway (wow!), a cable car back up to the mountain top and then a 'Skytrain' over to the other side of the valley. This had a glass bottom and despite being quite scary was pretty amazing with stunning panoramic views. The afternoon was taken up by what was thought to be a 3km walk though the forest but actually turned out to be a bit of a mission back to Leura to catch the train (sorry again to L&B). We jumped off the train after 5 minutes to see the famous Wentworth Falls. This was around 5pm so the day was running out. Bryan frantically asked around the local shops if there was a bus to the Falls and after much discussion and bemuesment we discovered there wasn't. On the verge of giving up, the day was saved by a lovely local woman who offered to drop us off in her car. Turns out she was a bit crazy and spent 5 minutes clearing the crap off her seats so we could sit down; drove way too fast through the town; didn't really speak much during the drive and also drove the wrong way down the Falls one-way system, almost causing a crash. We waved her off as she reversed all the way back up... and then turned around to discover a teeny, weeny trickly bit of water running down the rocks. A little disapointing! After asking a local to call us a taxi as there were no buses back and the crazy lady gave us the wrong taxi number, dad bumped into the aforementioned shop keepers who kindly said, 'oh yeah... there hasñ't really been any rain for a few months' Ah!!

We took a trip to the local zoo to ensure L&B had their fill of native Australian wildlife. Lois finally got her cuddle with a Koala (The start of a mild obsession) and Bryan bonded way too much with an emu. TKC were lucky they weren't eaten! We also visited Manly Beach for the Jazz Festival, a couple of Museums, China Town, Balmain, Glebe, Newtown, Cockatoo Island and Darling Habour. As you can see, we are sight-seeing whores.

It was wonderful to spend time with Lois and Bryan and we especially enjoyed the dining out and card games. It's fair to say that Gail won't forget accidentally eating that Thai chilli for a while and that Bryan's newfound skills from Cooking Class will live on back in York. L&B also achieved a tan within 3 days which was far greater than anything Gail's managed in 10 months. Nikki continues turning into her mother, which is scaring Gail a little bit.

Unfortunately, their departure arrived and tears flowed. We were left stood in the street with those bloody backpacks on and our busfare in hand (that Bryan had kindly donated to us) in order to get to our 18 bed dorm in the centre of Sydney for two nights of hellish sleeping before New Zealand.

Overall, Australia has been an epic journey. From thinking we could fruit-pick, to working in a call-centre, to dog-sitting and finally resigning to create debt instead of cash, we are ready to call it a day. The highs and lows here have been extreme. The country itself has some of the most amazing natural scenery we've seen all year yet some of the small towns are just...lifeless. Four months has enabled us to see many places here with many more to go in the future. For now though, we are very pleased that it's time to head off to Christchurch before soaking up (Nikki) reflecting (Gail) the sunshine in Fiji.

Signing off from Australia,
Nixy & Gay Gay
xxx

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Photos

Blue Mountains
the small black dot is the cable car shadow.