Surf's up

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What's up dudes!!!!

It's been a little while since we have updated the blog so we will pick up where we left off last time.

The surf lesson in Noosa was brilliant. As to be expected Mark was a natural but I didn't do to badly either. The instructors were total surf dudes and kept using phrases we didn't understand but it all added to the authenticity. They called us 'goofy footers' because we used our left foot as our strongest and they said things like 'Let's shake and bake'. I loved it! We had a great couple of nights in Noosa and then headed south to Surfers Paradise.

People we had met beforehand gave us mixed reports of Surfers but Mark and I loved it. It's set along a huge stretch of sand and the best way to describe it is like an Australian Miami. There are loads of skyscrapers along the beach front and its packed with glam shops and restaurants. We stayed in an apartment which looked out on the beach and we were really near the main entertainment street. We had a few days of being surf bums, surfing, catching some sun and taking it all in.

After Surfers we went down to Byron Bay but the weather was really crap. It was a real pity because we had planned to surf there and loads of people were out on their boards but we decided to head further down the road. Somehow along the way we had missed a day and had one less day to get to Sydney than we thought. We spent the night in Coff's Harbour then headed down to Sydney the next morning.

Driving in Sydney proved to be a particularly horrific experience and after hours of driving around one way streets, bickering and threatening divorce we were extremely glad to drop the car off and get settled in our apartment. We have well and truely given up the backpacker life and we had a fab one bed apartment in ChinaTown. We did the usual stuff in Sydney, visited the Opera House, Botanic Gardens, Harbour Bridge, Chinatown, Circular Quay and Darlingharbour. When we visited the Opera House a pipeband was playing outside. It was really surreal. One of the days we visited the Aquarium in the morning and then went to the IMAX to watch Beowulf. The cinema will never be the same again. We had to wear 3-d glasses which were hilarious. Thankfully they weren't like the ones you got out of the cereal packets to watch Jaws (back in the day) - remember one red eye and one blue and it still didn't work!!! The film looked amazing in 3-d and we jumped loads of times as arrows and dragons shot towards us. The next day we visited the Chinese Garden of Friendship. It was one of my highlights. I felt like we had been transported into the set of 'Memories of a Geisha'. Afterwards we went to the Lindt Chocolate Cafe. It was sooooo yum.

We flew down from Sydney to Melbourne and it's so fab here. Melbourne is a really cool city. The weather is great and it's jam packed with loads of little restaurants and bars. Yesterday we went to a market that had over 1000 stalls. Unfortunately that small piece of info slipped my mind when I mentioned visiting the market to Mark. You could probably hear him groan in Scotland when he saw the size of it. There was every kind of food stall you could imagine, live music and loads of stalls selling a variety of weird and wonderful things. We then headed to the Speigeltent (of Edinburgh Festival fame) for a drink and ended up joining in with an office christmas party. They made the layouts for the Lonely Planet guides and had just finished one on Edinburgh. Today we are down in St Kilda and have visited the beach and pier. As we were walking along the pier we heard a little squeak in the rocks and looked down to see a mini penguin. It was amazing and Mark was really glad we hadn't spend the $100 on a trip to go and see them.

As always in cities we are walking constantly because we don't really have a clue where we are going so it's better to be on foot. All I can say is that we definately need the exercise because eating out and drinking everyday has not been kind to our wastelines. It's a Jan detox of the Wehnerts. We are still having an amazing time and can't believe how quickly it's going. We are really looking forward to getting to Bali for a little rest and relaxation and of course a big cuddle with Kalani.

We are flying to Uluru tomorrow for one night and then upto Darwin so we will update you soon.

Much love to you all and hope your Christmas preparations are going well. We are having our Christmas night out tonight. Obviously it will just be Mark and I but we may try to gatecrash an office night out and of course you will all be there in spirit with us.

Lianne and Mark

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Comments

[Christine Syme]

Merry Christmas
Last week of school before the festive holiday ! Everyone looking forward to the holidays but wondering how we will manage to survive till Fri. !!!! Enjoy the remainder of what sounds like the trip of a life time. Have a great Christmas and a Happy New year when it comes. See you in 2008 - back at the 'chalk face' so to speak. Christine xx