Advertisement
Leaving Sydney friends behind we arrived to see more friends from England-ones who we hadn't seen in two years and within that space of time had added another little man to their family. We were super excited -I have been friends with Gemma since my uni days and her and her fiancé mark have been over in Australia for a few years now and and are living the dream in brisvegas with their two sons (Alfie and Oliver) and marks mum Theresa.
We had two weeks with the family and it was very relaxing and all about spending time with the kids in the day doing things such as opening the exclusive Harrison/twigg water park -this consisted of a slip and slide and paddling pool with mini slide going into it -muchos fun!, going to different parks (and keeping an eye on monkey boy Alfie who loves to climb as high up as possible on the climbing frame) and day trip to the centre of Brisbane. Mark and Gemma were working for some of the time we were there so when they came home we would have a drink on the balcony listening to one of Dj marks compilation CDs.
He currently has a series of cafe del Mark CDs and we would listen to one each night. One if these said compilation cds is so good that it did infact reach number 9 on the beatport albums chart-big shout out to Dj mark.
Our first weekend there we chatted and drank some of marks home brew and had an amazing barbecue which is able to smoke meat. This meal was delicious!, we felt that we were also living the ozzy dream. We also went on marks tinny boat (the Mary j bilge) with Alfie (Oliver is too small) up the brisbane water channel. We landed the boat on a piece of sand and like true sailors strolled up the bank to a nice bar on the water front and had some drinks then casually strolled back like pro's.
Gemma kindly lent us her car and Craig and I ventured down the Gold Coast. I'd raved to Craig about how nice Byron bay is and how we could rent surf boards and practice our surf skills (or lack of) and so we used the car to go for a look see. We didn't stay for long and only
made it to the lighthouse as it was pissing it down!! Torrential rain! Hang on a second I thought it was illegal to rain in Australia!. So we made out way north to surfers paradise and took a lovely stroll along the beach imagining we lived on the beach and we could do this everyday as part of our routine.
We also used the car to head to wet and wild. This is the gold standard in water park world. This was immense, and there were no easy rides (apart from one which you race with other people whilst going down a fun water slide- this I liked a lot). Craig went on the latest ride in which you stand in a capsule which has a voice count down from 5 to 0, when you reach zero the floor beneath you disappears and you shoot down and round like a loop de loop to reach the bottom. The whole ride lasts 10 seconds and looks terrifying. I watched from the sidelines-no chance was I risking it. My bikini is definetly not loop de loop secure ! There were loads of rides including a kamikaze, ones with rubber rings, ones
Grownups are so BORING
Snooze-a-thon - Literally sent the boys to sleep with our reminiscing conversation!in the dark and the old favourite...a wave pool. All of it was ace. However, it was very busy and each ride was at least 45 mins wait so our day went very quick and we couldn't manage a large section of rides-oh well, we will definitely have to return.
Gemma took some time off which was very kind and we took the boys up to the mountains. The views on the top were great and we would see the Gold Coast landscape. We visited the nicest ice cream shop which the boys loved and Gemma and me listened to some old trance and funky house music on the way back (Craig was driving with Theresa) and had a reminise of life in Leeds as students. Good times.
Our second weekend there we spent the Saturday with Gemma and Mark and their friend Brad. Brad and Mark share a special bromance and they (in a non gay way) spend time fishing and boating. Brad has a power boat and we took the beast out to moreton bay. After power boating for about an hour we reached the island where off the coast are purposefully sunk boats (so lots
Moreton Bayof shipwrecks), I think to protect the bay of the island. These make for great snorkeling. After being told there are lots of aggressive bull sharks in these waters id say snorkelling around the wrecks was 20% fun and 80% about being on shark watch. After we had got back onto the boat we saw a rather large shadow in the water....OMG it's a bull shark !? (At this point brad grabbed his snorkle gear to jump back in-crazy ozzy) but Mark exclaimed it was 'only a dolphin' a very fat one at that. Phew for us but brad I have to say was a little gutted. This said dolphin swam around us for a while until he got bored and swam off to meet up with his, I can only presume mermaid and dolphin friends. We then boated to a lovely cove and ate our lunch of subway sandwiches. After this we had a bang bang journey back to the main land and en route we stopped for a spot of fishing off the boat. Me and craig have never done this before and we loved it. Myself and Gem both caught fish (the fish whisperers) and with the
help of brad unhooked them and threw them back in to swim for another day.
That night myself and gem had a 'girls night' with some of gems friends. We headed into the city centre to a Vietnamese restaurant gem loves. It also, incidentally allows you to bring your own booze in for a very small corkage fee. We had drunk one bottle of wine before Gemma's friends had even arrived and I'm not quite sure what I ate, but it was yummy and I don't know what time we left. We headed to a few different bars and danced and drinked and laughed. All great fun. We decided at 11.30 pm it was best to get home before things got too crazy and Gemma even had to push her friend Carly into the taxi as she was refusing to go home as she wanted us all to stay out as we were having so much fun. When we got home we realised we had lost a bank card and a phone. Bank card was cancelled and then by stroke of luck the phone was located at the Vietnamese restaurant (we must have drank a fair few bottles of
wine and left it by accident).
The following week Craig and myself took a little excursion up to airlie beach to do a 3 day sailing trip around the whitsundays. We choose the least expensive trip which worked out at around £50 for the whole trip. Now, another thing I have definitely properly learnt whilst traveling is ...you get what you pay for. To be fair the boat was decent, as was the skipper, crew, food and most of the other backpackers. However, what was not so good were the bed bugs!!!!!! Both nights I was eaten alive and was told by the skipper I must have brought them in even though I had not been in a hostel for around 3 months. Oh well. We were definetly the oldest backpackers on the boat too but we enjoyed the company of the other travellers and hearing their stories. One group of boys who were around 18 were most definitely the inbetweeners on tour. One guy (who we nicknamed wc wild card) was banned from drinking during the day as he was getting mortal and turning into a liability and totally had the potential to full off the boat. After
the first night of drinking and second day of hungover people being sick off the back of the boat the second night was a little more tame with only half of the people being sick the next day. We visited Whitehaven beach and despite it raining and not being sunny you could imagine it being lovely. This place has a special place in my heart and of hard times, I wanted to return to make these sad memories better, but another thing l have learnt is that what is in the past cannot be changed whatever you do and the only thing you are in control of is your feeling and choosing not to let the sad thoughts and negativity in. You can choose to be happy and only you can do that for yourself, no one else. Sorry for the hippy dippy slop...back to the blog.
Once back in Brisbane and once put all our items we took away with us either in a 60degree wash and dry or in a black bin bag in the sun all afternoon we then knew the bed bugs had gone and only the bites up my arms and on my feet
were the only memory of the incident.
The following day we relaxed with Theresa and the kids and it was this night we had an amazing mark dinner special. This was a cook your own meat and vegetables BBQ on the dinning table. This was delicious and cafe del mark volume 6 accompanied the meal very well as well as the red wine goon. The next day was friday and it was time for our little jaunt to the one day cricket at the GABA stadium. The match was Australia versus England. We had some bacon butties to set us up for the day and headed off minus the kids and with two more of Gemma and marks friends Ian and Martin. We arrived about 1pm and the bought our xxxx beers and found our seats. The GABA stadium holds around 25,000 people and it was getting more full but the minute. We had a great view from our seats and to begin we were in the shade but as the sun moved up and round we were straight under it. We were fully prepared though with lots of sunblock, hats, fans and off course beer. To be honest
I did watch but was more intent in chatting to Gemma. There were a few hecklers in the crowd making jibes to the cricketers who were fielding close to where we were sitting which was amusing as well as a fair few people in fancy dress.
Hunger got the better of us around 4pm and we made a dash for the German restaurant which was across the road from the stadium. We thought it would be a good idea to drink some more beer (but banana flavoured this time) and I think all of us ordered the pork knuckle meal. This was delicious and came with gravy, mashed potato and crackling. Following this the boys went back to the cricket whilst we tried not to go into a food coma. There was only one solution to stop the food coma-three jaeger bombs Each. They worked a treat and got us back to the cricket for at least a couple of hours before myself, gem and Craig admitted defeat and it was time for a taxi for three!
The next day (and not too hungover) we all jumped in the car for our weekend away at Coolum. This town
is on the Sunshine Coast (my favourite coast) and is 20mins south of Noosa town. Gem had booked us in to a very swish three bedroom apartment with a huge balcony which had a gorgeous view of the sea and coolum beach. I think, apart from it being a great way to end our time together, gem picked such a gorgeous location for our last weekend together so we have more to add to our pros section on our pros and cons list titled Moving to Australia?...this was a great plan and coolum is on the pro list for sure. The town itself is quite small but everything you need (we need anyway) is there including a huge supermarket, sausage roll shop, juice bar, Thai and Chinese takeaway...and off course the AMAZING beach. We loved it here. What a lovely place to spend a weekend.
We spent the first afternoon on the beach, mark dug a huge hole (standard beach activity), Oliver played in the hole with his trucks and Theresa bought Alfie a kite which the three of us attempted to fly and succeeded, without taking out all of the people sunbathing on the beach. What a great
afternoon. I also had to pop to the pharmacy as I now had ringworm all up my arms and back. That trip to the Whitsunday's really has left another everlasting impression.
That night Theresa hosted a cheese and wine part. We were all formally invited on Facebook and when the time for it to start arrived myself, Craig, Mark, Gemma and Oliver went outside to knock our arrival. We were meted and by the hostess (Theresa) and her assistant (Alfie). It was delicious and all of us fell into food comas prompting an early night.
The next day we relaxed around the apartment and then the four of us (Mark, gem, Craig and myself) took a walk into then town to the surf club for some food and drinks. We watched the sunset on the beach and chatted away as this was our last night.
We borrowed marks car to drive very early back to brisbane-I had an appointment with the dentist at 9am for a filling before catching the flight to Perth at 11.00am. I needed two filling but only had time for one. I have never had so much anesthetic for a filling - My
face felt how l would imagine Botox to feel -tight and numb. I was asked to move my tongue and could not even gage where it was in my mouth-ha. Turns out l need a route canal on the next tooth, hence the amount of anesthetic. Thank goodness we got that super dooper health insurance. Have to get fixed up with a dentist in perth.
We had a fab time with the Harrison/twigs -we really got a feel for what life is like living in Australia. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and got to do loads with our time. Looking forward to returning for whatever reason that is- as well as to collect what we let behind- ukelele, walking shoes and hat.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.375s; Tpl: 0.021s; cc: 10; qc: 64; dbt: 0.0663s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Momma Toni
non-member comment
Pork knuckle!
Australia looks good nearly ended up there myself as a child! glad to say it didnt happen as the (orphans) shipped out there didnt have an easy time as it turned out! phew, that pand bronzedork knuckle dinner looks massive certainly dont get anything like that back here! bed bugs and ringworm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! you poor thing it would have freaked me out completely i have just come back from the west coast of scotland and i find the midgies hard enough as they seem to love my blood type! however fishing was good i love it gordon has a little boat to gto round the lochs and see the seals and otters great fun, it must have been good to catch up with old friends and you and craif look very well and fit not to mention bronzed lots of love momma toni xxxxxxxxxx