Off to see the wizards of OZ
Trip Start
Jul 24, 2007
1
38
50
Trip End
Ongoing
Mooloolaba,
Australia
Monday, March 31, 2008
It feels really great to be back in Aussie, a kind of homecoming for the wandering duo................where we have spent many a happy memory and of course where we got hitched back in 2000.
We spent a few days in Brisbane getting re-accustomed to the fair dinkum ways of the locals, most of the blokes look like a cross between the postman from Cheers and Onslow from Keeping Up Appearances and the women are Dames who really do look above "Everage" The hostel was friendly but dingy and nice of them to have a wee indoor garden........growing mushrooms on the back of the bog door!!!
a pair of crocodile...... snooze
!Then we headed north for a wee detour. Julie went to Steve Irwins Australia Zoo, where she got to meet the local wildlife, feed a few locals and try to get out without getting spat on, kicked or covered in you know what.................a bit like going to watch an Old Firm game!!!
While Julie was going Bush I was going down under............scuba diving a ship wreck off the Mooloolaba coast (the HMAS Brisbane). This was pure James Bond stuff, getting right in to the bowels of the big Frigate, you could almost hear the 007 music as the kaleidescope of colour, marine life and blistering barnacles passed by my wide open mince pies :-) Since my qualification in 1995 this has to be THE best dive of them all.
Next on the hit list was a visit to a place named after a night out in Carrick.....Wet 'n Wild, a theme park where everything is like the make up used at the Crows Nest..........water based:-) A brill day out and a great chance to act like a big youngster for the day, grrrreat!
Our great journey south started with our first surf stop at Coffs Harbour.....wow talk about a class scenic beauty of a place
Ah, Outstanding in her field!!
. It was pretty much like life in the Civil Service......................"board" meetings, surfing all day and no one worrying about the minutes ha ha haOur next port of call was our 4th job on a farm down under.................well if the other 3 were eventful then this one took the biscuit big style. Think of the film Deliverance and listen to those duelling banjo's then add in the guests from the Jerry Springer show.........are you getting the idea yet????
I'm just slegging they were a great bunch. Our accomo was in a 1970s caravan, complete with brown nylon carpet and holes in the floor!!! I mean it's not like they have zillions of creatures that can kill you or anything eeek! But it was OK we were using protection..................yer woman was saving us..........Annette curtain boom boom:-)
Our next port of call was Newcastle on the central coast, where everything is named exactly like it is in the real Geordieland! It was a strange sensation knowing all the place names in a city you have never been in and bringing me back to my stint on the Tyne in the 90s. Unlike it's namesake it has blue skies, golden sands and awesome surf. We spent a few days enjoying it all, in fact I reckon I could pass for one of those surfer dudes........the only things I don't have are........the bleached blond hair, muscular torso and oh yeah a surfboard. Apart from that I'm there;-)
The excitement is reaching fever pitch now as we head to our favourite city and location of our wedding back in 2000, SYDNEY.
Comments
Hi Dorothy and The tin man
witch witch witch....look at the tan you've got....or have you and Pip been using those tan wipes again?!
only 7 weeks to go......yipeeeeeeeeeee. Shawsy's planning our girlie reunion already!
Take care and lots of love
The scarecrow