From Melbourne to Brisbane
Trip Start
Jun 13, 2008
1
21
51
Trip End
Ongoing
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Brisbane,
Queensland,
Australia
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Mike, Tom and me :D
We soon met up with Mikey - a friend of mine from my Woolshed days in Cairns... who took us back to his place (after a short tour of the train system - we went the wrong way the first time!) He gave us a bite to eat, a few beers and couple of shots of Sambucca, and we were on our way! We caught a train into the city and met up with some of his friends for a nice meal, followed by free beer at an Indie bar, aimed at British tourists... Mikey was dancing on the table by the end of it, and then we were very kindly asked to leave...haha...
Me and Tom at the Sydney Opera House
The next day we went into the city and had a look at the bridge and the Opera House with all our bags, and then hopped onto a train to Gosford, just north of Sydney, where we met up with Dave and Kaylie from the paintball site... We are having little reunions all over the place!
Tom, me, Kaylie and Dave at Terrigal
They took us back to their new house, which is a fantastic big bungalow with a massive garden... While we stayed with them they took us to Terrigal Beach for a nice bit of breakfast in the sun, and then to a Reptile Park where they keep a lot of animals in order to milk them to produce anti-venom... And they have a lot of space, so I didn't cry at this place! They also had kangaroos wondering around, koalas, Galapagos tortoises, snakes and lizards of all varieties and crocs and alligators.... it was very cool :) We caught a reptile show while we were there, but the croc in residence, Elvis, couldn't be persuaded to come out and play, despite the keepers taunting her with chickens and rabbits on sticks... We did get to see a baby croc and baby alligator though... We also helped them with a bit of new house shopping, which mostly involved me, Tom and Dave playing with all the things in the shops while the girls chose things they needed :D
Koalas!
From Gosford we caught another bus, which was supposed to be to Coff's Harbour... but on the way somewhere, we decided not to bother and to carry on to Byron Bay instead... which we feel was a good choice :) We met a nice couple of English lads on the bus and we all went and got a hostel together, which was right on the beach... And the weather was perfect for the first couple of days, so we spend some good time chilling out on the beach and body boarding - which I am now IN LOVE with, so much that I am gonna have to try surfing very soon!!
Tom, me, Mark and Drew playing Pictionary!
We spent our evenings in Byron Bay playing Pictionary (which Dave and Kaylie got us into!) with Mark and Drew (the aforementioned English lads) and drinking goon (Aussie term for cheap boxed wine). We were also treated to some fire dancers, which was pretty damn cool!!
Firedancer
Our last day in Byron was a bit grey and cloudy, so we went into town and booked up our trips for most of the rest of our time here... which means we're mostly sorted now!!
We then got ourselves onto a bus to Brisbane... my best friend from school - Jo - lives in Toowoomba, which isn't far from here, so I was hoping to meet her for lunch today... but she's a doctor and got called into work... boo!! However, she said she would try to meet us further up the coast as she has some more days off... hoorah!!
We're also meeting up with Alex, one of the guys we spent a lot of time with in Santiago... He has got us some free tickets to go and watch the Brisbane Broncos play tonight - Aussie Rugby League, so that should be cool...!! I just can't wait for some proper sunshine... I still don't feel like I've had it!!
In other news... I no longer resemble a fraggle - my hair is dark again because it had gone a dodgy shade of orange again... and I have decided to go back to being veggie... I always wanted to be... so fingers crossed it goes better than the last 7 year stint!
