Distraught about our time in Asia having flown by so quickly, we boarded the plane to Brisbane and were met at the airport by Matt; a good friend of Luke's who drove over an hour to come and pick us up in the early hours of the morning. We woke up the following day and Matt, the perfect host, made sure we had a truly 'Aussie' day on the sunshine coast. We had Vegemite for breakfast, headed to the beach for some beers and surfing, put some kangaroo on the BBQ and then headed out for some evening drinks. A few friendly locals came over to chat to us on the beach and probably found us quite rude as Luke and I met them with puzzled expressions as we could only understand 1 in every 10 words. I'm sure this is not how they sounded on Neighbours or Home and Away? Nevertheless we were so excited to be in Australia that we were 'those' tourists who just walked around with huge grins, wowed by literally everything. I actually think we resembled a scene from 'Coming to America' when Prince Akeem jumps out of his seat at the Black Awareness Pageant and yells 'I am very happy to be here!'.

Burleigh is a small surfy town but even that compared to Asia felt fast paced and quite hectic. I also frequently commented on how strange it was to see so many white people after so long! A definite highlight for Luke was finding a Nandos in town after having spent 3 months reminiscing about the good old days with peri fries and a his beloved half chicken. He over indulged (as expected) and then spent the rest of the day feeling sick but satisfied.

We managed to meet up with Danielle and Lauren, some friends that I worked with at Disney back in London for a great evening out on our final night before heading back up to Brisbane where we were welcomed by Danielle's mum and stayed with her for our final night in town. Luke's family who had been travelling through Australia for the past month met us for a lovely dinner in Brisbane and it was great to get to see them all catching up.