Australia!!!!

Time is certainly flying by. I can’t believe I have been travelling for over two months. Not only that, I have already been in Australia for just under two weeks and I have done so much already. I am only here for three months – it’s a tough life!
I arrived on 26th, the fli9ght was ok managed to watch a few good movies. The change in temperature was nice too – I saw rain clouds for the first time in a month. After an interesting bus journey – when I asked the bus driver could he let me know when I had reached my stop I wanted, he just looked at me blankly and said he was new to the route and would do his best. Not the best start! About 50 minutes later I met up with Natalie, a really good friend from years ago. I don’t think I have seen her for about 13 years! It was lovely to see her again. They took me to see the beaches straight away. First it was Coogee and then to the famous Bondi. It was beautiful. Just like you see on TV. They left me there to explore and I decided I had to book a surf lesson – have to improve those skills for when I am back in England! I just walked all over the beach and the sun was blazing down without a cloud in the sky – fantastic. Although it did mean having to put on suntan cream on often. I decided to head to Brisbane later on in the week to go and see Josh and Alex and would hope to also meet up with Carly and Elise – the guys I had met in china. They had informed me that there would be Easter day horse racing on if I came up for Easter weekend - how could I resist the chance to loose money! That evening I was treated to a fantastic spread of sea food by Natalie, James and Max. We ate prawns, swordfish, octopus and the famous Australian Barramundi fish. It was all delicious.
The next day I went off to do the usual tourist thing in Sydney and go to the opera house and bridge – well if you have been looking at the photos you will see I needed to get the T-shirt photo. The opera house and bridge are stunning and very impressive. Also found Government House which looks like an English stately home, which should be old and dirty but in fact it is very clean – well it is probably only less than 200 years old!! I then found a map of the ferries and found a place called Cockatoo island and decided to investigate. It turned out to be an old prison and a ship yard. Only spent an hour and then headed back to walk the bridge. Where the Bridge is built is in an area called The Rocks and there I found was is called Sydney’s Oldest Pub – well I had to have a pint (sorry a scooner) in there! Met a lovely Irish family who where over visiting their son. A few scooners later and it was time to head off.

The next day was raining which stopped the planned beach walk which was a bit rubbish but it was also the day of the surf lesson. First wave – stood up and rode it – awesome. I managed to stand up a fair bit and got into turning and trying to stay on when a back wash happened - not so successful on the last part. But very happy with the efforts. Spent the evening with some of Claires relatives which was lovely.

31st March. Headed out again to a place called Gap Bluff – a place with spectacular views of Sydney and found a nudist beach of all things, firstly no one was there and I did not strip off…. It was then off to a place called Manly, another beautiful beach. Ended up walking for hours and found an old army fort and the place where the newcomers to Australia would go for Quarantine . Saw this great animal called an Echinda – looked like a porcupine. Had my first Gelato - mint and Easter egg flavor – very tasty!!
The 1st April came around very quickly and it was time to head to Brisbane. I will spare you all the details but the bus took just over 15 HOURS!! My god Australia is big!! Met Josh and I wanted to go straight to Colchester Street – how cool, and yes how sad!! Chilled out on the first night. Up early on the Saturday and the beers came out by 10am! After everyone had glamed up we headed to the races. My success went a bit like this.
1st , 3rd, 4th and 7th races – lost
2nd race – won on La Chance Finale – won $155. The ozzies where not happy with me.
8th race – won with another horse – it had King in the title I think. Won $24.
Not a bad day. Plus the beer and sunshine made it a great day, not to mention the company.

Easter Sunday and Dads birthday. We went off to Alex’s family for Easter Brunch. The family were really welcoming and friendly they made sure I ate a lot of food. The spread was incredible and I was full before pudding arrived!! We played boulle and cricket. Of course I let them win boulle. Unfortunately did not get the chance to show them my croquet skills as cricket was preferred. There was also an Easter egg hunt and I had a basket which let out all the small eggs. Very disappointing. But it was meant to be for the children after all. In the afternoon we headed over the other side of Brisbane to see Josh’s family for a Barbie. They too were welcoming and lovely to meet. The food was great and after I was full the dad came over and said I needed a man steak – the steak was massive, I think the cow may be missing a leg. More chocolate followed. I managed to get through to speak to dad to wish him a happy birthday and it was really lovely to speak to mum and dad – Oliver was still a little shy.

In the evening we met up with Carly and Elise from China and it was great to see them again – it felt like ages even though it had only been 1 month! The next day was fairly chilled. I had a few things to sort and then me and Josh went to watch The Clash of the Titans. It was an ok film, a lot of action, but not enough 3D for my liking. Although the giant scorpions where cool.

On the 6th April I headed to Surfers Paradise south of Brisbane. The place is lovely. The beach is massive, goes on for miles. Just chilled for most of the day meeting new people and then in the evening got ready for a night out. It started with a pool competition. People may be amazed to hear that I made it through to the 3rd round out of 5. Unfortunately my luck had run out and I potted the black near the start of the game –ooops. The night was great fun, we went to a night club and danced til 2am. By the time I finally got to sleep it was about 3am. This was not good as I had to be up at 7am to go on a tour! The tour took me to Springbrook mountains. The site of a volcano called Tweed Shield which erupted millions of years ago and is home to Antarctic beech trees that are at least 2000 years old and lots of waterfalls which where stunning. We went to a place called Natural Arch which is a World Heritage Site. It was beautiful. The water falls down into this cave which is full of bats and glow worms. We also saw fruit bats and some sort of small walibi. We ended the day at Tropical Fruit World. A place were they grow over 100 types of fruit, some very tasty – some not. The best one was one that tasted a bit lie vanilla ice cream!!

That night I met up with some other travelers and we hit the bars, of course after some drinking games. We ended up in a place called Sin City and danced the night away again. Thankfully managed to get a bit more sleep.

It has been a fantastic couple of weeks and I am heading back to Sydney today (8th April) before I fly out to Ayers Rock on the 10th.