"In this city... There's an open road and I'm travelling down"

Well,that week was quite a long one ay!!?....
We both can't quite believe that time has flown by so quickly during our time in Brisbane!
So unfortunately, as we have both been incredibly slack with updating this here blog, we are going to have to simply sum up the last 2 and a bit months as best we can!

So....Aussie Farmers Direct!
Bit of a roller coaster of a job! Some days you could meet horrible people behind every single door, scrape 4 sales, and generally feel a bit rubbish by the end of the day. Other days you could meet lovely people, get offered ginger beer, coke, food etc, and make plenty of money!
We were both pretty good at the job, making good money. But the main reason we stayed in Brisbane for such a long time, was because of the people we met! There were a totally awesome bunch of people who worked for Aussie farmers. We have both enjoyed meeting new people, and making new friendships. Shtanny!! (standard....you all better get use to this word as we will both be using it as response to ....pretty much everything when we are back home!).
Nicky spent about a month of our time in the Brisbane region actually not in Brisbane but rather down the Gold Coast, with some old friends and of course making new ones. Regular visits to the beach were in order, especially when the unit she was staying in was only a stones throw away!! A trip to Dream World (equivalent to Thorpe Park back home guys) was pretty shweet!! (yes we said sHweet not sweet...make sure you pronounce this non-word correctly). Highlight of the day was definitely going on Tower of Terror ride...blasting you backwards out of a 206m tunnel at a rapid speed of 161km/h in 7 seconds flat...(Howz that door knocking haz?) and then soaring up 100m into the atmosphere before plummeting back to earth!! Can you tell that we are adrenaline junkies yet!!? Haha

In the mean time, Haz was still knocking at those grumpy people's front doors....desperately trying to sell them some damn milk and bread!! Haha. Haz has made a fair few solid friendships from the Aussie Farmer crew, and we now both look forward to meeting up with them further along our travels in Australia and New Zealand, and back in sunny England..... Wales.... Scotland... Ireland.... Europe.... where ever they all come from!! Unfortunately no beach trips for Haz, but there have been some good times.....BBQs by the lagoon, cinema, sunning in south bank, walks (including storey bridge....kangaroo point....fortitude valley...etc) runs along the Brisbane river, pizza nights, movie nights, cups of tea nights!, drinking nights, shopping days/ mornings in the city, coffees, smoothies, best milkshake ever at Royal Copenhagen, Stephen K Amos comedian at the QPAC, south bank markets, and hot chocolate at the world famous Max Brenner Chocolate shop........ what can I say ..... it's been bloody brilliant!!

The rest of our time in Brisbane (and Nicky in the Gold Coast) was split between the general hanging out with mates in our different accommodation, in the gym, going for runs in the early morning sun - gorgeous! St Paddy's day was celebrated in a true Irish fashion .... Down the pub! Just another good night to remember out of the many!!
Oh almost forgot! Bed bugs do actually exist! Haz and some mates had the unfortunate experience of meeting the little buggers in......hmmm...well.....not the best hostel in the world that's for damn sure!! Thankfully only stayed there for a few nights! By far the best hostel in Brisbane (or the best hostel experiences at least!) was at Woodduck. Aussie Farmer lot pretty much took over the largest dorm in the place for a few weeks, and generally had a blast with some awesome company. :).

Back at the end of February/early March, we went down to Holywell (close by to Surfer's Paradise) for a lovely weekend with family friends of Haz's - The Melloys :). (Btw we stayed on their boat!!! So awesome!). We had a visit to Surfers Paradise, trip up the Q1 (Queensland Number 1) tower (tallest building in Australia and Southern Hemisphere) for some pretty shweet views out over Surfers and Mount Warning. It was lovely to finally meet Karen and her family and spend some quality time with them all.
Needless to say we both went back there again, however it wasn't until we left Brisbane (26th April). It was once again a great visit, and awesome stop off on our way down the East Coast. This time, we went bowling for Bethany's 12th birthday, consumed a lot of pizza, ice cream and cheese cake, a lot of sorting out, a trip to Lamington National Park - O'Reillys Rainforest retreat, and best of all a totally awesome day trip to Sea World. The highlight had to be the 'Imagine' Dolphin show, so much so we actually went to see it twice!

Now, we are in New South Wales! We are no longer in Queensland! We have arrived in Tweed Heads to start our WWOOFing work (willing workers on organic farms). First port of call, like we said, is in Tweed Heads. We are packaging chocolate coated dried bananas!! (very tasty btw :)) We are only here for 3 days though, and then we head down to Byron Bay on Friday! Nicky is looking forward to spending her birthday in a different country! So hopefully the weather will hold out for us so we can enjoy the beach and the hippy life of Byron Bay! :)