Mistletoe and...Sun!! It's Christmas!

A belated Merry Christmas from Down Under!!

We hope everyone had a blast back home!! Ours was very different from our normal traditional ones that's for sure... no scarfs and gloves given as Christmas presents, no carols round the fire, and no stuffing and cranberry sauce! Instead we had bright blue sky, scorching sun, swim in the ocean, swingball in the yard, backhanded pandas(cocktails before anyone wonders what we're going on about! :)) in the paddling pool, entertainment in the form of possums and poi, and plenty of cold meats, salad and drink! Sound good? We thought so! :)

Leading up to christmas saw us working hard at Rush and Nick umpiring....yes it was hard work! Standing in the same place for 8 hours in the scorching heat everyday (stop moaning nick * eye rolling *) for 5 days was tough, especially for my back and feet! Think I ached more from umpiring than I do playing cricket!! Ok, I'll stop "moaning" now in the words of Haz! :P The weekend after umpiring saw Nick play her first 20/20 cricket game for Norths! Managing to bowl...just.... Just kidding, I actually bowled really well and got Norths back into the game! Clean bowled their main batsmen, sending him back to the changing rooms with his head down and dragging his bat behind him! Good send off I'd say!! (Nick likes to exaggerate a tad aye?) hey, that was no exaggeration thank you very much!! Anyways, we ended up winning the game very comfortably!

We very much welcomed our first pay slip, but took us a while to understand all the jibba jabba! Had our first experience of an Aussie Steakhouse which was lovely! Nick has eaten more steak in Oz than she ever has done back in the UK.. she has been converted! haha Next is to get Nick ordering medium-rare rather than cremated! Hey... I had it medium and it was still pink, so that's hardly cremated! I would rather my steak be dead than mooing on the plate thanks!

We went driving around Mackay seeing all the amazing Christmas lights. Much more impressive displays than back home! Check Facebook for photos guys!

Christmas Eve Eve saw us going for a girls night out to the Bowlsey! The crew included...Haz, Nick, Karen, Sarah and of course the biggest girl of us all...Bradderz!! It was a great night filled with many giggles, singing, playing pool, playing up in front of the camera and dancing! More than likely a few sore heads and tired eyes in the morning! (hey speak for yourself Nick! ;)) (mainly speaking about Karen and Bradderz ;) hehe).

Following all the Christmas fun, we migrated to another part of Mackay to experience life with another Aussie family! :) we've been trusted with one of their cars, and wow, the freedom is gggrreat!! It felt so good to get behind the wheel again and neither of us got lost, which was an added bonus! Driving in a storm on the other hand (on the way to the Flicks) was certainly interesting and an experience! Mission Impossible 4 was really good...recommend you go watch it! Get out your movie cards, hop in the car and drive to the Movies! :D

After welcoming 2012 in Australia, we will be taking a trip to Reef HQ, get some diving in around Cairns, seeing Airlie and meeting lots more backpackers, before hoping onto the ferry to travel to the glorious island known as Hamilton Island! We are very excited! :D




Speak soon!

Nick & Haz xx

We are still here.....honest!!

Sorry for the lack of updates!
We have been pretty busy the last few weeks, so will try our best to fill you in on all the best bits!
Firstly, we finally have a job and can start saving a little bit of money! We are just doing some casual work at a shop called Rush Surf. Pretty easy work, but pretty nice wage to go with it luckily. :)

We have Friday night poker nights accompanied by some pretty good barbies which have become a regular thing now, alongside Thursday night practice poker nights for the three of us. I think it's safe to say we have both drunk more in the last four weeks than we did all year. Why do Aussies socialise so much!!? ;) :)

We have settled in fairly well, and have gone on regular runs around The Goose Ponds a couple mornings a week. These are always enjoyable as theres plenty of wildlife in the area. Theres always some cheeky little bird, a gaggle of geese, or quacking ducks to amuse us whilst sweating in the morning heat. Lovely image? ;)

On the 30th we travelled down to Brisbane. Boy, what a long journey. 14 hours!! I suppose we should get used to those kind of trips though aye!?
Main reason for being in brissy was the Australia v New Zealand Test match at the GABBA, which was such an experience! Having never been to an international stadium before, it was incredible to be there! Despite the game being weather affected on the days we were there, it didn't seem to dampen our days too much! As you can probs tell from photos on Facebook, we were sporting the local team quite nicely with our bright green t-shirts!! Even though the attendance for the game was only approx 14,000, the atmosphere was immense-beach balls flying everywhere, vuvuzelas honking away, chants galore, and of course Mexican waves! It was great to see some of the all time greats play, namely Ricky Ponting and Daniel Vettori. All in all, great time spent at the GABBA! Next time though, must remember to pack a jumper or some jeans, boi, it was so windy and cold! And before you say it...there is NO sarcasm in that you English folks! :-P
On the Sunday morning of the 4th, we wondered through Brissy and went to Roma Street Parklands which was enjoyable, saw the Christmas tree, and wondered through the main streets of the city for a nice coffee and breakfast.
As we didnt start heading back to Mackay till early afternoon, we stopped the night in Bunderberg. Terrible rum.... still no Koalas or Kangaroos spotted though :( maybe next time :)

Mid week this week we put up our Christmas tree :) as you can probably already tell from our photos, we had a bit a laugh doing that! Unfortunately it still doesn't feel like Christmas for us! Hopefully we will be going for a drive to see all the lights around Mackay soon! 

We have taken a couple of trips up to Eungella National Park and Finch Hatton Gorge. It's so tranquil and picturesque as you can all probably tell from our photos. The first visit to Eungella allowed us our first sighting of the awesome kookaburra. :) since then we have seen them quite often! But was very cool when we saw it the first time. Quite cheeky birds too!
We went back to Eungella on Saturday but a lot earlier. Leaving at 4am in the morning, got us to Eungella at about 05:20 where we were planning to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately cloud cover diminished that part of our plan. Thankfully, the second reason for being up in Eungella at such an ungodly hour was far more successful. We saw platypus!! :D :D they are very shy and elusive creatures that's why we had to be at dawn to catch them out and about. We saw three, each working their way up the river. Unfortunately due to the light, we didn't manage to take brilliant photos, but what we have we will post on Facebook. Very cool morning. The day also saw us wizzing through the forest canopy in Finch Hatton, being surrounded by enormous fruit bats which was pretty cool! :)

Think that's us pretty much up to date for now! We promise not to leave it so long next time! This week see's Haz working most mornings and Nick standing around in her nice white hat, long sleeves and trousers and trainers, in the baking heat, waving her arms about....a.k.a umpiring!!

Catch u's later!

Haz & Nick xx

Boi....it's hot!!

Well, the first week has been and gone. Achievements thus far....deleting the whole blog which we have just spent 45mins writing, so unfortunately this time its going to be to the point, without the frilly bits, because like the title, it's blummin hot!!

Right, let's start again. Achievements for the week include; getting used to the heat....which Haz hasn't just yet, the 10 hour time difference which is proving more difficult than expected! Next was the boring stuff like well the boring stuff (bank card, Medicare, grocery shopping bla de bla!), and of course the reason why we're in Mackay, Nick's first cricket game for Norths! It's played slightly differently over here, as we only play 35 overs in the one day comp due to early sunset at 6pm ish!! Overall the game went well, despite losing by a mere 6 runs! It felt good to get my first 2 wickets on Auzzie turf, hopefully I'll perform well again next week! :) (check facebook for photos, as trying to add them caused our post to be deleted. One word for this......FUMING!!)

On our first full day in Mackay we went for a scrumptious lunch to Eimeo Pacific Hotel with stunning views overlooking Whitsundays Coast, Brampton, Keswick and St Bees Islands with Eimeo Beach at the forefront. We paddled in our first Auzzie beach, known as Blacks Beach. Needless to say its nothing like the beaches back home....sorry guys!! We've been told to watch out for the jellies, crocs and stingers, so we might not be swimming in the ocean just yet, as we don't want to cut our trip extremely short!!

In and around the boring stuff and cricket, we've been settling in, job hunting and planning where we're heading after Mackay come January. It's a hard life though, playing water volleyball for hours in the afternoons (arvo) whilst soaking up the rays!

Wish us luck for finding a job though, as being in a mining city, things are pretty darn expensive!!

See u's later

Nick & Haz
P.S. this had better saved this time!!

Touch Down in Down Under

Well we've made it!! We have finally arrived in Mackay! Surprisingly there weren't any hitches along the way either! Just a few .... Minor issues with water bottles and the whole getting off the plane.....downing the water that couldn't be taken through security......buying another water bottle.....downing that water AGAIN when boarding another plane.....and so on for not one...but all 3 flights. You would have thought nick would have learnt the lesson after flight number one... ;) apparently you still can't take any water on board ... Whether you have bought it from duty free or not!

Nick successfully managed to sort out gluten free meals for the second flight but wished she hadn't bothered when faced with lumpy mash potato and salmon for breakfast...hmmm... Yum...?

So, for the next couple of days we shall be settling in, and sorting a few important jobs out like bank account and jobs. We have already been acquainted with the cricket ground where nick will be playing her first game on Saturday! Looking forward to a welcome party on Saturday night.

That's all for now. Some well needed rest is in order.

Haz & Nick

1st leg done & dusted!

Well we've completed the first stage of our journey :) we are currently sitting in Hong Kong airport, making good use of their free wi-fi! It's 8pm, so we still have another 4 hours to kill before our next flight! Wow, don't you just love sitting around in airports... It's like watching paint dry sometimes! You can tell we're typical Brits....one of the first things we did when getting off the plane was to find a Starbucks!

Not sure what what we're going to do to kill the first 4 hours... Coffee, tick.....email friends and family, tick ..... Wonder round the airport shops ( and realising shops like Gucci, Prada, Boss, Valentino, Tiffany.... Just aren't quite in our price range!), tick.....maybe grab some food before the delights of aeroplane food are within our grasp! Although business class strawberry and banana smoothie went down a treat for the celiac traveller is this party! Hehehe horrible scrambled eggs just didn't quite hit the grade for the 'so called "non-fussy" traveller!

Next leg, 9 hours to Brisbane where we will be doing all this waiting around merlarky once again for 5 hours! Final leg will be on to Mackay, and then such much needed sleep!

Logging off for now
Nick & Haz

Count Down Almost Over...

Well, Monday is fast approaching, and yet no packing has been attempted...well actually I've started,  but Haz has been slacking and not pulling her weight!! Instead, she decides to play with her new toy 'The Fujifilm!' Although I suppose its good prep for all the snaps we're going to take along the way! :)

Well thats it for now folks. We were just testing our blog spot before heading to the Land Down Under!

Keep in contact, and we'll keep you up to date :)

Nick & Haz