The Sunshine and Gold Coasts

We arrived on the Sunshine Coast, Noosa to be exact, in a blaze of...well...sunshine. Our sole intention was to learn to surf and Steve and Lucy did an admirable job of this with no doubt Steve imagining he was in Point Break and Lucy in Blue Crush. Beth, on the other hand, could only imagine she was back lying on the beach as she finally emerged from under the ninth wave in a row covered in algae and resembling a swamp monster. Surfer chick she was not. We did learn the hard way why surfers wear 'rashy' tops as the 3 of us, Therese and Afra all suffered with chafing of various body parts. Steve and Afra in slightly more disturbing places that made us fear for their future fertility chances.

Steve and Beth stayed at the Noosa Caravan Park about 2km outside the main town but we spent most of our time at the stunning YHA where Lucy, Therese and Afra were staying. In fact we spent so much time there the hostel staff seemed to think we were staying there too which is a good job considering the antics we all got up too on our last night. We met the very funny Ant who introduced us to a drinking game called 'Four Kings' involving cross-dressing, press-ups in the bar and drinking flaming sambucas. Ant also introduced us to the rather unfortunately named cocktail 'chenoble fallout' that involved drinking vapours from burning alcohol. Long story...it seemed funny at the time but guess you had to be there. Needless to say that the photos will NOT make it to the website.

Brisbane
Australia has been in a drought situation for over 12 years and clearly their rain dances have paid off. It poured when we arrived in Brisbane. For three long days which, according to the Aussies, is unusual even in wet season. Small comfort said the Brits. Nevertheless we still managed to take the sights in. "You're mad", said the Aussies, "it's raining koalas and possums out there". "We're used to it", replied the Brits, "we're British". So we set to explore the city - well largely the shopping which was excellent. Under the guise of 'Secret Santa' presents for each other, we replenished our increasingly tatty and dirty wardrobe, finally accepting that our clothes do not get clean in hostel washing machines just less dirty!

Disappointingly the international cricket match between Australia and New Zealand we intended to watch was rained off but it just as much of a spectacle to watch the Aussie fans. Donned in green and yellow from head to foot they made the most of the cancellation by drinking tremendous amounts and challenging the Kiwis to a game in the stands.

In the evening we met up with some Israeli lads we had met at the Whitsundays Islands. Whilst smoking molasses which tasted like we were inhaling After Eight mints (it's legal Mum, honest!), we heard about one of their attempts to get into the Mossad (Israeli equivalent to Secret Service). A staged Arabic hostage situation and 14 days of torture saw him fail. He was supposed to withstand 21 days to qualify and instead he took a job defending the Israeli foreign minister. It's another world! It was a night of meeting fascinating people generally and we met a blind traveller (and we thought it was challenging to find our way round a new place?) who also happened to be a sports commentator for Radio. There are truly some incredible people out there.

Marginally hungover, we visited the Lone Pine Sanctuary with the sole intention of cuddling a koala - one of the only places in Aus that this is legal. After taking at least 300 photos of the tree-hugging marsupial, Beth's dream was realised. Clinging onto a cute, faintly disgruntled Koala called Elise, she didn't even mind when the said bear poo'ed all over her hand. The sanctuary was also home to many of the strange looking animals that Australia is famous for including cute Wombats, unlovable Tasmanian Devils, cartoon-like Enchidna and the strange looking Cassowarys. We even hand fed kangaroos, but it must be said that their breath is pretty revolting.

Our final (wet and rainy) day in Brisbane saw us accompanying Therese and Afra to Ikea in search of food from their homeland. It was a surreal experience to be in Aus and doing something so similar to our old 'normal' life such as visiting Ikea but our lovely new Swedish friends helped us pick out a feast to celebrate St.Lucia's day on 13th December which just so happens to be Lucy's Birthday too. After all the shopping over the last couple of days, Steve was chomping at the bit to see the sea and surf again so we headed down to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast.

Surfers Paradise
On the contrary to what we had heard, Surfers Paradise was great fun and had a fantastic atmosphere - even though all the concrete holiday apartments made it look a little like a very exotic Rochdale! We realised that Australia had started to seriously drain our funds and we desperately wanted to visit all the theme parks in the area. So, after settling Lucy, Therese and Afra into a swanky apartment, Steve and Beth camped in a campsite 3km from town to save money. The sacrifice and discomfort was more than worth it after our first day of fun and frolics at 'Wet n wild' water park which was both very wet and extremely wild. Advice for those ever considering going, wear some sort of footwear in the dark cave that heralds the start of the big water rides. We ended up with mosquito bites over the entire soles of our feet and the huntsman spider - harmless but 4 inches in diameter - was not helpful either.

Next day was Lucy's Birthday and she awoke in total denial at being 27. Movieworld soon perked her up though and she rode the ScoobyDoo rollercoaster, screaming like a baby. In the evening we celebrated Lucy's 27th year (sorry Luce, we couldn't resist another mention) with St.Lucia buns, Glog and Salt licorice. All Swedish delights were, well delightful, apart from the latter. Whoever heard of salted licorice? (sorry Therese and Afra, we tried to like it but it tasted like rat poison).

On our final day we went to Seaworld, definitely the best park by far. In addition to the world's biggest dolphin display, Police Academy stunt show and a competition between the world's number two and ex-world champion wake-boarders, the highlight was Shark Bay. Two huge pools are divided by glass separating the harmless sharks from the deadly, 3 metre specimens from 1 metre, Jaws from Nemo. Looking down into the water was scary enough but going underground to watch the shark's swimming towards you was too reminiscent of the scene in Deep Blue Sea for our liking! It was an incredible experience seeing the sharks at such close quarters without being eaten but it did nothing to alleviate Beth's fear of them and it was not particularly helpful that Steve shouted 'boo' in her ear everytime Jaws headed towards the glass.

And before we knew it, it was time to leave the warm and fun-loving Queensland and head back down to New South Wales - an hour away from Surfers and an hour ahead.