Michelle and Brent

Thursday May 1st, 2008 11:30am

Here we are at the end of our trip. We are about to comence our long journey home, where we will visit the airports of just about as many countries as we have visited in the last 3.5 months. Its a long trip.

In our last few days in Australia we enjoyed the warm weather in the Gold Coast. After Byron Bay we spent one night in Coolangatta and caught a flight back to Sydney early Tuesday morning. After spending the day at Brents cousins place, we caught a late afternoon train to Wollongong, a university town about an hour south of Sydney. Brent's friend Grant hosted us for the evening. The next morning we went for a hike up Mount Kerra, which was quite an adventure. The cab driver who drive us to the base of the mountain was crazy, and we got a little lost on the way home. We took the train back to Sydney in the afternoon and had our last seafood meal.

Today we set out on our journey home, it will be approximately 48 hours of travelling. But we are both excited to get home and not live out of a backpack anymore. Our own beds, home cooked meals, and the company of other people are at the top of both our lists...of course and our dogs.

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!!
Michelle and Brent

Friday April 25, 2008 noonish

Hello again!
We are now in Byron Bay, Australia. It is up near the border of New South Whales and Queensland, on the east coast. It is a small town based around the beaches, and the tourism that they bring in. Very nice here, but very busy as today is a public holiday, ANZAC day (their version of remembrance day). We managed to find a nice backpacker hostel that could accomadate us for 4 nights, as most were full due to the long weekend. We are about a 2 minute walk to the beach which is excellent!
We arrived here yesterday afternoon after 3 days in Surfers Paradise (town name, but also the truth). This place was awesome, the beaches were spectacular, and the waves were amazing. I took a beginners surfing lesson, which was 2 hours, and I must say that I was at the top of the class...I showed those 10-12 olds how its done!
The beach was miles long, as the whole way along the coast it is covered with hotels, and not just motels and small hotels, but huge skyscraping hotels! The streets were packed with people, shops, bright lights, attractions like haunted houses and bungy swings. It sort of reminds me of Niagara Falls in the summer, but with a beach. We really enjoyed it there, but decided to check out this beach town a little further south as well.
The water is quite refreshing at both beaches, and the sun has been shining pretty much the entire time, which is a nice change from the days of rain in Sydney.

Now that we have reached the small town Byron Bay, with no skyscrapers, and a much more relaxing, young person vibe (Surfers Paradise was mostly vacationing families), we have decided to spend our last few days of our vacation here. We fly back to Sydney on tueday morning, bright and early at 6am. From there we will head even further south to my friend Grant's place in Wollongong where he is at teachers college. After spending tuesday night there, we will take a train back to Sydney (only one hour, suburban train) on wednesday to spend our last night at my cousin's place again before embarking on our 2 day flying adventure back around the world to canada.

We will definately blog one more time before arriving home, but this is fair warning to everyone to get ready for our return!

In the meantime, we will enjoy the sun and the surf for a few more days, and we are looking forward to the comfort of our own beds in one weeks time.

Brent

Monday April 21, 2008 5:30pm

We arrived in Sydney Australia last Wednesday evening. Hopped into a cab and found our Sydney home, or really Brent's cousins Sydney home. Jess and her boyfriend Doug are both lawyers in Sydney who were up north when we arrived celebrating their admission as solicitors. Which meant that we were lucky enough to have an appartment in Sydney to ourselves for 2 days.
Because it has been raining since our arrival our explorations have been minimal. In other words we have watched a whole season of 24 in 4 days. Which was quite relaxing and wonderful. We did explore Sydney on Saturday. We went down to the harbour to see the harbour bridge and the opera house (in the rain). We also went on the ferry over to the Zoo (in the rain). When Jess and Doug did arrive home, Brents aunt and uncle arrived with them and we made their small appartement into a sungle little hostel, sleeping six.
On Sunday we went to the Blue mountains for an overnigth trip. We were hoping for some hiking and amazing sights, but instead contented ourselves with staying at a cute old guesthouse with a lot of character. We played some pingpong, watched some movies by a wood stove fire and did a bit of walking in the rain. Didnt see any views though.
Today we have returned to Sydney on the train, and are catching a plane to the Gold Coast this evening at 8:00. We are hoping to find some sunhine and maybe even a beach up north.
The end of the trip is drawing near.
Well check in again soon.
Michelle

Tuesday April 15, 2007 1:30pm

This is our last day in New Zealand. The remainder of our Contiki Tour was pretty fantastic. We left you in Queenstown after Michelle's Canyon Swing. That night we went to an Ice Bar, which is exactly how it sounds, a bar made of ice. There were sculptures and benches and it was very cold. Everyone going in had to wear a parka.
The next day, we did our full day hike within a national park. It took about 7 hours for the whole day, which included 10 km up a mountain to a lodge where we had lunch overlooking one of the most spectacular views we've ever encountered. We could fill our water bottles from the natural glacier-fed rivers and streams and did not see another peson for hours at a time. After lunch we hiked back down the way we came and back to the van. There were 7 of us plus one guide who was extremely friendly and informative. We explained to us about native flora and fauna and lots of tidbits about the national park...and pretty much anything else we had questions about (Michelle had lots about sheep).

The following day was our time to leave Queenstown. On the way out the bus stopped at The Kawarau Bridge, home to the first commercial bungy site in the world. This is where I leapt off with a giant rubber band attached to my ankles. It was awesome! Nothing like sky diving, but very exciting and exhilarating as well.
The next adventure for us was a boat cruise down in Milford Sound. It was an overnight experience with amazing views and great times! Michelle did some kayaking, while I jumped off the boat with some other people into the 13 degree water. The neat thing about this sound (which is ACTUALLY a fijord) is that due to the immense amount of rainfall the area gets (about 300 days a year, or up to 9metres), the top 5metres of water is freshwater, with the rest being salt water. We got to sleep on the boat, which neither of us had ever done before also.

We then spent a further two days on the bus heading back up to Christchurch where we are now. We are spending the day around the city, shopping and hanging out before catching our plane to Sydney at 6pm. Once in Sydney we will be heading to my cousin Jessica's apartment for a few days before starting to tour around.

We now have about 2 and a half weeks before we come home!

Brent

April 10, 2008 7:30 pm

"Cheers Mates"
As all the New Zealanders and Australians say around here.

We are now on our Contiki tour. After Wellington we caught the ferry to Picton in the south island. The ferry took about 3 hours, with some of the most spectacular views. We then hopped on a bus into Christchurch that afternoon. Our tour started the following day in Christchurch.

So far so good! We had a lot of time on the bus on our first 2 days of the tour, but saw some wonderful things, made it to the west coast and everyone on the tour is pretty cool!

Yesterday we hiked up a glacier and out onto the top of it which was amazing. A good climb and freezing for the hour we were out on it. The coolest part is that the glacier is beside a rain forest and has no snow on it, just ice.

Today we are in Queenstown. Arrived last night and went up the mountain side gondala for a delicious buffet dinner. Today we wondered around the town and did some shopping. I went on a Canyon Swing, which is essentially a bungy jump, in a canyon, which you swing out over. Crazy scary! and I cried, but fun as well. Although I dont think I will be doing anything like that again. I dont even like rollercoasters that much. Also on a side note, it was a thousand times scarier than sky diving cause you had to jump yourself.

Tomorrow we have a full day hike on the Routeburn trail. Brent goes for his bungy jump the next day of the first bungy jump bridge ever done by A.J.Hackett.

Thats all for now. We are both doing well and looking foward to the Ice Bar we will be going to tonight.
BYE!!
Michelle