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