QLD FTW

It's the final bit of our 2 month mini-tour of Australia... and we're in Brisbane! Seems that a lot of Aussies find Brisbane quite amusing, nicknaming it Brisvegas, and Brisneyland, but we're here to say, "Hey! Lay off Brisbane, all right? It's good!"

We should quickly fill you in on the past week, which saw us narrowly avoid getting rained out of our little tent in a campsite in Coffs Harbour (not a very nice place, wouldn't go back). After that we moved on up to Byron Bay, where we spent 5 days dodging hippies and surfers, but not, unfortunately, their boards - Ben got totally clocked on the head within about 1 minute of setting foot in the surf on Main Beach. Despite this minor injury, we really liked Byron Bay - kinda like a surf version of a ski village, and very nice to get back to civilization after the bogantastic campsites we had been in before. We particularly enjoyed the Railway Friendly Bar with its Coopers beer on tap and excellent pub grub served from a miniature kitchen. Well done!

We arrived in Brisbane by bus (yep, the glamour never ends) on Sunday night and were picked up by Stu and Debs (Deb's Uncle and Aunt).

The next morning Debs escorted us into Brisbane via the City Cat (the best way to catch your first glimpses of the city) and we shot off for our travel doctors appointment and stocked up on drugs for the SE Asia leg (Doxycycline for malaria, drugs for Debs' infected mozzie bites, antibiotics, anti mozzie spray, etc). Here's the two Debs', windswept on the Cat:

Then, yesterday, we had the best day yet in Australia! Now we finally get what all the fuss is all about. Joey took us round to visit some family friends - Karen and Steve - who have a house backing onto the bay, and spent an hour or two skurfing. Whaddya mean you don't know what skurfing is? Haven't you ever laid on a surfboard and been dragged around behind a little boat, trying to stand up and surf, but falling off a lot instead? It's great!


We wound up with a pizza festival back at the house. Entertainment was provided by a trio of teenage boys endlessly talking rubbish - extremely amusing.

Today we're off to catch the Andy Warhol ("Warhol, like hols") exhibition in the centre, and tomorrow we zoom off on a little 2-day trip up to Fraser Island. Keep us in your prayers ;-)

Ben and Debs

Surf's up!

We are embracing the range of extreme sports opportunities that NZ offers with cheerful readiness. Yesterday we tooled out to the west coast to become proper "radical dudes". Raglan Surf School did the honours, converting us from total groms to pure hardcore rippers.

$89 each bought us a 3 hour lesson: 1h of theory and rehearsals, then 2h in the surf, getting knocked about in Whale Bay by a variety of waves. We loved it! Both of us had caught and ridden a few waves in by the end of the day, and both of us had been fully stuffed a couple of times, including a serious winding for Debs. Basically, it was just like that bit at the end of Point Break.

No pictures of us riding the waves cos we were too busy actually surfing to take pictures, y'see?

However, I can attempt to communicate the experience using the power of visual communication, as follows - surfing feels like a mix of this:

And this:

Add a bit of salty water up your nostrils and that's basically it.

So, now we're pro surfers, you can expect to see us cropping up on the Extreme Sports channel over the next few months as we cruise the beaches of NZ and Oz. Insane!

Ben