Pretty Being

I've been here just over a week now and it's been real fun. We flew into Brisbane last Tuesday and stayed in a beautiful apartment for two nights with a splendid balcony and a stunning view overlooking the river and some amazing sky liners in Brizzy! We used this stay to get over jet lag, which was pretty rank. We'd get up at 6am and be completely drained by 3pm so for our stay there that's pretty much what we did, sleep. We did get out and about in the mornings though, to sort bank accounts and attempting to get SIM cards for our phones, whatever you do guys, if you're travelling abroad and want to use your phone and probably use a local network providers SIM card, make sure the damn thing is unlocked! And if not, don't worry and be conned into thinking that it can't be done or the charge they'd want to slap on unlocking it for you, most of the time if you ring your current provider they'll do it for you. Lesson learnt. Unless of your on EE then you'll probably have to wait a month because they're crap! In that time you've probably come home!

We ate out in the mornings and in in the evenings as we were so tired. On the Thursday we travelled north to Noosa where we ended up staying for four nights with my boyfriends family friends who were very lovely and accommodating and really helped us out up there, not just looking after us, but advising us on where to visit which was a great help. The weather was beautiful the first couple of days and we spent the day at the national park walking and on the look out for dolphins and turtles! And of course koala ! We then spent an hour or so on the beach and had a drink in the surf club. Oh and we got a parking ticket that day which was most excellent! We didn't realise that in Australia you have to park in the direction on the traffic, so that was our parking fine reason! Not too happy!

The following day rained, all day. We booked an excursion that day, I sorted out my phone and we ate up the surf club then later went for dinner with our hosts for a Thai.

The following day came and at 6am we were meant to be getting picked up by this travel firm for a day at Fraser Island, basically a massive miscommunication problem between them Fraser Tours and Peter Pan Travels and no one came and picked us up. Not only that I rang them about 20 minutes after they were meant to be picking us up, giving them the benefit of the doubt in picking other people up etc and the woman was so rude to me, in the end I was glad we didn't go. I wouldn't want a company like that taking a penny of my money anyway, so instead we drove to Australia Zoo and had the day out there. And we met the Irwin family so that was fun too!

The next day we left Noosa to travel back down the coast to the Gold Coast, Broadbeach. The apartment was nice, but there wasn't a massive amount to do there and it's been really difficult to go and chill on the beach because it's been so windy. So we ate out and had a walk around and spent the night in the apartment. The next day we drove to Byron Bay which I quite liked! Was pretty chilled, a lot of people around, very surfer types and hippies and some cool places to stop for street food. We stopped for a Mexican, I had nachos with chilli, guacamole, cheese and salsa and Tom had pork tacos. Pretty good. We then drove onto Coffs Harbour where we stayed the night in a questionable apartment! It was ok, but not as nice as the previous places and it had a really odd vibe about it, but did us the night then the next morning we had breakfast at the surf club over looking the sea and went for a walk up the rocks of the sea edge. Again very windy! So we stopped for ice cream and coffee and made a move to our next stop over Port Macquarie. By the way en route to these places, it's seemed we have created a pattern of stop offs at Coles Express for frozen Cola! Amazing! So refreshing and tasty, we love them!

We arrived at Port Macquarie and we took our light cases to the room and then went out on a walk to see what was going on. We took towels, just I'm case the winds calmed down, unfortunately they didn't. We walked to the beach and sat on the grass for a while then we took a wonder through the town and checked out the shops and eating places and picked up some beers for the apartment. I'd picked up some brochures so when we got in we looked at stuff to do here. It's seems a real busy little place and the surrounding areas! So we booked another night as we have no travel bookings from here and last night we went for fish and chips and then today we went for a pancake breakfast, we went strawberry picking! And I got to take my strawberries home, or eat them in the car! And apparently, because of how they were grown on stands, and how they are watered and fed, I didn't need to wash them, because washing them bruises the strawberry! But the lady told me to take them out the plastic bag as soon as I can to stop them sweating, so I ate most of them!

We then went to an antique shop which was amazing! It was like stepping into a hoarders home! Stuff everywhere, but I quite liked it. I bought a sign for our new home when we get one! And a book.

We then went go karting which was scary but so much fun! I've got a massive blister from holding the wheel so tight! Tom cained it though and the lads on the side line kept calling him Lewis Hamilton! Which he obviously loved. I did my fasted lap in 19 something seconds, he did his in 14 something. I beat all the young lads so I didn't care!! Very competitive!

Now we're back at the room, I'm on the balcony trying to sun it a little as today was meant to be thunder and lightening all day but the suns been out most of the afternoon, so we could have done the rainforest trip we wanted to do or the fishing boat hire, never mind.

There's always tomorrow.

Yesterday was a lovely day my mum, sisters and myself went to London for the day. We visited the Tate and I wanted to see the Dan Flavin collection in the artists rooms. His work is so amazing, I love how modern his work was for its time. We then had a little potter around and how amazing is the Tate?! Incredible. We went for lunch on the South Bank and visited Borough Market which was rather tasty! We met up with my uncle and cousin who took us on a mini tour of the South Bank, was a fab day for it! Walked over Tower Bridge, visited the Tower of London, St Paul's and walked back over Millennium Bridge. We then had a race back to Euston as we had about half an hour to get on two different lines, which stopped off at 7 stops prior to ours, walking in between and a run to the train on the platform! And 2 minutes to spare!! Good work team!