Hi-5 in Hawaii

Very soon, the wizards found themselves on yet another flight to another 'exotic' land - the island of O'ahu in the US state of Hawaii! Even flying in over the blue waters, we found ourselves scanning the island below us for the legendary Pearl Harbour and checking out the surf break. Another new place, another new playground!

The first few days were spent wandering down the beautiful Waikiki promenade, messing around on the paradise-like beaches and catching up with a few familiar faces from earlier on our travels in Australia. We all decided almost in an instant that it was our favorite beach so far; the water was always warm and clear with nice clean golden sand and full of young travellers or aged and ancient Hawaiian surfers who put us all to shame.

In an effort to maximise the beautiful island to its fullest, we travelled down to Pearl Harbour, the site of the Japanese massacre of the US Naval Fleet in 1941. One beautiful morning we caught the bus to the harbour with numerous US F-15 fighter aircraft buzzing over our heads providing us with plenty of anticipation for the day ahead. We visited the museum for an hour first, reading all about the Japanese's planning for the attack and the un-suspecting US personel as they went about their morning routines. Soon we boarded the boat to bring us across to the memorial to the USS Arizona that lay literally feet below the surface. As we entered the memorial, Baz's hat blew off in the sea breeze and landed in the water; after a bit of a laugh and jokes, the wizards proceeded into the floating memorial. A guard soon approached us with the soaking hat, much to our surprise.

We decided to explore the North Shore of the island, the filming locations of Jurassic Park and LOST. It is also home to Pipeline, the biggest surfing spot on the planet; unfortunately at this time of year it was nothing but a few token breaks, nothing to write home about...
We spent a night up there chilling on ther beach, watching the sunsets, snorkelling with turtles and cliff jumping joined by a few Welsh girls we'd met earlier in Waikiki. On our return down the coast, we stopped off to look for the site of LOST which we had heard was filmed in the area. Despite many signs and shouting security guards, we stumbled along a beach which we we fairly confident had had screen time. However the searing heat and lack of water was almost a deciding factor on our retreat. We saw some giant, green sea-turtles basking on the hot sand and just as we were geting sick of the heat, Mike spotted a few bamboo structures just off the beach. We quickly approached discovering the fenced off set from the tv show. It was a strange feeling to stand there as it has been for all the film/tv locations we've visited over the trip, but soon the conditions forced us to look for shade and water.

The last few days found us chillaxing on the beaches of Waikiki and some general shenanigans with the Welshies. The three of us where pretty gutted to be leaving this place - all of us had a special place for it, being one of our favorite destinations. However the excitement of meeting back up with Hubbs and another friend from home, Seacow, was escalating and soon we were off to mainland US for the final leg of the epic trip......

Bula Bula FIJI

Bula bula greetings (hello) await us in the distinctly hot main island of Viti Levu; jeans clearly a bad choice over here. Smugglers Cove in Nadi (Fiji's 2nd city) will be our temporary place of residence and it's certainly a massive change of scenery/culture to what we've been used to. Theres a very chilled out vibe and the locals give this almost native laissez-faire way of life a term; FIJI TIME! So a bus will run on 'FIJI TIME' and not on schedule. We like it! And we love the natural layout of the country including palm lined beaches and perfect weather to boot that makes the ideal setting for consuming our duty free Gin.
KAVA; a traditional polynesian drink which you would be forgiven for thinking was muddy water, but in fact is mainly consisting of ground native plant root that acts as a halucinogenic if you drink loads or simply numbs your tongue if you drink little. We had our fair share during our Kava welcome ceremonies just not to be rude of course.

Fiji's chillout effects on us made it an ideal time for Aladdin & Deich to learn poker (courtesy of Baz) in prep for upcoming Vegas. A rare stint of productivity in us then meant we were booked on a 7-night package involving the sun-fun-filled Robinson Crusoe Island and secluded Mango Bay Resort. Needless to say our time was spent in hammocks, drinking, tanning, getting to know some charismatic natives and getting to know other backpackers ; ) A fair few games of nationally popular volleyball were had (involving the breaking of one of Aladdin's toes thanks to 'bone-breaker-baz') as was some time kayaking amongst stingrays (cue Steve Irwin jokes) and a miserable attempt at spearfishing and fish driving. A very notable daywas spent with a local village watching their weekly beloved rugby tournament which was fantastic. We were the only foreigners there amongst at least 300 people. The Fijians here are so friendly, happy, smiley, accomodating and have much laughter in them and as a token of our appreciation we gifted our host Mike a soccer ball (as requested - guess they are getting tired of rugby) and a blown up picture of his team and us which we later found was placed up in his community hall.
We've seen an impressive show of Fiji culture with the likes of Kava ceremonies, fire shows, 101 things to do with a coconut, machete dancing, fine fijian lady dancing, lovu (ground oven) cooking etc... A top notch 2 weeks.

New Zealand - North Island...IM FALLING!!!

After arriving in Wellington after our 3 hour ferry trip...very enjoyable i must add, we reved up the Nissan sunny and went to find a hostel in Wellington because as per usual we are very laid back in booking things up!

We did find one and we settled for a top nights sleep...we have changed alot since Australia regarding our nocturnal activities!

Day 2 north island consisted of a heafty drive upto Lake Taupo, the much anticipated venue of our next adrenaline event...THE SKYDIVE! Driving on the north island was very different to the South...basically alot more english, with more traffic about and those annoying slow vehicles known as HGV's.

On our route into Taupo we passed two Volcanoes, looked harmless but clearly were not, and then was welcomed by the largest lake in NZ (lake Taupo of course)! It was created by a huge meteor that hit the earth and wiped out pretty much everything...cant remember all the specific details so that will do for now.

Checked into our hostel (with a sauna of course), no doubt ate McDonalds then signed upto our skydive the next day.....ahhhhhhhh....we were all very excited!

Team Jump do the Big One: woke up early very excited about this mental sport, the jump was delayed an hour due to morning cloud so 1100 was our new jump time...woo woo.
Picked up in a white limo with a number plate that said 'JUMPER', we were off to the airfeild to be idiots.
Watched a jump video to get us ready, got all the gear on which made us look like silly painters, then waited our turn to be flown upto 12,000ft to obtain 40secs of freefall before the parachute was deployed!
Our bright pink turbo prop aircraft started, and all the wizards were squeezed in with there instructors who were all mental i would like to add, and off to the blue skies overlooking the volcanoes, thermal springs of rotorua and the great lake!

Mike was up first, then myself (deytrikh), then Baz last! We hit 12,000ft, the door opened, the harnesses were connected and the green light came on...Mike nervously shuffled to the edge and in fine wizard form put on a brave face as he hung in mid air before been ejected out the aircraft!
3,2,1 see you later Mike...he dropped like a stone doing a back flip upon exit...lets hope i see him at the bottom. I then shuffled up, very weird feeling hanging out in mid air in a moving aircraft before falling! Before i knew it i was off experiencing pure negative G also doing backflips until reaching terminal velocity. An absolutley amazing feelig, kind of like floating whilst spinning and falling...absolutley loved it! Parachute was deployed...thank god, and we had time to take in the scenery and enjoy the ride down!
Had a smooth touch down, and ran to the boys, Baz who arrived a minute later...he fell faster due to his weight...and we were all on a high from the some what euphoric rush...absolutley amazing!

That night we went out to celebrate our surrival...of course!

On our last day in Taupo we hired out some moutain bikes took a scenic ride through woodland, really hard work actually, and upto a place called Hukka falls, which is where the river reduces in width forcing a large volume of water through this space forming very powerful rapids...gorgeous icy blue waters! The bike ride was a wake up call to our reduced fitness levels, but was nice to get out and a great way to see more of the area.

The next stop was Rotorua, renowned for its thermal activity and polyensian spas, and strong smell of sulphur. As we hadnt booked ahead on arrving in Rotorua we drove around to find the best deal...we chose Base backpackers, a chain we are familiar with, and to our amazment we found out that are good freind Adam Bullock...aka the bull, was also checked in, however he did not know of our arrival...ha!

Later whilst chilling on the balcony we recognised a familar phsyique wallowing in the hot outdoor pool of the hostel...yes it was the bull so ran down to surpise him, he was shocked, but soon enough we were back in the bar for yet another reason to celebrate!
Rotorua was great apart from the smell, we went luging for an hour or so down concrete tracks in the mountains, and payed a visit to the world famous spas...im sorry fathers of conducting this somewhat feminine activity but its a hard life being a backpacker!

After Rotorua we made our way to Hamilton to visit Niel, a freind from university currently going through his commercial flying training. caught up with him for a few days before heading north to Auckland and beyond.

One night in Auckland and then a trip north to Whangerie to see Mikes Aunt and Uncle he hadnt seen in years. Was really nice for us, especially for Mike to see and meet more family. They were great putting us up for 2 nights, and cooking us some fantastic real food...cheers mike for the contacts!

2 final uneventful nights in Auckland brang New Zealand to an end, we all vow to be back to this beautiful country in the future and it is safe to say it has pushed us to our limits of what we thought we would do, the bungee! An amazing country that has been fantastic fun, plus we all honed our driving/rally skills!

New Zealand - South Island

After a short 3 hour flight from Sydney to Christchurch we began searching for a hostel in the bitter cold. Christchurch had an average temperature of approx 2 degrees and compared to our usual Australian temperature of approx 20+ degrees, we were severely unprepared for this shock cold snap. After checking in to the city YHA, we soon slept ready for the new adventure to begin the following day.
The next day started with cold cold rain and we decided to collect our car for the trip and start our road trip early. The car was collected from the nearby depot and the 5 hour journey south to Dunedin commenced. After 90km, we realised that Baz had left his backpack in Christchurch so this meant adding an extra 180km to the trip to collect it - not such a good start!!
Arriving in Dunedin to meet Mike's cousin Robin, none of us were sure what to expect - as Mike hadnt seen him in almost 15years. Luckily for the wizards, a drum'n'bass party was in full flow in Rob's house which we all embraced to true wizard fashion - crazy night!! The following day was a fairly timid affair nursing ourselves back to full health with a McDonalds and Few pints that night - sure why not?!
After a 4 hour drive the next day we arrived at the picturesque Fiordlands, a scenic region used regularly in Jackson's LOTR trilogy. That night was spent in the hillside cabins of a backpackers set in a deer farm, with truly spectular views. The next day we drove to Milford Sound, the location for the river scenes in The Fellowship of the Ring. To pay for our accomodation that night back at the farm, we chopped and gathered fire-wood from the farm for the log fires in the hostel, followed by a evening meal of 'rubber-tasting' noodles and dry toast - funds were definately starting to reduce.
Queenstown was the next on the agenda with our main targets here the epic Nevis Highwire Bungy (third highest in the world), the legendary FergBurger and of course the great nightlife we'd been promised. The day finally dawned and after little sleep, we all found ourselves on the bus to the Nevis Gorge to throw ourselves from 440ft attached only to a piece of elastic thinner than my fist. Baz was the first up and despite taking the piss out of the others for their fear of heights, nerves started to creep into his expressions as he approached the ledge. A superb 'swan-dive' followed as he freefell for up to 8.5secs. Mike was immediately after and then Dach towards the end of the weight-ordered queue due to his spindly little legs, with even several females in front of him!! The sheer terror of the first few seconds of falling was soon outdone by the elation of being alive and being towed back up to the suspended pod. All of our faces were priceless upon arrival back up at the top - a great achievement! That night was a celebratory one with the wizards meeting up with and old face again - Dave the Scottish chap who's part in the goat murder was not to be forgotten as well as his appearances in Surfers on the Gold Coast. Large lash ensued at the infamous World Bar where the common drinking vessels were ceramic teapots full of cocktails - Nice!

Sydney!

After spending 3 nights in Byron Bay we caught our flight from Gold Coast airport down to Sydney...a place we were all really excited about spending time in.
On arrival the rain was falling and the thunder roaring as we were off to stay at Baz's cousins flat in Coogee (an area in Sydney) with Lorcan and his girlfreind Vienna. We spent three nights in Coogee with Lorcan which was good, saving money on accomodation and it was nice to be in a homly environment again as we have only stayed in hostels for the past 4 months!
After the 3 nights in Coogee we moved into central Sydney to live in a very popular hostel called Wake up voted the best hostel in the country! It was not long until we found out why...500 beds providing us with many new faces to meet and a very lively bar downstars was the perfect way to meet these faces...many a night was spent at this bar! On our first day in the new hostel we decided to enter into the weekly quiz...after learning that the quiz was on mainly Sydney, aussie TV soaps and a little on general Australian history we spent 30mins swatting up on the internet and reading the australia lonely planet guide. It turned out that this short period of swatting and a couple of tatical phone calls to aussie freinds from the Gold Coast the alcohol from the past few months had not effected our short term memory...victors we were, winning a pair of wake up boxers and t-shirt and most importantly a $100 bar tab!
We then proceeded to expend this bar tab later on that night!!!

Unfortunatly for us the 1st 13days out of a total of 21 days in Sydney were raining...the weather was poor and the mood was a little lower than it should have been as us wizards to like our beaches nice and dry! We were determined to see all of what we wanted to in Sydney and experience something called 'culture' which up until now we were not very familar with.
Taking a walk past Darling harbour and on to circular quay, you are welcomed by one of the most famous postcard pictures...the harbour bridge connecting central and north Sydney comes into sight first closely followed by the opera house as a perfect backdrop. Absolutley stunning the opera house lived upto all expections, however alot larger than was first thought.

Sydney is a really nice with fantastic buildings, a busling atmosphere and alot to do....we experienced all the classic sights along with the ANZAC memorial in Hyde park, even went to an Art Gallery before the weather perked up! We also took a stroll through the Royal Botanic Gardens which were actually amazing, set amoungst a busy city and full of a huge variety of plant life, big spiders hanging in trees along with hundreds of bats!

Something that we were all very excited about was the arrival of a freind from university, Matt Payne aka 'Badger'. He arrived for just 2weeks of "culture" and generally a good time! A good time was definetley had from arrival through to departure but that is a story for another time.

So the weather improved and all 4 of us were off to the beach...bondi beach of course! The world famous beach was an impressive sight, not overly busy, great surf and set in a cove facing out onto the Pacific! Chilled out for a few hours on the beach, badger went for a surf, Dach and Baz went for a walk and Mike wallowed on the beach listening to his Ipod and no doubt spectating passers by.
Barry McAttack also had another cousin in Sydny, Lorcans older brother Owen. He went on a 2week holiday to Fiji with his wife so was very kind and gave us the keys to his very nice apartment near Bondi while he was gone! A risky move one may say as backpackers are not known for there imaculate behaviour and cleanliness! We did behave ourselves which had nothing to do with Owen being twice the size of us!

In our last couple of days in Sydney we took a wonder upto North Sydney which is renowned for its fantastic beaches and good surf! It did not dissapoint when arrived at Palm Beach...the beach where Home and Away is filmed, spent a day here chilling out before heading back to the hostel and no doubt going out again!

Sydney was really good as a whole for our 3week duration, did pretty much everything we wanted, saw family members, old freinds (Brendan and Danni), met new friends (mainly Keith), and grew quite fond of a city towards the end when the weather picked up and showed us Sydneys true colours...but dont worry parents we will come home before moving back out here! We all left on 2nd May, the wizards to Christchurch (New Zealand) and Badger back home to England. Was really good having Badger with us and he provided us with alot of entertainment over the 2weeks he was here! We were all ready to leave Australia after spending 4months here, but not for any negative reason watsoever! We have had a fantastic time here since January, and we will miss many of the places we have visited and lived along with the lifestyle we have been living here and defintly many of the people along the way!

To New Zealand we travel and the adrenaline fueled events that will no doubt ruin our sleeping patterns!!!

Byron Bay - The REAL paradise of surf...

The wizards are approaching mid-April and the latter stages of the aussie leg of the trip. Therefore as time is presssing on it calls for a new destination; Byron Bay.

Departing Queensland and entering New South Wales it is only 1hr south of Surfers - a popular little beach town that will undoubtedly serve as a nice refresher bfore flying to the metropolitan Sydney in 3 days. Dach and Aladdin have fond memories of their one-nighter road trip here a while back and so naturally Baz is eagerly anticipating it too. However, it has been torrentially pouring all day and upon arrival the roads of Byron are flooding. Not ideal but the impressive thunder storms keep our dismay at bay as we settle into yet another hostel. The goon is quick into action as our standard precursor to going out. Cheeky Monkeys is the only place worthy to go; a venue for general debauchery with the likes of wet t-shirt contests, painted topless backpacker girls and table top dancing all regular part of the nights antics. Brilliant! The banter and game of life were rife with Aladdin notably getting done over after answering to 'What is Hitlers book called?' Why M.E.I.N. Kampf of course. Down you go...
Byron Bay is renowned for being a very chilled out town, good for its surf to which we definately took full advantage of when the sun came back to greet us with all it's intensity. The news of a fatal shark attack in the same spot just 48hrs before us somehow did not sway our enthusiasm! Neither did the ridiculously close sea-lion who bobbed its head up by us. Byron's also a good access point to Nimbin - a village sized town known very much for one thing only. We thought it would be a laugh to see all those strange and hippie like humans with all their associated paraphanalia shops/cafes/museums too.
All in all a cracking time shared with our good buddies SAFFA and Brendan+Danni. Big nights out, big surf and big views. The most easterly point of Oz lies here marked by a white lighthouse to which is a popular spot for paragliders and whale watchers too so we've heard. We agree that this is our favourite place on the east coast! Impressive...

Couran Point Island Resort

After a week on the Gold Coast, we realized we had found a cool spot to settle for a few months and more importantly to get a job that would help finance the rest of the world tour. Dach and Baz managed to find a job advert online and after contacting them, arranged a trial for the weekend. Boarding the ferry to South Stradbroke Island, they were soon greeted by the idyllic Couran Point Island Resort, beautifully set amongst palm trees, wild wallabies and other scenic wildlife and forestry.

To our surprise, we were left in sole charge of the restaurant bar after Dach suggested that he had more ‘bar experience’ than in the restaurant. The horrified look on his face when he was shown the cocktail and coffee menu was priceless. So with no RSA (compulsory qualification needed to serve alcohol in Australia), we set to work, blagging our way through cocktails and searching endlessly through the fridges of the many, unheard-of Aussie beers. The trial passed quite quickly and before we knew it, we were heading back home with a few dollars in the pockets and a pretty ‘cushty’ job secured. Very soon, Mike and Hubbs were new addition to the resort staff list, and they joined us on regular visits to the island to work.
Whilst working on the island we met some cool people that really welcomed us into the job. The resort manager was an old but interesting guy who stories and experiences always entertained us. His passions lay with most sports including surfing and bodyboarding (despite being 60+) and he was also recognized as the island’s snake catcher. The groundsmen and chef’s all took to us really well, giving us rides back to mainland and cooking us up some great meals. We really settled in well, getting to know everyone and at one point before Hubbs left, making up 4 out of the 6 restaurant staff including the chefs.

In mid-March, we decided to move from our hostel-home in Southport to the staff accommodation on the island. We stayed in the accommodation for just over 3 weeks, hangiong out on the island on our time off. This allowed us to save much more money and we even had our own pet on the island, Monty the wallaby who loved coming over for breakfast every morning. In the last few weeks we were eagerly anticipating the move south to Byron and Sydney – more fun times!!!

Surfers Paradise

Arrived in Surfers on the 12th February, unfortunatley the weather wasnt great however when the weather perked up Surfers, the centre of the Gold Coast looked amazing! 27km of beach stretching all the way down to Coolangata. Standing on the beach you can see all the high rise from surfers and then each individual place 30km south with continuous surf breaking on the beach!
We were all really excited about getting a job in this very young and happening place with a good repuatation for a top night.
Cavill Avenue the main street in Surfers paradise is littered with bars, surf shops and if your lucky you will see the iconic metre maids...stunning broads in gold bikinis and cowboy hats patrolling the streets promoting varoius events!
We however were staying at a small backpackers hostel in a place called Southport just 5mins from Surfers. We were quickly iniated into the gold coast nightlife after signing upto the 'the backpackers big night out', which is were a bus stops at 7 hostels picking people up and taking them to various bars and clubs around Surfers Paradise. a big night was had and we met some cool people aswell as bumping into familiar faces.
We got proactive and got job hunting, Mike and Hubbs landed them selves a labouring job for a day, so whilst they went off, myself and Baz went to the beach then continued to job hunt.
We found two jobs with immediate trials, the 1st being a job selling tickets for nights out, and the 2nd being food/beverage attendants at a holiday beach resort on stradbroke island just off the Gold Coast called Couran point.
The boys had a hard days labouring so when me and Baz turned up to start work at the resort with palm trees and wallabies and serving hen parties alcohol we knew we had lucked in!!!

Every sunday night we used to head to a venue called Fishermans tavern (Fishos). next to a 5star hotel and overlooking a marina full of expensive boats and an ocean and beach just 5minutes the other side, Fishos provided us with many backpackers and Gold coast locals celebrating the end of the weekend...superb night out!!!

Baz celebrated his birthday on the 18th, so in fine wizard fashion the bow tie was on, and we were off for a steak meal then drinks...another good night!

We began work in the evenings for the party cruise company selling tickets as Couran point wasnt full time. We quickly realised that selling tickets to people on a night out is harder than origonally thought, however a good was good way to meet the fellow backpacker.

Whenever the weather was fine and we were not working we would head to the beach to soak up the sun and mess around in the waves.

One day after work Deytrikh came back and asked Hubbs an Mike if they fancied hiring a van of the chap who owned the hostel to go on a 1 night road trip down to the infamous Byron Bay! The reason behind the trip was because we knew that Hubbsy was leaving due to his buisness back in the UK. Unfortunatley Baz was working so couldnt make the spontaneous trip.
The road trip was on the pacific highway was clear and Mike was the driver. We arrived in Byron at 2030 after stopping on the hard shoulder to do a 0-100km/hr, and taking a wrong turn even though it is a straight road to Byron??? We met up with one of Deytrikh"s university freinds called Laura who was on fine form...another great night was had!
Even though we were feeling slightly worse for wear the next day the sun was out and we had a good drive back to the Gold Coast!

The time had come and Hubbs reluctantly left us on the 3rd March. Was really sad to see him leave as he is one of the boys and is a general hoot to be around. We all hope to see him again on our travels when his buisness is more stable and on the go!

The day after Deytrikh went to the final day of the Quicksliver pros surfing competition at Snapper rocks next to Coolangata with all the big names there including Kelly Slater! He had a top day but was sorry the boys couldnt make it.
St Paddys day was the next big event on the wizard's Gold Coast calander on the 17th March. We all went out in the heart of Surfers on a pub crawl with a very good freind of ours from South African who we call SAFA and two irish, Brendan and Danni..also very good freinds!
Had a really good night which is expected from such a world renowned day of drinking...typical Irish!

A good freind of ours from University, Adam Bullock aka Bully or the Bull arrived in Surfers as he was travelling the East coast, so we showed him how the wizards roll while he was here. It's nice to see familar faces and its a nice change every now and then especially with Bully and his quick wit!

Our last night on the Gold Coast was on the 8th April. A good send off was had and a found farewell to our good freind SAFA and the place that seemed like home.

NEW SOUTH WALES HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brisbane!

All aboard the socialites transport known as the OZ Experience bus...Brisbane was next on the agenda for a 2 night stop! Brisbane is the 1st city we have hit along these shores and its refreshing not only because its a nice hip city.
A highly recommended pancake house seemed to be the first point of call after we had checked our bags into the hostel. The pancake house was amazing really as it was within a renovated church..."is this really the place we should be eating"???
At the end of the sweet and sickly meal the boys called for Baz (probably beacuse hes Irish) to gun (see off) a pot of maple syrup for $3...peer pressure strikes again and barry was now on a sugar high!
We were all hoping for a night out similar to that which is supplied by Leeds and we were optimistic hving heard alot about 'the Valley' - a haven for bars and clubs. We never found what we were looking for other than the local backpackers Down under Bar...which we found to be of great entertainment value the next evening!

Invloved were team drinking games. Deytrikh nominating himself to the front before anyone could raise a hand meant that the red team was quickly introduced with Mike and Charlotte (an english we knew quite well) making up the trio. 3 games of a semi explicit nature began and tied 1-1 with the green team we felt ready to win...unfortunatley this was not the case even though dach and mike put in stirling performances...you should be proud parents of these two young men, and Barrys for that matter has he was shouting morale support from the crowd!

Deytrikg met up with an old school mate he had not seen in 4yrs or so who was studying at university in brisbane which was good...but apart from that very little culture was seen apart from the local nightlife!

The Gold Coast awaites!

Noosa

We were really excited to get Noosa for a number of reasons...we had heard this is the first place along the East coast from Cairns that the surf is good...a sport we were all very keen to dabble in, one of our good mates form University (Old Andy) is a resident here, and our good freind Mike Lowe (the wannabe pilot...hes optimistic) was joining the wizards at this stage!

So we arrived in Noosa and discovered that the backpackers hostel we were staying in provided us with free surf board hire all week...perfect and the start of some great entertainment! We met up with Andy who seemed very well then headed off down the beach for some surf! We paddled out not having a clue what we were doing and began our surfing careers...1st day of surfing resulted in noone standing, however some valuble lessons we learnt mainly that waves can cause injury and make you end up on rocks (Hubbs)!

Our week in Noosa was amazing, Noosa is such a nice place, really good shops, food and fine weather! we surfed all week and more importantly made contact with old freinds!

When Mr Lowe joined the wizards and was introduced to the game of life, it resulted in him doing 350pressups in the first 24hrs of being initiated...a slow starter some may say...the noises he was making after 200 made us a little worried for his health!

Next stop Brisbane...the capital of Queensland!

Fraser Island

We arrived in Hervey Bay on 29/01/08 ready to hit Fraser Island the following day.

So we got up early and met everyone we would off roading with...the team consisted of us 3 lads, 2 german brothers an a dutch girl, we also had another jeep travelling with us...a load of young english boys and girls some who we had already met along our travels!

We took the ferry over to Fraser and i began the driving...was alot of fun bouncing aeround the tracks with everyone in the back hitting their heads on the roof...very amusing if you were in the front!

We made to our way to Lake Mcenzie which was amzing. A perfectly clear fesh water lake in the middle of this island made from sand out at sea! Deytrikh and hubbs swam across to the other side which was about 500m whislt the other guys remained wallowing in the shallows.

We then made our way to the first campsite out on the beach, as per usual we had some beers and wine and settled into a classic Australian BBQ whislt dingos patrolled the borders and ran off with one of Barry's vests!

Day 2 Fraser Island - today we drove the whole way up the 70km beach past the ship wreck and Eli Creek ( a fresh water creek), up past Indian head which had some amazing views overlooking the ocean and miles of sand. We stopped off at Champagne pools for lunch which are named after the waves hitting the rocks causing bubbles to flow into these larges rock pools...was good fun as the waves got bigger!

During our final day on Fraser we went to Lake Wabbi which is surrounded my steep sand dunes which provided us with a one on one rolly polly contest down into the lake!

That pretty much sums up our time on Fraser Island...was so much fun boosting down the beach in 4x4's, protected our stuff from dingos and bouncing around the inland tracks!

Bring on Noosa!!!

The Cattle Ranch!!!

From Airlie we headed to a rural place called Kroombit the home to a large cattle ranch full of bugs, horses, goats, and over enthuastic Aussie farmers! The trip down was an experience in itself thanks to our bus driver named Gweedo and only the three of us likely lads and a Scot named Dave!

At each courtesy stop we undertook in some ‘extreme’ events…1st up was the boomerang catch! Sounds simple but when there are 4 feisty lads all competing to catch one boomerang at the same time it turns into something very similar to American football minus the padding and the sportsmanship!

Next up was lawn bowls, a sport renowned for the elderly, even older than our old dears, however us four stooges brought a new dimension to the lawn! Paired up, me and Dave vs the formidable pairing of Hubbsy and McEvoy the fierce competition was underway! After some classic bowling the unexpected victors of myself and Dave took the other two to the cleaners winning 12 points to 4!
Anyway, we arrived at the cattle ranch at around 6pm, perfect timing for a couple of beers before dinner! That night we undertook in some ranch activities including cracking the whip where the end of it breaks the sound barrier releasing a small sonic boom…sounds exciting but after our coordination was comprised by the Aussie lagers it ended in a fair bit of pain when we whipped ourselves time after time!

The mechanical bull was next on the list of activities. After riding these bulls back in England at various events and succumbing to zero pain we thought nothing of this...however after the demonstration by one of the ranch girls we immediately regretted signing up to this event due to its violent nature in the groinal region! After each man was rejected of the back of the bull in new worlds of pain our time had come to mount this beast…we, like everyone else, spent little time on this however Baz came out victorious with an impressive 20 second stint!
Later that night whilst myself and Hubbsy we in bed (not together!), we got anxiously awoken by Baz. It had turned out, much to our amusement that an ‘acquaintance’ of Baz’s, a female Dutch dentist, had been bitten by something rather painful and poisonous. We got up to help out the worried party and assured her she was ok with zero confidence in our own judgement. The next day it turned out she had been bitten by a centipede which can cause ‘some’ discomfort!

The previous day one of the farmers was excited at the prospect of doing something different with a bus of lads…death was mentioned due to the lack of female presence!
So the morning had arrived and the same chap turned up and asked again if we wanted to kill something…being lads we naturally said yes! So we headed off in his jeep to the clay pigeon range and some shot-gun fun…a warm up for what was to come! We had 5 clays each with Hubbs shooting 2 out of 5 clays and myself and Baz drawing on 4 out of 5 clays! Impressive!
After being informed that the farm was out of goat meat we were 99% sure that a goat was going to die, but how we were completely unaware! Unlike in the UK these ranches don’t have the same humane ways to kill their animals. Dach pulled the short straw, and was handed a very old .22calibre rifle very prone to blocking.
So…the time had come and nothing could have prepared us for what was about to unfold in the pen (of death). Hubbs and Baz stood outside the pen whilst Dach readied the rifle and got it into position whilst the farmer held the unsuspecting goat down by the horn.
It must be made clear at this stage that none of us had been made aware of a goats thickened skull…
So the shot was released and much to our amazement the goat did not die, instead Dach was then instructed to reload and take a second shot and to avoid the flailing hand of the farmer as he struggled to hold the goat in place…still this time the poor goat was not at rest…I briefly turned round to see Hubbs and Dave struggling to watch…I unfortunately didn’t have that privilege and Baz remained poker-faced throughout, camcorder trained firmly on the assassination!
The second shot was fired and once again the goat survived, by this time the gun was blocked so the farmer ended it all in a very old school way, Swiss Army Knife!
All a bit shocked about what had just happened we skinned and gutted the goat which seemed a lot more soothing!
A very brutal experience however we were all happy to have witnessed and unfortunately undertake in a necessary way of life in the Australian outback!

Before we left the ranch to make our way to Hervey Bay one more challenge awaited us ‘the cattle prod’! The prod is used to ‘manoeuvre’ the cattle by sending 11,000volts through them. It has no current so cant kill you however as expected provides a kick with it! One by one and not really sure whether the farmers were being serious we stood forth arms out and took the voltage! Least to say it left us with a bit of a tingle!
All in all a very good experience was had at the ranch and Fraser Island now awaited us!

Airlie Beach & Whitsunday sailing

After the brief stopover at the tranquil hideaway of Magnetic Island, the fast-paced party town of Airlie Beach hit us like a figurative refreshing lime to the head. The ‘Gateway to the Whitsundays’ proved a pleasant spot to liberate some animalistic drinking and general madness. We stayed at Beaches Hostel right on the main strip of bars and clubs, and enjoyed a healthy night of moderate beverages and socialising.
We luckily managed to select the correct beds in our all-male 8-man dorm, as during the night, one Aussie guy on the bottom bunk got a bit of a ‘splash’ due to his mate in the bunk above being involved in a one-drink-too-many/one-toilet-break-too-little battle. Needless to say we were relieved and amused…

The following morning brought our imminent departure aboard our home for the subsequent few days – the Broomstick. We were met by our crew of three, two thirds ex-pats, Skipper Rob, originally from Portsmouth and 21 year old Ross from Bournemouth. Leaving the marina with passengers totalling approx 90% male, we passed through torrential tropical rain – its fair to say, we began to think we had selected the wrong day and boat to sail on. But we soon got into the hang of things and helped out with raising the sails and enjoying the fresh, 30kt breeze moving us along towards Hook Island. Before long we donned our fetching, lycra stinger suits and went snorkelling amongst the island coral, desperately in search of the elusive Nemo. We finished the day anchoring in Narra Inlet for the night and being served up some amazing chicken dish cooked up by the crew which was then washed down by the wonderful Goon. As the bag emptied, our heads got heavier and we soon located our cabin and bunks.

We all woke the next morning with heavy heads and before long we had set sail and had the cobwebs blown out. But before long the chief Goon consumer, Dach began to sway as a result of the mixture of the goon and the winds getting up, he struggled to find his sea legs. The plan was to head towards Turtle Cove and then Whitehaven Beach (2nd best beach in the world). Unfortunately the wind was coming straight from that direction and try as we might, we couldn’t manage that feat without engine power and the Broomstick was having problems giving us that. This resulted in a snorkel sesh while the Skipper tried to fix the engine. This proved successful and we were soon full power ahead for Turtle Cove. We enjoyed a nice lunch on deck only being disturbed by curious turtles coming up for a nosey.
Following this we headed ashore for our trek to Whitehaven. Unfortunately, due to the time of day – high tide – we didn’t really get the full appreciation of the beach with the amazing sands (95% silica) mostly covered by the blue waters. We still had fun on the white sand, played footy, cricket and generally posing for the ideal paradise picture.
A great sail followed as the winds got up with clear blue skies as we boosted back to our evening stop, keeled over with out legs hanging over the edge. That night was a chilled affair as steak barbequed on the back of the boat was on the menu and we chilled on deck watched the stars and sipping the remaining goon. Ross then decided to treat us likely lads and took the tender (mini speedboat) for a spin out into the dark waters while we chilled and enjoy the peace, tranquillity, silence, odd bit of banter and of course goon!!

The following day was a fairly straight sail back to the marina with everyone tired from the days at sea. A fresh sail topped off a great trip out to the Whitsundays and Hubbs and Dach bought ‘Crew’ shirts to wear and impress the ladies on shore… didn’t happen obviously!!

The following day was Australia Day – some sort of ‘cheap’ version of St Patrick’s Day where everyone enjoys a few Aussie beers, all day long!! There was some debate whether or not to wear English rugby shirts but the thought of ending the night in A&E didn’t really appeal to any of us, so we donned our yellows and greens and ‘tattooed’ the Southern Cross of the Aussie flag on our arms and cheeks!! Major lash ensued and we did our best to embrace the craziness of the night, meeting as many Sheila’s as possible!! The remainder of the time in Airlie Beach was spent at the conveniently located lagoon, basking in the sun and our hangovers, playing the odd game of catch in the pool.

The Game of Life

The Game Of Life, once initiated into the game of life you cannot leave. A heavy burden to carry to the grave.

The game is beautifully simple. You cannot use the word MINE in any context……ever again around people who are playing the game. Should you say said word, you are to drop and push out 10 of your finest press ups, regardless of where you are, how your dressed, who your with, no one cares, all that matters is that you get yourself down and get pressing.

Sounds simple?.....so whos beer is that? Oh that’s mine…….balls. drop, Where do you find gold?….banter.

This is an unbelievable conversation starter and even better at ruining someones chances, if your trying to look cool in a bar, forget about it. We have welcomed many a new person into the inaugural game, and here are just a few pictures to keep you amused.

Were all getting pretty handy at the game and finding it hard to get each other. It wasn’t always this way, personnel favourites include Baz in the bank, Dach on the boat and Hubbs on the Toilet. Priceless.

Oh and writing this entry has cost me 20 push ups after Dach asked me to read it out, Joker.

Go forth and M.I.N.E, just don’t sing along to Guns N Roses. Costly.

Magnetic Island

The bus couldn’t arrive quick enough from Tully, jokes aside we all said a deep and meaningful prayer to the big man in the sky for sending the bus on time! Once onboard we quickly settled into the rhythm of telling everyone around us about the experience, regardless if they were asleep. Harriet and Pez soon took up the bait and before long we were rattling away to them for the whole journey. Poor soles.

We arrived in Townsville several hours later and had a short wait for the Ferry over to Magnetic Island. The ride over took just under an hour and we were all warned of the easy going locals who rushed for no one, perfect for Hubbs and his slow walking. Sure enough once on dry land we were waiting for the bus driver to sort himself out, he seemed to know an infinite amount of people to talk to and was enjoying the strained faces of all the travellers on his bus with no air conditioning in the heat of the day. The bus zig zagged across the island and we eventually ended up at Base the only hostel on the island.

After getting into our rooms, we headed down to the bar, only to be greeted by this view.

Slightly better than the Red Lion back home. Unfortunately we missed super and were forced to go foodless for the first time on the travels…..eating’s cheating anyway.

Day two on the island and it was time to explore. First stop the nudist beach. Local informants had told us that it was frequented by the travelling Swedes and other fine females. Needless to say we arrived after a considerable hike to find one old chap strolling around in the tod. Standard. We got involved with the tan line reductions, and sure enough we were amusing ourselves with the kayakers who had rented from the local beach and been told to check out the beach we were on as it was ‘beautiful’. Waiting until they had drifted into shore before rolling over and giving them a wave and offering to help them get ashore. Surprisingly no one set foot on the beach that day.

The evening was pretty chilled with a couple of games of pool and the obligatory all you can eat BBQ. It goes with out saying that we slept in after such a feed and managed to get up in time to get the snorkels out for the day. Once again after donning the lycra suits we hit the water, pretty average snorkelling ensued due to the waves and strong wind.

We headed off to tea, slightly different to being back in Leeds dodging gang warfare and street crime we headed through the jungle to get our Pizza, which was by all accounts exceptional. A stop off at the bottle shop ensured we had the supplies to get us through the night, ie. Couple of boxes of Goon. PUB AMMO, Goon is the name used for disgustingly cheap wine that comes in boxes, the bladder can be doubled up as a pillow if drunk and blown up, aboriginal tramps apparently used this first and in native tongue goon means pillow. That should save a tie breaker question sometime in your lives.

The walk back was even more entertaining with the goon and we settled down on the beach to watch the sun set and get tucked into the ‘wine’. As Dach tagged onto the only ‘fitty’ on the island, the others quickly became bored of watching the Russian crash and burn so Hubbs and Baz felt that skinny dipping was in order to fuel their boredom. Dach soon realised that the night was not to be and soon joined in the ‘Baywatch’ style sea assault, minus the stinger suit in the Irkandji enriched waters – cue the backpacker paparazzi!!! We lived to tell the tale.

We awoke with thick heads and 3 minutes to pack……we missed the bus…….…and the next one, we did manage to bring our Whitsundays trip forward and we did finally manage to get the bus and ferry. Onwards to Airlie Beach.