durbs and max go on a big adventure

When we booked our Round The World Ticket we were most excited about getting to stop in Fiji, it seemed to be the most faraway, exotic place we could imagine and it happened to be the first guide book we bought even though it was our last destination as we just could not wait to get there!

Wind and rain

We arrived to torrential rains and tropical cyclone warnings – not a good start! When we woke up the next morning ready to get our boat off the mainland and to the tropical paradise that is the Yasawa Islands where we had booked to stay we were told that the boat was not leaving due to bad weather and wasnt likely to go all week. Yikes. We booked into a half decent hotel and spent the day moping about and wanting to come home!

Luckily the boat left Nadi the next day and we were off to the islands. The weather wasn’t actually any better and the sea was super choppy due to the nearby cyclone. Our journey was horrendous, about 1 hour in nearly the whole boat started getting sea sick and barfing right next to us, it was disgusting, the only way to deal with it was close my eyes and turn my ipod up really really loud to drown out the puke sounds and pretend I was somewhere else. Not the most pleasant 5 hours of our trip I must say.

Fiji time!

Charlie the blue lagoon dog

Finally we got to Blue Lagoon Resort where we stayed for 4 nights, on our first night we were treated to the village Meka where the villagers come and sing and dance for the guests, and then they fed us an absolute feast. Max caught the eye of a local Fijian lady and was made to get up and dance!

Meka performance

Max having a dance

Our resort was really sociable and they put on loads of activities for us to keep our mind off the bad weather- Teresea came and set up a tea party serving lemon tea and coconut Rotis, we got taught how to crack a coconut and then Teresea came back and we made woven braclets which were really cool. And if that wasnt enough, there was Rugby on the TV – mainly for the locals benefit as they are rugby mad but the boys appreciated the diversion from the rain!

coocnut cracking

coconut lessons

Rain

Teresea's tea party

rugger

rolling rotis

bracelet lessons

my bangle

At last a few days in we got the sunshine we had been waiting for, along with an awesome sunset. We also partook in the Kava ceremony where you drink Kava which is not cheap fizzy wine unfortunately, it is ground up root of some pepper tree mixed with water by hand, it looks like muddy water and it tastes like it too. But it is a natural sedative so you sleep very well after a few Kavas.

kava cermony

sunset

They also introduced us to the fantastic game that is International Crab Racing, where you buy a hermit crab, give it a number and then hope it makes it to the finish line before all the others. Our crab was called Princess Nipster and came 3rd giving us a $10 bar tab and respect from our fellow guests!

crabs

princess nipster- crab racing champion

hurray its sunny!

our boat

We then moved resorts (on a much less bumpy boat ride) to Octopus, for our last few nights. We were offered the chance to upgrade to a nicer Bure and I insisted we spend our final nights in style, and I just couldn’t face shared bathrooms anymore!

big yellow boat we caught between islands

stunning

upgrade!!!

our room

Octopus had a similar social vibe to Blue Lagoon, and we made the most of the coconut cocktails that they served at happy hour! We got to learn how to cook a yummy Fijian Curry and we spent a lot of time in the pool.

happy hour!

pool

Max has a lovely pair of coconuts

giant moth

cooking up a storm

fijian feast

meka

meka at octopus

At night time they put on games and offered prizes such as free drinks and massages. Max and I played every single game one night and came second in nearly all of them, so the organiser gave us a free cocktail each as a consolation prize, we had been trying to win a romantic seafood banquet for two complete with champagne for our last night. It turned out that the winners didn’t like seafood (they thought they were competing for massages) so they donated it to us! Result. They also were part of a team that won the quiz and a $100 bar tab but donated it to our table as they already had too much drink to get through! So kind!!

seafood feast

seafood delight

shots on the bar!

We left Octopus in the blazing sunshine full of happy memories! Fiji is definitely a tropical paradise (when there are no cyclones around) and the perfect way to end an awesome year. I won’t start writing in cliches about how good a trip we have had as you can probably tell from the blog how amazing it has been. We cant wait to get home, see you all and bore you all with our holiday snaps - warning- there will be a pop quiz on the blog when we return so get revising!! See you all soon and thanks for reading xxx

awesome

last glimpse of Octopus island from the boat

The penultimate blog entry for those of you still reading (my sister has freely admitted she has given up so fair play to anyone still bothering – you’re very kind!), this time from New Zealand’s north island. We started from Wellington after a ferry over the Tasman Straight, the capital of New Zealand and a really cool little city with a decent waterfront area. For its size the selection of bars and restaurants is superb (more per square km than NYC apparently), including a pub we went to that stocked over 150 different beers! We also had a quick look round the fantastic National Museum, where the highlight is a colossal squid which was accidentally caught by fisherman and is the largest squid ever caught. It extends to a whopping 8.5 metres and has eyes the size of footballs – that’s a lot of calamari!

The Colossal Squid

Onto Lake Taupo. The biggest lake in NZ - the same size as Singapore. Singapore’s population is 4.8 million (larger than NZ’s at 4.4) so the whole of Singapore’s population live in an area the size of that lake which just shows how amazingly under-populated this country is. We checked out some cool rapids and a couple of the other local sites and moved quickly further north to Rotorua. The drive was pretty spectacular although despite our excitement that we’d be passing Mount Doom from Lord of the Rings fame, it was pretty cloudy overhead so we didn’t get to see it. We stayed a grand total of 2 hours, long enough to check out some bubbling mud pools. The city is renowned for its geothermal activity but all of the sites were massively over-priced and it was chucking it down with rain so we moved on!

Lake Taupo, same size as Singapore

Snow capped mountains outside Rotarua

Rapids outside Taupo

Bubbling mud pools, Rotoroa

Next stop, Waitomo. The attraction here is these caves which are inhabited by glowworms, which we heard about back in May – some guys we met in Laos told us about it. Sarah has been banging on about these glowworms ever since so it was a relief that we were finally there! It was totally amazing though, blackwater rafting through these dark, cold (12 degrees Celsius water temperature) and creepy caves on a tube (inflated inner tube of a tracker tyre). At one point we were 60 metres below ground level and we all switched our helmet lights off to reveal the awesome sight of zillions of glowworms lighting up the caves. We also had to jump off waterfalls with our tubes placed under our bums into raging dark rivers. Well worth the wait. Honestly!

Caves entrance

Suited and hemleted for the caves

Caving crew

Splash!

Splash

Sliding under

Sliding under a low bit

Making our way through the caves

Mind your step durbs!

Exiting the caves

We headed north to the outskirts of Auckland, and the Coromandel Peninsular. One of the cool things about NZ has been the availability of farm fresh fruit and veg at roadside locations. The people here are so trusting and they leave an honesty box for you to leave payment. Can you imagine this on the outskirts of Birmingham? I think not! We also visited a local farmer’s market and stocked up on picnic provisions before we made our way to at Cathedral Cove, which is a white sandy beach accessed via a one hour hike with accompanying arch that has been eroded by millions of years of coastal erosion. There were many fantastic views in the Coromandel and considering it’s proximity to Auckland, it still felt like an unspoilt deserted wilderness!

Loyalty boxes, what a great idea!

Farmers Market supplies

Cathedral Cove

Arch, Cathedral Cove

Arch at Carthedral Cove

Coastal erosion evidence at Cathedral Cove

We finished our NZ adventure in Auckland. There’s not a great amount to report from here apart from Sarah’s has cashed in her lady buyer air miles to stay in The Langham Hotel from where I blog right now! Thanks Durbs. Apart from lapping up the luxury, we have checked out the amazing views from the top of Mount Eden (a dormant volcano, one of several that Auckland was built upon!) and the Auckland Museum which gave us a good dosage of culture and some interesting info about the traditions of NZ’s Maori.

Crater at the top of Mount Eden

Is it really that far home? Top of Mount Eden

Eden Park, scene of recent All Blacks glory....and they don't shut up about it!

At the Auckland Museum

Maori carvings

Maori chap at the Auckland museum

We fly to the island paradise of Fiji tomorrow for our final leg of our monumental journey. Let’s hope we don’t miss the plane home....

We arrived in Christchurch, New Zealand and wasted no time in picking up our hire car (we have called her Maggie the Mazda) and going to discount retailer The Warehouse to stock up on camping gear like our tent, gas stove and other such essentials for our 3 weeks in NZ. However in our over excitement and general rushedness we managed to pick up kids sleeping bags instead of adult ones!!! Ooopsie! This was a bit of a mistake as although most days it is glorious sunshine, the nights get super cold and we have to wear most of our belongings to bed to try and keep warm, especially seeing as our sleeping bags don’t reach all the way up to our heads!! Having spent 11 months in warm countries this has been a bit of a shocker, but good prep for when we get back home!!

Max in Maggie

Our little tent in the Mt Cook DOC site

The general plan was to drive as southerly as Milford Sounds over the course of a few days and camp along the way and tramp (walk) where we could, then drive back up the west coast and then across to Marlborough via various lakes and National parks. New Zealand is set out so perfectly for this sort of trip, there are free and subsidised basic campsites (DOC campsites) all over the place, and everywhere you stop there is a sign for a walking track or a cool lookout to stop and take photos at. The driving has been as much of an event as the stopping, the views are immense, especially down south where there are lakes and mountains around every corner!! Here are a few pics of some of the views we have seen whilst driving between destinations..

Driving the westcoast

Pancake rocks

Seal Colony we stopped at on our drive along the westcoast

Quaint building at Arrowtown

View on the road

Hooker Valley tramp

The walking here has been great too, and a good chance to burn off some of that christmas and new year over indulgence, we have been doing a couple of hours walking most days and I won’t list every single walk that we have done, but here are some photos of the things we have seen whilst tramping!

Lake Tepako tramp

Max admiring the views

Horse trek passes us on the mountain

Lake Tepako- the azure blue colour is caused by glacier rock flour and this reflects the sky colour

Well deserved snack during Lake Tepako Tramp

Mount Cook- highest mountain in NZ

Mt Cook

Fun times in the fresh air

The Hooker Valley

View from Queenstown Hill

At the top of Queenstown Hill

We got to Milford Sound after about 4 days, it is known as one of the wettest places in the world for a reason and it did not disappoint, after the blazing sunshine we had been having so far in NZ it was a bit of a shock, we booked on a boat tour anyway (we weren’t brave enough to kayak in the sounds when the weather was so cold and rainy, and we managed to see dolphins, seals and lots of gorgeous waterfalls that only appear when it is raining and dry up when it isnt, the sounds themselves were even more dramatic looking in the mist, so thankfully the weather did not ruin our tour!

The view from the port- eeek

The tour boat

Misty Views

waterfalls at Milford Sound

Seals- Milford Sound

Seals at Milford

Huge waterfall at Milford Sound

The glaciers In NZ had been top of our list of things to do and see there, we booked on a Glacier hike on Fox Glacier. This involved wearing crampons and big ice hiking boots and climbing up the glacier with a guide. It was so cool and got to drink the glacier water and eat some of the ice!! We then drove to Franz Josef Glacier and did our own walk to the glacier terminal – and this was free!! NZ is awesome like that as it is free to walk/see everything unless you go on a guided tour!

oooh danger!

ice!

crampons and ice boots

The team who go up in the morning to clear a track on the ice for trekkers

Max on the ice

As far as we were allowed to go on our tour

Max in an ice cave

franz josef glacier

franz Josef terminal face

We have camped at some really beautiful campsites whilst we have been here, one of the nicest views has to have been when a rainbow was shining over the lake right next to our campsite! We have camped next to lakes and in the middle of Abel Tasman national park too!

Rainbow over the lake at our campsite Queenstown

Lake Wanaka

Gillespies beach near Fox Glacier

Cooking up a feast at the Abel Tasman DOC sight

Abel Tasman tramp views

Abel Tasman Tramp Views

After a few days stay in Abel Tasmin we drove through Nelson to Marlborough, picking up fresh fruit from all the farm shops along the way! Yummers, And stopping off for lunch in Havelock- The worlds Green Shell Mussel capital! In Marlborough we took our selves wine tasting – Marlborough is Sauvignon Blanc land and we tasted some lovely ones, including Cloudy Bay and Seresin (an organic and bio dynamic winery) and we just had to buy a few for our next couple of nights dinner.

Cloudy Bay Wine Tasting

Cloudy Bay Winery

Chilling out at the Cloudy Bay Winery

Seresin Wine tasting- organic and biodynamic, and tasty!

Green Shell Mussels, Havelock

Which brings me to my next story, we had been getting a bit dry in terms of ideas of what to cook on our little camp stove so we introduced “Come Camp with Me” a contest where we had to each cook a meal for a $15 budget (about 7.50 gbp) and we were marked out of ten for- Tastiness, Presentation and Originality. Max went first and made Red Onion, Chorizo, Prawn and Butter Bean Soup with SHaved Parmesan on the top. I scored him (very fairly for I announced before hand that I would not be tactically voting) Tastiness- 9, Presentation- 7 ½ and Originality 8. Grand Total – 24 ½

Max serving up his entry to Come Camp with Me

Red Onion, Chorizo, Prawn & ButterBean soup- come camp with me challenge night 1

Come Camp With Me meal 2- Lamb Casserole mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!

Serving up the New Zealand Lamb Casserole with some Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc (we both agreed mine was tastiest)

So, 3000KM and 2 weeks later it is time to move on to the North Island, let’s hope it is as much fun as the South has been!

Christmas and New Years in Sydney had been planned for what felt like a lifetime. It was when we booked our flights back in 2010 that I gave my good friend and ex-housemate Dave (Davros) from uni the heads up that we’d be heading his way. And it didn’t disappoint.

Despite our bus breaking down on the highway for 3 hours just an hour outside of Sydney, in baking heat with no air con and not being allowed off the bus for safety reasons (it felt like being back in Laos not one of the most developed cities in the world!), we finally arrived, shattered but eager to meet up with Davros and his new bride Sarah. Yes, another Sarah!! It seemed we’d hit the jackpot when we were offered the chance to flat sit for Dave and Sarah’s Kiwi mates who were going back home for Christmas and needed their cute new kitten Tito to be fed. The amazing apartment was in trendy Potts Point, 2 minutes from Kings Cross and a stunning half hour walk through the Botanical Gardens to Circular Key and the iconic Opera House.

Tito

While Durbs caught up on her beauty sleep, Davros gave me a brief guided tour of Sydney, which basically involved a good catch up at a couple of his favourite boozers. In the run-up to Christmas, we checked out Paddington Markets, went for a Christmas Eve BBQ at some friends of Dave’s/Sarah’s and soaked up the pre-Christmas sunshine!

Christmas Day was one not to forget. A morning swim and sun-bathe on packed out, buzzing Bondi Beach was great way to start the day. Completely weird being on a beach on this day of all days! It was mainly full of English people not believing their luck! But Christmas Dinner was calling and our hosts had gone to town. The biggest joint of ham I have ever seen, roasted and honey glazed (I dont think we even finished a quarter of it between 7 of us, it was honestly MASSIVE). The spread was too good for royalty and i just couldn’t get my breath that Davros knew how to cook something other than sausage, chips and beans, which given his repertoire at uni was what I was expecting. The prawns sautéed in chili, butter and garlic were a nice addition. Sarah’s mum Diane and her brother Tim, and his partner Dee were there to share in the festivities and it was an awesome Christmas dinner. We went for a post dinner game of frizby down at Rushcutters Bay, and then the drinking commenced! If you haven’t had a Supersonic Gin & Tonic, seriously, you haven’t lived. Get Davros to make you one sometime – you wont be disappointed, and nor will your hangover!

Bondi Christmas

Bondi Christmas

Davros in the kitchen....but where are the economy sausages?

Amazing prawns

Ham

About to be demolished

Christmas day party games

Xmas day, before the supersonics

It was a standard lazy Boxing Day. Felt a bit weird not being at St Andrews drinking bovril and eating balti pie but Durbs and I made up for it with a few drinks down at the Opera Bar where we met up with our friend Tanya from Holland. We also went for dinner at our friends Leigh and Paddy, who we met in Vietnam and are now working in Sydney. The following day we checked out Manly Beach for the day with Tanya , which was a great little boat ride across the Harbour with some fantastic views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

On the way to Manly with Tanya

Classic photo

Harbour bridge

Davros valiantly shook off his post Christmas man-flu which was a good job as the Hunter Valley was calling. One of the world’s premier wine regions, famed for its Shiraz and Semillons, and we had a non drinking driver in Diane. The Hunter is a stunning place, and the Meadows’ had yet again excelled themselves as the finest hosts in Oz. They checked us in to Cypress Lakes Resort, we went for a top-notch meal and then the next day we hit the cellar doors. We tried several awesome wines and got pretty bat-faced, finishing off with some pizza delivery (classy) back at the villa whilst sat on our balcony watching the resident kangaroos hopping around . We also visited a few quality food shops, the highlight of which was The Smelly Cheese Shop where we went wild on the samples and walked out with a wedge of a few of our favourites.

Us at Brokenwood winery

Hunter crew

Packing a punch this one

Meal in the Hunter

Hunter crew

Our neighbours

Ripe citrus flavours?

Tasting the Semillon

At McGuigan Winery

The smelly cheese shop

Cheese

The lads

Stunning Hunter Valley

Ready to harvest

The last samples

Beer sampling at Blue Tongue Brewery

Palm Cove

Whale Beach

And the fun didn’t stop there. Back to Sydney for an epic New Year celebration, Dave and Sarah had treated us to tickets for the best view in town on Goat Island, a tiny little islet in the middle of Sydney Harbour with a perfect view of the bridge and the famous New Year fireworks display. We took over a picnic of smelly cheese and more booze than it was possible to drink in an evening. But somehow we managed it. It was a top night and the fireworks display was off the scale. Thankyou so much Davros and Sarah, you are legends!

NYE party boat in Sydney Harbour

The boat to Goat Island

Picnic time

Cracking views for NYE

The bridge before midnight

The NYE Gang

More fireworks

Sydney Harbour Fireworks

Happy New Year

Happy new year!

The post New Year blues aren’t heard of in Sydney. It was back down the beach for more R&R, and then off to the SCG (Sydney Cricket Ground) to watch Australia vs India in the 2nd Test. It was a superb day of live sport and getting mullered by the sun - the perfect send off from Sydney. We were really gutted to leave Davros and Sarah, they were amazing hosts and it was a really memorable Christmas.

Ribs!

Darling Harbour

Sachin!

The Little Master

First of many

At the SCG

Indians celebrating

Next stop Melbourne and some more fantastic hosts in Rich Berry (also our friend from uni) and his lovely wife Becky, plus their 8 week old baby Adrian. The first night there was spent catching up and eating more BBQ and then we spent the next couple of days site-seeing around town. We went to the Old Victoria Markets, had coffee and checked out the markets in St Kilda, a street art exhibition in the city centre, soaked up the cafe culture on Smith St (shout out to the Jerk Chicken Sarnies at The Bell Jar, of Ian Ballantyne fame) and I didn’t disgrace myself during a round of golf with Rich whilst the girls played with the baby! We also went down to Brighton Beach for an awesome brekkie and took Rich and Becky’s dog Ruby to the dog beach which was basically a competition for Melbournites over who could have the most exotic purebred! Rich wins on that one I reckon!

Rich dominating the barbie

Flinders st station

More street art

Street art in Melbs

Rich and Adrian in the Man City kits!

Brekkie with the Berries

Ruby

We spent our last few days in Oz meeting up with some Plotneks, who seem to be everywhere! I had never met this branch of the family but sister Laura had outstayed her welcome with them when she was doing her stint backpacking, so it was a surprise they opened their door to us! We were less demanding with a brief 3 night stay. Phil and his kids Jeremiah and Jacques showed us some of the outer suburbs of Melbourne, including a trip to the Dandenong Mountains which has some awesome views of the city. We stayed with Joel and Jenny, Tamsin and Ella and had a great few days spending time with the Aussie Plotneks. It was also Joel and Phil’s mother Noeline’s 85th birthday while we were there and it was great to join in the celebrations. Jenny took us down to Ramsey Street off Neighbours, which is just a few streets down from where they live. Pretty bizarre seeing the house where Scott and Charlene first got in on! Joel also showed us a few local spots and we went to a really impressive sand sculpture show.

Me with Phil, Jeremiah and Jacques

Celebrating Noeline's birthday

On Ramsey Street

sand sculptures

Me with Joel, Tamsin and Ella - Aussie Plotneks

And that was Australia! An amazing country, where we met some truly great people, spent time with friends and family, old and new and had some really memorable experiences. Hopefully we’ll be back one day to see more of this massive place as we barely scratched the surface.

After our fantastic 3 weeks in Hervey Bay, we headed down to stunning Noosa, a fairly upmarket beachside town with a coastal national park, great surf and a decent backpacker vibe. We check into a YHA hostel dorm and met some really great people (our own age this timew) to go out with and let loose for a few days. However, the main reason for hitting Noosa was to go to Australian Zoo, which is perhaps Oz’s most visited tourist attraction. We just had time to squeeze in an afternoon walk along the national park’s coastal track, where we saw dolphins, bush turkeys and some awesome views. Just a standard day in Australia.

Noosa views

After a few schooners of beer the previous night, we managed to peel ourselves out of bed to go to the zoo. This place really sets the benchmark as far as zoos are concerned. Having seen so much wildlife (in the wild) this year, we were a little dubious about whether we would enjoy this place but the reports were good and we weren’t disappointed. The zoo is the brainchild of the late, great, some might say mental, Steve Irwin and now run by his widow and children, the zoo is more like an animal theme park than a zoo and is some legacy that the guy has left. All of the animals there have decent enclosures and they are cared for amazingly well by the zookeepers. The tigers, elephants and larger animals for instance have several acres of additional space to roam in which is not accessible by zoo-goers. They were definitely the healthiest animals i have ever seen at zoos. The cool thing about this place is that there’ll be staff walking around with baby alligators, colourful parrots, weird looking lizards, dingoes, the whole lot and often you’ll be the only people there to see them and speak to the staff about the animals. There was always something to look at.

Us and the Irwins

Kookabura

Giant tortoise!

Baby aligator

Weird lizard

Shhhhhh

3 birds!

Scary snake

Python!

Apart from the “Crocoseum”, a sort of stadium where they hold croc shows, the tiger shows really stole the headlines. The keepers had these awesome animals playing all sorts of games, chasing toys and jumping in the swimming pool. The arena was set out with seating behind a giant glass screen and the keepers were hooked up to mics to explain stuff about how the tigers operate. It was so educational and it’s just a shame other zoos around the world cant follow suit. It was good to see them so active they have to be my favourite animals. Then of course there was the kangaroos, which were tamed to the point that you could feed them. So obviously we had to go on a wild good chase to find the kiosk selling the food! It was worth it though I suppose.

Outside the crocoseum

Hungry croc

Cool parrots

Croc show - brave guy!

Croc shows

Feeding the roos

Feeding the roos

Tiger prowling

Tiger prowling

Tiger playing

Tiger swimming

Tiger man

After another heavy night of boozing we left for our second HelpX placement with the Wheeler family in Byron Bay. Londoners by heritage, Sarah (yes, very confusing having 2 Sarah’s around), Alf and their 3 kids – Oscar (10), Felix (9) and Jemima (4) were born out in Oz and we stayed with them for nearly 3 weeks. Sarah makes organic chocolate at home and sells it at the local farmers markets so when she contacted us to offer us the chance to come and help her, it felt like we’d won the backpackers lottery! We spent our days making the chocolate purely from scratch (no chocolate buttons here) using all raw, organic ingredients – cacao butter, cacao powder, vanilla seeds and agarve syrup to sweeten it. And thats it. Sarah’s Puremelt Chocolate (find her on Facebook, shameful marketing!) contains no cane sugar and no thickeners, emulsifiers or horrible stuff they put in Cadburys to make it taste so awesome. Yet it tastes more then awesome without the crap inside. The health conscious and ethically aware folk of Byron Bay went mad for this stuff, and if you’re lucky we might make some when we get home and show you what all the fuss is about . Be warned though – Sarah has been making this stuff for a while now and the precise quantities of each ingredient were kept firmly under lock and key!! We worked several Christmas Markets, getting up at the crack of dawn, often pulling 2 shifts in a day. It was hard work, but good fun and highly rewarding especially as we got to sample many other different foods and drinks that the people of Byron make their living from. The family were a pleasure to spend time with and Durbs had a new best friend in Jemima who ended up with half her make-up bag by the end of our stint there. We took the boys bowling, embarrassingly, Durbs beat us all, and we also explored the surrounding areas including the pot-fuelled hippy town of Nimbin, some cool waterfalls and walks in the area.

The Wheelers

Oscar, me and Felix

Sarah pouring the choccy

Distributing the fudge

Me adding some magic

Puremelt on display at the market

The 2 Sarahs

Sell sell sell

Beauty parlour

Byron views

At the waterfalls

Waterfalls

Nimbin propoganda

We know you love a scary creepy crawlie story and a blog about Australia wouldn’t be complete without one so here it is....Our room in Byron was a converted studio basically in the jungle. A really cool setting even if it took a few nights to get used to the nighttime noises! So one evening, we’re just chilling watching a movie when Sarah spots the biggest spider I’ve ever seen, on our glass door. Luckily, the beast was on the outside but not so luckily, the door opened inwards so going for a piss was off limits. After several what felt like hours of discussion, drama, tears, yelling and comforting I put on my shining armour and picked up a flip flop, opened the door and spotted a second one of equal size! I managed to coerce it away from the door eventually but lets just say every evenings spider check routine became part of my life in Byron after that! It may have “only been a Huntsman” but i saw it fangs and they were massive!!

Do i need to explain?!

Byron is a really interesting area. It’s not for everyone but we really enjoyed our time, learnt lots, had many laughs and ate more chocolate than you can shake a stick at. But Sydney was calling, and a Christmas date with newly married Meadows family...