There's No Place Like Home

Day 167-After a plane, train and bus ride, we were on our way home.

No, no, not Calgary. Our new home in Noosa Heads, Sunshine Coast at Joey and Michelle's beach house, of course.  We settled into our new room downstairs and made dinner while catching up with our friends. 

Day 168- We hung out at home for most of the day, using the fully functional wifi, with a quick visit to the beach to get beat up by the waves before heading home to prepare dinner. Our plan was to win Joey and Michelle's love by feeding them, so they would let us stay. 😀

Day 169-We were just loving our quality chill time and for the first time on the trip we realized how much we missed our own space. The only problem was it was christmas eve and we still felt like christmas wasn't happening. Even our hosts were missing the holiday cheer from back home and we were all a little home sick for family and celebrations. So Mike and I decided to do something about our melancholy and attempt to cheer up our housemates as well.  After grocery shopping for christmas dinner we popped on some christmas movies and music and let the spirit of the season inspire us. We might have gotten carried away...

                            

After we had sufficiently killed enough trees, we picked up Joey from work and headed to the mall to do some christmas shopping. Mike and I awkwardly tried to hide the fact that we were both buying each other the same gift and took turns making our purchases. We picked up Michelle from the salon and drove home together, as a family! We were excited to reveal our surprise. We entered the house with christmas music blaring then stood by while Joey and Michelle took notice of their paper decorated home. I think it made it feel like christmas for all of us. 

After a brief visit Joey and Michelle hit the road for their family's christmas in Brisbane. With the house to ourselves we settled in with some leftovers, wine and the Bill Murray christmas special. 

Day 170- CHRISTMAS DAY!!!!! Mike and I woke up to a cozy rainy day in Noosa and began our Christmas by sitting at the foot of our christmas tree and opening the gifts we bought for eachother. WOW! What a surprise? We both got eachother fitbits!!!! Even the same color! I sure didn't see that coming. 

We rushed to 10 am mass in an open air church before returning home to make a delicious christmas day brunch. We spent most of the day relaxing and making phone calls back home to family and friends. Once Joey and Michelle arrived, we got started on a make shift christmas dinner. It was my first time making a smoked turkey and with the guidance and help of my sister and brother in law, the turkey turned out pretty darn good. I also redeemed myself from last christmas when I accidentally misread the recipe and added 3 pounds of butter to 15 potatoes. Oops.

And we had the support of our lovely hosts all the while. 

Dinner was served up while christmas music in the background.

Our attempt to take a photo of all of us failed when I realized how glossy I was. Once again, I didn't want the reflection to damage the camera lens so I shielded my face as quickly as I could. When I went to shield my face, my hand slipped off my skin and I almost knocked over my glass of wine. 

As christmas approached, Mike and I were sad and homesick for our christmas traditions, friends and family gatherings. We learnt that as long as we make the effort, we can celebrate any holiday from abroad and it will be just as good as ones back home... Well, almost. Thanks to Joey and Michelle, we had the best stand in family anyone could ask for. 

Day 171- We chilled out for most of the morning and played in the waves on the beach. Then we headed to the store to buy groceries for our day of fun on the Noosa river. We met up with two of Michelle's friends as we boarded our cute little river boat and set off on the water. The boat was equipped with a grill and the freedom to fire it up along with some beers at any point! They would never allow that in Calgary!

Our Captain and her first mate.

Their distinguished guests. Lots of fun.

Our view.

MK grillin up some shrimp on da barbie. (Insert Australian accent here-shrimp on the BARBIE, hey look, a WALLABY)

Miss Michelle and I. 

We parked the boat to eat more food and took turns jumping off the boat, trying our best to look as synchronized as possible. The photo below took way too make tries. Not because we didn't look cool but because the guys couldn't figure out how to take a photo on time. Not cool. 

The guys all did a flip into the water and us girls timed it perfectly, the first TIME!

Two buds, two beers. Haha I would like to superimpose their faces with pictures from their childhood because they look like two kids in the water. Kids with giant beards that is...

The drunkest man on the island walked by and Mike thought it was a good idea to ask him to hold my professional camera above the water to take a photo of our group. Turns out it wasn't such a bad idea. Minus the photo bombers, our group looked pretty darn good. (That's my nervous smile)

On the way back to the dock, Michelle and I sat on the front of the boat while we soaked up the last of a great day on the water. Our four little feet dipped in the water took a dramatic turn when the boat went under a wave and started to plow through the water!! After a few shouts and screams to get to the back of the boat, we realized that we were bringing the ship down with us. Mike however opted to go for the camera instead of going for the back of the boat. Luckily, contrary to tradition, the captain was not going down with her ship and Michelle quickly jumped up to avoid catastrophe! I guess it was time for me to get my fitbit in action and loose my holiday weight! 

We went back to the beach house and sat in the sand while Mike and Joey went for a surf. Both board and body. 

The body surfing is always quite funny to watch as their heads pop out from the waves and their arms are pointing ahead like superman. 

Day 172- We woke up early and went golfing in some wicked humid weather. Thank goodness it was overcast because otherwise I may have sweat to death. Michelle had offered me a golf shirt before we left the house and I was so glad I declined, I was sweating so much that it looked like I'd gone for a swim. 

Here are two handsome fellas checking out their next shot. 

After golf I had a doctors appointment to have my health checked out. I wasn't feeling top notch and I wanted to get things sorted before we left the country. 

Day 173/174/175- These next few days were spent running along the beach, swimming in the ocean, working on the blog and hanging out with Joey and Michelle. We also went to cheap tuesday at the movies to see Daddy's Home and this time instead of a scary note from Charlie on our windshield, we found a friendly note from our friend.  Yay!

                            

Our hosts had more friends coming for the New Years celebrations so we moved out to the Nomads Hostel for a couple of nights. 

We found ourselves in a game of beerless beer pong (I know right) and the outcome was really not even worth mentioning. There is a reason why beer pong has the word beer in it. 

Day 176- NEW YEARS EVE! The day began with a visit to the doc, who cleared me to continue on with our travels, then to Hastings street to find something new to wear for the nights festivities. After Mike and I got ready for the night, we headed over to the beach house to begin our goodbyes for 2015 and ready our hellos for 2016. The beach house was full of big boisterous laughter from the new houseguests and there was plenty of energy to get us all geared up for the night. 

Deano, Stephanie, Allen and Alex were a mix of new and old friends of Michelle and Joey's, who welcomed us into the group with ease. Deano was especially kind and made us feel like old mates.

Mine and Michelles outfits complimented eachother quite well and also managed to fit the 70's theme for the party that we didn't even know about. 

                      

Mike was handsome as ever in a fresh shirt donated by Joey and a fresh trim on his full red beard. 

We had dinner across the street at Mooshkas and the streets were already buzzing with excitement for 2016.

The main event for the evening took place at Cafe Le Monde on Hastings street. We walked in to hear Caravana Suns rocking out on stage and it didn't take long for our back and forth sway to turn into full body jumping and arm flailing. We danced the night away and cheered on the countdown in a crowd of happy dancing people. Surrounded with our new and now old friends, an overwhelming feeling of ecstasy surrounded us as the clock struck 12.  

Thanks to Uber we made it home with little effort. Even though we were having a hard time keeping our eyes open, we weren't ready for the night to end. We headed to the beach to put our toes in the sand and enjoy the salty air for the first couple of hours of 2016. 

Another successful holiday celebrated abroad, with great friends. 2015 was perhaps one of the best years of my life and I very much look forward to see what 2016 has to offer. 

Day 177- We were all pretty tired the next day so there was no better way to spend the afternoon then to give ourselves up to the waves and let the ocean have its way with us. 

We all took turns jumping over the waves and filming the best moments. 

Here is a compilation that Mike created to show off our sweet moves. This is how we make waves in the ocean.

                                

As refreshing as the ocean was, we were all dogged after it and needed sleep. Deano, Joey and Michelle cooked up dinner while Mike and I booked our next destination. Then we said our goodbyes to Michelle and headed back to the hostel. 

Day 178- We tried to organize ourselves and our bags for our flight before heading to a cafe to do some blogging. Joey and Deano picked us up to drive us to the train station but first we took the scenic route and stopped at a cool pub for a beer. 

Australia was an all around great experience. I went into it not really wanting to go at all but I can definitely say I was wrong in my apprehension. There are endless adventures of all types for any traveller. The people are nice, the scenery is stunning and there is something to be said for the ease of travelling in a first world country. Our experience in the campervan was the main highlight of our journey, along with the great new friendships we built along the way. See yas lata Australia. 

Next stop, Fiji. 

Hot Stuff

Day 161- We may have finished the Great Ocean Road drive but we still had some driving to do to get back to Melbourne. Also we were hungry... I found a little food gem while searching online so we made that the goal for the afternoon. After a bit of traffic through Melbourne we stopped for one of Australia's National dishes, the meat pie. And oh what a meat pie it was.

                        

Next stop was the Peninsula Hot Springs. 17 natural hot mineral pools beautifully landscaped in the most stunning scenery. I was excited when I found the hot springs online and even more excited to see that they were near the area we needed to be the next day. The entrance fee was $35 dollars, which gave us access to all 17 pools, the turkish bath, the sauna, the steam room and the many cold plunge pools throughout the compound. 

The most popular hot pool is the one at the top of the hill and everyone squeezes in to get their spot for the sunset. 

Not that we needed much relaxing but Mike checked all his tension at the front desk with his clothes.

The designer who created the place did a fantastic job at giving each pool something unique. This one had a cave. 

This one had massaging bubbles. 

It was a great way to spend an evening after two full days of driving and we left feeling relaxed and ready for a snooze. 

Day 162- We had a rough sleep after listening to fellow campers play loud music all night while doing burnouts and we wanted nothing more than to pull up to them in the morning and blast our music for them to hear but we are adults and we are bigger than that. Also, they were up before us playing music and happily eating breakfast... HOOOOOOOOOOOOW!?

After some coffee and breakfast of our own, we made our way to Phillips Island. Why you ask? Well because Phillips Island is home to the fairy penguins. These cute little creatures come in everynight to to their burrows on the beach. We were excited to see some penguins but they don't come out until night so we had some time to kill. First we hit the local beach on the island to do a workout and swim in the waves. Next we hit up a coffee shop to work on the blog and do some research. The coffee shops don't stay open very late in Australia so we had to move along and we found a great little spot to blog.

This art studio was just what I needed to get my creativity flowing and to get words on the screen. Although when the artist himself showed up he wasn't too please to see us set up in his open house art exhibition. Oops.

After listening to hours of Shantaram(audiobook) in the car we had a hankering for some Indian food so we found a cool spot and ordered up some naan. 

By the time dinner was finished it was time to head down to the penguin parade. We heard it was a little pricey and after reading some reviews online we read that we may be able to see the penguins elsewhere, without paying the fee. The Nobbies Center has set up a splendid walkway for tourists to see the coastline and if we were lucky, we would see some penguins. Oh and did I mention it was free? Cuz it was... free that is... free of charge... As in you don't have to pay... Sooooo that's nice.

We were lucky and not only did we see some penguins but we saw some baby penguins. 

This one was hiding but I fouuunndd him!!! <voice from Isla Fisher in Wedding Crashers>

On our way back to the car we noticed dozens of penguins all hiding in their burrows. At the time we didn't know they were baby penguins until a man told me not to take photos of them. Apparently these are the babies waiting for their parents to come in at night to feed them. The man said that they get really stressed when people get too close and after learning this I felt absolutely terrible. The photo you see below is not zoomed in, nor was I zoomed in when I took it, that is how close I got. (sad face) Sorry itty bitty little penguin if I scared you. 

On the way out of the Nobbies, we were surrounded by wildlife and I finally got to see my first wild wallaby. Again, try that word on for size with an Australian accent. Fun right? 

Oh, and not just one, many!

                            

We also saw these weird birds all over the roads.

We made our way to a BP truck stop for the night.

Day 163- This whole day was spent getting organized, cleaning out the campervan, packing and dropping off our stuff at a hostel. Once we were all settled into our new digs it was time to drop off JP. It was like on the last episode of Survivor, when the remaining survivors walk the beach to remember all the other contestants that joined them on their journey. Mike and I took a minute to reminisce about our journey with JP. After 44 days, 9118 kms, surviving Charlie, too many days without a shower, countless overnights at truck stops, many avoided animal crossings, animal encounters, rainy days, stuffy nights, no personal space, winding roads, beautiful beaches, intolerable flies, incredible scenery, buzzing mosquitoes, countless vistas, pasta dinners and who knows how many times we turned on the windshiled wipers while trying to signal, we were sending JP back to his family. It was a wild ride, one we will never forget and we were sad it had to come to an end. 

We felt like we'd lost an old friend after we left JP so we went to the mall, hoping that buying stuff would lift our spirits. It didn't lift them entirely but it helped. We got home fairly late and our shared 8 bed dorm just wasn't as intriguing as it should have been after sleeping in a van for 44 days. We grabbed some dinner at Pie Face, which is a fast food spot for meat pies and quite tasty. Then we evacuated our room for a fire alarm that went off late night. Mike claims that I did it on purpose to see all the firefighters... I plead the 5th. 

We stayed up a little too late to watch the season finale of Survivor and attempted to sleep the night away. 

Day 164- With a surprise on my mind all night I was unable to fall sleep without thinking I was going to miss my alarm. What's the surprise? I'm glad you asked. 

Just a little something for Mike to wake up to on HIS BIRTHDAY!!!!!! I must say, it took more effort to pull off a few balloons than you'd think. Have you ever put tape on a balloon then pulled it off? Well if not I'll tell you what happens, they pop, and I didn't want to subject our 6 neighbours to such a rude awakening, so I needed to be stealthy. Haha at one point Mike actually woke up a bit and I slid down flat on the floor right beside him, with a half blown up balloon still in my mouth. It was intense. 

We had a whole day of fun planned for Mike's big day and the first task of the day was to get to our tee time. It was finally going to happen, Mike would get to golf. We had a game booked at the golf course across from the Royal Melbourne Golf course where some of the worlds bests go. Yes, across the street at the reasonibly priced public course... Buuuuut on hole #3 you can actually get a look at the high wall surounding the Royal. Pretty sweet right? haha. Oh yea and another thing to mention....it was a stinkin 42 degrees out!

If you look closely on the green in the photo above, you may be able to see Mike's ball on the green, that was after one shot. Yup, how sweet would a hole in one on his birthday have been?! He was off to a good start.

                         

If you look closely within the fallen leaves, you may be able to see Mike's ball in the bush, that was after one shot... Yup, his sweet start to the day was experiencing some adversity. Good thing they were rental clubs! 

After we both had great shots onto the green we were so excited that a jumping high five was the only way to let it all out. The camera always takes 3 photos in a row, which is unfortunate because it captured us missing the high five completely. 

Bahahahaha.

Due to the severe weather, the marshall came over on the 9th hole and told us they were closing the course because of the heat. The temperature had reached a sweltering 42 degrees and it was no longer safe to be in the sun. 

                      

Mike shot a 42 in 42 degree weather! Woohoo. And I got 2 pars! Yay!

We went to the clubhouse to have some lunch and some birthday beers and there was a man who looked like he was experiencing a stroke. He was unresponsive for a short time but it was enough to grab everyones attention and warrant a call to an ambulance. The heat was no joke. 

From the course we got into a cab to take us to the nearest train station. On the way, the car died from excessive heat. After he let it cool down for a bit, it came back to life. The heat was no joke. 

We returned to the hostel to shower up and refresh ourselves for the evening. We had planned Mike's birthday for some time in advance and had pre purchased tickets for the new Star Wars movie so we just needed to feed ourselves before the movie, but first, Mike was drawn down into a basement lounge by some cool music. We stayed for a drink and enjoyed the eclectic atmosphere. 

It looked like my parents old basement but smelt like my grandparents old shed! Mike loved it.

We went to 'Meat and Wine co.' for a delicious and tasty dinner. 

On our way to the movies we saw Grover playing bag pipes. 'nearrrrr..... pitter patter pitter patter.... farrrrrr'. Mike's mom does the best Grover impression apparently. 

Then we took a look at the city lit up at night. I begged Mike to let me take a nap all day but as many of his friends know, especially Tyler, when it's Mike's birthday, he gets his way. And he didn't want me to sleep, so as you can see, I can barely keep my eyes open. 

I LOVED Star Wars and I thought it was highly entertaining. Mike liked it too, at first but then thought it was 'too safe' and seemed like a 'remake of episode 6'. I don't want to spoil it for anyone so that is all I will say on the matter. All in all Mike seemed happy about how he spent his day! Mission accomplished.

Day 165- I enjoyed a well deserved sleep and we headed to the mall to take our best photo of the trip, to be sent home with our Christmas wishes for our friends and family. 

                    

This awkward photo took us 2 hours of waiting in line and $10 dollars. Worth all of it! And yes, I was aware of all the sweating, it's a talent of mine. My face could double as a slip-n-slide. I could blind the sun with the shine coming off my face. My face was used as the cover photo for the musical 'GREASE'. I reflected the camera flash like a laser beam off Captain Americas shield. The photographer was blinded for weeks after this shot. When I went to return the sweater, they said, 'KEEP IT!' The worst part is that we asked for a matte finish on the photo... Annnnnyhow.

We hung out at a cafe for a while before heading back to our hostel, although we got caught in a rain storm and needed to take cover under a historic law school buildings archway. 

                      

We packed, grabbed some dinner and headed to the bus station to catch our ride to Sydney.

Day 166- After a 12 hour overnight bus ride we finally arrived to Sydney. We checked into a dorm room at the Nomads backpacker hostel in downtown Sydney and it was possibly one of the worst places we'd stayed so far. As we walked into the locker room to lock up our camera and ipads, we noticed dead cockroaches all over the floor and the strong smell of chemical. They must had just sprayed some roach kill and we entered the room just as they were starting to drop! Nasty! We returned to the coffee shop with the super fast internet and Mike watched football while I blogged. 

At noon we had somewhere very important to be... it was time to pick up our passports and our India visas fromt he Indian Consulate. We were glad to have our passports back in our possession and to be one step closer to India. We went back to the hostel to take a nap and showered before heading to a little surprise for Mike. But first we needed to return back to Mamak for the best Indian food ever! 

As his birthday was only a couple days prior, his lovely siblings, Pepsi and Phil, organized for him to see The Illusionists at the Sydney Opera House. It was a great gift as we had wanted to go but couldn't afford it, so we were super excited. We had the creepiest cab driver on the way down that questioned us on bike lanes, religion, Jesus and mentioned how relaxed we seemed, as if we shouldn't be. The only thing he didn't mention was his cousin Charlie. We were happy to get out of there and into the safety of the Opera House. 

The room for the show was amazing and so were the acts! It was a magical performance and we left feeling inspired. Look at Mike make this cup dissapear. 

We headed back to the hostel for a short sleep before catching our flight the next morning, back to Noosa, where we were looking very much forward to seeing our friends again.