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. 

Bound By Sydney

Day 152- As we were driving out of Newcastle we noticed a different kind of Santa. This time he was in a pickup truck being led by white Kangaroos. Who knew Santa would be so cultural?

Out of no where, we were driving on a highway that twisted through valleys of rock, cutting through mountain sides. The road looked like it had been made by cutting giant pieces out of the mountains. In fact, while I write this I am realizing that that is probably exactly how the road was made. Man what a construction site that would be. Maybe Mike will work on a project like that one day.

Then without warning, we had made it to Sydney! Ok maybe a bit of warning. Had to be quick on the draw to get the camera out for this one.

                   

We spent our whole entire first day in Sydney at the library sorting out our paperwork for our India visas. It was quite the process and required a lot of trips to the nice librarians to ask for more time on the computer and help with the printer. The total session clocked in at about 3 longs hours. Next we went to the post office to pay for the speeding ticket we'd acquired near Cairns and finished strong by working on the blog at McDonalds. 

We found a free truck stop near the city limit so we happily drove there to settle in for some dinner and some zzzzzz's. We made delicious burgers that were quick and easy and we just so happened to have the perfect condiments.

Day 153- The morning began at the Indian Consulate where we finalized our visas. We weren't surprised when they told us we were missing paperwork and made a mistake on our paperwork, so it took us another couple of hours to get everything in order. But, I must commend the consulate on their reasonable approach to the errors made and the computer stations that they had setup outside the office to make adjustments. I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked to "come back" when doing similar tasks in Canada. Sooooo frustrating when it is just a matter of a wrong date and they require you to go home and reprint the entire document. In this case we had made our standard two and a half mistakes but were still able to make the changes and submit all in the same visit. Yay!

We had the whole afternoon and evening ahead of us and we were excited to explore this new city. And what a city it was! I felt like we walked out of a time machine and ended up in a modern european city. There was such a great mix of new and old buildings and it seemed to have a historic site on every corner. We parked the car near the harbour for a couple of hours at an inflated rate but we had to maximize our day and parking downtown was the best way to do it.  

Our first stop was of course the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House. Two iconic Australian must sees.

It was a stormy and cloudy day in Sydney and the colors of the sky were dull, so the black and white photos gave me the pop I was looking for. 

It was a nice walk up to the bridge where we had a good view of the many old buildings around the harbour. 

Any walk is better with ice cream.

Mike enjoying the view of the Sydney Opera House, while I enjoy my view of him. 

We are always happy to see the Canadian maple leaf... We are pointing at it in the distance. (hard to see)

We found cheap parking after 5pm for $10 bucks right downtown. We parked our home and went exploring. Best sight of all... christmas was in full spirit everywhere we looked.

                       

                       

The Saint Mary's Cathedral was truly beautiful and it looked like a castle. Too bad we couldn't go inside.

Mike ruined the moment when he decided to take a pee in the fountain! Just Kidding.

Giant trees lined the streets everywhere and most of them seemed as old as the city.

We went to China town to check out the buzz and quickly realized there wasn't much to buzz about... Although, we noticed quite the lineup outside of a restaurant called Mamak. Like every good lineup we decided to jump in early and ask questions later. It was a gooooood move.

It was a fusion restaurant of Malaysian and Indian food and it was potentially the best roti that has ever blessed my insides. 

                       

One of the outdoor/indoor malls decorated through and through. So weird to be outside and feel like your inside. This is quite common in Australia, I suppose given their hot weather.

The building in the photo below took over the entire block!

They closed off one of the streets for construction and instead of blocking it off with pilons and tape, they turned the area not being used into public space. If any of Mike's colleagues are reading this you should take note because people seemed to love it. They sit in the area and listen to music while taking in the excitement of the city.

                          

We finished off the evening at the movies to watch the christmas comedy, The Night Before, which was  a nice touch to end off our christmasy day. 

Day 154-We went to McDonalds in the morning so Mike could discuss fantasy football business with his long time bud Fabian and I used the time to work on the blog. Next we drove down to Bondi Beach to catch some waves. 

The water was freeeeeezing and not at all what we expected. Crazy the difference a couple hundred kms down the coast can make. We sucked it up and played in the water until I got hurt by a wave. I really want to master the art of body surfing but somehow I just get ripped around every time. This time I disappeared right before Mike's eyes, then surfaced only to hear him yelling to get down before another wave came down on me. I held my stance as a fighter would before taking a hit but the waves fear no one. It hit me so hard that my side actually swelled and turned red for the rest of the evening. Ok, Ok ocean, you win..... this round that is. 

We decided to take that as a sign to do something I'm actually good at. Something that can't hurt me...much... Skateboarding on the boardwalk. 

Graffiti decorates the streets everywhere in Australia and the art on the boardwalk was inspiring. 

We headed back to our local truck stop for the night to rest.

Day 155- As I have mentioned to many people over the past while, I have fallen way behind on the blog. Not due to a lack of effort but due to the lack of good wifi to download photos from the trip. I read about a place online that was said to have fantastic high speed wifi. We wanted to see for ourselves so we parked downtown and headed over to Black Sugar Coffee. They had great wall plug ins everywhere, which definitely seemed promising. Mike connected his laptop and within minutes 800 photos downloaded onto dropbox. Booyeah, It was a christmas miracle! 

We ended up spending the next 6 hours there using as much "juice" as we could. When security asked us to leave we walked around the busy downtown streets to get back to our van and witnessed an impressive performance. A young man passionately played along with the theme song from the HBO series Game of Thrones and a huge crowd was cheering him on.

                            

We stopped by Mamak for another serving of delicious indian food before making the journey to our lovely truck stop. This time we took it to go. Who knew the skateboards would make for such a great table. 

Day 156- We wanted to give surfing another shot so we returned to Bondi Beach for the morning surf. We knew we weren't the best surfers and we didn't want to waste our money on two boards so we rented one and shared it. Mike was up first. 

He got up on his board a couple of times. Then it was my turn. I managed to knee surf a few waves and although you can't see my face, I'm smiling. 

We had enjoyed our skateboard so much from the day prior that we decided to go for another run on the boardwalk. I've said it before and I'll say it again, these are the simple pleasures that make us happy.

On our way out of the city, we were blessed with the most striking sunset.

We spent the night at a lookout point in the National Park near the Blue Mountains. It was no fancy truck stop on the highway but it would have to do. 

Day 157- We woke up early and drove the rest of the way to the famous Blue Mountains. This mountain region borders the city of Sydney.

The view was breathtaking and they even have their own three sisters mountains, just like Alberta. 

There is a walk to the bottom of the mountain down a giant row of stairs. The stairs are called the Giant Stairway and the walk down and up were steep and scary. 

The steps are cut out of the side of the mountain and count 900 in total! 

We went on a short hike once we made it safely to the bottom but we ran out of time because we didn't put enough money in the meter. Yea I know right... after walking down 900 steps we realized we would run out of time, which meant only one thing, we needed to hurry our now tight butts back up the 900 steps before we got a ticket! Now that's what I call a leg day. Mike beat me up but he looked like he might pass out so I'm calling it a tie at best!

On our way out of town we stopped in at an Aqua Golf driving range! It was a pretty sweet set up and we had the potential to win cash prizes if we could get our balls in the marked boxes. The golf balls had holes drilled into them so they floated when they hit the water. Our skills were a little rusty so we walked out just as we had walked in, with no money in our pockets. 

                         

After a great day of steps, hikes and backswings we headed out of the Sydney area and made our way south. We drove for a couple of hours before we decided to rest in a small trucking town. We enjoyed the sunset while dinner cooked on the gas stove. 

Day 158- We made it to Melbourne in the afternoon and parked the van to do some exploring. We knew we'd be returning to Melbourne so we didn't worry too much about seeing everything. Similar to Sydney it had big beautiful buildings, old and new. Old trainstations are still the headquarters for citizens and ancient churches looked like they were taken right out of Europe. Mixed among the old buldings were many new and innovative structures. Buildings that didn't even resemble buildings looked like a giant piece of art. 

Melbourne is known for their narrow back alleys and skinny side streets. Little shops and cafes are hidden within the back alleys on every corner and if you're lucky you can see how trendy and unique each one is. Artistic graffiti is widespread in Melbourne and we even got to watch some artists at work. 

Australia has no shortage of street entertainers, each looking for a few bucks to keep them on their way. Most seem to be fellow travellers passing through and I wish my guitar skills had developed enough before I left so I could join the many talented musicians. 

I loved this little flower stand on the street. Just like in the movies. If I lived here I would stop here on the way home and grab some fresh flowers. 

The streets were packed with people, many getting ready for the holidays. Although we had been continuously looking for christmas reminders, it was now in full swing. The photo below gives a good idea of the mix of old and new buildings. On the left, you see a shiny metal building and just opposite and across from it are two vintage looking structures, not to mention a clock tower. I sure wish Calgary had more heritage sites integrated into the city.

Among the great variety of buildings and decorations in the city, none could compare to the one below. Now that takes some real skill to construct. 

                         

Then, we came across a store made for Mike. Like a kid in a candy store. 

After a great afternoon of exploring, we headed out of town to a truck stop south of Melbourne. We woud be back but we had a great ocean to see first. 

Notice how bundled up we are? It was so cold that night that we needed all of our clothes on to sleep. It was the first time in 5 months that I had felt cold on the trip and I embraced it.