Down Under Episode 2: When it rains it pours... so make it a XXXX mate!
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Crikey! Long time, no writing eh!?!
So we left rainy Byron Bay behind us and headed into the hinterlands which surprisingly enough looks like good old England and it happens to have just about the same weather... rain that is. No matter how hard we've tried we just can't seem to hit sunshine for more than 3-4 hours... We did enjoy the cruising around the hinterlands though. One of our stops was extremely educational: A small village called Nimbin. Nimbin is the self proclaimed capitol of the hippie and pro legal marijuana community. It was creepier than S-21! By far! Everyone looked like they had been on a three week crack binge and smelled like it too. The psychedelic decor was enough to give anyone an epileptic fit and the town museum was where it seemed to leak from. The museum was basically a set of rooms that looked like they survived … you guessed it: A three week crack binge. Moral of the story is … Drugs are bad, mmmkay! It wasn't all like Nimbin and we did get to see some awesome waterfalls and great countryside.
Soon enough it was time to get back to the coast, this time the Gold Coast and we spent a couple of days at the real surfer's paradise, which is a nice place called Coolangatta. From here we made a day trip to Warner Brothers' World which is a movie themed theme park full of roller coasters and fun rides, or so we thought. Turns out however that the 2 best rides weren't working on the day we decided to drop by. I got pretty annoyed about it and had a right go at one of the service personnel who while apologizing gave us 2 tickets we could use in the next couple of days. One of the rides (Superman Escape) started working shortly after so we still got to go on it. 0 to 100 km/h in 2 seconds and 4.5 positive G's as well as 1 negative G makes it a super awesome roller coaster ride! The next day we drove up to the real Surfer's Paradise which in fact is not a surfer's paradise but rather a tourist trap filled with Asian tourists prancing around the beach in full office wear … Idiots! Back in Cooly we had another sad attempt at surfing which just resulted in more bruising and so we headed back to WB World for another roller coaster filled day. Finally we left the Gold Coast behind and shot past Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast.
We spent our first day up at Australia Zoo, founded by non other than Steve Irwin aka. The Crocodile Hunter (remember him: The guy that poked deadly snakes with sticks for fun while saying stuff like “Crikey!” and “She's a beaut!”) The Zoo itself was the best Zoo ever because they let you get right up close with the animals. You get to touch, feed etc. animals like koalas, elephants, kangaroos and even snakes. There are also workers in pretty much every enclosure interacting with the animals, even the tigers. We got to watch a trainer playing with 2 tigers for a good 40 minutes which was really cool! On the 6th of April we dropped into Caboolture to meet Aaron and Amber, some friends we made at the cooking course in Chiang Mai. We had a great time with them for two days, meeting Amber's family, going up into the hinterlands and finishing up the visit with a real Aussie Barby … there was more meat and XXXX Gold than you could consume in a year, but we managed well. All good things come to an end but the fun doesn't stop! We drove up along the coast, stopping off at Mooloolaba for a visit to Underwater World: Home to … Lot's of sharks!!! … and some fish. Our last stop on the Sunshine Coast was Noosa, another great surf spot but this time we actually didn't suck. I finally managed to ride a couple of waves in between face-plants and Micki is actually getting pretty good at it.
Our next stop is Rainbow Beach where hopefully, I will get to do some diving and Micki some trekking or surfing and after that we're booked for a tour of Fraser Island for a couple of days! Should be a beaut!
Have a g'dun!
Robbe & Micki
p.s: Sorry about being a bit slow, but Internet in Australia is really bad... as bad if not worse than Laos :D Pictures coming soon
Posted byMicki at 14:41
Hejsan ! Cool. Robbe, du planerade ju som liten att bli marinbiolog, och/eller studera hajar.....:o). Some things never change or do they ? Synd att vädret har varit uselt. Här har vi nu firat påsken färdigt och fammo var på påskmiddagsbesök i dag. Hela köret med fårstek och kaffegräddsås..! Fammo hälsar och hennes hälsning finns på ditt konto.....:o), även min middagshälsning. Ha det så bra!!
Pappa Jankka
hi bobby and micki,
greetings from spain where we are escaping the northern hemisphere Cardiff rain. I really wish I could have joined you on the roller coaster ride! Looks like its beats Parc Asterix by a mile! xo to you both.
tom
Hej Antligen news!
Har varje dag tittat pa vaderleken och undrat om Ni nagonsin kommer att torka upp igen?
Fina bilder! Ser till min stora gladje en flaska Bundeberg Ginger Bear -upptackte sjalv densamma for ca 3 veckor sen - fyller vart kylskap-yam!
Hoppas att Ni far massor av sol och intressanta vyer sa Ni kan slippa aka till mera ruskiga Amusement Parks o roller coasters - mar illa vid blotta tanken, Fanns det ingen "Its a Small World" ride att njuta av??
Har Ni ren traffat Ornithorhynchus anatinus (platypus)?? Would love to see a pic!!
Ta val hand om varann,
Kram, Mamma EL
Hej på er!!!
Vad fina bilder ni ha satt upp igen! usch Micki att du rörde ormen... På roller coaster bilden trodde jag redan att Robbe hade rakat sig, men så va det ju int :) Ni ser båda ut som riktiga chineser på bilden!
Stora kramar av Gabban o Jocce