The Thursday and Friday were quiet days as we were just hanging around our room waiting for the call from the canvas people to pick up our van. We arranged with Richard to do the work to the back box on the Saturday morning but we still had not heard from the canvas people by 4pm on the Friday, so we called them as need the van back. Speaking to the bloke on the phone, and no prizes for guessing, but they were still working
on it and it would not be ready until Saturday morning. Another problem was that it was going to be hard for them to drop it back to us on the Saturday morning as the main guy was not working and the son did not have a license! He said that if we could get to him that day we could borrow his UTE, but we had no way of getting to him. Having a bit of a think we looked into busses from Tatura to Shepparton and realised that the bus service was crazy. There was one bus that comes all the way from Melbourne and the whole trip takes about half a day.
Our friends Lloyd and Dianne were coming up on the Saturday all the way from Inglewood to collect their sewing machine and speaking to them they agreed to drop us into town which was very nice of them. They came bearing pies and cakes for breakfast which was great and we set off into town at 10:30 as the van was going to be ready for pick up at 10. When we arrived- surprise, surprise, they were still working on the van and they have not even got the pop – top on. Could not believe it, as they knew we had accommodation and transport constraints, to top it off there was only the son working on the van as the dad was out playing bowls for the day! We were both extremely annoyed about the whole situation but he promised that he would have it ready that day at about 4pm.
Luckily for us, Lloyd and Di said that they would stay around for a bit and take us back again later, they are lifesavers those two honestly. We all went around the shops for a bit and headed back to camp to pick some apples that Lloyd & Di wanted to take back with them. We went in and saw the owner of the orchard who asked us when we were getting our van back and leaving as he wanted to clear the place out. We said Monday but were a little worried as we still had not got the back box fitted and would not be able to take all our stuff with us. Because of the delay from the dickheads doing the work on our van we had to cancel Richard who was coming over in the afternoon and we were hoping that he would come out on the Sunday. We went to pick up the van and yet again it was not ready – but luckily not far from completion so we hung around until gone six while he did the finishing touches to the pop top.
That night was a little bit stressful as we knew that we needed Rich to do the work to the back box and without his help we would be screwed. That night we put the alarm on for early the next day as had a lot of work to do to get in a position to leave on the Monday. We woke the next day early and got straight on with things. The paintwork inside the van was pretty ruined after all the living and working we had done in the van so Ily started to re – paint the entire inside including all of the metal work (which we had not done before) up to where it meets the new lining. Where they had to re – rivet the handles and the catches for the roof they needed to drill out the old rivets which put 12 fresh new holes in the roof which needed to be sealed with mastic so Graham did that first thing. All around the windows inside have been rust treated and sealed and then mastic applied which makes them look much better. Ily spent from about 8am to 3pm painting the inside and it looks amazing now with the new lining and pop – top, but it’s pretty safe to say Ily was quite high after all that time semi-closed in the van with the oil based paint, as the work was being carried out on the back box.
Richard turned up after lunch on the Sunday which was great news and we started to get things going with making the bracket for the box. Richard already had a pretty good idea in his head what we wanted and had most of the bits ready to be cut, welded etc. Graham helped Richard by drilling holes, grinding and other bits and pieces and nearly got trapped in a drill at one point which was a little scary. The work to the box took about 4 hours in total to get the bracket ready and primed. Rich said that he would be in work at 7:15am in the morning to do the final fitting once the paint had dried. We asked him how much he wanted for the work as originally he would not take anything and he settled on $50 which seems a bit cheap to us as we sort of ruined his Sunday. He is a great bloke though and we cannot thank him enough for all of his help as it means now that we can take all of our bits away with us.
We will have to put some photos on to show you the finished article.
The only problem with putting all of the paint on the night before the move was the fact that we could not load up the van for the move that night, so we had to wait until the Monday morning. However, we did all the work we could that night to get ready to go by putting the gazebo down and tiding our stuff away into one of the rooms until it was dark. We knew we had to get the most we could done Sunday as Monday we had to see our friends Colin and Sarah at the dairy farm before we left and drive into Shepparton to get the deep cycle battery and isolator kit and we want to head as far north as possible as it might be a bit warmer for our 1st night without any heating.
Monday was a very busy morning, we had to re- pack all of our stuff into the van and fit the rear box which we thought would only take a couple of hours but actually took us from 7am to midday. We had to cram all of our stuff in that we had collected over the months and we finally set off to meet our friends. In the end we met them at McDonalds in Mooropna and they were telling us stories of what they have been up to on the farm.
It would seem that the job started off as milking the cows and then increased to work on the quad bike, tractor and various other jobs around the farm which they did on a casual basis. They even had a go delivering the calves and showed us some videos of the action. The farm also have to regularly kill the cows that are sick and butcher them which Colin and Sarah had watched and videoed. They showed us one video of a cow being shot at point blank range, then its neck sliced where it bled out for a couple of min’s and then the final finishing bullet to the head. It seems here that they like to bleed the cow before finishing it off as gives better tasting meat. Funny that as we have noticed the steak here tastes more bloody than back home. Graham is even starting to go off the taste of steak here which is a worry, it tastes much stronger than back home. We are thinking that they may put a preservative in the meat or it is the way that they kill the animal.
The other annoying thing here with meat is the sausages, Aussies go mad for the beef sausages which taste like ass and it’s really hard to get a nice bland pork sausage which is a pain. Burgers here taste about the same as back home as does pork.
Anyway, we stayed with our friends for a bit but it was approaching 2pm and we still had to get the battery, isolator kit and hit the road. We got the battery from Marshall’s batteries, we went for the 120 amp hour deep cycle AGM battery which was a bit more expensive at $300 but won’t produce explosive gas on re – charge. We quickly went into Jaycar and bought the isolator, wires, connectors and large 120amp fuse. It was about 3pm when we finally completed everything and were in a position to head off. We put Brisbane into the sat nav and it read 1600km s journey which looked a bit
daunting.
After about an hour on the road we headed across the NSW boarded which surprised us as we didn’t realise how far north in Victoria we were. We drove until it started to get dark and ended up just outside a little town called Finley and pulled into a rest area for the night. It was a strange feeling not being at the farm and not having the electric hook up. We managed to get the TV going off of the new battery and watched TV before bed. Although the new pop – top kept a surprising amount of heat in the van it was a freezing cold night but we survived and the next morning we got up when it got warm and started to fit the isolator kit so we would keep the deep cell re – charged.
The kit took 2hrs to fit and was not too much of a problem just involved some stripping of wires and drilling holes for wires which we had all of the tools for stored in our back box. We set off that day at about 1pm so still not as early as we would have liked but we managed to get 4hrs of driving under our belt and ended up in a BP roadhouse in a place called Beckhom. It was quite a good rest area as you could park up for free and use the showers for $2 each which was getting needed after 3 days without. That night it was pretty cold still but we had not managed to travel too far in the first two days.
The third day we managed to cover some distance and drove all of the way through Dubbo which is the half way mark. The journey was pretty un- eventful as the most exciting thing that happened was being overtaken by large double trucks. We have photos below of the landscape it’s kind of flat with no a lot of vegetation, driving all day we burned some fuel which we found went down less if you stayed at 90kms. If you
started to go up into the 100s then the van would struggle and you can almost see the fuel needle going down. That night we stayed in a great little rest area next to a river just outside Dubbo called Eumungerie Recreation Reserve which again was free but had toilets and a cold shower if you wanted one. The fourth day we were heading close to the Queensland Boarder and decided to stay just inside NSW and give ourselves 400kms drive to Brisbane the next day. The day was spent driving again without much to comment on apart from the large volume of dead joeys at the side of the road and the temperature starting to head up into the late 20’s again which was nice.
Friday we woke early and drove to the nearest fuel station which happened to be another roadhouse where we stopped and had breakfast. Graham had been monitoring the voltage of the new battery and noticed that it was dropping not increasing despite the amount of
driving that we were doing. We re- checked the wiring diagram and noticed that the manual override wire which we thought was optional has to be connected and earthed for the device to work so we connected it up and hey presto result, thething lit up and when the engine was on after 20 min’s the thing kicked in to charge the rear battery.
We shortly headed over into Queensland which is our 4th state that we have been in since being here, you notice after a couple of hundred K’s that it starts to look more green and tropical here plus it will be time to dig the shorts out again soon. As we were traveling we needed to start to think about where we were going to head, looking at the map Surfers Paradise was just south of Brisbane and we don’t want to miss seeing the area so we decided to head to a paid cheap site about half hour drive east for the night. We were driving along on the relative flat and noticed that we were heading towards allot of steep hills. Our old van hates hills and with its new weight would surely hate these. Up hills it cannot sustain 4th gear and going down is down- right scary as all the weight on the front means no steering and brakes which want to catch fire.
It only really dawned on us that we were heading and had to go through the Great Dividing Range. All down the east coast from Victoria right up to the top of Queensland you have the coast and most of the towns like Sydney, Newcastle etc situated along the coast. You then have a couple of hundred K’s or less then the Great Dividing Range which have national parks in them. On the other side it’s much more rural and the towns are much more sparse. Unfortunately, we had to go through the Great Dividing Range to get to where we were heading. The van struggled up the hills
but so did the normally quick lorries so luckily we did not hold up much of the traffic. There were also road- works going on which helped slow us down and after a while we reached the top. We have photos of the views from the top to show you how high up we were, unfortunately it was a bit of a cloudy, wet day as there is a low pressure system here at the moment.
Going back down the other side was much, much harder. All the weight on the front meant you needed massive muscles to wrestle the thing around corners and the van was in third and backfiring all the way down. Again, luckily there was a large double lorry struggling in front of us and we just kept behind him all the way down doing about 30kms as any more and we would not have been able to brake. It was a seriously steep road and we are surprised that there are not many more accidents. With an overheating engine and massive brake fade we got to the bottom in one piece and carried on with 150kms to go until we reached our destination, the camp site in Canugrum. Cutting a long story short the last 50ks
was a nightmare as the Sat Nav decided that we had a 4WD and took us off the highway and across country which was the worst road we have been on in our life. The van nearly got shook to pieces and we must have bottomed out the already knackered suspension about a hundred times before we finally arrived at the site.
Feeling relieved that we had made it in once piece we pulled up and went to plug the van into the electric when we noticed that the switch on the board kept tripping and we had no – power! What a massive ball ache as we just did all that work. It was getting dark and we were shattered so we just pulled out the bed and settled down for the evening in front of the TV. The next day Sat we just relaxed and went into town and took more photos of the scenery to prove that Australia is not just a desert! We are adding these a week early as the interne signal is good and will upload quickly, next week could be a different story!
on it and it would not be ready until Saturday morning. Another problem was that it was going to be hard for them to drop it back to us on the Saturday morning as the main guy was not working and the son did not have a license! He said that if we could get to him that day we could borrow his UTE, but we had no way of getting to him. Having a bit of a think we looked into busses from Tatura to Shepparton and realised that the bus service was crazy. There was one bus that comes all the way from Melbourne and the whole trip takes about half a day.
Our friends Lloyd and Dianne were coming up on the Saturday all the way from Inglewood to collect their sewing machine and speaking to them they agreed to drop us into town which was very nice of them. They came bearing pies and cakes for breakfast which was great and we set off into town at 10:30 as the van was going to be ready for pick up at 10. When we arrived- surprise, surprise, they were still working on the van and they have not even got the pop – top on. Could not believe it, as they knew we had accommodation and transport constraints, to top it off there was only the son working on the van as the dad was out playing bowls for the day! We were both extremely annoyed about the whole situation but he promised that he would have it ready that day at about 4pm.
Luckily for us, Lloyd and Di said that they would stay around for a bit and take us back again later, they are lifesavers those two honestly. We all went around the shops for a bit and headed back to camp to pick some apples that Lloyd & Di wanted to take back with them. We went in and saw the owner of the orchard who asked us when we were getting our van back and leaving as he wanted to clear the place out. We said Monday but were a little worried as we still had not got the back box fitted and would not be able to take all our stuff with us. Because of the delay from the dickheads doing the work on our van we had to cancel Richard who was coming over in the afternoon and we were hoping that he would come out on the Sunday. We went to pick up the van and yet again it was not ready – but luckily not far from completion so we hung around until gone six while he did the finishing touches to the pop top.
That night was a little bit stressful as we knew that we needed Rich to do the work to the back box and without his help we would be screwed. That night we put the alarm on for early the next day as had a lot of work to do to get in a position to leave on the Monday. We woke the next day early and got straight on with things. The paintwork inside the van was pretty ruined after all the living and working we had done in the van so Ily started to re – paint the entire inside including all of the metal work (which we had not done before) up to where it meets the new lining. Where they had to re – rivet the handles and the catches for the roof they needed to drill out the old rivets which put 12 fresh new holes in the roof which needed to be sealed with mastic so Graham did that first thing. All around the windows inside have been rust treated and sealed and then mastic applied which makes them look much better. Ily spent from about 8am to 3pm painting the inside and it looks amazing now with the new lining and pop – top, but it’s pretty safe to say Ily was quite high after all that time semi-closed in the van with the oil based paint, as the work was being carried out on the back box.
Richard turned up after lunch on the Sunday which was great news and we started to get things going with making the bracket for the box. Richard already had a pretty good idea in his head what we wanted and had most of the bits ready to be cut, welded etc. Graham helped Richard by drilling holes, grinding and other bits and pieces and nearly got trapped in a drill at one point which was a little scary. The work to the box took about 4 hours in total to get the bracket ready and primed. Rich said that he would be in work at 7:15am in the morning to do the final fitting once the paint had dried. We asked him how much he wanted for the work as originally he would not take anything and he settled on $50 which seems a bit cheap to us as we sort of ruined his Sunday. He is a great bloke though and we cannot thank him enough for all of his help as it means now that we can take all of our bits away with us.
We will have to put some photos on to show you the finished article.
The only problem with putting all of the paint on the night before the move was the fact that we could not load up the van for the move that night, so we had to wait until the Monday morning. However, we did all the work we could that night to get ready to go by putting the gazebo down and tiding our stuff away into one of the rooms until it was dark. We knew we had to get the most we could done Sunday as Monday we had to see our friends Colin and Sarah at the dairy farm before we left and drive into Shepparton to get the deep cycle battery and isolator kit and we want to head as far north as possible as it might be a bit warmer for our 1st night without any heating.
Monday was a very busy morning, we had to re- pack all of our stuff into the van and fit the rear box which we thought would only take a couple of hours but actually took us from 7am to midday. We had to cram all of our stuff in that we had collected over the months and we finally set off to meet our friends. In the end we met them at McDonalds in Mooropna and they were telling us stories of what they have been up to on the farm.
It would seem that the job started off as milking the cows and then increased to work on the quad bike, tractor and various other jobs around the farm which they did on a casual basis. They even had a go delivering the calves and showed us some videos of the action. The farm also have to regularly kill the cows that are sick and butcher them which Colin and Sarah had watched and videoed. They showed us one video of a cow being shot at point blank range, then its neck sliced where it bled out for a couple of min’s and then the final finishing bullet to the head. It seems here that they like to bleed the cow before finishing it off as gives better tasting meat. Funny that as we have noticed the steak here tastes more bloody than back home. Graham is even starting to go off the taste of steak here which is a worry, it tastes much stronger than back home. We are thinking that they may put a preservative in the meat or it is the way that they kill the animal.
The other annoying thing here with meat is the sausages, Aussies go mad for the beef sausages which taste like ass and it’s really hard to get a nice bland pork sausage which is a pain. Burgers here taste about the same as back home as does pork.
Anyway, we stayed with our friends for a bit but it was approaching 2pm and we still had to get the battery, isolator kit and hit the road. We got the battery from Marshall’s batteries, we went for the 120 amp hour deep cycle AGM battery which was a bit more expensive at $300 but won’t produce explosive gas on re – charge. We quickly went into Jaycar and bought the isolator, wires, connectors and large 120amp fuse. It was about 3pm when we finally completed everything and were in a position to head off. We put Brisbane into the sat nav and it read 1600km s journey which looked a bit
daunting.
After about an hour on the road we headed across the NSW boarded which surprised us as we didn’t realise how far north in Victoria we were. We drove until it started to get dark and ended up just outside a little town called Finley and pulled into a rest area for the night. It was a strange feeling not being at the farm and not having the electric hook up. We managed to get the TV going off of the new battery and watched TV before bed. Although the new pop – top kept a surprising amount of heat in the van it was a freezing cold night but we survived and the next morning we got up when it got warm and started to fit the isolator kit so we would keep the deep cell re – charged.
The kit took 2hrs to fit and was not too much of a problem just involved some stripping of wires and drilling holes for wires which we had all of the tools for stored in our back box. We set off that day at about 1pm so still not as early as we would have liked but we managed to get 4hrs of driving under our belt and ended up in a BP roadhouse in a place called Beckhom. It was quite a good rest area as you could park up for free and use the showers for $2 each which was getting needed after 3 days without. That night it was pretty cold still but we had not managed to travel too far in the first two days.
The third day we managed to cover some distance and drove all of the way through Dubbo which is the half way mark. The journey was pretty un- eventful as the most exciting thing that happened was being overtaken by large double trucks. We have photos below of the landscape it’s kind of flat with no a lot of vegetation, driving all day we burned some fuel which we found went down less if you stayed at 90kms. If you
started to go up into the 100s then the van would struggle and you can almost see the fuel needle going down. That night we stayed in a great little rest area next to a river just outside Dubbo called Eumungerie Recreation Reserve which again was free but had toilets and a cold shower if you wanted one. The fourth day we were heading close to the Queensland Boarder and decided to stay just inside NSW and give ourselves 400kms drive to Brisbane the next day. The day was spent driving again without much to comment on apart from the large volume of dead joeys at the side of the road and the temperature starting to head up into the late 20’s again which was nice.
Friday we woke early and drove to the nearest fuel station which happened to be another roadhouse where we stopped and had breakfast. Graham had been monitoring the voltage of the new battery and noticed that it was dropping not increasing despite the amount of
driving that we were doing. We re- checked the wiring diagram and noticed that the manual override wire which we thought was optional has to be connected and earthed for the device to work so we connected it up and hey presto result, thething lit up and when the engine was on after 20 min’s the thing kicked in to charge the rear battery.
We shortly headed over into Queensland which is our 4th state that we have been in since being here, you notice after a couple of hundred K’s that it starts to look more green and tropical here plus it will be time to dig the shorts out again soon. As we were traveling we needed to start to think about where we were going to head, looking at the map Surfers Paradise was just south of Brisbane and we don’t want to miss seeing the area so we decided to head to a paid cheap site about half hour drive east for the night. We were driving along on the relative flat and noticed that we were heading towards allot of steep hills. Our old van hates hills and with its new weight would surely hate these. Up hills it cannot sustain 4th gear and going down is down- right scary as all the weight on the front means no steering and brakes which want to catch fire.
It only really dawned on us that we were heading and had to go through the Great Dividing Range. All down the east coast from Victoria right up to the top of Queensland you have the coast and most of the towns like Sydney, Newcastle etc situated along the coast. You then have a couple of hundred K’s or less then the Great Dividing Range which have national parks in them. On the other side it’s much more rural and the towns are much more sparse. Unfortunately, we had to go through the Great Dividing Range to get to where we were heading. The van struggled up the hills
but so did the normally quick lorries so luckily we did not hold up much of the traffic. There were also road- works going on which helped slow us down and after a while we reached the top. We have photos of the views from the top to show you how high up we were, unfortunately it was a bit of a cloudy, wet day as there is a low pressure system here at the moment.
Going back down the other side was much, much harder. All the weight on the front meant you needed massive muscles to wrestle the thing around corners and the van was in third and backfiring all the way down. Again, luckily there was a large double lorry struggling in front of us and we just kept behind him all the way down doing about 30kms as any more and we would not have been able to brake. It was a seriously steep road and we are surprised that there are not many more accidents. With an overheating engine and massive brake fade we got to the bottom in one piece and carried on with 150kms to go until we reached our destination, the camp site in Canugrum. Cutting a long story short the last 50ks
was a nightmare as the Sat Nav decided that we had a 4WD and took us off the highway and across country which was the worst road we have been on in our life. The van nearly got shook to pieces and we must have bottomed out the already knackered suspension about a hundred times before we finally arrived at the site.
Feeling relieved that we had made it in once piece we pulled up and went to plug the van into the electric when we noticed that the switch on the board kept tripping and we had no – power! What a massive ball ache as we just did all that work. It was getting dark and we were shattered so we just pulled out the bed and settled down for the evening in front of the TV. The next day Sat we just relaxed and went into town and took more photos of the scenery to prove that Australia is not just a desert! We are adding these a week early as the interne signal is good and will upload quickly, next week could be a different story!
Week 27 (Sat 1st June – Fri 7th June)
The next day we woke early and looked for the problem with the electric’s, when going through the connections and wires we noticed that the light bulb had blown and this was tripping the fuse. We cannot figure out why it blew but it may have something to do with the condensation without a heater or could be Grahams wiring however it worked ok for a month on electric at the orchard so we are both baffled. We have 12volt lighting system installed so we will use that until we can figure out the problem.
That day we spent chilling out on the site and unfortunately Ily started to develop a cough, that night we were watching the Moto GP qualifying and she got worse and could not sleep for most of the night. The next day Ily was quite rough and she had a cold, she stayed in bed all day and we watched TV and kept warm with the heater going, the weather is still hot but it was overcast and raining for most the day. We met a nice couple of French people Sonya and Cedric who are also traveling and the next day Ily felt a bit better and we got an attractions pass for the three theme parks which is good at $89 each and it included 1 month unlimited access to Warner Brothers Movie world, Sea World and Wet and Wild. Ily was still feeling a bit delicate so we decided to go to Movie World as thought that it would be the most tame. Upon arrival noticed that it was a bit of a theme park with lots of rollercoasters and we went straight on the green lantern coaster which was quite mental as you go upside – down and at some crazy angles – which gave Ily a headache.
We walked around the park and went on the Scooby Do haunted ride which we thought would be for kids as it started out tame, really slow and not that exciting. Then all of a sudden it went dark and we felt like we were going up in a lift, then the cart turned around and just dropped backwards in the pitch black and my god what a shock. Then the thing went mental and you could not see where you were going because it was pitch black and that gave us both a headache and Graham twisted his neck.
The most hard core rides there are the superman roller coaster and the Batman one but we gave them a wide berth that day as we could always go back later on in the day. We took some photos of the park and it was a good day out. We missed most of the shows like the stuntman one so will go back. On the way back we bought a slab of beer and went back and cooked pizzas in the oven and drank. There is another guy on the site called Chris who is a guy from NSW and he is with his two daughters travelling around Australia doing the whole circuit. He is funny bloke to chat to and he is traveling and home schooling to two kids which must be hard work as living in a van is hard enough looking after yourself. We woke the next day late and decided just to chill out for the whole day, we went into the local town again and had a walk around and we cooked up a roast slab of pork that night which was great at $6. That night Chris came over again and was showing us his cage fighting videos when he was a cage fighter which was interesting.
We decided the following day that we needed to make a move out of the site and head to Surfers Paradise which is a town on the Gold Coast. Our friends from the farm loved it there and stayed for about 5 months in a hostel which they recommended. We were told that we could probably stay in the car park in our van and that it would be a bit cheaper as a private room is $70 per night which seems quite expensive. We set off with Sonya and Cedric as they also wanted to come and headed across the hills down to Surfers. We had not yet seen the Gold Coast and were wondering what to expect but as soon as we got down onto the highway the building types and density like seen in England started and it became much more busy and alive than we had become accustomed to. We headed down the highway and were looking for the hostel and saw that it was a underground car park with a headroom of 1.9m.
Ily said that we would not fit in all fairness to her but Graham was determined that the van was going to fit and slowly headed down the steepest of all ramps to the car park. Things were going well when we heard a crunch sound from above and we got jammed! Graham quickly put on the brakes and Ily jumped out to have a look. The handbrake would not hold the van so we had to keep the brakes on which are not the best in a 1980s van. Things were looking dodgy and Graham thought sod it I got to reverse this out so slammed it into reverse and revved the nuts off it to get it to start moving backwards. Through the sound of wheel- spinning and the smell of burning clutch Graham noticed a worried waving Ily out of the side
mirror but it was kind of too late – bang! Graham managed to stuff the rear of the van up the front of the surprised French couple behind. At least though we were out of the embarrassing predicament of being jammed in an underground car park so job well done in Grahams eyes. We pulled out back onto the highway and pulled into a side road to inspect the damage. The Sonya and Cedric van has a slightly damaged bumper which rubs when you open the door so not bad considering the speed of impact, we think out aluminium back box must have flexed a little on impact. The damage to our van was also minor, it was the suitcases on top which got trashed and the straps holding them down bust out of their fixings along with the fixings but it’s a hours work to repair so luckily it’s all good.
The guys at the backpackers thought it was funny and said that we did not have to stay in the underground car –park as there is a small open air one next to it so we parked in there at a rate of $30 per night which is great because although we don’t have power we have the use of the backpackers facilities which include full kitchen, laundry, swimming pool, sauna, cheap bar, BBQ area and a load of other things. We booked in and went for walk to explore the area. Now we generally have not been blown away by Australia so far in that the buildings are like shacks and although there are lots of beaches there is not much to do or going on. Now, this area is like walking into a different country, it’s completely awesome. Apart from having a cool name there are massive high rises which go onto the beaches, tonnes and tonnes of shops and shopping malls and millions of things to do. At
night the area is very pretty with palm trees and tropical plants, everything here from the buildings to the walkways are finished to an extremely high
standard. Its winter here and we are in shorts and tee – shirts and at night the temperature is perfect. For the 1st time since we have been in OZ apart from maybe Sydney in places we feel like we are actually on holiday, there is some money here to which you will probably see from the pics. Another completely awesome feature is that there is a massive beach split into many smaller beaches along the coast from Surfers for about 18km which have awesome surfing waves ranging from beginner Woolacombe style which are still too big for us up to waves that will pin you to the deck
and break your spine if you can’t duck it. Surfing seems to be in the blood of people here and they are all amazing at it. We saw a boy about 10
years old surfing a wave about 8ft doing aerials and tricks which was amazing, in fact we saw a smaller girl about the same age which would put Graham to shame.
Speaking to a local man its Whale season here and they come close to the shore and you can see them traveling north, apparently about 1300 are due to come past the beach over the coming months. Also we were told that the sea can be a bit nippy at this time of year at a cool 22 degrees!! We walked around a shopping mall for a bit and then headed back to the hostel as that night they had a “big night out” party arranged and we thought that it would be a good way to see the town and to get hammered at the same time. It was good at $30 each a ticket you got bits and pieces like glow sticks, stupid vests and other random stuff and they take you into surfers on a coach with backpackers from other hostels. As part of the $30 you get free entry to 2 bars and 2 clubs with a free drink in each, also there is no queuing up and your wristband gives you discounted drinks all
night.
We headed off in good spirits and headed off to the first bar, it was the “origin night” which is a Rugby thing here whereby NSW play Queensland but it has something to do with in what state the players played their 1st professional match or something. It was a busy bar because of the match and we had our free drink, we were with our reps and there was a gay guy who was one of the reps and in every bar he got a certain amount of credit to spend on drinks but was not allowed to drink himself until the last club. As we think that he was quite fond of Iliana (not Graham) he kept pouring drinks down us this continued in each club throughout the night. Iliana was well impressed with the ladies room in the club Vanity as they had full size make up mirrors and chairs and creams and stuff for women to use when they are in there. The night went ok but as with clubbing and drinking in clubs it gets all a bit samey after a while and by the end of the night we were both pretty toasted and had to head for Hungry Jacks for a Double Whopper meal which Iliana has rated at one of her all – time favourite burgers.
The next morning was rough – nuff said! We hung around the hostel and they kept trying to persuade us to go out on a $2.50 Corona night but they have much more stamina than us and we just managed to avoid. Instead we decided to go into Surfers on foot and have a walk around some of the shops which was good for a hangover cure as nice and steady. Ily found lots of shops that she liked and bought a pair of high heels. The shops here do seem much better as the clothes don’t seem as boring or old looking so obviously a younger area. Ily was quite amazed by the quantity of shops and shopping malls in the area, it’s not quite as many as Sydney but we think it’s getting there. We chilled out that night and watched a load of films
on the TV.
Friday came and Graham thought that it was about time that he had a go on his surfboard, we went to Broad beach which joins Surfers main beach (essentially the same beach) as it’s opposite our hostel and had a look at the waves. The waves had about a 6 – 8 foot face at the back with smaller 4 foot waves at the front. The ones it the back were too big to ride and were being ridden by the odd hard-core surfer doing aerials, turns etc. The smaller waves had very little run and broke on a sandbank which was about waist high so no good for me. Graham went and spoke to a local surfer for about an hour who he was watching and he was explaining to Graham about the area, tips and about boards etc. He was a nice bloke who had been surfing since he was 7 years old and he goes twice a day almost every day, he was pretty shit hot at surfing mind you with the smallest board you have seen. He looked across at Grahams beat up old short board and said that he didn’t think that it would be suitable but said to take it up to Currrumbin Point which is the more beginner area and try it there as the waves are much more mellow and longer to ride without sand – banks.
We drove up to Currumbin which is 20 mins along the Gold Coast and Graham went in with the board. It was a frustrating experience as the board is impossible to paddle, has no float and is almost impossible to get any speed body boarding a wave as it will pull off. In hindsight we think that the board is too hard for Graham to ride and we decided that the next day we would go and speak to someone about getting a replacement as he does not want to be the only guy who’s been to OZ and not managed to stand on a board.
That day we spent chilling out on the site and unfortunately Ily started to develop a cough, that night we were watching the Moto GP qualifying and she got worse and could not sleep for most of the night. The next day Ily was quite rough and she had a cold, she stayed in bed all day and we watched TV and kept warm with the heater going, the weather is still hot but it was overcast and raining for most the day. We met a nice couple of French people Sonya and Cedric who are also traveling and the next day Ily felt a bit better and we got an attractions pass for the three theme parks which is good at $89 each and it included 1 month unlimited access to Warner Brothers Movie world, Sea World and Wet and Wild. Ily was still feeling a bit delicate so we decided to go to Movie World as thought that it would be the most tame. Upon arrival noticed that it was a bit of a theme park with lots of rollercoasters and we went straight on the green lantern coaster which was quite mental as you go upside – down and at some crazy angles – which gave Ily a headache.
We walked around the park and went on the Scooby Do haunted ride which we thought would be for kids as it started out tame, really slow and not that exciting. Then all of a sudden it went dark and we felt like we were going up in a lift, then the cart turned around and just dropped backwards in the pitch black and my god what a shock. Then the thing went mental and you could not see where you were going because it was pitch black and that gave us both a headache and Graham twisted his neck.
The most hard core rides there are the superman roller coaster and the Batman one but we gave them a wide berth that day as we could always go back later on in the day. We took some photos of the park and it was a good day out. We missed most of the shows like the stuntman one so will go back. On the way back we bought a slab of beer and went back and cooked pizzas in the oven and drank. There is another guy on the site called Chris who is a guy from NSW and he is with his two daughters travelling around Australia doing the whole circuit. He is funny bloke to chat to and he is traveling and home schooling to two kids which must be hard work as living in a van is hard enough looking after yourself. We woke the next day late and decided just to chill out for the whole day, we went into the local town again and had a walk around and we cooked up a roast slab of pork that night which was great at $6. That night Chris came over again and was showing us his cage fighting videos when he was a cage fighter which was interesting.
We decided the following day that we needed to make a move out of the site and head to Surfers Paradise which is a town on the Gold Coast. Our friends from the farm loved it there and stayed for about 5 months in a hostel which they recommended. We were told that we could probably stay in the car park in our van and that it would be a bit cheaper as a private room is $70 per night which seems quite expensive. We set off with Sonya and Cedric as they also wanted to come and headed across the hills down to Surfers. We had not yet seen the Gold Coast and were wondering what to expect but as soon as we got down onto the highway the building types and density like seen in England started and it became much more busy and alive than we had become accustomed to. We headed down the highway and were looking for the hostel and saw that it was a underground car park with a headroom of 1.9m.
Ily said that we would not fit in all fairness to her but Graham was determined that the van was going to fit and slowly headed down the steepest of all ramps to the car park. Things were going well when we heard a crunch sound from above and we got jammed! Graham quickly put on the brakes and Ily jumped out to have a look. The handbrake would not hold the van so we had to keep the brakes on which are not the best in a 1980s van. Things were looking dodgy and Graham thought sod it I got to reverse this out so slammed it into reverse and revved the nuts off it to get it to start moving backwards. Through the sound of wheel- spinning and the smell of burning clutch Graham noticed a worried waving Ily out of the side
mirror but it was kind of too late – bang! Graham managed to stuff the rear of the van up the front of the surprised French couple behind. At least though we were out of the embarrassing predicament of being jammed in an underground car park so job well done in Grahams eyes. We pulled out back onto the highway and pulled into a side road to inspect the damage. The Sonya and Cedric van has a slightly damaged bumper which rubs when you open the door so not bad considering the speed of impact, we think out aluminium back box must have flexed a little on impact. The damage to our van was also minor, it was the suitcases on top which got trashed and the straps holding them down bust out of their fixings along with the fixings but it’s a hours work to repair so luckily it’s all good.
The guys at the backpackers thought it was funny and said that we did not have to stay in the underground car –park as there is a small open air one next to it so we parked in there at a rate of $30 per night which is great because although we don’t have power we have the use of the backpackers facilities which include full kitchen, laundry, swimming pool, sauna, cheap bar, BBQ area and a load of other things. We booked in and went for walk to explore the area. Now we generally have not been blown away by Australia so far in that the buildings are like shacks and although there are lots of beaches there is not much to do or going on. Now, this area is like walking into a different country, it’s completely awesome. Apart from having a cool name there are massive high rises which go onto the beaches, tonnes and tonnes of shops and shopping malls and millions of things to do. At
night the area is very pretty with palm trees and tropical plants, everything here from the buildings to the walkways are finished to an extremely high
standard. Its winter here and we are in shorts and tee – shirts and at night the temperature is perfect. For the 1st time since we have been in OZ apart from maybe Sydney in places we feel like we are actually on holiday, there is some money here to which you will probably see from the pics. Another completely awesome feature is that there is a massive beach split into many smaller beaches along the coast from Surfers for about 18km which have awesome surfing waves ranging from beginner Woolacombe style which are still too big for us up to waves that will pin you to the deck
and break your spine if you can’t duck it. Surfing seems to be in the blood of people here and they are all amazing at it. We saw a boy about 10
years old surfing a wave about 8ft doing aerials and tricks which was amazing, in fact we saw a smaller girl about the same age which would put Graham to shame.
Speaking to a local man its Whale season here and they come close to the shore and you can see them traveling north, apparently about 1300 are due to come past the beach over the coming months. Also we were told that the sea can be a bit nippy at this time of year at a cool 22 degrees!! We walked around a shopping mall for a bit and then headed back to the hostel as that night they had a “big night out” party arranged and we thought that it would be a good way to see the town and to get hammered at the same time. It was good at $30 each a ticket you got bits and pieces like glow sticks, stupid vests and other random stuff and they take you into surfers on a coach with backpackers from other hostels. As part of the $30 you get free entry to 2 bars and 2 clubs with a free drink in each, also there is no queuing up and your wristband gives you discounted drinks all
night.
We headed off in good spirits and headed off to the first bar, it was the “origin night” which is a Rugby thing here whereby NSW play Queensland but it has something to do with in what state the players played their 1st professional match or something. It was a busy bar because of the match and we had our free drink, we were with our reps and there was a gay guy who was one of the reps and in every bar he got a certain amount of credit to spend on drinks but was not allowed to drink himself until the last club. As we think that he was quite fond of Iliana (not Graham) he kept pouring drinks down us this continued in each club throughout the night. Iliana was well impressed with the ladies room in the club Vanity as they had full size make up mirrors and chairs and creams and stuff for women to use when they are in there. The night went ok but as with clubbing and drinking in clubs it gets all a bit samey after a while and by the end of the night we were both pretty toasted and had to head for Hungry Jacks for a Double Whopper meal which Iliana has rated at one of her all – time favourite burgers.
The next morning was rough – nuff said! We hung around the hostel and they kept trying to persuade us to go out on a $2.50 Corona night but they have much more stamina than us and we just managed to avoid. Instead we decided to go into Surfers on foot and have a walk around some of the shops which was good for a hangover cure as nice and steady. Ily found lots of shops that she liked and bought a pair of high heels. The shops here do seem much better as the clothes don’t seem as boring or old looking so obviously a younger area. Ily was quite amazed by the quantity of shops and shopping malls in the area, it’s not quite as many as Sydney but we think it’s getting there. We chilled out that night and watched a load of films
on the TV.
Friday came and Graham thought that it was about time that he had a go on his surfboard, we went to Broad beach which joins Surfers main beach (essentially the same beach) as it’s opposite our hostel and had a look at the waves. The waves had about a 6 – 8 foot face at the back with smaller 4 foot waves at the front. The ones it the back were too big to ride and were being ridden by the odd hard-core surfer doing aerials, turns etc. The smaller waves had very little run and broke on a sandbank which was about waist high so no good for me. Graham went and spoke to a local surfer for about an hour who he was watching and he was explaining to Graham about the area, tips and about boards etc. He was a nice bloke who had been surfing since he was 7 years old and he goes twice a day almost every day, he was pretty shit hot at surfing mind you with the smallest board you have seen. He looked across at Grahams beat up old short board and said that he didn’t think that it would be suitable but said to take it up to Currrumbin Point which is the more beginner area and try it there as the waves are much more mellow and longer to ride without sand – banks.
We drove up to Currumbin which is 20 mins along the Gold Coast and Graham went in with the board. It was a frustrating experience as the board is impossible to paddle, has no float and is almost impossible to get any speed body boarding a wave as it will pull off. In hindsight we think that the board is too hard for Graham to ride and we decided that the next day we would go and speak to someone about getting a replacement as he does not want to be the only guy who’s been to OZ and not managed to stand on a board.
Week 28 (Sat 8th June – Fri 14th
June)
June)
The following day was the Friday and we went board hunting. Cash Converters did us well for laptops, games etc. and they have surfboards here so we decided to go and have a look. They were pretty bad to be honest and they still wanted $200 – 300 for something old and beaten up. We looked in a number of shops and found one guy which would sell us a brand new mini – mall for $450 another guy who would do the same up the road and they were pretty nice looking boards. Graham kind of wanted to steer away from getting another mini – mall as has one back in the U.K and spoke to the guy who makes the boards in the second shop explaining his experience and he recommended to get either a fish or fun-board which is a crossover board so its shorter, has a more pointed end but not massively pointed and a smaller round or fish shaped tail. He offered a brand new one at the same price which was $100 dollars off and he also said that Graham could hire it and if Graham liked it would give him the price of hire $50 off the board price. Temping offer it was and we decided to have a think on it before we made any decision as we were worried about spending a lot of money on a board that could be stolen off the roof if we left it parked somewhere. The bloke said that he sold loads of his boards to a shop down the road who also sell second – hand boards and told us to look there if it was too expensive for, us so we headed to the ‘Board Room’ in Miami. They had loads of second hand boards there in all shapes and sizes and we had a good rummage through for about ¾ of an hour. We originally had it tied to two boards, one was a 7ft 6 board with pointy end, plenty of volume and a fish tail for $200 and the other was a racier looking version in yellow for $300. We decided that the cheaper one had too many repairs and looked a bit abused and went to speak to the sales guy about the board. After a bit of a chat it was apparent that the racy one was for a certain type of big wave which was completely unsuitable for what Graham would ride as is scared of big waves ;-). In the end the guy picked out a 6ft 8 fun-board / fish which Ily had spotted but written off due to the length being too small i.e. same as the previous board. Speaking with the guy he said that this board would be the best choice as although quite short was thick with plenty of float. When you compared Grahams old board with the new one they are not massively different but the sales guy said that we had three days to try and if no good we could return and swap for another.
Graham thought that he would take it out for a quick spin before it got dark back at the Broadbeach. The conditions were messy with clean-ish at the back say 6ft and 2 –4 ft messy at the front in about waist high water. Graham got in the water and was amazed by the strength of the long shore drift but the sea was coming in and all he needed to do was test paddling and standing. On the second attempt he was on his feet if only for a few seconds as the wave run out of Gas. It is pretty amazing how you can just change the thickness and shape it slightly different and it handles completely differently. It’s a great board also because smaller you can get it through the waves faster and when you paddle onto a wave you can turn when it starts to break easier than the large mini – mals. Graham would recommend to Hansel and Dave that they should head to Woolacombe or Newquay and hire a fun-board anywhere from 6ft 8inch – 7 ft slightly thinner than their mini-mals and give it a go because it makes surfing 2 – 5ft much easier which is the most common wave type in the summer unless its flat when you need your big board.
The following day the weather looked promising as had been a bit wet “in a tropical kind of way” the previous couple of days and we decided to go into Sea World however by the time we had got up and gave the van a bit of a clean it was quite late in the day so we decided to walk around the shops again. We were going to go surfing but the conditions were a bit messy as it had become a bit winy and overcast by this time and Graham decided that Ily would probably not enjoy being sat in the van or windy beach by herself all day. We went out and looked at another shopping mall and had cake and coffee in a restaurant. When we were walking along we noticed that a place called Grumpy’s had a deal on for dinner, 3 courses for $35 each which is good considering a main can cost you about $30. We decided that that night we would return to the place and have dinner. On the way back to the hostel we decided that we would try and book ourselves into see a recruitment agency or two to try and find some work as there is a Hays and a Manpower office local to this area. We walked past a couple of estate agents and got some information on renting one of the awesome apartments or units in Surfers Paradise and they will rent them out for 6 months min. The cost is also comparable to staying in the hostel (excluding bills) and we know of people here earning $3000 a week labouring on site.
We decided that the next day we would head into see the agents but then realised that it was a public holiday here as it was when they celebrate the Queen’s birthday so we would have to arrange it for the Tuesday. The Monday was a pretty miserable day as it just rained non – stop and Graham needed to do his tax return for hopefully the final time for a while and we sat down in the bar area. Plugged the laptop in and started to get all of the information together. We started doing the return at 11am and we did not finish until 4pm. It was pretty much a whole day doing rubbish on the computer and then we spent a further 3 hrs typing up this website and uploading photos.
The following day the sun was shining and we got up early and made a call to Hays recruitment thinking that we would not get anywhere as they are notoriously hard to get an interview with but Graham managed to talk the construction expert into meeting us the following day for an informal chat. We also contacted another agency Kelly Services but they did the usual and referred us to their website. After a couple of hours trying different approaches we decided to call it a day and head to the beach. We went back to Currumbin Point but this time went to the beach and Graham went in the water. It was a choppy day and the water was pulling him in all directions. It was sandbar waves again which meant that you had a main wave
far out and a smaller one which broke in the shallows of the beach. After trying for an hour Graham got out and headed to the other side of the beach which was worse so then we headed onto the point. The tide was out and it was starting to turn to come in. The point was producing the most perfect wave to surf about 4ft but it was lined up with surfers who would ride the thing all the way across the mouth of the river to Palm beach which is a hell of a distance to travel probably about 500m!
Graham managed to catch the end of one of these waves and travelled for about 10 seconds and fell off on the edge of the river mouth and had to struggle to get back to the beach as nearly got sucked by the currents down the river as it was so strong. The current was unreal and quite scary so Graham decided against trying that again just in case he drowned. He decided that it was too busy there and we headed across the bridge to Palm beach as it looked like it was producing a long rolling wave ideal for learning on. We got to Palm Beach and could see the wave but it was really far out and Graham decided to give it a go. There were no other surfers on the beach at the time bar one who was bobbing around quite far out at the wave. Graham started to paddle and paddle and kept going having to rest in between spurts but could not quite reach the wave or by the time he got near it the long shore drift had carried him halfway down the beach!
After a couple of attempts he gave up and we decided to call it a day on the surfing front and head back to the van to have some lunch. Iliana made sandwiches and we ate them in the car park, we settled down after because the bed was still made up and both fell asleep and didn’t wake up until gone 3pm! We drove back to the hostel and decided that we would send some more emails to the contacts we had saved from the Australian Embassy visit in London we did last year. One of the contacts which Graham forgot he had to contact was Carmichael in Brisbane as he got the details from his mate Mark Robbins in the UK. That night we sent out another lot of emails to various organisations and decided after a couple of drinks to head out for a curry. We decided to walk in towards the restaurants at Broad beach as we saw some deals there being offered last time we were in the area. We were walking along the main carriageway and we could hear these odd sounding bird calling noises coming from the trees. Thinking nothing of it we carried on walking and then all of a sudden this huge bat came flying overhead and landed in one of the trees. It was like the size of a cat or small dog with wings and it landed in the tree near us. When we looked we could see that there were in fact loads of them hanging upside down and they would fly out for a bit and then land and that’s what was making all of the noise. It was quite an incredible sight as you don’t see that every day as it’s mostly just seagulls or something.
We ended up getting a curry to take away, Graham went for the normal ass destroying Vindaloo (well he had to be his best for Hays recruitment the next day) and Ily also manned up and went for a medium strength which was cool as before she met Graham she was not a curry fan. We woke the next day and the weather again had gone rainy with the possibility of thunderstorms for the evening. The weather was looking bad on the forecast for the Thursday as well and it would brighten up on the Friday with a nice weekend. Just our luck really as it’s quite rare for this area to have so many rainy days this time of year so we have been unlucky. Graham woke up because his phone was going off and it was Carmichael wanting to talk about my CV so I spoke with the bloke there Peter and he said that he would put me forward for a couple of roles that may be applicable and pass my details around. It would seem that the money has been channelled out of the city to the areas damaged by the fire and floods so there is potential work but it might be out in the sticks a bit. After spending about half an hour on the phone he said that he would call Iliana back later to run through her experience. That morning our French friends decided to call it a day and move on as they only had $200 left between them and could not afford to stay here! We were quite surprised as they did not seem to make much effort in finding work up to this point and seemed fussy about the work they were willing to do. Anyway they left which was quite a relief as Graham didn’t have to bother fixing their bumper is was very odd really but saved him a job.
We had an appointment with Hays at 3pm and we went to set off at 2:30 and it was hammering down with rain, we went to start the van and it didn’t start – flat battery. Damn, luckily we have a fully charged battery pack so we started it and set off running a little late. We went in and sat down with the man from Hays also called Peter who was explaining that the market was a little flat and has been since 2009 which again is bad timing on our part. He did say though that the market was going to pick up soon with the common wealth games which is due to start in 3 year’s time and this means that projects which have been on hold for years are starting to get approved. Also there is an election at the end of the year so I suppose money gets spent to make the government look good. He ran through some potential employers for Graham to start with and Graham had to explain what it was a QS actually did as people here don’t really understand. When you explain it to them they are more interested as they then understand as I think that they think it means estimating only which is untrue and most of our experience lies in commercial management type role here mixed in with a bit of project management. It’s a bit of a pain in the ass really as would be a lot easier to find work if the job titles and roles were aligned with the UK. Out here the project engineer will also look after the financials of a job??
He had a conversation with Ily and recommended a couple of potential employers which she could work for and also said that there was an immediate position as a project coordinator on a hospital refurbishment here so is going to send her stuff across asap. He also said that we could probably look to get our foot in the door with these companies by doing an administration type job on contract which could happen for the both of us quickly which we both said we would consider as a temporary measure as at least we would get cash through the door at a much quicker rate than picking fruit and at the very least would allow us to continue our travels after a couple of months in comfort as opposed to worrying about money. He gave us a load of paperwork to fill out and we would have to drop it all back the following day so he can pass our details around.
That night it was pouring with rain and we battled on with the paperwork as they want every detail available from you including all of our Australian Tax numbers and Superannuation details which we luckily have kept everything neatly in a folder. That night we played pool for a bit had a beer and then headed back to the van in the rain. We got in the van and into bed early about 8ish and the thunder started which was quite a site as the whole of the sky was lighting up it was good to watch. We surprisingly got to bed ok that night and woke up the next morning to the sound of the phone going off again. This time it was Ily’s turn to talk to Peter and she spent about half hour on the phone to him with a mixed response as he normally deals with Civil’s and not Building’s although it seems like he is going to try and assist with helping Ily with the cross – over to Civi’s if available. Graham spoke to him after as he wanted to speak with Graham and he said that he had put the CV across for some commercial roles as well as
other roles which could be a slight change in direction such as site engineer etc. We said to Peter that when we are up in Brisbane we would come into the office to see him for a quick chat.
That day was quite slow as the weather was pretty poor and we hung around the hostel taking it easy and doing a bit of tidying. That night Graham and Jimmy (a Canadian guy from the hostel) were playing doubles pool again and just kept winning game after game and ended up having a few beers and we got persuaded to go out to the $2.50 Corona night at Melbas in town. A few of us went in on the bus and the cool thing about doing it with the hostel is that you can get free entry (normally $10 each) and a free drink which can cost loads here. We started on the Coronas but that cheap night out on the $2.50 Corona’s quickly turned out to be a full on $10 shot of tequila, loads of cider mixed in with Stella kind of night – oh
and some rum.
We ended up doing another pub crawl and went in one pub which was awesome as it had a live band that played loads of Sum 41, Metallica and other stuff which was good as makes a change from the normal stuff played by pub bands in the UK. We ended up getting in free to Sin City again and it was a bit of a strange vibe going down as we quickly established on the dance floor that we were one of the very few white people in the club but all the same it probably worked out better as the music was better. We ended up staggering home after losing everyone (they went to strip club next door) at about 5am and passed out in the van.
The next day was not great – again! The weather was the best we have seen in ages like really blue skies and sunny, we crawled out of the van about 1pm and headed for the kitchen for a fry up. Ollie a guy who works here said that the surf was pumping today and we finally got our stuff together and headed for the beach. Problem was although the surf was pumping so was Grahams head and he felt dizzy and sick when he walked so could only sit and watch from the beach. To be honest even if he was well you needed to be pretty good and confident to go out as the face of the
wave was 6 – 8 ft and steep as hell so if you caught it wrong or got hit by it you would end up getting smashed on the sandbank. It’s really frustrating here as like mentioned before everyone is awesome at the surfing.
After an hour in the sun we decided the beach was too much and we headed back to the hostel to sit by the pool and use the sauna which is always awesome to get rid of a hangover. We had a quiet night as the next day we were going to go to Sea World as the weather is now looking great for the next two weeks although a little colder i.e 20 degrees in the day and 10 at night.
Just did a tally of all of the page views that this website has had since we started it and we are at 2300 views!
Graham thought that he would take it out for a quick spin before it got dark back at the Broadbeach. The conditions were messy with clean-ish at the back say 6ft and 2 –4 ft messy at the front in about waist high water. Graham got in the water and was amazed by the strength of the long shore drift but the sea was coming in and all he needed to do was test paddling and standing. On the second attempt he was on his feet if only for a few seconds as the wave run out of Gas. It is pretty amazing how you can just change the thickness and shape it slightly different and it handles completely differently. It’s a great board also because smaller you can get it through the waves faster and when you paddle onto a wave you can turn when it starts to break easier than the large mini – mals. Graham would recommend to Hansel and Dave that they should head to Woolacombe or Newquay and hire a fun-board anywhere from 6ft 8inch – 7 ft slightly thinner than their mini-mals and give it a go because it makes surfing 2 – 5ft much easier which is the most common wave type in the summer unless its flat when you need your big board.
The following day the weather looked promising as had been a bit wet “in a tropical kind of way” the previous couple of days and we decided to go into Sea World however by the time we had got up and gave the van a bit of a clean it was quite late in the day so we decided to walk around the shops again. We were going to go surfing but the conditions were a bit messy as it had become a bit winy and overcast by this time and Graham decided that Ily would probably not enjoy being sat in the van or windy beach by herself all day. We went out and looked at another shopping mall and had cake and coffee in a restaurant. When we were walking along we noticed that a place called Grumpy’s had a deal on for dinner, 3 courses for $35 each which is good considering a main can cost you about $30. We decided that that night we would return to the place and have dinner. On the way back to the hostel we decided that we would try and book ourselves into see a recruitment agency or two to try and find some work as there is a Hays and a Manpower office local to this area. We walked past a couple of estate agents and got some information on renting one of the awesome apartments or units in Surfers Paradise and they will rent them out for 6 months min. The cost is also comparable to staying in the hostel (excluding bills) and we know of people here earning $3000 a week labouring on site.
We decided that the next day we would head into see the agents but then realised that it was a public holiday here as it was when they celebrate the Queen’s birthday so we would have to arrange it for the Tuesday. The Monday was a pretty miserable day as it just rained non – stop and Graham needed to do his tax return for hopefully the final time for a while and we sat down in the bar area. Plugged the laptop in and started to get all of the information together. We started doing the return at 11am and we did not finish until 4pm. It was pretty much a whole day doing rubbish on the computer and then we spent a further 3 hrs typing up this website and uploading photos.
The following day the sun was shining and we got up early and made a call to Hays recruitment thinking that we would not get anywhere as they are notoriously hard to get an interview with but Graham managed to talk the construction expert into meeting us the following day for an informal chat. We also contacted another agency Kelly Services but they did the usual and referred us to their website. After a couple of hours trying different approaches we decided to call it a day and head to the beach. We went back to Currumbin Point but this time went to the beach and Graham went in the water. It was a choppy day and the water was pulling him in all directions. It was sandbar waves again which meant that you had a main wave
far out and a smaller one which broke in the shallows of the beach. After trying for an hour Graham got out and headed to the other side of the beach which was worse so then we headed onto the point. The tide was out and it was starting to turn to come in. The point was producing the most perfect wave to surf about 4ft but it was lined up with surfers who would ride the thing all the way across the mouth of the river to Palm beach which is a hell of a distance to travel probably about 500m!
Graham managed to catch the end of one of these waves and travelled for about 10 seconds and fell off on the edge of the river mouth and had to struggle to get back to the beach as nearly got sucked by the currents down the river as it was so strong. The current was unreal and quite scary so Graham decided against trying that again just in case he drowned. He decided that it was too busy there and we headed across the bridge to Palm beach as it looked like it was producing a long rolling wave ideal for learning on. We got to Palm Beach and could see the wave but it was really far out and Graham decided to give it a go. There were no other surfers on the beach at the time bar one who was bobbing around quite far out at the wave. Graham started to paddle and paddle and kept going having to rest in between spurts but could not quite reach the wave or by the time he got near it the long shore drift had carried him halfway down the beach!
After a couple of attempts he gave up and we decided to call it a day on the surfing front and head back to the van to have some lunch. Iliana made sandwiches and we ate them in the car park, we settled down after because the bed was still made up and both fell asleep and didn’t wake up until gone 3pm! We drove back to the hostel and decided that we would send some more emails to the contacts we had saved from the Australian Embassy visit in London we did last year. One of the contacts which Graham forgot he had to contact was Carmichael in Brisbane as he got the details from his mate Mark Robbins in the UK. That night we sent out another lot of emails to various organisations and decided after a couple of drinks to head out for a curry. We decided to walk in towards the restaurants at Broad beach as we saw some deals there being offered last time we were in the area. We were walking along the main carriageway and we could hear these odd sounding bird calling noises coming from the trees. Thinking nothing of it we carried on walking and then all of a sudden this huge bat came flying overhead and landed in one of the trees. It was like the size of a cat or small dog with wings and it landed in the tree near us. When we looked we could see that there were in fact loads of them hanging upside down and they would fly out for a bit and then land and that’s what was making all of the noise. It was quite an incredible sight as you don’t see that every day as it’s mostly just seagulls or something.
We ended up getting a curry to take away, Graham went for the normal ass destroying Vindaloo (well he had to be his best for Hays recruitment the next day) and Ily also manned up and went for a medium strength which was cool as before she met Graham she was not a curry fan. We woke the next day and the weather again had gone rainy with the possibility of thunderstorms for the evening. The weather was looking bad on the forecast for the Thursday as well and it would brighten up on the Friday with a nice weekend. Just our luck really as it’s quite rare for this area to have so many rainy days this time of year so we have been unlucky. Graham woke up because his phone was going off and it was Carmichael wanting to talk about my CV so I spoke with the bloke there Peter and he said that he would put me forward for a couple of roles that may be applicable and pass my details around. It would seem that the money has been channelled out of the city to the areas damaged by the fire and floods so there is potential work but it might be out in the sticks a bit. After spending about half an hour on the phone he said that he would call Iliana back later to run through her experience. That morning our French friends decided to call it a day and move on as they only had $200 left between them and could not afford to stay here! We were quite surprised as they did not seem to make much effort in finding work up to this point and seemed fussy about the work they were willing to do. Anyway they left which was quite a relief as Graham didn’t have to bother fixing their bumper is was very odd really but saved him a job.
We had an appointment with Hays at 3pm and we went to set off at 2:30 and it was hammering down with rain, we went to start the van and it didn’t start – flat battery. Damn, luckily we have a fully charged battery pack so we started it and set off running a little late. We went in and sat down with the man from Hays also called Peter who was explaining that the market was a little flat and has been since 2009 which again is bad timing on our part. He did say though that the market was going to pick up soon with the common wealth games which is due to start in 3 year’s time and this means that projects which have been on hold for years are starting to get approved. Also there is an election at the end of the year so I suppose money gets spent to make the government look good. He ran through some potential employers for Graham to start with and Graham had to explain what it was a QS actually did as people here don’t really understand. When you explain it to them they are more interested as they then understand as I think that they think it means estimating only which is untrue and most of our experience lies in commercial management type role here mixed in with a bit of project management. It’s a bit of a pain in the ass really as would be a lot easier to find work if the job titles and roles were aligned with the UK. Out here the project engineer will also look after the financials of a job??
He had a conversation with Ily and recommended a couple of potential employers which she could work for and also said that there was an immediate position as a project coordinator on a hospital refurbishment here so is going to send her stuff across asap. He also said that we could probably look to get our foot in the door with these companies by doing an administration type job on contract which could happen for the both of us quickly which we both said we would consider as a temporary measure as at least we would get cash through the door at a much quicker rate than picking fruit and at the very least would allow us to continue our travels after a couple of months in comfort as opposed to worrying about money. He gave us a load of paperwork to fill out and we would have to drop it all back the following day so he can pass our details around.
That night it was pouring with rain and we battled on with the paperwork as they want every detail available from you including all of our Australian Tax numbers and Superannuation details which we luckily have kept everything neatly in a folder. That night we played pool for a bit had a beer and then headed back to the van in the rain. We got in the van and into bed early about 8ish and the thunder started which was quite a site as the whole of the sky was lighting up it was good to watch. We surprisingly got to bed ok that night and woke up the next morning to the sound of the phone going off again. This time it was Ily’s turn to talk to Peter and she spent about half hour on the phone to him with a mixed response as he normally deals with Civil’s and not Building’s although it seems like he is going to try and assist with helping Ily with the cross – over to Civi’s if available. Graham spoke to him after as he wanted to speak with Graham and he said that he had put the CV across for some commercial roles as well as
other roles which could be a slight change in direction such as site engineer etc. We said to Peter that when we are up in Brisbane we would come into the office to see him for a quick chat.
That day was quite slow as the weather was pretty poor and we hung around the hostel taking it easy and doing a bit of tidying. That night Graham and Jimmy (a Canadian guy from the hostel) were playing doubles pool again and just kept winning game after game and ended up having a few beers and we got persuaded to go out to the $2.50 Corona night at Melbas in town. A few of us went in on the bus and the cool thing about doing it with the hostel is that you can get free entry (normally $10 each) and a free drink which can cost loads here. We started on the Coronas but that cheap night out on the $2.50 Corona’s quickly turned out to be a full on $10 shot of tequila, loads of cider mixed in with Stella kind of night – oh
and some rum.
We ended up doing another pub crawl and went in one pub which was awesome as it had a live band that played loads of Sum 41, Metallica and other stuff which was good as makes a change from the normal stuff played by pub bands in the UK. We ended up getting in free to Sin City again and it was a bit of a strange vibe going down as we quickly established on the dance floor that we were one of the very few white people in the club but all the same it probably worked out better as the music was better. We ended up staggering home after losing everyone (they went to strip club next door) at about 5am and passed out in the van.
The next day was not great – again! The weather was the best we have seen in ages like really blue skies and sunny, we crawled out of the van about 1pm and headed for the kitchen for a fry up. Ollie a guy who works here said that the surf was pumping today and we finally got our stuff together and headed for the beach. Problem was although the surf was pumping so was Grahams head and he felt dizzy and sick when he walked so could only sit and watch from the beach. To be honest even if he was well you needed to be pretty good and confident to go out as the face of the
wave was 6 – 8 ft and steep as hell so if you caught it wrong or got hit by it you would end up getting smashed on the sandbank. It’s really frustrating here as like mentioned before everyone is awesome at the surfing.
After an hour in the sun we decided the beach was too much and we headed back to the hostel to sit by the pool and use the sauna which is always awesome to get rid of a hangover. We had a quiet night as the next day we were going to go to Sea World as the weather is now looking great for the next two weeks although a little colder i.e 20 degrees in the day and 10 at night.
Just did a tally of all of the page views that this website has had since we started it and we are at 2300 views!
So we woke the next day early to go to Sea World and worked our way through the traffic which was hard as the whole area is under construction for the rapid transport gold coast railway. After a bit of getting lost we arrived at about 10:30am in the morning. The Sea World place was one of the bigger ones that we have both been to with various shows that take place around the park and in true American style more rollercoasters. We saw plenty of different animals of which our favourite had to be the Dolphins as you could almost get at arm’s length to them and they seemed genuinely interested in the fact you were watching them and showed off a little. The Penguins were pretty cool as they had their own Artic enclosure and underwater section where you could watch them swimming around. We took plenty of photos of all of the animals that we saw and you will probably be surprised to see many of dinosaurs which was confusing as we would not have expected a Dinosaur Island at a Sea World!
It was a busy day as a weekend with plenty of screaming kids which adds to the whole theme park experience and by the end of the day when the Dolphin show and Jet- Ski show takes place we were beat. The Dolphin show was by far the best and Iliana took loads of photos with the new camera which worked a treat as she put it in rapid fire mode so you can see the moves of the Dolphins when you scroll through the photos. It was pretty amazing how intelligent these creatures are as they do things which are pretty amazing like synchronised swimming and various stunts. It’s almost like watching how a dog would interact with a human i.e. they really want attention all of the time. The height of their jumps as you can see is
stunning and they even launched the girls off of their backs about 20ft in the air! One guy also stood on the Dolphins back and surfed it around the pool which makes me seriously consider trading in my surf – board.
The final show was the stunt jet ski’s and you will note that there is a massive replica of Sponge Bob Square Pants village behind which was pretty amusing. The next day as we were walking out of the Van at about 10pm towards the kitchen to make a copy we heard Shaun shouting Graham’s name, he went over to the reception to discover that they were getting hammered still as quote, it was “Sunday Fun Day”. This is a tradition here at
the hostel whereby if you want to fit in and can’t handle peer pressure you need to start drinking again so Graham was on the beer and Ily on the cruisers. We spent most the day hiding from the staff to avoid the inevitable which was getting hammered and we played some Tennis and Pool. A Few of the guys from Canada (young chaps in their early 20’s) were keen surfers with the smallest 5ft nothing boards you have ever seen so they knew what they were up to. They said that they were going surfing in the afternoon so after their Hockey game had finished we all went down the beach. The conditions were pretty small and it was impossible to keep up with them paddling around. None of us caught that much and we seemed to spend most of our time paddling around. Ily stood patiently on the beach taking photos of us which some are below.
That night we headed back to the hostel and managed to get dragged back out again with the guys and girls from the hostel. That night Graham decided that it was too expensive to buy too many drinks out so got loaded on two bottles of wine before we left as well as a beer from being on the winning volleyball team. We headed into Vanity that night and Graham just hit the dance floor by himself (literally the only one dancing in the whole club), luckily after a little while Ily took pity and joined him which then started to fill the dance floor. The next day was another really rough hangover day. We spent the day just chilling out and mostly sleeping whilst looking for potential jobs online, we went to bed early that night as everyone was yet again up for going out so we hid.
The next day we woke up and decided that we would go to do some but to be honest we both can’t really remember what happened that day as they were all starting to merge into a pattern of drinking and then recovering. That night though it was the staff night out which we were invited to. It started at the hostel bar getting hammered on wine and cruisers and then getting the drunk bus into the town. It was time to go to the Beer Garden as it was cheap night where you could get a basic for $3.50 or a jug of beer for $10 (a basic is a shot of spirit with a mixer). We turned up in a great state so much so that again Graham headed straight for the Dance Floor and the hostel manager Shaun got booted out because he was too drunk. Despite this we had a great night, spent far too much money and ended up staggering home at some ridiculous hour covered in Kebab. We think
we stayed in this club all night but can’t really remember although the photos we looked at the next day told us we stayed put. Its lucky Ily is good at
directions when she has had a few because Graham would be walking in the direction of Brisbane if not under supervision.
Surprise, Surprise the next day we were in a bad way. Scratching around in the kitchen looking for our left – over scraps of sort – of gone off food in order to get some energy inside of us. It slowly started to Dawn on us that we were turning into the scruffy, mal – nourished, ghost white people that you see frequenting these hostels. We finally understood why everyone was the way they were as they were all just chasing the perfect night out and would for- go food and basic hygiene in order to achieve it and Surfers Paradise was an addictive place to be. We decided that morning that we had to get out of here otherwise we would end up washed up backpackers begging for money at the air- port to get home because unlike our fellow
backpackers we have pride and are not still living with parents that we could sponge off of. We drove to the massive shopping centre down the road and spent the day walking around looking for bargains as the sales were on. We both managed to pick up some cool stuff and were amazed at the choice and styles that you can buy here. Ily got a new coat, 2 skirts and some new tight imitation leggings and Graham got some ultra – skinny jeans and a new smart blazer type coat reduced from $180 - $50 which is great. We called up Peter at Carmichael and arranged a meeting in Brisbane for the following day as we had to get away.
That night we spoke to Ily’s parents via Skype online as it works much quicker on the new laptop and finished the conversation at just before 10pm. As we were walking back to the van to go to sleep we were told that it was $2.50 Corona night at Melbas again and as it was our last night thought well, we could go out for a quiet cheeky couple! Also we had to test drive our new clothes right? What started out with good intentions ended up with drinking Goon and Vodka back at the backpackers at midnight until it got light the next day – stupid move. We had like 2 hours sleep before the sound of rain woke us – it was hammering down and really miserable plus we still had to go and meet Peter near Brisbane. To cut a long story short we said our good – byes and Ily had to drive us out and along to meet Peter. We got there on time and both looking not the best which we did tell
Peter but he thought it was funny and told us to see him anyway.
Peter was a good bloke and he made us coffee and started to explain the work situation to us in OZ. In a nutshell the situation here sucks! Essentially with the decrease in the Asian economy and therefore the falling price in mining jobs were scarce to non – existent and because of this companies were reluctant to sponsor people from over – seas. Although there are a few positions in infrastructure due to the storms causing damage and fires there was probably enough local labour to fill those positions. Graham earlier in the week had positive results from a consultancy who if were successful on a tender to repair flood damage he would be considered for a job but that had been it really. Peter said that we should remain positive but understand that we could be in it for the long – haul and this was also partly due to the anticipated change of government due in
September and funds getting frozen. We left after a hour or so not in the best of moods as it is just our luck that when we finally manage to get to Oz they are going through economic stress – typical bad timing.
We worked our way through the many toll roads of Brisbane heading towards the show – ground where we would try and settle for a week or so whilst we exhausted the opportunities (or lack of) in Brisbane. We nearly never managed to get into the site as they were closing up and it was a shock to be back on a camp – site away from the city – kind of a bit depressing in a way but we will keep our heads up and hope for a change of fortune next week. By the next week of writing we would have probably made our decision on our future as one thing is for certain – we have only
enough money to survive a little while longer if we want to keep the van and everything we have worked for before we will need to return home.
Also not mentioned above is that we went to wet n wild which was crazy especially the mach 5 ride which nearly ripped off your swim shorts and when Graham was smashed on the final night he gave his old impossible surfboard to our Welsh mate Tom which is a staff member at the hostel who was a great bloke.
Bye for now and hope you like the photos.
It was a busy day as a weekend with plenty of screaming kids which adds to the whole theme park experience and by the end of the day when the Dolphin show and Jet- Ski show takes place we were beat. The Dolphin show was by far the best and Iliana took loads of photos with the new camera which worked a treat as she put it in rapid fire mode so you can see the moves of the Dolphins when you scroll through the photos. It was pretty amazing how intelligent these creatures are as they do things which are pretty amazing like synchronised swimming and various stunts. It’s almost like watching how a dog would interact with a human i.e. they really want attention all of the time. The height of their jumps as you can see is
stunning and they even launched the girls off of their backs about 20ft in the air! One guy also stood on the Dolphins back and surfed it around the pool which makes me seriously consider trading in my surf – board.
The final show was the stunt jet ski’s and you will note that there is a massive replica of Sponge Bob Square Pants village behind which was pretty amusing. The next day as we were walking out of the Van at about 10pm towards the kitchen to make a copy we heard Shaun shouting Graham’s name, he went over to the reception to discover that they were getting hammered still as quote, it was “Sunday Fun Day”. This is a tradition here at
the hostel whereby if you want to fit in and can’t handle peer pressure you need to start drinking again so Graham was on the beer and Ily on the cruisers. We spent most the day hiding from the staff to avoid the inevitable which was getting hammered and we played some Tennis and Pool. A Few of the guys from Canada (young chaps in their early 20’s) were keen surfers with the smallest 5ft nothing boards you have ever seen so they knew what they were up to. They said that they were going surfing in the afternoon so after their Hockey game had finished we all went down the beach. The conditions were pretty small and it was impossible to keep up with them paddling around. None of us caught that much and we seemed to spend most of our time paddling around. Ily stood patiently on the beach taking photos of us which some are below.
That night we headed back to the hostel and managed to get dragged back out again with the guys and girls from the hostel. That night Graham decided that it was too expensive to buy too many drinks out so got loaded on two bottles of wine before we left as well as a beer from being on the winning volleyball team. We headed into Vanity that night and Graham just hit the dance floor by himself (literally the only one dancing in the whole club), luckily after a little while Ily took pity and joined him which then started to fill the dance floor. The next day was another really rough hangover day. We spent the day just chilling out and mostly sleeping whilst looking for potential jobs online, we went to bed early that night as everyone was yet again up for going out so we hid.
The next day we woke up and decided that we would go to do some but to be honest we both can’t really remember what happened that day as they were all starting to merge into a pattern of drinking and then recovering. That night though it was the staff night out which we were invited to. It started at the hostel bar getting hammered on wine and cruisers and then getting the drunk bus into the town. It was time to go to the Beer Garden as it was cheap night where you could get a basic for $3.50 or a jug of beer for $10 (a basic is a shot of spirit with a mixer). We turned up in a great state so much so that again Graham headed straight for the Dance Floor and the hostel manager Shaun got booted out because he was too drunk. Despite this we had a great night, spent far too much money and ended up staggering home at some ridiculous hour covered in Kebab. We think
we stayed in this club all night but can’t really remember although the photos we looked at the next day told us we stayed put. Its lucky Ily is good at
directions when she has had a few because Graham would be walking in the direction of Brisbane if not under supervision.
Surprise, Surprise the next day we were in a bad way. Scratching around in the kitchen looking for our left – over scraps of sort – of gone off food in order to get some energy inside of us. It slowly started to Dawn on us that we were turning into the scruffy, mal – nourished, ghost white people that you see frequenting these hostels. We finally understood why everyone was the way they were as they were all just chasing the perfect night out and would for- go food and basic hygiene in order to achieve it and Surfers Paradise was an addictive place to be. We decided that morning that we had to get out of here otherwise we would end up washed up backpackers begging for money at the air- port to get home because unlike our fellow
backpackers we have pride and are not still living with parents that we could sponge off of. We drove to the massive shopping centre down the road and spent the day walking around looking for bargains as the sales were on. We both managed to pick up some cool stuff and were amazed at the choice and styles that you can buy here. Ily got a new coat, 2 skirts and some new tight imitation leggings and Graham got some ultra – skinny jeans and a new smart blazer type coat reduced from $180 - $50 which is great. We called up Peter at Carmichael and arranged a meeting in Brisbane for the following day as we had to get away.
That night we spoke to Ily’s parents via Skype online as it works much quicker on the new laptop and finished the conversation at just before 10pm. As we were walking back to the van to go to sleep we were told that it was $2.50 Corona night at Melbas again and as it was our last night thought well, we could go out for a quiet cheeky couple! Also we had to test drive our new clothes right? What started out with good intentions ended up with drinking Goon and Vodka back at the backpackers at midnight until it got light the next day – stupid move. We had like 2 hours sleep before the sound of rain woke us – it was hammering down and really miserable plus we still had to go and meet Peter near Brisbane. To cut a long story short we said our good – byes and Ily had to drive us out and along to meet Peter. We got there on time and both looking not the best which we did tell
Peter but he thought it was funny and told us to see him anyway.
Peter was a good bloke and he made us coffee and started to explain the work situation to us in OZ. In a nutshell the situation here sucks! Essentially with the decrease in the Asian economy and therefore the falling price in mining jobs were scarce to non – existent and because of this companies were reluctant to sponsor people from over – seas. Although there are a few positions in infrastructure due to the storms causing damage and fires there was probably enough local labour to fill those positions. Graham earlier in the week had positive results from a consultancy who if were successful on a tender to repair flood damage he would be considered for a job but that had been it really. Peter said that we should remain positive but understand that we could be in it for the long – haul and this was also partly due to the anticipated change of government due in
September and funds getting frozen. We left after a hour or so not in the best of moods as it is just our luck that when we finally manage to get to Oz they are going through economic stress – typical bad timing.
We worked our way through the many toll roads of Brisbane heading towards the show – ground where we would try and settle for a week or so whilst we exhausted the opportunities (or lack of) in Brisbane. We nearly never managed to get into the site as they were closing up and it was a shock to be back on a camp – site away from the city – kind of a bit depressing in a way but we will keep our heads up and hope for a change of fortune next week. By the next week of writing we would have probably made our decision on our future as one thing is for certain – we have only
enough money to survive a little while longer if we want to keep the van and everything we have worked for before we will need to return home.
Also not mentioned above is that we went to wet n wild which was crazy especially the mach 5 ride which nearly ripped off your swim shorts and when Graham was smashed on the final night he gave his old impossible surfboard to our Welsh mate Tom which is a staff member at the hostel who was a great bloke.
Bye for now and hope you like the photos.
Week 30 (Sat 22nd June – Fri 28th June)
The next day we slept in really late until about 11am and when we woke up we discovered that there was a massive car boot sale going on which was just handy as we had no gas for the cooker or food so went and bought coffee and breakfast. After wandering aroundfor a couple of hours wondering where the hell we were we decided to get the gas bottles changed and spend the day cleaning out the van so we could actually move and live inside the thing again. We went through all of the clothes which were old and ill fitting and threw them out along with a load of junk that we had
been carrying around. The whole process took forever and we ended up moving a whole load of stuff around and generally giving the van a good tidy. By the time we finished it was getting dark but once again we had the ability to live in thevan ok and decided the next day to get some food in.
That night was the Lions vs Wallabies 1st test match which was on free to air TV but for some reason we could not get the channel which was a pain. Luckily Ily managed to find an online feed of the event and we managed to watch the majority of it but it kept crashing from time to time and
was a real pain in the arse. What a game though, so close and we think that the atmosphere down the pub back home would have been great. The next game will be tight – can’t believe that guy fell over at the final kick. There are a number of stores along the Gympie Road but all pretty expensive and we ended up in a fresh produce farm type shop with a butcher. We got a load of supplies the cheapest we have seen anywhere including lots of veg which is odd for us given we probably did not touch a veg in Surfers. That night Graham cooked up a huge roast dinner and we watched TV until late with the next day planning to head into Brisbane on the train.
We walked to the nearby train station the next day and tried to buy tickets but it would not accept card neither would it accept a $50 note as it did not have enough change. We just jumped on anyway and paid at the end but as we did not have a go card cost us $18 for the one way trip, with a card you would get it for $9 so we got one at the station for the next time we decided to go in. Brisbane is a bit like London in that it is flat out busy with loads and loads of shops set out in a grid formation like an American city. We spent a few hours walking around but without much money to spend it was kind of pointless and hammered home the need that we have to earn some money. Unlike England where if you want to find a job you can walk into agencies and chat to a person here you have to go online, find a job, apply and hope that you get called in even for a crappy temp job in an office. We were really starting to get fed up with the system here as earlier that morning Graham applied with yet another agency in Brisbane and had heard nothing back. The previous week Graham applied for a Business Development job with a large cement company and Peter was chasing it up for us only to be told in the morning that they recently employed two British QS and they turned out to be useless so were not going to take any more chances with the Brits. That was a little annoying as the job seemed pretty good.
That late afternoon we got back to the van and Ily got on the internet and contacted Hays about a QS building position to be told that she did not hold experience in Dilapidation surveys which correct us if we are wrong but is a bloody building surveyors job not a QS?? Luckily though they seemed interested enough to invite us in for a chat on the Wednesday, Graham with the civil guy and Ily with the building lady. We don’t hold out much hope though and will get the same sob story about the state of the economy etc. One thing Peter did say was that there is still a massive amount of re- construction work to do in Christchurch, New Zealand due to the earthquake and they were more closely aligned with the English way of construction and were crying out for QS’s. Furthermore as we understand if you get a New Zealand Visa you also qualify for an Australian Visa as they have this agreement in place. Looking at New Zealand online it looks like a mirror image of England from the wet depressing looking high street with it’s lime
green Lloyds TSB machines through to the fields with loads of hedgerows and sheep. Maybe we should consider going where we are needed the most, at least until the economy here picks up after the election? Maybe this could be the backdoor for the Visa that we need? We decided to give it a little more time before we consider this further.
That night feeling a little stressed we had dinner, watched TV and went to bed hoping for some better news the following day. The following day came and Graham woke to the sound of his phone going off, it was Peter from Carmichaels. Fair play to the man out of everyone we have contacted he is the man who seems to be trying the hardest for us, he was calling to say that a large building company here had some live positions and he had forwarded our CV’s across and we should hear back within the next 24 hours. Peter said that although primarily building they did want to start getting into civil’s so hopefully and we are keeping our fingers crossed we get a positive response. The rest of the day we decided to lay low and chill
in the van watching TV and mainly eating as wanted a break from the job hunting.
By the way on a side note TV out here is mental. On one hand it’s like being back home for example the other night we watched Coast, Antiques Roadshow and the comedy news programme which we used to watch back home. On the flip side of that they fill in between the programmes with crazy stuff from Japan or weird German or French stuff. They even have their own much more strange version of Tekeshi’s Castle which is the
same programme but voiced over by a really funny couple of blokes. If you want to see how random some of the Ozy TV here is lookup a programme series called “Swift and Shift” which we saw last night – completely metal.
Wednesday came and we went into Brisbane on the train which took forever to get in and we were nearly late to our appointment. It was a bit of a struggle to find the building but Ily armed with Google maps managed to find the way there and we went straight into seeing the recruitment people. Graham had a guy who dealt with Contractors / Civil's and Iliana had a lady who dealt with Building and P QS. Grahams talk went a little too well which makes us suspicious as according to the chap there is loads of road works going on and sponsorship is quite common! This goes against
everything we had head so far so we are a bit sceptical. Iliana’s did not go so well as the lady did not seem to know what Iliana did or a QS for that matter.We left the meeting thinking that it was pretty much a useless experience. We decided whilst that we were in town we might as well do some exploring as we heard that the south- bank of the city was nice. The rest of Brisbane is kind of a bit mental with lots of ugly concrete with high rise buildings. We headed over the bridge and what a difference.
South – bank has a much more relaxed atmosphere and it even has an artificial beach, we took some photos of the area below and some pics of Brisbane CBD at night as looked kind of cool.
The next day we decided that the best policy was to wait to hear back from the agencies as did not want too many different agencies dealing with our CV so spent the day on the site. It’s a little frustrating for us at the moment playing the waiting game as there are loads of things we want to see like the Great Barrier Reef and Rainbow beach but without money we are stuck. People always seem to go backpacking and say they have an awesome time however from what we have seen they seem to spend all day sitting around waiting for jobs or just surviving as things are just really expensive. Anyway, the next day was Friday and we chased up Peter again and said that we would consider New Zealand as a stop gap in order to get some experience on the southern hemisphere and to earn some money. He said that he was still waiting to hear back on our CVs at the other jobs but he would start the ball rolling for us on the New Zealand front.
Apart from that the weather has not been as nice as we would have hoped for with lots of showery days followed by sunny days but looking at the forecast it is going to rain for much of the weekend and the following week. We have decided that until we get an answer back from Peter regarding the jobs here or NZ we are going to have to stay put for now and keep our fingers crossed.
Apologies for the poor pic quality as the phone was playing up and as we have had quite a boring week we are lacking in the photo department.
been carrying around. The whole process took forever and we ended up moving a whole load of stuff around and generally giving the van a good tidy. By the time we finished it was getting dark but once again we had the ability to live in thevan ok and decided the next day to get some food in.
That night was the Lions vs Wallabies 1st test match which was on free to air TV but for some reason we could not get the channel which was a pain. Luckily Ily managed to find an online feed of the event and we managed to watch the majority of it but it kept crashing from time to time and
was a real pain in the arse. What a game though, so close and we think that the atmosphere down the pub back home would have been great. The next game will be tight – can’t believe that guy fell over at the final kick. There are a number of stores along the Gympie Road but all pretty expensive and we ended up in a fresh produce farm type shop with a butcher. We got a load of supplies the cheapest we have seen anywhere including lots of veg which is odd for us given we probably did not touch a veg in Surfers. That night Graham cooked up a huge roast dinner and we watched TV until late with the next day planning to head into Brisbane on the train.
We walked to the nearby train station the next day and tried to buy tickets but it would not accept card neither would it accept a $50 note as it did not have enough change. We just jumped on anyway and paid at the end but as we did not have a go card cost us $18 for the one way trip, with a card you would get it for $9 so we got one at the station for the next time we decided to go in. Brisbane is a bit like London in that it is flat out busy with loads and loads of shops set out in a grid formation like an American city. We spent a few hours walking around but without much money to spend it was kind of pointless and hammered home the need that we have to earn some money. Unlike England where if you want to find a job you can walk into agencies and chat to a person here you have to go online, find a job, apply and hope that you get called in even for a crappy temp job in an office. We were really starting to get fed up with the system here as earlier that morning Graham applied with yet another agency in Brisbane and had heard nothing back. The previous week Graham applied for a Business Development job with a large cement company and Peter was chasing it up for us only to be told in the morning that they recently employed two British QS and they turned out to be useless so were not going to take any more chances with the Brits. That was a little annoying as the job seemed pretty good.
That late afternoon we got back to the van and Ily got on the internet and contacted Hays about a QS building position to be told that she did not hold experience in Dilapidation surveys which correct us if we are wrong but is a bloody building surveyors job not a QS?? Luckily though they seemed interested enough to invite us in for a chat on the Wednesday, Graham with the civil guy and Ily with the building lady. We don’t hold out much hope though and will get the same sob story about the state of the economy etc. One thing Peter did say was that there is still a massive amount of re- construction work to do in Christchurch, New Zealand due to the earthquake and they were more closely aligned with the English way of construction and were crying out for QS’s. Furthermore as we understand if you get a New Zealand Visa you also qualify for an Australian Visa as they have this agreement in place. Looking at New Zealand online it looks like a mirror image of England from the wet depressing looking high street with it’s lime
green Lloyds TSB machines through to the fields with loads of hedgerows and sheep. Maybe we should consider going where we are needed the most, at least until the economy here picks up after the election? Maybe this could be the backdoor for the Visa that we need? We decided to give it a little more time before we consider this further.
That night feeling a little stressed we had dinner, watched TV and went to bed hoping for some better news the following day. The following day came and Graham woke to the sound of his phone going off, it was Peter from Carmichaels. Fair play to the man out of everyone we have contacted he is the man who seems to be trying the hardest for us, he was calling to say that a large building company here had some live positions and he had forwarded our CV’s across and we should hear back within the next 24 hours. Peter said that although primarily building they did want to start getting into civil’s so hopefully and we are keeping our fingers crossed we get a positive response. The rest of the day we decided to lay low and chill
in the van watching TV and mainly eating as wanted a break from the job hunting.
By the way on a side note TV out here is mental. On one hand it’s like being back home for example the other night we watched Coast, Antiques Roadshow and the comedy news programme which we used to watch back home. On the flip side of that they fill in between the programmes with crazy stuff from Japan or weird German or French stuff. They even have their own much more strange version of Tekeshi’s Castle which is the
same programme but voiced over by a really funny couple of blokes. If you want to see how random some of the Ozy TV here is lookup a programme series called “Swift and Shift” which we saw last night – completely metal.
Wednesday came and we went into Brisbane on the train which took forever to get in and we were nearly late to our appointment. It was a bit of a struggle to find the building but Ily armed with Google maps managed to find the way there and we went straight into seeing the recruitment people. Graham had a guy who dealt with Contractors / Civil's and Iliana had a lady who dealt with Building and P QS. Grahams talk went a little too well which makes us suspicious as according to the chap there is loads of road works going on and sponsorship is quite common! This goes against
everything we had head so far so we are a bit sceptical. Iliana’s did not go so well as the lady did not seem to know what Iliana did or a QS for that matter.We left the meeting thinking that it was pretty much a useless experience. We decided whilst that we were in town we might as well do some exploring as we heard that the south- bank of the city was nice. The rest of Brisbane is kind of a bit mental with lots of ugly concrete with high rise buildings. We headed over the bridge and what a difference.
South – bank has a much more relaxed atmosphere and it even has an artificial beach, we took some photos of the area below and some pics of Brisbane CBD at night as looked kind of cool.
The next day we decided that the best policy was to wait to hear back from the agencies as did not want too many different agencies dealing with our CV so spent the day on the site. It’s a little frustrating for us at the moment playing the waiting game as there are loads of things we want to see like the Great Barrier Reef and Rainbow beach but without money we are stuck. People always seem to go backpacking and say they have an awesome time however from what we have seen they seem to spend all day sitting around waiting for jobs or just surviving as things are just really expensive. Anyway, the next day was Friday and we chased up Peter again and said that we would consider New Zealand as a stop gap in order to get some experience on the southern hemisphere and to earn some money. He said that he was still waiting to hear back on our CVs at the other jobs but he would start the ball rolling for us on the New Zealand front.
Apart from that the weather has not been as nice as we would have hoped for with lots of showery days followed by sunny days but looking at the forecast it is going to rain for much of the weekend and the following week. We have decided that until we get an answer back from Peter regarding the jobs here or NZ we are going to have to stay put for now and keep our fingers crossed.
Apologies for the poor pic quality as the phone was playing up and as we have had quite a boring week we are lacking in the photo department.