Mike and Ben on Tour

Hey Guys!

Sorry we haven't updated for a while but we were having difficulties logging in to the site!

We have had a really busy week though! Were currently in Surfers Paradise, which also means were the a whole new state of Queensland. Its a lot livelier here, theme parks, pubs, clubs and beaches a plenty. We brought a three theme park 'super pass' (fancy hey! ) at the beginning of the week. We can go back to either Movie World, Sea World or Wet n Wild anytime we want. (pretty much every day is a theme park day!) Ha ha.

Also did a pretty messy bar crawl earlier in the week organised by a big company, the less said about the time we got home the better! Ben cant even remember the last club we ended up in. All good fun though hey!

Also had a pretty crazy night last night. We went to a show called the Australian Outback Spectacular. Full of amazing horse stunts, cattle herding and other such outback activities. We failed to realise though that public busses dont run to the theme parks after 8.30, so at 10.30 we were looking a bit stranded! Thankfully we encountered some true Aussie hospitality! Big thank you to Leah and her dad for the lift back to civilisation. Even bigger thank you to Leah, her dad and her brother for the night out in the casino we had with them after. (Definitely not how we planned the night to end, but probably the best night out we have had here!)

All we have to do now is say hi to the girls from Bolton that have been keeping us entertained all week, they are probably the most sane room mates we have had (which says a lot as they are all raving mad )

Right guys that's it for now. Keep leaving those comments mind!

Ben and Mike

XxX

Hey guys, hows it goin?

We hung around Byron Bay for a few more days. We had a second surfing lesson, this time though we were joined by the ultimate surfers….dolphins! We were just about to 'catch a wave' (get on it if you dont speak Australin beach talk!) when a couple of dolphins just popped their heads up and started playing in the swell about 2 metres from us! How fit is that!?!

The surfing is going well, we have now progressed to more advanced surf boards (they arent covered in foam so you hurt yourself if you fall off! haha) We spent our last day in Byron getting battered in the sea and then chilling out on the beach, were almost good now though (even if we do say so ourselves)

Hope evryone is well, much love to all,

Mike and Ben

XxX

Hello to all!

We are officially surfer dudes…. well kind of. We moved up the coast again yesterday and had our first lesson today on a little beach just round the corner from where we are staying. To begin with the instructors just wait for a massive wave then give you a push in the general direction of it while you try and stand up. After a little while it becomes pretty easy, you get all cocky and then they make you do it on your own and you dont look so clever! haha So after much splashing about this afternoon, we have booked in another lesson for tomorrow!

Another good thing about byron is there are actuall places to go out and people to go out with.

(Sorry to Andy the fat, old, drunk Australian we met in Port Maquarie but your 'down under club' was dead, and we had no interest in meeting your 'old boilers')

Think thats all for now folkes! Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Catch you in a bit,

Mike and Ben

XxXxX

P.s Happy April fools day! We were going to leave a post saying we have had a massive argument and are coming home as a joke. We couldnt be bothered though, and because of the time difference it could have been bad luck. Did anyone get caught out?

P.P.s One month ago today we left the sunny shores of England, how mental is that!

Hey gang!

Hope everyone is well. We moved up the coast again, this time to a little place called Port Macquarie. It’s a pretty cute place, lots of little coves, beaches and palm trees.

Yesterday we arrived and couldn’t find anything constructive to do so we went to the cinema! Ha Ha. Today we got our act together though and sorted out another day of fun and activities. First thing this morning (about 10.00 am lol) we hired some state of the art bicycles from our hostel (to be honest its a miracal they even had saddles, they were that bad) and cycled all the way down the coast to a little rainforest. They had a raised walk through type thing where you could see all two birds left in the rainforest really clearly!

This afternoon we stopped off at a koala sanctuary and hospital to have a look at all the cute and injured koala’s playing in the trees. It was pretty cool + free which is always a plus.

Were off to a local pub that serves koala steaks for tea…. Na only joking, loads of the English crew we met up with in Newcastle have made it up here so we think we are just going to enjoy ‘All you can eat pizza night’ at the hostel and then see if this banging town has a pub that stays open after 8.00 pm. Fingers crossed!

Take it easy guys!

Ben and Mike

XxxX

Hello from Newcastle!

We got a feeling the weather might be a little better here than in Geordie land! Ha Ha. We arrived yesterday and spent the day on the beach watching some surfers warming up for a big competition out here. (The waves are massive because of Cyclone Larry, the Aussies wont shut up about it!) We then entering a pool competition the hostel we are staying in was running. Bit of advice never beat an Aussie at pool, especially after a few beers otherwise he will try and fight you. (Gimp) lol.

Today has probably been the best day so far though. We did a dolphin spotting mini cruise just up the coast in Port Stephens. We got to sail round on a massive boat in the sunshine for an hour or so. Once we found the dolphins they lowered a big net off the back of the boat and you got to get in and take a closer look!

Second part of the day was spent riding round sand dunes really fast in a massive 4×4. The guy then drove up a massive hill, gave us a dune surfing board and pushed us off the other side. Good fun all round.

We also met a rare breed of semi sane travellers called 'English people'. So were going up the pub for a drink with them.

Have a good day guys

Mike and Ben

XxX

Alright you lot?

Were officially travellers then! Were paying 12 quid a night for a room we share with two other guys, one called Macey who thinks everything is “sick, man”, clicks his neck, and has a coffee grinder that definately definatley is not used to grind coffee! Yesterday we just checked in and hit downtown Sydney!

Crazy, crazy place. Were basically staying on the edge of Chinatown which means entertainment consists mainly of naked dancing women. We also split up last night for the first time. Ben activly sought out slease and alcohol in Kings Cross (the so called ‘red light district’ of Sydney, while Mike recruited an indian man (??what, why??)  who showed him the ‘gentlemens’ clubs of the city. We both met back at the hostle about 3.30 in the morning a bit dazed and confused each with equally random tales to tell!

Were just getting ready to head off to another beach in Sydney and nurse our hang overs. Heading up the East Coast to Newcastle first thing tomorrow so you’ll probably hear from us there!

Take it easy man, have a awesome sick day dudes!

Ben and Mike

XxX

Alright guys?

Hope everyone is well! We arrived back in Sydney on Monday and have basically been taking in all the cheesy tourist sights for the last week! On monday we shipped all our excess baggage and dive stuff back to England (look out for that mum) so we are now about 20kg lighter. Also BOTH started a new dose of antibiotics. Mike has a parasite in him (mmmmm) and Ben’s ear infection doesn’t want to go away yet, so were both poppin pills at regular intervals through out the day!

Done all the regulars, visited the Opera house (again) lol, botanical gardens and Ben even managed to squeeze in a bridge climb (www.bridgeclimb.com). Mike being a tight ass refused to spend ‘too much bloody money’ so spent the day walking round the Harbour and can now tell you the price of any meal in any restaurant in Sydney!

Thursday saw us heading to the surf capital of Sydney Bondi Beach. Basically its a slightly warmer version of Newquay with a bit bigger waves. Also FULL of really hunky surfer dudes which wasnt really much good to us as Ben is not that way inclined and Mike is otherwise ingaged. HaHa (Mike would like to point out that the term ‘Hunkey surfer dudes’ were Ben’s words not his!)

Big thank you to Mike’s Uncle and Aunt for looking after the wounded travellers and putting us up for the week! I think if we could live in a quater of the comfort over the next few months we would be more than happy

Take care guys, speek soon

Mike and Ben

XxXxX

Hey Gang!

Being the culturally aware individuals that we are we tried to use the last few days in Vanuatu to get to know the locals, and learn a bit about them and their language. We befriended the guy that looks after the turtle sanctuary on the island (called Robson, the nicest person we have ever met!) and he asked us to come and look at his village. It’s an amazing place, they basically have nothing, corrugated iron and scrap bits of wood make up their houses. They are so generous though. Within 10 mins of being there some local guy scaled a tree to cut down coconuts for us to drink.

We also tried to learn a bit of the National language of Bislama. We started by learning that a piano in the old unreformed version of the language is:

‘A big European box with the white keys and black keys and when you strike it it crys out’ (or something like that)

We also learnt that as well as Bislama, French and English each tribe or village has its own language! (If you divide the total number of languages by the total number of people you realise there is a different language for every 400 people!)

Baring this in mind we gave up! haha. We spent our last night on Moso drinking Tusker, (an awesome local beer) with the resorts dive instructors, on a boat, watching the sun set between two islands.

Pretty cool stuff.

Ben and Mike

xXx

P.s The title is Bislama for a bra

Hey all, hope everyone is alive and well!

Not long now before we get on our plane back to Australia (and civilisation!) Recovering from a night drinking Karva with some traveling Aussies we met up with. Karva is a local drink made from some root or something that tastes like wet mud but paralyses you for a bit! Pretty messy! Two liters of the stuff and a few card games later we had the mother of all stomach aches. The locals now LOVE us though, we are the white Karva drinking legends of Moso. Ha Ha.

Mike has also completed his RESCUE DIVER course so is you ever need someone to save a local villager pretending to drown and getting really sun burnt in the process Mike is your man. (Thats pretty much what he did for two days) Ben is still not allowed in the water but has read 3 books, wicked!

Hope everyone is well, miss ya loads.

Mike and Ben

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