Mike and Ben on Tour

Hey guys!

Hope everyone is well. Sorry we havent realy updated for a while but every day has been spent on a coach, doing mental activeties or sleeping!

First day on the Kiwi Experience (our bus) was interesting….it broke down. So thats the second coach we have been on that has decided to explode while we were on it! We had to sit on a grass verge waiting for a new coach to turn up….and then got stuck in a traffic jam for two hours. WICKED! 🙂

In all honesty though appart from the above everything has been awesome! We have done loads of crazy activities like zorbing, black and white water rafting. The hostels are also sooo much better over here compared to Oz. If you look out the window of the hostel we are currently staying in you can see Mount Doom (from Lord of the Rings).

Also done loads of trips. We have looked at natural geysers, bathed in natural hot water springs and been to dinner in a Moari village.

The best part is we dont actually have to book any of it ourselves our coach driver Ginny sorts it all out for us as she drives us along. 🙂 haha.

Thats all for now guys, see you in 19 days…how scary is that. 🙂
Love to all
Mike and Ben
XxX

Hey everybody!

So a delayed plane in Brisbane led to another beautiful 7 hours spent in an airport! Our first thoughts of New Zealand were a little clouded by the fact we arrived at 12.45 am, without anywhere to stay. Arround 2.00 am we walking into the 'mad camel' hostel spent about 8 quid on a room for the night. Unfortunetly the room was tiny, had another six people in it and so much baggage you couldnt actually see the floor.

This morning we checked out and moved 3 doors up the road to somewhere a little bit more classy. (Well its got a TV, some comfy sofa's and $1 pool! :))

Not a lot else to report, just thought we would let you know were here! Sorted out Kiwi Experience (which was an interesting little exercise) so we're leaving Auckland on Monday, and heading South.

Hope all is good back in the old UK

Love ya

Mike and Ben

XxX

Were back!!

Fraser Island is absolutly beautiful. On the first day we set off with 8 other people in our little 4×4. Our tents strapped to the roof, and enough alcohol to last a group of Russians for a week!

The first day we spent driving round all the little inland lakes, the sun was shining, the water was glistening and the beaches were made of really fine white sand…..not bad. One of the lakes was more like a beauty spa, the sand was so fine it polished your teeth and the black mud at the bottom of the lake had some fake tanning oils in it. (look forwards to the pictures :))

After spending too much time at the lakes we were rushing back to find a campsite when we got ambushed by a group of drunk Aussies (Once again really not doing a lot for you immage guys) Although they did get our van out of the sand when it got stuck. 😉

So we camped up, cracked on the gas stoves opened the cheep bags of wine and started the drinking games. Que massive rain storm. When we woke up at about 4 in the morning one of the tents had completly collapsed, two had partly collapsed and the last one leaked. The rest of the night was spent huddled up shivering in the back of the 4×4!

So after a group meeting we decided to cut our trip short and return to the comfort of a bed and a shower, and the rest of our alcohol supply! 🙂

Funniest thing is it was definitly one of the best things we have done over here, met some awesome people, saw how beauitiful Fraser Island is and even saw a dingo! 🙂

Hope everyone back home is ok!

Ben and Mike

XxX

Hello everybody!

We just jumped 14,000 feet out of an airplane onto a beach and thought we would share it all with you! Haha. Just a few statistics for you, we free-fell for around 70 seconds, reaching a top speed of around 220 kmh. (thats a bit like sticking your heads out of a car window doing 140mph down the motorway!) Pretty mental!

Also the most expensive five minutes of our lives!

As exciting as it was, thats pretty much as long as you can spend describing how you fell though air! 🙂 (We wont bore you with any more facts. We brought a copy of it on dvd though so you can all watch it when we get back.)

Hope everyone is ok, just so you all know this is going to be the last update for a few days. Were heading over to Fraser Island for a camping trip, safari style! Spending a few days in the wilderness getting back to nature!

Loves ya, keep yourselves safe.

Ben and Mike

XxX

P.s. Sorry but we cant update photos it takes us ages and costs us loads! Your all just have to wait till we get back and do a big slide show with nibbles… or something! Ha Ha.

Hello to all!

Were now in sunny Brisbane! Had another really good few days! Yesterday went to Australia Zoo, basically its owned by Steve Irwin and we were really surprised because he was actually there!! Spent the morning watching him feed crocodiles and wrestle them etc etc, (all the usuall stuff he does.) Had an absolutly 'ripping' time, as he would say. 🙂

Just been chilling out really appart from that, nice to relax a bit after a hectic week in surfers. The hostel we are staying in is pretty funkey and has its own pool, bar area and restaurant so were not having to bust a gut to find entertainment.

Bumped into the Bolton girls again as well (we think they are just following us now :)) Definatley going our seperate ways tomorrow though as our next stop is Rainbow beach. Just time for a goodbye drink tonight. Brisbane has got a section of the town called 'the valley' which is supposed to be rammed with clubs…we'll let you know 😉

Right then guys think thats all, we changed our flights today so check out 'About the trip II' for new plans.

Love ya all, take it easy

Mike and Ben

XxX

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! 🙂