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Around the World
  • Simon and Blake
avr. 2017 – janv. 2018

Around the World

Une aventure de 282 jours par Simon En savoir plus
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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 2 - Auntie Tricia and Shane's

    7 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    When we went to bed last night there was a BIG storm rolling in. We lay in bed listening to the thunder and watched the lightening light up the bedroom. More storms are forecast for today however the sun was shining in the morning so we took a chance and drove out to O'Reilly's which is situated in Lamington National Park. It's only around 30kms from Tricia's to O'Reilly's however it took us an hour to get there as it's a very narrow and windy road up the mountain.

    When we reached the top, we parked up and walked through the rainforest and along a wobbly treetop walk which was really good. At one point you could climb a couple of ladders up into the trees and look out over the top which was pretty amazing. Simon and Tricia didn't fancy that bit though and stayed at the bottom and took photos whilst I climbed my way to the top! After the walk we headed over to the cafe and enjoyed a cup of coffee and a cake on the veranda overlooking the most incredible view.

    The gift shop next to the cafe sells food so that you can feed the local parrots so after we had finished our smoko, we grabbed some parrot food and headed outside to give the parrots theirs. No sooner as we had walked up to the area with all the parrots, we were surrounded. The seed was in a big silver tray but the parrots also landed on your head, arms and shoulders! There were loads of them! There were a couple of different types of parrot, the red and green ones are called King Parrots and the red and blue ones are called Rosellas. They were really pretty and really friendly. They obviously get fed a lot. After feeding the parrots we headed back home. We managed to time our trip perfectly as not long after we arrived home, the heavens opened and another storm rolled in. We therefore had a nice quiet afternoon and Tricia made us sausage, egg, chips and baked beans for dinner.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 3 - Auntie Tricia and Shane's

    8 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    Today was a nice quiet day. The weather was pretty pants and we had some more rain so we popped into Beaudesert to do a spot of shopping. In the afternoon, we watched a movie and then headed back into Beaudesert for a Chinese once Shane had finished work. The Chinese was amazing and I ate so much I had to get straight into my pyjamas when we got back as I was so full!En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 4 - Auntie Tricia and Shane's

    9 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    This morning we headed to Tambourine Mountain to do the rainforest Skywalk and the Glow Worm Caves.

    The rainforest Skywalk is a 1.5km walk combining forest floor trails and 40m high steel board walks. Although high, they were a lot more solid than the bridges at O'Reilly's so we took our time and looked at the various flora and fauna. Halfway round was a nice creek we could look over and on the way back was a rather wobbly cantilever bridge which one woman decided would be fun to bounce, and swing. Cheers for that!

    After the Skywalk we headed to the Glow Worm Caves. Glow worms, as we learnt, are only found in Australia and New Zealand and their biggest threat is humans due to deforestation and chemicals on crops or in water. For that reason this particular cave was man made. In the first part of the cave we sat and watched a video teaching us all about the glow worms before we entered the cave itself. Once inside we were surrounded by thousands of glowing bums! There are estimated to be around 7000 glow worms in the cave which is pretty good considering they only started out with 300. Our guide showed us one up close with a red light and you could see him wiggling to make another snare. With these snares they catch their dinner which we also learnt is hand caught by the staff each day using a butterfly net. Around 1500 flying insect are caught on a good day to feed them but as today was a but drizzly I think they may have gone hungry. Its okay though as glow worms can go without food for a good couple of weeks. Next to the caves they also had Frog Hollow, where there were a number of, yep you guessed it, frogs! After a quick wander around the frogs, we headed black to the house for lunch.

    After lunch we watched another afternoon movie and relaxed for the rest of the day. For dinner, Tricia cooked us up a delicious spaghetti bolognese. We sure are going to miss delicious home cooked meals when we're back on the road again.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 5 - Auntie Tricia and Shane's

    10 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    The weather was grey and drizzly so we had a lazy day chilling out at Tricia's with an afternoon movie. Later on in the day my cousin Debbie arrived so it was lovely to see her after so many years. For dinner Tricia cooked us our third roast, lamb this time, which was delicious.En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 6 - Auntie Tricia and Shane's

    11 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    We were all up early as we were heading off to Thunderbird Park to do the Canyon Flyer. The Canyon Flyer consists of 7 zip lines that traverse the Cedar Creek Canyon and Tricia has booked Debbie, Simon and I on to do it. After we were kitted out with our gear we headed over to the first zip line in a huge 4x4 covered in camouflage tarp. Despite the driver reversing into a tree (now we know why they put the safety gear on us before getting in the 4x4) and a very bumpy ride through the forest, we made it to the first zip line. We had a quick practice on a small zip line first and then we were immediately on to the fastest of all the zip lines! Go big or go home! We then worked our way across the remaining 6 zip lines. Just before our final one, our instructors gathered us all together for a group photo. The got us to hold on to a rope around the tree and lean back over the edge and say bungee. Just as we said it they released the slack in the rope and we all fell a little bit. Turns out she wasn't taking a photo at all and instead a slow motion video. We were all strapped in so were perfectly safe but the video is pretty hilarious as we were all absolutely terrified! It took a good 5 minutes for my heart to slow back down. After that trust exercise, we were then hooked up to a quick release rope for the last zip line which the instructor had control over. She left us hanging over the edge for what felt like forever before releasing the rope and sending us off over the Canyon. We had a lot of fun and we got some great views out over the Canyon.

    After a well earned cup of coffee, we headed to Eagle Heights to check out a German Cuckoo Clock shop. It was a cute little shop with hundreds of Cuckoo clocks of various shapes and sizes. We could have stayed in there for hours watching them as they struck the hour.

    After a very adrenaline filled morning we were starving so we headed back to Tricia and Shane's for some lunch. Tricia and Shane live on a turf farm where Shane works so after lunch Shane took Simon out to see the Firefly. The Firefly is the huge machine that cuts the grass into strips, then drags it up on to a belt for the operator to quickly inspect before placing it on a pallet by an automatic arm, all in the space of about 10 seconds. Simon even got to go out for a ride in it and see it in action which was pretty cool.

    Whilst Simon was out cutting grass, I helped Tricia make a Mexican dip and potato bake for dinner to go with our T-bone steaks. The Mexican dip is delicious so I am definitely going to be taking that recipe home!    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 7 - Auntie Tricia and Shane's

    12 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    It's our last day at Tricia and Shane's so after a bacon (cooked Aussie style on the barbie) and egg breakfast we made use of the washing machine and started to gather our things together.

    It was also time to earn a bit of our keep so I helped Shane with the strimming (or 'wipper snippering' as they call it out here) whilst he rode the ride on mower. I carefully went around all the wires as I didn't want to cut off the cable tv or power to the house as I don't think I'd have been very popular. For the afternoon we dug into the remaining chips and Mexican dip from yesterday and watched some more movies.

    For dinner we had fish, mash and peas and then got an early night before moving day.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake
    1

    Brisbane

    13 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Today we are heading back to Brisbane so sadly it's time to leave the homely comforts of Auntie Tricia and Shane's and continue on our adventures. After packing our lives back into our rucksacks, Tricia took us for coffee in Beaudesert before dropping us off at the bus stop.

    For our forth visit to Brisbane we are staying in an Airbnb not far from the CBD. This ones a little bit different as we have our own bedroom / kitchenette with a separate bathroom. They have also left us a welcome box of Thorntons chocolates which was you can imagine have gone down very well!    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake
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    Day 2 - Brisbane

    14 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today we decided to have a much needed lazy day. We set no alarm (although we still tend to wake up at 6am), made some breakfast in our little studio room and got ready for a day at the Lagoon.

    We found a nice spot on the sand and that's pretty much where we stayed for the next 6 hours. After reading two books in two weeks on the farm I decided to start the book Shantaram on Blake's kindle, which is like a million page book with too many big words in it, but I'm actually doing quite well. I was hooked after 20% and I'm at about 75% now so could be finished in a week or so. Unfortunately Blake left the sequel at the farm as it was a hardback which pretty much needed its own suitcase, but maybe when I'm back I'll try finding it. After sufficiently topping up the tan and a few dips in the pool we grabbed bits for dinner and headed home.En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 3 - Brisbane

    15 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    A slightly more overcast morning made it perfect weather for the walking tour today. The tour didn't leave until midday so we popped into town to top up our bus cards and have a mooch around before it started.

    Meeting Terry our volunteer host for the tour at the visitor centre, we made our way with around 8 others from around the globe. We first learnt that Brisbane was named after Thomas Brisbane and that the city was first used to house European convicts. Our first stop on the tour was the Brisbane Arcade which was built by the youngest two children of a European free settler, after the city was opened up for non convicts to come and live. It's always funny when they talk about 'history' over here as nothing is ever older than about 300 years. This is due to the fact a lot of Australians don't acknowledge the aboriginal history, although Terry always made a point to mention them.

    After seeing City Hall, the Botanic Gardens and some of the older sandstone buildings, we ended up at Old Government House. Inside was a room with a old map projected on the wall and a glass floor where you could see the footings under the building which were made of stone and wood in a traditional style. After the tour it started to rain so we popped into a university building called The Cube, where they had interactive walls where you could play games which were pretty cool. For the rest of the day we opted to take a ride on the City Hopper ferry boat. This free boat drove up and down the river giving us a different view of the city and various piers that came out over the river. We also saw the man made cliff faces which were made from where the prisoners quarried the rock to build the city.

    In the evening we went to the Brooklyn Standard, a really trendy music venue to catch up with Alina who we met in Fiji. The venue was really cool although we couldn't really hear each other over the blues band that was playing. Ironically in neon lights they had 'if you think the music is too loud, you're too old' written on the wall. After we finished our drinks we opted for a quieter bar for a nice catch up. Alina is studying in Brisbane and had just finished a 3 hour exam which finished at 8pm, before coming to meet us! Rather her than me.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Surfers Paradise

    16 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Today we left Brisbane for the last time and headed down the Gold Coast, first stop Surfers Paradise. We are also back on the old trusty Greyhound bus. We have booked ourselves into another Airbnb and are staying with a lovely lady called Lisa. Her apartment is only a 2 minute walk from the beach and overlooks Paradise Island and the river. It really is a great spot.

    After rustling ourselves up some lunch we headed to the beach and spent the afternoon there before grabbing some bits for dinner and heading back to Lisa's. Lisa was staying at a friends for the evening so we had the whole place to ourselves which was nice. We have gotten ourselves addicted to another Netflix show, The Blacklist which is the reason for our tardiness on the blog, sorry.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake
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    Day 2 - Surfers Paradise

    17 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    We were woken up ridiculously early by the noisiest cockatoo sitting right outside our window. After dozing for a couple of hours, we dragged ourselves out of bed and got ourselves ready for the day. We have had a pretty sedentary lifestyle for the last couple of weeks so today we went for a very long walk down along the coast to the South Nobby Headland, which is by Miami Beach. From the Lookout there were some amazing views up and down the Gold Coast and the beach spans the entire coast which is incredible. All of the buildings are shiny and it reminds me a lot of the New York skyline. After our 2 hour walk we set ourselves up on the beach for some well deserved sunbathing. Around 4pm, we made our way back and decided to walk back up along the beach barefoot. After our 16km walk we were both absolutely pooped.En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Coolangatta

    18 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C

    We woke up to the rain this morning which isn't the best for a moving day. It did however hold off long enough for us to get to the bus station. As we checked out of Lisa's around 10:30am it was a long wait at the bus stop, and it was an hour late so despite it being only a 45 minute journey to Coolangatta, we didn't arrive until 2pm. It kind of worked out for the best though as we couldn't check in to Marcus and Liv's, our next Airbnb, until 2pm anyway.

    Marcus and Liv's place is really nice and a stones throw from Kirra Beach. They also have a balcony which is really nice so we sat outside there to eat our lunch. It's around 20 minutes walk along the beach into Coolangatta from the apartment so after lunch we went for a wander and popped into Aldi and Woolworths to grab some bits for dinner.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 2 - Coolangatta

    19 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    The forecast for today was mainly thunder storms so we weren't really sure whether to risk going out and having a repeat of our coastal walk in Noosa. Not wanting to spend the day inside though, armed with my raincoat, we decided to brave it. We walked along the coast to Coolangatta and then on to Snapper Rocks and Point Danger. Here you got great views out over the ocean where there were lots of surfers taking advantage of the stormy surf. We then walked back along Boundary Street to the State Border Monument which sits on the border of Queensland and New South Wales. The crazy thing here is that New South Wales is an hour ahead of Queensland so you can actually stand with each foot in a different time zone. My phone has been very confused since we arrived in Coolangatta and is constantly switching between Queensland time and New South Wales time, so we're never completely sure as to what the time is. We were getting pretty hungry by this point so we headed back to the apartment for some lunch on the balcony. Luckily it didn't rain at all however it did mean I had to carry my raincoat around with me for nothing!

    With more rain forecast for the afternoon, we weren't really sure what to do, so we decided to chill out for a couple of hours and watch some more of The Blacklist. We have now finished season one and have made a good start on season two. It didn't rain all afternoon so we thought we had better leave the house and go for a walk. This time we headed left along Kirra beach towards Tugan and then sat on the beach for a while, before walking back down the beach, dipping our toes in the sea.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 3 - Coolangatta

    20 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    The weather forecast wasn't great again today and it wasn't really sunbathing weather so we decided to go for another walk (it's like Isla Grande all over again). As we didn't make it to Burleigh Head National Park when we were in Surfers, we decided to catch the bus there and then walk back. When we got there we took the rainforest trail to the Tumgun Lookout which gave a great view back towards Coolangatta. I also narrowly missed a snake that slithered across the path in front of me which I didn't notice. Fortunately it looked like a python so we it couldn't have done a serious damage. On the way back down from the Lookout we stopped on a little beach next to the estuary that comes in from the sea for lunch. The sun was super hot by this point so we regretted not taking our swimmers as the water looked so inviting.

    We then made our way back towards Coolangatta, passing through Palm Beach, Currumbin and Tugun. It was around the Tugan mark that someone had had enough of walking, so we jumped back on the bus for the final bit. To be fair it was a very long way back. Before heading home we grabbed a quick and easy dinner from Aldi and then had a nice and quiet evening.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Coolangatta - Port Macquarie

    21 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    It was an early start this morning as our bus was due at 8:35am. We have gotten waking up, showering, breakfast and last of the packing down to just over an hour though for maximum time in bed. It was a long 10 hour stint on the Greyhound, so luckily I downloaded 14 episodes of Blacklist on Netflix and Blake made a picnic lunch to keep us going.

    10 hours later we arrived in Port Macquarie. Tired from our travels we went for a cheeky KFC dinner, which was disappointing as their KFC menu over here is rubbish! On our way to the bus stop, we passed Coles where a lady with her two children had just finished their shopping. She kindly asked us if we'd like a lift which was really nice and really handy as the buses are hourly here and we had about 35 minutes to wait for the next one. All squeezed in, Blake with children either side of her in the back we were on our way. One child was super talkative and was having a good old chat with Blake in the back. The young boy however had a look of terror on his face the whole journey as if he thought we may be murderers or something.

    We made it to the Airbnb and met our house buddy's for the night, Michael and Ruth from Belgium. Feeling pretty worn out we retired for some more Netflix and an early night. Halfway through an episode I suddenly had a thought that we may be in the wrong bedroom. We got Airbnb up on Blakes phone and looked at the room next door and realised we were. Knowing that more guests were due tomorrow and had booked the room we were now fully at home in, we jumped up, put everything back the way it was and did 20 trips ferrying our stuff to our actual room trying to be really quiet as it was really late. Luckily no one noticed.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Port Macquarie

    22 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    Before Ruth and Michael checked out, they kindly gave us a couple of 2 for 1 vouchers for the Hydro Golf which they had played and said was really fun. They also gave us their Victoria and Melbourne Lonely Planet as they didn't need it any more which was really nice and will help us plan a potential road trip along the Great Ocean Road.

    Fancying a change from walking and beaches we decided to check out the Hydro Golf. The buses here aren't very frequent however so we had over an hour to wait for the bus. As we had some time to kill we walked across the road to Harry's Lookout which boasts incredible views out over the sea. We then walked down to Shelley Beach and across a small section of the coastal path before heading back to the bus stop.

    It was a bit of a mission to get to the Hydro Golf. We had to get a bus and then walk for 25 minutes the other end but it was definitely worth it. It was run by a very friendly man from Brighton who has now been living in Australia for 25 years. The Hydro Golf is essentially a driving range however you have to try and hit the ball into tiny nets. Depending on which net you got the ball in determined what prize you got. There was a variety of prizes on offer including a dominos pizza, $65 jackpot and a harbour cruise. 4 buckets of balls later, we both left empty handed. It was pretty much impossible to hit the nets, especially for me who can't even play crazy golf. I did however manage to hit the side of the frame holding the net much to Simon's dismay. Fortunately for him, he managed to do the same with one of his last few balls, otherwise I would have been better than him!

    After the Golf, we popped into Aldi to grab some bits for dinner, before heading back to our Airbnb. After dinner we raided Natalia's DVD collection and watched Dead Poets Society starring Robin Williams. Neither of us had watched it before but it was really good.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 2 - Port Macquarie

    23 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    The sun was beaming so for a change we went for a walk. With our packed lunch in the bag along with our beach attire, we took the coastal path towards the main town from underneath Harry's Lookout. It was a fairly easy walk with lots of different beaches and coves on the way. Some looked good for sunbathing whilst others had some good waves for surfing. We stopped at a park bench near Oxley beach for a spot of lunch with a view and then crossed a bridge on to a kind of island. On top there was a historic flagstaff used to signal boats so that they knew when they could and couldn't sail up to the port.

    From the top we could see that the main beach was quite busy (by busy we mean there were more than 8-10 people) so we stayed on Oxley for a mixture on sunbathing, napping and dips in the sea. Having sufficiently topped up the tans we headed back to the house for some dinner and an early night.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Sydney

    24 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    The original plan was to head to Newcastle after Port Macquarie however we couldn't find anywhere to stay so we headed straight down to Sydney instead. It turns out the reason for this is because there is a big rally car racing event going on this weekend. The Greyhound bus times out of Port Macquarie are really pants so the alarm went off at 3:15am in order for us to catch the 5am bus. It's around 5 and a half hours to Sydney but both of us dozed most of the way so it didn't feel that long. As we drove into Sydney, we caught our first glimpse of the Opera House which was pretty cool.

    The Greyhound dropped us off at the central station so we grabbed ourselves some Opal cards (Sydneys equivalent of the Oyster card) and jumped on a bus back over the Harbour Bridge to the North of Sydney where our Airbnb is. We are staying with a lovely couple called Dennis and Diana. Dennis is from Germany and Diana is from Argentina.

    Despite it it only being midday, we had already been up for 9 hours and the hanger was setting in, so we walked to Woolworths to grab some bits for lunch. I then lay down for a power nap and before I knew it, it was 2:40pm. Not wanting to waste the day, we headed to Chinaman's Beach which Dennis recommended, to catch the last of the sun. It's a cute little beach, away from the hustle and bustle of tourists however due to the wind, we had a repeat of our Byron Bay experience. After 5 minutes and everything being completely covered in sand, we gave up on the beach and decided to lie down in a grassy park just behind the beach instead.

    After 2 nights of burgers, I fancied something a bit healthier for dinner so I cooked up some wholesome fish and vegetables which was really nice. We then sat out in the garden with Diana, Dennis and Dennis' cousin Kim.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 2 - Sydney

    25 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    One of my camp friends, Kev invited us to a garden party in the city which one of his friends was dj'ing at. We weren't meeting him till 3pm so we had a very chilled morning. Whilst we were in Argentina, we didn't get round to trying mate (pronounced mat-a) a traditional Argentinian drink similar to green tea. Diana and Dennis therefore made us some to try. Mate is a huge part of Argentinian culture and is a very sociable drink. Diana prepared the mate and then passed it around to each of us in turn to drink it. Mate is renowned for being very bitter and an acquired taste so I wasn't sure that I was going to enjoy it. I was however pleasantly surprised. Apparently this type of mate is a much softer version and it wasn't too dissimilar to green tea.

    The garden party was in an area of Sydney called Newtown which seems really cool. We passed by lots of vintage type shops on the bus so we will have to come back to explore when we are in Sydney next time. The garden party was house music which I wouldn't usually choose to listen to however the sun was shining and we were on a garden terrace so it was pretty nice. A couple of the guys from our Fraser Island tour were in Sydney so they came too which was fun. The party finished around 9pm and by this point we were pretty hungry so we went in search of something to eat. We ended up in a Thai restaurant which was absolutely delicious and pretty cheap too which is always good! After food we bid farewell to Kev and the Fraser Island crew and made the hour long journey back to our Airbnb.    En savoir plus

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    Kev's House - Wollongong

    26 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    I woke up with a slightly sore head this morning. Perhaps the neat gin from a water bottle wasn't such a great idea but we live and learn. We are going to stay with Kev for a few days so after some breakfast we packed our bags and waited for Kev to pick us up.

    Kev arrived around 11am so with all our stuff packed up we started the drive down to Wollongong which was around an hours drive South of Sydney. On the way down Kev pulled into Bulli lookout as it had a great view over the whole of Wollongong and the South coast.

    Needing a bit of a lazy day we grabbed some food from Woolies and chilled for the rest of the day. In the evening, as the sun was shining we thought it rude not to have a BBQ.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 2 - Kev's House

    27 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    We had no real plans today and Kev had to go to work, so we decided to have a bit of a lazy day. Unfortunately the internet broke last night, so we had the choice of talk to one another, or hope there were some movies on a hard drive Kev left out for us. Luckily we managed to find a couple of movies we hadn't seen before so crisis averted. We went for Fracture, as it had Blake's favourite Mr Gosling in it, RED 2 and Lakeview Terrace, a rather bizarre movie featuring Samuel L Jackson. We also caught up with the washing and walked up to the shops to grab some bits for lunch and dinner before resuming positions again on the sofa.En savoir plus

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    Day 3 - Kev's House

    28 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    The engineer is coming out today to hopefully fix the Internet between 1pm - 5pm. As we didn't really leave the house yesterday and we had to spend the afternoon waiting for the engineer, we decided to walk to the beach for a couple of hours in the morning. Corrimal Beach is around a 20 minute walk from Kev's house. It was a little bit windy and slightly overcast but still warm enough for sunbathing. We didn't make it in the water though.

    Back at Kev's we rustled ourselves up some lunch and waited for the engineer to arrive. The engineer did a cracking job of fixing the internet so we spent the rest of the afternoon binge watching some more of the Blacklist. Kev got back from work around 4pm and has a few days off now which is good.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 4 - Kev's House

    29 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Today Kev took us to the small town of Kiama which is around a 45 minute drive from Kev's house. On the way we stopped off at a coffee house in North Wollongong for a brew. They roast all of the beans themselves which is pretty cool.

    Kiama is a really cute town with lots of cute little homeware shops to look around. After having a mooch around some of the shops, we walked along the harbour to Kiama Lighthouse and Blow Hole Point. The Blow Hole wasn't particularly impressive as the sea was pretty calm however it was a nice walk. On the way back to the car we stopped off in a cool little cafe for some lunch. We all opted for burgers with a side of scrummy sweet potato fries.

    On the way back from Kiama, we stopped off at the Five Barrell Brewing Company in Wollongong to pick up a growler of beer. Kev's housemate Chris, is back this evening from work (they both work away) so the four of us went to Ziggy's House of Nomms for some dumplings. They didn't have a table right away so we popped round the corner to a really cool rooftop bar and had a quick beer in the sunshine. Ziggy's is also a tea emporium and there are hundreds of different types of tea to choose from. We opted for a green tea and a black tea, both of which were really nice and a selection of dumplings. The dumplings were delicious however I really struggled to eat the slippery little beggars with my chopsticks and ended up flicking soy sauce all over myself and the lady sat on the table behind us - someone get this girl a fork!    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 5 - Kev's House

    30 novembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Today is my first ever birthday in the Southern Hemisphere which should mean only one thing, sunshine! Since I can remember, my birthday has always been a cold wet Autumn day however today boasted glorious blue skies and sunshine. The plan was to visit the little town of Berry and then hit up Jervis bay for some beach time.

    Berry is a small village very popular with tourists for its quirky shops, historical buildings and a rather yummy donut van. The donuts were freshly made, covered with cinnamon sugar and absolutely delicious! Suitably full we took a look around some shops whilst walking slowly back to the car. We carried on to Jervis bay where we parked up by the harbour and walked around to a quiet little beach. It was 29 degrees out so to cool off we got straight in the sea for a swim. The sea was turquoise, clear and the perfect temperature. After a little sunbathe to dry off it was then time for lunch at a chippy in town.

    This evening we planned to go to Eat Street which is a weekly food market in the centre of Wollongong. We all went our separate ways and ended up with paella, pizza, chicken burger and pulled pork burger which we ate whilst watching a chap singing with an acoustic guitar. Nice and full we then found a few bars to wet our whistles. Later on we headed back to Kevs to crack open some fizzy pink and have a little play on his decks.    En savoir plus

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  • Simon and BlakeAround the WorldSimon and Blake

    Day 6 - Kev's House

    1 décembre 2017, Australie ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Despite not drinking loads, the combination of espresso martinis, red wine, fizzy pink and gin left me with a pretty fuzzy head. Everyone else wasn't feeling too great either so Chris knocked us all up some sausages, hash browns, baked beans and toast. We then headed to the beach for a morning surf / swim to help shake off the last of the hangover. Whilst the boys braved the waves, I decided to pass on the surfing and opted to lie on the beach with a book instead. The surf was pretty rough and in his fragile state, it wasn't long before Simon emerged from the water spluttering. Kev and Chris weren't far behind him either. I went for a quick dip in the sea and then we all headed back to Kev's for a well deserved lazy afternoon.

    Kev is in the process of buying a house and was going to take a second look at a place he had put an offer on in the evening, so we tagged along. We then came home, cooked some dinner and watched some tv before tucking in.    En savoir plus

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