nuts about... nuts

Welcome to the macadamia nut factory;


The history of the nut.


The nutritional values of the nut.


The factory, you must be nuts to work here.


Tasting the nut.


And how do they taste?


Nutastic!

Crikey, what a ripper of a day mate!

Well, after leaving sunny Bryon Bay we headed north up to Surfers Paradise, which was anything but paradise, a beach surrounded by tall skyscapers, almost a more glitzy version of blackpool. We stayed one night down a residental road and then took off sharpish the next morning to head to brisbane. We only spent one night in brisbane, as we had a look around, went up the old clock tower in the musuem to have a gander at the view, and then thought it was a bit like being back in a city, with the same shops and things that you get in other cities. Our plan to meet dana, our friend from sydney went down the pan as she was in melbourne for the weekend, and there are no easy places to free camp in the middle of a city, so we drove out to the coast, spent the night there, and then split the next morning.

next stop was Yandina, a small town in the middle of nowhere but more importantly it was close to the awesom Steve Irwin Australia Zoo!



We had an absolutely brilliant day at the zoo, unfortunatly there was no sign of big steve, but we still had a godd look around and went to see some of the shows. The zoo was mainly full of crocs, as you expect from the crocodile hunter, but they also had tigers, elephants, wombats, roos etc, all with loads of room to run around. some even had enclosures you could walk around in, although sadly not the tigers. Lex even managed to overcome another phobia by having her photo taken with a snake wrapped around her neck (a prize which adam one by doing the best impression of a monkey in front of 200 people).



After our day at the zoo we headed up to the big pineapple, which is just what it sounds like, a big pineapple, its three floors high and has some rubbish models in it explaining how you grow and harvest pineapples, it would have doubled quite nicely as a 'how to gather dust on a rubbish old model' exhibition.

That night we slept in another rest stop by the side of the road, another camper also pulled up with three germans, and we ended up playing poker in our van to pass the night away.

Next day we headed back out to the coast, and noosa. Driving around noosa is a bit of a challenge as its made up of noosa heads, noosaville and noosa sound. Why they couldn't just call the place noosa, and be done with it we've got no idea.

We cruised around a bit looking for somewhere to camp (a daily chore) and ended up stopping by a lake to admire the view. There was lady there canoeing and as we helped carry her canoe to the water, we got chatting, and she said we could camp for the night on her drive way (result!!). That night we went to the cinema to see the davinci code (average we thought) and then drove back to the house to sleep. We turned up to the house that we thought it was, and realised that A. we hadn't asked the lady her name, and B. we hadn't confirmed exactly which house was hers! After prowling around like crooks for a while we decided to drive up to the best contender, the only house with lights on, make a bit of noise so as to announce our arrival and hope for the best. It turned out this house belonged to the ladies neighbours, and they kindly pointed us in the right direction. The house was pitch black, and we didn't know if the lady was asleep, or out, or in the basement worshipping the devil. Either way we parked up and crashed out.



The next morning the lady let us use her shower and generally clean ourselves up and briefly showed us in her house (which was like a palace). Her husband worked for the government and is clearly minted!

We're spending the night in nossa again tonight (although not on the driveway) and then heading to ranbow beach for two nights before our trip out to fraser island which is booked for sunday!

We've had an expensive few weeks on the east coast (too many fish and chips) and so are both looking forward to heading inland, where we're hoping to stay at a cattle station for a while, but its only a small one 55,000 acres...

Also, after about 4 years marc and owen have got there website up and running (nice job boys, looks good) so check out www.owenandavery.co.uk and tell all your executive mates who need design work doing to give them a call!

Surf's up dude!

After a brief stop in coffs habour to see some dodgy karaoke and the biggest banana you’re ever likely to see, we arrived in Byron bay. We had to pay for a week in a campsite as the council is ultra hot on fining people who try to free camp.



Our camp site is with in spitting distance of the beach and really close to the town as well. We’ve basically spent the week chilling out and spending way too much money. We’ve book our trip s for Fraser Island and sailing on the Whitsundays further up the coast which we’re both really excited about. We also booked a day trip snorkeling out on the reef from cairns, which the company forgot to charge us for (bonus!). We’ve also been for some surf lessons which we loved (lex was starting to look like a real pro by the end of it!)



We took a trip up to the light house, which is the most easterly point of australia, and saw more dolphins frolicking in the waves and generally messing about.

Also staying at our campsite were a fantastic Irish couple, Mark and Caragh, who we both got on with really well and had a blast for the three days that they were here, eating hotdogs, drinking wine and watching Caragh get smashed playing ‘drink while you think’ (she did a wee bit too much thinking-sorry Caragh!) hopefully we’ll get a chance to catch up with them a bit further up the coast, but they on a real tight schedule as they leave for new Zealand in a couple of weeks.



one night we had a stakeout at the campsite waiting for the police to arrive and arrest some little aussie battler who'd been tearing up the town fighting (and losing) with all the doormen! we got back to the campsite to find the entrance barrier all smashed up and covered in blood. The four of us must have stuck out like a sore thumb sitting in marks camper with the lights on, some beer on the go with some classy cheese and biscuits and random flashes as we tried to take photos-lex even did her best commando impression sneaking up and hiding behind some wheelie bins for a better look. We turned in just before the old bill arrived and hauled them off to jail!



That’s about it really, Bruce has had a little trip to the mechanics this morning for his new clutch and then we’re heading up to Brisbane before our trip out to Fraser, passing through surfers paradise and Nimbin (the weed capital of the world)…nice!

Adam traces his family tree

A koala is not a bear!

We arrived in port macquarie and spent another two nights sleeping in a car park! life really is as glamourous as it sounds! It is however nice to wake up in the mornings, roll out of bed and onto the beach...



Port Mac is a really nice town, with lovely beaches and a little shopping parade. Its also the bigging of Koala country, so visited a koala hospital to have a look at the littel furry buggers, we also visited a koala breeding program, which it turned out is only a fancy word for 'zoo' which was mush more disappointing, it seemed preety cramped for all the animals. They had these two wedge tailed eagels who were massive, about the size of a labrador with a tiny little cage, only a bit bigger than you're average lounge... tres disappointing.

Anyhow we were soon back on the road again and made it up to Byron Bay, where we'll be staying for the next week. On the drive up we saw our first dolphins swimming in the sea! more soon...

wining poms

After our stop in Newcastle we headed inland to the hunter valley, one of the oldest wine growing regions in Australia. We spent the day touring round all the different wineries having a few samples along with some cheese, before buying a nice bottle of white and polishing it off with our home made pasta dinner. The next day we drove to a couple of bigger wineries for some tours where you get to wander round and see how all the wine is made. We mainly saw big barels of wine as all of the wine making is now over for the year. The tours were quite interesting, and it was nice to be out in the country amongst the fresh air. From the hunter we then again headed north towards Port Macquarie...

Heading north

It's been a while since our last post, so there is quite a lot to update you on, we'll try and summarise, so we're not here all day.

The buying car week had been majorly stressful for both of us, even in the RTA office where we transferred the car into our name, we were both bricking it that the guy was going to tell us there was some problem, or the car was stolen etc. After him making a couple of phone calls it was a done deal and we now offically own our van!

We left sydney and drove to the blue mountains. Getting out of sydney was a bit of a baptism of fire trying to get to grips with a gear stick on the stearing column. Adam was having a major stress trying to get the hang of the van, it's a bit like driving a tank, and the lack of power steering certainly doesn't do us any favours (except maybe beef up our arms a bit). In the blue mounains we only stopped for one night at a spot called perry's lookdown out in the middle of nowhere, we made our dinner by torchlight, and then settled into our first night in Bruce. It was suprisingly comfy, and we both slept really well.

The next day was a bit cloudy and instead of doing a bush walk we had breakfast at Hatters on the reccomendation of Adam's parents. We had a quality breakfast and were both really tempted to by a aussie hat, thought they were a bit over budget though! As it was cloudy we decided to hit the road and head to Newcastle. We knew we will be coming back to the bluemoutains at christmas so will have a proper explore then.

We didn’t quite make it all the way to Newcastle and as it was starting to get dark pulled into a national park to spend the night there, but the facilities were pretty rubbish, and you still had to pay, so we decided instead to just go to a caravan park and pay for the night.

The next day we made it to Newcastle and spent two nights sleeping in a car park by the beach! Not too glamorous but there were showers and toilets on the beach, so at least we didn’t stink. We also had the chance to buy another few bits for the van, a spare fuel can, jump leads, travel kettle and a huge box to put our clothes in to save having to drag our bags apart everday.

The travel kettle is worth noting because we’ve bought a power invertor to charge our batteries, mobile phones etc whilst on the move. We had already bought a kettle, but nearly blew up the van trying to use it. Our power pont can handle up to 150 watts of power, and we didn’t realise that the kettle took 2000 watts. Fortunately we only blew the fuse and obviously I payed enough attention to my dad when he was constantly fixing my car, and I was able to find the fuse and replace it!
We’ll update move soon, including our trip round the wineries of the hunter valley, but the internet café we’re in at the moment is rubbish so we’re giving up!! We’ll also upload some pictures for you.

nice to see you, to see you nice...

Say hello to Bruce everyone, our new home for the next 8 months. After a very stressful time, we struck a deal for a pretty good price. Most of the vans we've been looking at were about $4500 mark, and we managed to get him for a snip at $2800.

Although it initially looks like he might need some work (a new clutch) a bit of rooting around in the glove box threw up an interesting find. The van was brought from a dealer only 4months ago by some backpackers who payed $5400 for it, and it came with a 12 month warranty, and have serviced it every 3 months since they got it. Hopefully, we will be able to get the warranty transferred to us, which will last until december this year. Fingers crossed!





Apart from that the van is quality, its got more space in than most, comes with a double bed that turns into a table and chairs, has loads of accessories. Were going to buy a power convertor so we can charge our phones on the move, and have even looked into a dvd player!!!

We've even got a little Brucy mascot that claire and jonny gave us a pressie to wish us luck on our trip

Sheilas behaving badly

g'day to sydney

After ten manic days in sydney we've finally had a chance to catch our breath and write a new entry. Our first week has been taken up with mainly administration duties. We've opened a bank account-our first joint account (We're starting to feel like grown ups now!) sorted out our healthcare cover and then been manic sorting out trying to buy our van. It seems like a very confusing system to buy a car, but I guess thats only because its different. We seem to have been told different things from everyone we've spoken too, so it's been hard to get an independant opinion about things.



The stress of trying to sort all this out gave way when we had a chance to catch up with jonny and clairebear! It was good to see a friendly face from back home, Alexia burst in to tears as she ran up the steps to the opera house. We've spent the last few days chilling out with them and having a wander round the town. Claire and Jonny have been fantastic to us, really getting into the spirit of the backpacker life by stealing (or acquiring as claire likes to call it) tea, jam, towels and shampoo for us from their hotel!



Yesterday afternoon we had a relaxing time sitting in a bar and having a drink with a couple of aussies we met who we in sydney for the weekend, Dana and Liam who we're a real hoot! Dana works for Virgin and was recounting the story of the first time she met Richard (or dicky as she calls him) Branson, in a lift wearing her PJs and fluffy slippers! (sorry Dana). The guys were great and Dana even offered us a hot shower at her house when we get up to Brisbane (look out Dana, here we come!)



Looking forward to the next few days in Sydney, and then aiming to start up the east coast sometime next week, more news soon.

xx