The trip of a lifetime

Well it's certainly been a while since we have updated this thing!! By my reckoning it’s about 10 weeks! This post won’t be like all the others in that we won’t list all the dates of where we were but merely give you an account of what we’ve been doing since we last posted.

After we left Rainbow beach, we made our way South down the East Coast so a place called Byron Bay. It’s a nice little place and is well known for surfing. It is at this point that Ric decided that he would take the opportunity to spend 3 consecutive mornings out in the surf (with a qualified instructor obviously!). Matt spent his time during the day just chilling out on the beach. On a couple of the evenings we headed out to a bar called Cheeky Monkeys where we would meet up with some of the other backpackers from our dorm room and have a few drinks. On one of these nights Ric entered a competition and won $350 worth of campervan hire! We decided that if need be we could use this in either Australia or New Zealand.

After leaving Byron Bay we had to head down to Sydney to meet up with Charlie when she arrived on the 5th April. To give a rough overview, we spent about a week in Sydney before all 3 of us headed over to Perth in Western Australia for Gary and Jo’s wedding (an ex-work colleague of Ric’s who is now living out here in Perth). Whilst in Sydney Ric and Charlie did most things that were available. The Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb, the Sky Tower, The Maritime Museum, the Aquarium, the Sydney Wildlife world, a ballet at the Opera House (the Australian’s amazingly obscure take on Swan Lake!), ate out at many great restaurants, ate seafood and spent the first night of our holiday in the Marriott Hotel!! This was courtesy of Debbie and Pete who I would like to thank for this gift. Whilst Ric and Charlie were out exploring Sydney, Matt spent the time getting to know his fellow travelers in the hostel, socializing and enjoying a break from Ric!

We then all made our way to the airport to get the flight over to Perth where we picked up a hire car (a canary yellow Getz) and drove an hour south to Mandurah where the Wedding of Gary and Jo would take place. After the wedding (which was a quite family and close friend’s affair on a beautiful beach) we went to one of their friend’s house for the reception. Ric was asked to read at the wedding which was a real honour but he was very nervous when reading it. The day after the wedding the 3 of us drove another hour south to Gary and Jo’s house which they had kindly let us use for the remainder of our time in WA. We went to one of G&J’s friends houses for a BBQ and played about on their Nintendo Wii (Guitar Hero was the game of choice!). The following day Ric agreed to be the chauffeur for the day and drive Matt and Charlie through the Geographe Wine Region, they tried a few wines, Ric played with the dogs and then we headed back to G&J’s for a Chinese takeaway. The next day we headed back to Perth City where we met up with Gary for one final drink before we headed to the airport to fly back to Sydney. We spent one night in Sydney before Charlie flew home and Matt and Ric flew to Auckland, New Zealand.