Goodbye Lucy and Moby

Well after the excitement of Frazer Island we were looking forward to taking it easy in Darragh's sisters' (Orna) boyfriend's (Maurice) brother's (Vincent) house! Bit of a mouthful but it was good fun. We landed about an hour outside Brisbane just as they were finishing off a new porch (they had just moved in) and did a bit of odds and ends to get the place cleared up. Earned our keep anyway and were treated to a lovely barbecue. After dinner we burned the "For Sale" sign, about an hour before being told you have to pay for them if they don't get returned. Oh well. Big thanks to Vincent, Elaine and little Ben for all the hospitality they showed us. The following day we took a trip into Brisbane to have a look around. Lovely city, and I think it really changed our opinions on Australia. Until that point we'd only seen small beach towns, but this is a proper city. Very livable! Spent the afternoon around the museums...

The following day we visited the Steve Irwin Zoo. Pretty impressive array of animals - I think the Red Panda's definitely stole the show. Darragh did his best to take one home but they weren't as friendly as they seemed. We saw a pretty cool wildlife show which included some pretty nuts birds and also a lot of crocodiles. They are scary animals. Met some Kangaroos and other wildlife. Made for some perfect cheesy photo opportunities.......

Some of the Crocs are friendly enough in fairness....

That night we headed back to Brisbane for a night out. Met Trish who showed us around and some friends from the Whitsunday trip a few weeks ago. Brisbane was quite expensive however so we only stayed one night. Apparently it's the most expensive place in the world to park, with car parks being about $25 an hour (About 18 Euro). We were up early the next morning to head to Byron Bay (most easterly spot in Australia) to meet more friends.

At Byron we met Louise, Ben, Dee, Carol and Aisling for a few nights out. Lovely spot. Campsite right on the beach and everything within a 3 minute walk. One afternoon Darragh, Conor and Micheal rented some surfboards to give that a go, but from the sounds of things, they might as well be bodyboards. They came back battered and bruised after a few hours dying for a cup of Barry's Tea to get the blood going again. At least they avoided the sharks I suppose!

By the time we left Byron, we were running out of days, and needed to get the vans back to Sydney for the Thursday and we still had about 1,000km ahead of us. We took a few long days to get down the coast, just stopping off to sleep, eat and let Darragh put on his wizard hat to go see Harry Potter. On one of the long drives however, we spotted a golf course just off the highway so decided to give that a go. It didn't start off very well - I shot an 11 at the Par 4 first, Darragh hit a 10 at the second. It didn't help that there were kangaroos all over the golf course! We settled down eventually with Conor winning by five shots from me, Mick and Ed joint third with Darragh taking up the rear. I won't embarrass ourselves with the actual scores!

One last stop off on the trip was to the Hunter Valley for a wine tasting tour. Great day out. 55 wines sampled in about 7 hours, mixed in with a bit of Cheese and chocolate tasting. We all had our favourites but unfortunately most of the spots only sell from their cellar door, meaning we'll never get the chance to actually buy them. We got a lot of info anyway, handy to know what goes with what, which wines will age well etc. We thought the Semillon, Verdelho and the Merlot were the best. Check out the wine connoisseur head on Mick Cahill below..........

We got the vans back just about in time, with 10 minutes to spare. Unfortunately we had forgotten to wash the outsides so the lady at the rental spot sent us off to a car wash. the extra 20 minutes took us over our rental period, so we had to pay a late fee. Cheeky lady! Got to Sydney anyway in one piece. 3,916 km and 23 days later. The vans were good fun, although a lot of the campsites were very remote. Worked out about the same price as getting the bus/hostels but it was nice to have the freedom. It did get a little cold at night towards the end though.