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So, we're back in the UK. After 30 hours of driving, flying and hanging around airports, we are back on solid ground in the Northern Hemisphere, ready to give reality (and jobs) a go.

It was so cold when we got in at 6.25am. There we were, dressed head to toe in our warmest clothing, complete with woolly hats and scarves, and the gust of air from outside just crystellised us. There was snow covering everything we saw on the way back from the airport. It was a lovely dawn, with pale blue and pink whorls of cloud hanging over everything, and the orange sun creeping up over the frosted hills. But cold, very cold.


However, despite the insanely freezing air, we are rallying our spirits and preparing to move, settle in and make some money, and then, get on travelling again!


We want to head to Canada, Japan, Europe...in the near future. After that, well who knows.

The plan is to update the blog with any travel-related news like buying tickets or deciding on a destination, etc. So, keep up to date! Find out where we're going next! Any suggestions?

Once the unpacking, repacking, moving and unpacking is done, we'll get the pics sorted and do a little slideshow for everyone. Thanks for reading!

Alpaca

Another early start this morning saw us checking out of our lovely little apartment (my new model for the perfect first flat) and hitting the road again to go to Montville, the place to be for arts and crafts in the mountains. We went to the Poets Cafe, a beautiful 20s style verana building with curlicue iron work and art deco windows. We sat outside, under a shade, looking out over the valley and nervously eyeing the horribly large spider on the balcony rail about two meters away. This thing was hairy, black as night and about as big as my hand. Apparently, it doesn't like to bite humans...but I have heard that before, concerning sharks.
We had some beautifully light fruit scones with jam and cream, edging back into the English mentality with morning tea seemed to be a good plan. Then, we had an explore of the boutiques of Montville, enjoying a specialty sweet and fudge shop, an African store and some wonderful glasswork from an artist who actually used to live in Bren's house, the one we are currently staying in!
Then, we found the alpaca shop. I have a small obsession with alpacas and I was actually crestfallen when I decided that it would probably not work in my favour to bring a small Alpaca figurine away with me. Just writing about it brings back the sorrow. Doh.
Well, we departed Montville, sans alpaca, and stopped off only once on the way back to the house to buy sushi for lunch. We ate this on the deck, which has purposefully been aged to resemble Japanese wood, with chopsticks and earthenware mugs of green tea, so as to taste a little of the flavour of Bren and Reg's life in Japan.
Then, I spent about an hour on the phone (or the Skype headphones and mic set, depending on how accurate you would like me to be) trying to persuade Vodafone that I really do want to cancel our broadband contract, as we will no longer be in either New Zealand or Australia.
Since then, I have been spending almost two hours trying to bring this blog up to date! Phew! Meanwhile, Alex has been helping out with the gardening and assembling a photo slideshow to upload once we are back.

So,  today is our last full day. Tomorrow, we go into Brisbane to catch our flight back to London. We stop off in Singapore for a few hours, but I don't think they will let us out of the airport. We will be going from our regular 30 degree, sunshine and blue skies, crickets chirupping constantly to the dull grey skies of England, with its rain and its reported -8 degree temperature. Mind you, that was -18 last week, so that is something I suppose!

I will update about the journey when we get back and I have a minute amongst all the reunions and unpacking. We'll put the last of the pictures up and get everything sorted. After that, I plan to try to do a weekly update about our plans for our next big adventure, as well as any other travelling we might happen to do on the way, round the UK and maybe, hopefully, some of Europe, while we save money for the next big trip. So if you are interested, check in every so often, or become a follower for updates.

Thanks for reading!
Since then,

Noosa

Noosa was calling, as Australia's most sought after propety location, so we had to see what all the fuss was about. We drove down the coast to the National Park bay and it is beautiful. I vaguely remembered it from my previous trip to Oz, so we walked along the beach and up along a boardwalk for views over the curving bay. It was so hot, you practically dehydrated just by standing there, so we went down the highstreet, not to shop per se, but to take full advantage of the air-con.
We were set to meet Bren and Reg at a restaurant they particularly like, called 'Bistro C' at 1pm for lunch and we made our way there and joined them at the table with a view over the sea. Alex had some fancy fish and chips (or 'Fush and Chups' as they are referred to often, here) while I had a swanky salad involving brazil-nut polenta, kumara, blue cheese and crostini. Then, while Alex groaned and held his stomach, I polished off a tasty desert of chocolate creme brulee, rum bananas and candied pecans. Yum!
Then, we went and nursed our bulging tummies by laying out on the beach, carefully avoiding the sea and its possible jellyfish monsters.
While we were there, laying on the hot sand (very relaxing), the wind changed direction, bringing dark purple storm clouds to rest above us and also, according to the lifeguard's megaphone speech, a whole 'flock' of bluebottles - not the fly kind, the stinging jellyfish kind to the beach. Yay. How we love the jellyfish. The clouds started to spit, so we upped ships and left the beach, sitting sandy in the car as we drove back to Peregian Beach. Bizarrely, the rain came down even as the sun was out and shining away.
Back at the apartment, we swam in the pool for a few hours, until we had ingested enough of the salty water to probably cause some sort of incipient illness, then made dinner. We watched a documentary on the Forbidden City and laughed at the dramatic 'woe betides' of the presenter.

Peregian

We had an early start today, waking up to pack for our trip away from Melany. Bren had booked us in at a resort in Peregian Beach, so that we could hang out at the beach for a day and go and see Noosa, and have a 'last-blast' holiday before we have to head home.
Off we went, through Yandina and onto Coloundra where Bren hoped to stop for her coffee fix. However, the cafe was closed as it was a Sunday and in order to avoid any 'putrid' coffee fails, we continued on to find another cafe that met the standard. We found one. It was overlooking a glorious turquoise blue beach, with hot white sand and palm trees. We ordered our drinks (Chai latte time!) and sipped and revelled in the light breeze that interrupted the 30 degree sun beating down outside the sheltering cloth roof.
We moved on, arriving at our apartment-style hotel in good time. The apartment was lovely, decked out in sunshine bright colours and with a walk-out patio that took you right to the pool. We stopped just long enough for lunch, then Alex and I headed down to the beach. It was a long curve of golden soft sand, edged by white breakers from the deep blue sea. There wasn't a cloud in sight and we strolled along, toes in the water. We saw a few tiny drops, about a centimeter across, but gave the jellyfish no thought. They were too small to worry about. We splashed about in the shallows and then made our way further up the beach to the lifeguard flags. The friendly lifeguards were walking about, helping kids build sandcastles and paddling with the parents. We dumped our towels high up on the beach and then plunged into the refreshing sea. It is so odd - we are programmed to assume that seawater equals cold water, but here in Oz, its actually warm. It is so much more pleasant! So there we are, swimming around, cooling down in the breakers, when I hear I hear Alex apologise - to me, for hitting me by mistake. Thing is, I am about three metres away - his arms are not that long! So I look around and what he has actually hit is a giant brown rock. Thats weird, I think. There was no rock when we walked over that bit of sand a moment ago.
It was a gigantic jellyfish! It was huge! Alex had brushed the top of it with his hand while playing about in the waves. We both realised at the same moment and you have never seen two people exit the sea at quite such speed. We stood there, on the shore, dumbstruck by the sheer size of this thing. Vowing to never set foot in the Australian sea again, we settled down on our towels, still amazed and horrified.
We sunbathed for a bit and then headed back along the beach to return to the apartment for dinner. As we walked along, we spotted several jellyfish stranded on the beach - some small, frilly ones akin to those we saw in Abel Tasman, some fist-sized brown ones, a few more that were bigger than motorcycle helmets and then, the biggest pile of goop masquerading as an aquatic creature ever. We took some pictures (which will turn up once we have our own pc going again) with Alex next to it for size reference. If we'd met this thing in the water...well, it would probably have eaten us. *shudder*
Back at the apartment, Reg and Bren had gone out, so we went into the pool while we waited for them to return and let us into the house again. Alex and I made supper and then we all watched 'Memoirs of a Geisha' on the super comfy sofa, before going to bed.

Rainforest

Saturday was a day to be taken easily. We relaxed on the deck in the heat, reading and planning. In the afternoon, we all piled into the car and went to the Mary Caincross Rainforest reserve, a reminder of how the area used to look before it was lived in. We browsed the informative display, learning the sheer size of dinosaurs that had lived here thousands of years ago and the sorts of creatures we might come across during our walk. Then, we set off into the trees!
Instantly, the light changes - it is darker, more filtered. The smell of foliage is strong, and the strangler figs loop mad-looking vines across the pathway. As we walked deeper into the rainforest, all sound was blocked out, to be replaced by creaking trunks and snufflings, odd bird calls and things crashing to the floor from the canopy, almost 50 metres above. I spotted two small Pademelons in the brush and both Alex and I froze in order to snap off some pictures of them as they unconcernedly hopped about (they look like tiny versions of kangaroos). We carried on, startling when a large, solid green pod hit the ground just next to us with a heavy thump. Concerned (understandably) about being knocked out, we made a hasty exit from that particular grove of trees, only to walk into a stand of native bush fig trees, and to narrowly avoid being pelted by the continuous rain of bright purple fruit that fell from the canopy above us.
We saw several more Pademelons, including one with a joey in the pouch and we sat and observed them for a bit. We found a crazy misty river winding its way through the tall trees and looking picture-perfect for a Jurassic Park setting. That is where we first heard the noise.
It was a crying baby. We hadn't seen anyone take a baby into the forest, but despite the empty paths, we knew there were lots of other people wandering round. We heard the cry again. Again. Again. It was relentless. We started to think someone had abandoned a baby in the forest. We were just debating investigation, when we heard it again. From the opposite direction! Well, we didn't think there would be two babies in peril in the rainforest. We figured it had to be some sort of animal. Maybe the Pademelons? But no, they just make huffing, clicking noises. We eventually found out what it was - a tiny, insignificent looking bird. A relief, as we had been beginning to think maybe it was some sort of large animal's ingenious human-hunting technique.
Then we took a trip down into Melany town in order to buy the ingredients for a dish Alex and I planned to cook for our hosts the night after. We also hoped to pick up some sort of mozzie bite cure, as Alex had been bitten 51 times and was feeling decidedly woozy. His top lip was starting to swell up, but the chemists was closed. Thus, dinner was eaten inside, so as not to expose him to anymore insects!

Irwin

(Sorry for lengthy gap in updates! We have been in the Hinterlands, with nary a computer in sight, let alone one attached to the internet! Anyhow, we have returned, so Japanese keyboard notwithstanding, let us continue...if I can remember)

Friday, we planned to go to Australia Zoo, the most famous zoo in the world, thanks in large part to the efforts of Steve Irwin and his family. Bren and Reg drove us down to the Zoo gates and out we got, ready to be amazed by crocs and various odd Aussie wildlife.
After paying the entrance fee (crippling, but worth it), we sauntered to the park map, only to discover a khaki-clad ranger standing nearby casually holding a baby crocodile. The day was shaping up to be everything we could have hoped for.
We planned what we would do around some live animal shows and located the stadium where the first was to be held. We were 10 minutes early and caught the last song and dance routines of Bindi Irwin, the eleven year old that has taken over Australia with her nature-wise rallying cry, in memory of her dad. 11! We were impressed, if a little concerned for her, but she and her mum and brother are doing an epic job of holding everything together.
We were then astounded, literally, by what happened next. A chirpy, upbeat Aussie bounded into the arena and explained that she was going to fire up a bidding war between members of the audience for an afternoon in the echidna enclosure with the Irwin family. Alex and I sat firmly on our hands so no-one could accuse us of offering money we definately do not have to the cause in the auction...we were expecting a few dollars here and there, but we watched in utter amazement as the bidding rose, until the prize was rewarded to the winning bidders - at 1600 AUD!
As the winning family were led away (no doubt in shock at the amount they just dropped on a family day out), enthusiastic rangers leapt into the ring, babbling loudly on mics. Suddenly, huge bright blue and red macaws soared out from under the stadium and over our heads, tail feathers literally trailing inches above the audience as they flew round and round. A small flock of flourescent green lorikeets sped out like twittering bullets and almost took our ears off as they zoomed, chattering loudly right in front of our eyes. Then, the enclosure cleared and the white and black cockatoos that had been sitting all round the bannisters let out a screech and flew off - the audience was asked to yell the name of one of the birds out in the zoo. Everyone joined in, yelling out an obscure name (I can't remember it...something like 'Djambela'). Then, as we watched, an absolutely huge black and white stork-like bird could be seen in the distance, approaching the stadium. Long, spindly red legs trailed out behind her and the rangers ran out of the ring to give her space to land. She was as tall as the men, about 6ft, with a truly massive wingspan. As she walked elegantly out of the enclosure, the keepers once again went into hyperactive mode and announced, with great glee, the entrance of the crocodile! The giant screen lit up showing the crocodile slide menacingly out of its  'paddock' behind the stadium and move into the water in the ring. As it moved its whole four meter length of predatory muscle and teeth into the open, the Irwin family ran out, Terri, Bindi and Robert, as well as some keepers to maintain order and keep the kids safe during the act.
We watched as the silent shadow swum under the water, then rearer out towards the antagonising keeper stomping his feet at the edge of the water. They fed him scraps while teaching the audience that 'crocs are not the ferocious animals you think they are...but lets watch him attack a pig leg and do the death roll, just for funsies'.
After the show, we stumbled out of the heat (in the full sunshine, one gets woozy fast) to the shade and had some of our picnic lunch. Then, we embarked on our trip round the zoo. We posed with the model of the crocodile that weighed two tonnes and measured nine by three meters when it was alive (!) and craned our necks to see the red pandas swaying at the tops of their trees. We stood next to the Indian Elephants while they were being fed, watching as their trunks curled up to suck up bite sized chunks of melon. We sat by the otter pool and watched, enchanted as the tiny sisters showed-off their synchronised swimming moves and then snatched fish heads from their keeper. We pressed up against the glass of the tiger enclosure as the keepers entertained the two big cats with toys and the tigers, in a bound of overenthusiasm found theirselves swimming in the pool. We also found out that while tigers like to swim, they don't like going in front feet first as their front paws are so sensitive - so they back into the water! We went through the aviary and looked at all the colours of the parrots and then into the koala pen to pat the koala's soft fuzz and laugh at their expressions. We meandered through the Roo Heaven and were almost run down in a stampede as the entire mob of kangeroos bounced through the park and right by us. Luckily, we stayed very still, and then soothed them with handfuls of roo food, which they munched contentedly with snuffly noses. I was chased by a huge water dragon lizard that was laying on the path when I tried to photo it. We peaked in at the wombats, heavily weighed down by the babies in their pouches. The discovery of a petting zoo had us laughing at the climbing goats and piglets, the calves and gently baaing sheep. We roamed through the shop, amused at the inclusion of woolly mammoths in the toy section and marvelled at the Bindi brand, which is massive and a sheer money-making machine.
After a lovely, fascinating day, we loped out just as the zoo was closing in order to catch our lift back up into the mountains.

Zoom

It has been a helter-skelter couple of days. (Apologies in advance if this makes no sense, I am using a Japanese keyboard and it is very weird).
Our last full day with Richard and Ansie, we got a lift with Brad into the city again as he had to go and pick up Rhian's birth certificate. We meanwhile, had lunch in the Queen St Mall food court and then walked over to Southbank and spent the afternoon lazing about the urban beach. This is such a cool concept - its an area of golden white sand, just off from the pavement, with a free pool stretching out towards the river. You can sit in the shallows, pretend you are on the beach and watch the boats go by on the river, or lie back at look over the skyscrapers, or even see the cars filled with commuters zooming over the bridge in the distance. Once we had swum about about and just generally enjoyed being cool in the heat of the city, as well as the obvious novelty of sitting on a beach in the middle of a very built-up area, we went and lay on the grass to dry off. We caught the buses back to Redland Bay and began the dinner. For our last night, Ansie was constructing the creme-de-la-creme of dishes, a roast leg of lamb for the meat-eaters and for us all, a vegetable and ricotta stack. Yum. Delicious! We helped out laying the table and finishing off the pesto mix and then set to eating. We all ended up staying around the table for the whole evening, eating the main, then later a platter of fruits (fresh lychees! Sun-ripened nectarines and watermelon!) and then Brad brought out one of his expensive, vintage reds and a tray of gourmet cheeses and we ended up all eating more than one would have thought physically possible. Anyhow, eventually, we all retired to bed.

The following morning, Alex and I packed up our stuff from the caravan and loaded up Richards car, as he very kindly insisted on driving us up to Melany, our next destination. Ansie joined us on the journey, and after we had bid farewell to Brad and Licelle we set off on the 'short trip' (Aussie terms, not English. In English, we would refer to it as 'Crikey! What a distance! We should stop for tea and scones, so as to not starve before we get there!') Ah well, three hours later we arrived and after a brief mix-up with the house number and sending Alex into a complete stranger's residence, we found Bren and Reg's house. The six of us had a drink on the balcony, before Richard and Ansie had to go to meet friends for lunch. So we thanked them very much and bid them adieu and off they went.
Now, we are staying in an art deco inspired bedroom in a truly lovely 'Queenslander' house (The traditional state building style, made of wood, with painted cladding and very high ceilings). Bren and Reg took us down into the town of Melany and we wandered up the street while they shopped for groceries. The single high street is lined with an odd mix of cafes, hippy shops touting 'legal' highs (!) and touristy boutiques selling handmade soap and the like. We stopped to have cake at a cafe that was beckoning us in with its chocolate coated muffins and blueberry cheesecakes. We sat outside, pavement cafe culture, shaded from the sunshine and munching on cake. On the way back to the house, we passed along Mountain View road, and saw the Glass House Mountains in all their bizarrely shaped splendour, surrounded by sweeping rainforest covered hills and valleys. Back at the house, after dinner and a sit out on the raised decking overlooking the tropical garden, we came inside and watched 'The Last Samurai' before going to bed.

Today, we awoke and had breakfast on the balcony overlooking the palm trees. We all got ready for our planned day at the beach, zooming off in our host's little red sports car to King's Beach in Caloundra. It was beautiful. Clear brilliant blue skies, baking hot sunshine, fine white sand and turquoise water, breaking as, admittedly large, waves on the beach. Palm trees (and pines, oddly) waved on the shores and pavilions and giant parasols occupied the groundspace. We sat in a little cafe on the edge of the beach and the others had coffee while I had a pineapple juice. So lovely! Fresh from the plantations just outside of town, it was sweet, but not sickly, just right and so good and refreshing! After our refreshments, we headed down the bakingly hot sand with funny, high-step mincing movements and settled on towels. Around lunchtime we ventured back to the cafe for fish and chips and then Alex and I bravely ventured near the water, despite the anecdotes involving sharks/jellyfish/crocodiles/sheer bad luck that we have come across while travelling. The water. unbelieveably, was warm. I have never encountered warm seawater before. It was a revelation! We jumped straight in, embraced being battered by the 7ft waves, splashed around...then the helicopter that keeps a lookout for sharks went overhead and we decided to vacate the water. We esconced ourselves in the saltwater pool at the end of the beach instead to wash off the sand, then went back to the towels and read for a bit. Being fidgety though, we ended up getting up to go on a walk quite soon afterwards and meandered down the coast on a raised wooden boardwalk, next to the palms and looking out over oddly shaped rocks into the surf. We had some ice cream (mandatory beach food) and then sat in the still warm rays of the sun at about 5pm. I could very easily get used to this lifestyle.
We returned to the house with a short detour to Melany to pick up some picnic goods for tomorrow, when we plan to visit Australia Zoo. This is a highly exciting plan, given our addiction to animals and the fame of this particular zoo. We manufactured our own pizzas for dinner tonight, with myself making the bases and then instructing their topping process. We ate outside on the decking, surrounded by a symphony of rainforest noise and friendly black beetles. The sky up here in the mountains is completely free of light pollution and every single star shines brightly and clearly. It is so beautiful.

I am currently writing this from the aforementioned Japanese keyboard, on a Mac - so its very odd, but the soundtrack to my writing comes completely and utterly from the depths of the rainforest. There is the constant low hum of the crickets out in the trees, and a staccato frog that chirrups in scales. Another frog makes a monotonous ticking noise not unlike a clock. Before, when we were sitting outside, there was also the steady bumping of large armoured beetles throwing themselves at the glass lamps as well as various rufflings and skuffles in the bushes that had us quite nervous, as there are both mambas and taipans in the garden. There was even the odd flap of large, leathery wings as fruit bats flipped past through the night on a mission for tasty goodness.