After bidding a fond farewell to Asia we found ourselves touching down in Sydney a mere 6 hours after leaving Singapore. The first thing we noticed after 7 months of cheap Indian and Asian prices was how expensive it was....$35 just to get the train from the airport to the city ! This would come to be a feature of our time in Australia but as we were only going to be there for "12 days" (well that was the plan) we figured we could suck it up and soon enough we found ourselves crossing Pyrmont Bridge in Darling Harbour
Our first stop was Jason & Sharon´s flat, Charlotte´s friends who had kindly offered to put us up for the 3 nights we were in Sydney, which was situated right next to Darling Harbour. As Charlotte was still feeling a bit ill we immediately hit the sack to recharge our batteries.
The following morning a familiar figure appeared.....yes that´s right Jukkis had joined us (AGAIN !) and later that evening we were reunited with another old face when Charlotte´s friend Marc (or Frendo as he´s better known) came to join us at a party that Sharon & Jason had arranged for us to go to
Despite Charlotte´s continuing complaints of "feeling not so good" and being covered in a layer of icy sweat she put on a brave face and we had a great night partying until the small hours.....meaning that we pretty much missed all of the next days Australia Day celebrations bar the amazing fireworks which we managed to drag ourselves out to the roof of Sharon & Jasons appartment to watch.
By the time the next morning rolled around Charlotte was still feeling bad and her temperature had started to rise in conjunction with some serious convulsions so Matt finally accepted that it wasn´t a chest infection, as diagnosed in Singapore, and off we went to the hospital (again). After several hours of examinations and another round of malaria tests the doctors discharged her and recommended some bed rest. This being the case Matt did the obvious thing and decided to go and hook up with some friends from the UK for a p*ss up leaving Charlotte in Sharon & Jason´s care. Upon waking up on Ben & Nickys floor Matt was a bit shocked to discover a text message informing him that Charlotte had been readmitted to hospital overnight and was now being transferred to the infectious diseases unit....shit !!!
What followed was 8 days of hell for Charlotte and some serious worrying for Matt as her condition worsened - although she did enjoy her personal tour of Sydney Harbour courtesy of the ambulance drivers!
The situation wasn´t helped by the fact that the doctors had no idea what was wrong with her, on the bright side however we did discover the "Bristol Stool Chart" which cheered us both up a little bit
Eventually on the 5th day of Charlottes incarceration a breakthrough was made and the doctors diagnosed her with e-coli, but not your normal every day e-coli (nooooo that would be too simple for Charlotte !) but e-coli in her blood stream ! God alone knows how she had managed this but at least we were finally getting somewhere. Now that she was being treated properly the next step was to get her out of hospital and one morning when Matt arrived to discover that the old boy Charlotte was sharing a room had pooed on the floor during the night we agreed that this was the final straw (this and the fact that Charlotte had launched a one woman complaints campaign against the entire nursing staff) and we convinced the doctors to discharge Charlotte.
Unfortunately as we had now been in Australia for 2 weeks our original plan of hiring a campervan with Jukkis had to be scrapped as he had a flight to catch so we bade him farewell for the final time. The next 2 weeks were spent in Sharon & Jason´s flat (who were fortunately both out of the country for a month) with Charlotte gradually building her strength up. This gave Matt a chance to take a trip down memory lane and visit his old stomping ground of Bondi where he caught up with his friends Jim & Gen (although this time without getting sh*t faced !)
It also gave Frendo the opportunity to play his favourite role, that of "Jewish Mother" whereby he bombarded Charlotte with huge amounts of food and attention and generally did everything in his power to keep her alive !!
Eventually Charlotte felt well enough to leave the flat and we embarked upon a test run excursion to the Opera House to see how her stamina was coming along
Matt, naturally, maintained his 100% record of embarassing her at cultural monuments....
With this trip out under our belts we both agreed that Charlotte was well enough to undertake a roadtrip (especially seeing as the campervan company had refused to refun our deposit of $500 !) so one sunny morning we set off to Wicked campers to collect our new home for the next 8 days. Upon arriving Charlottes jaw dropped with horror whilst Matt laughed with glee.....
Still what could we do ? So we piled all of our stuff (and half the contents of Sharon & Jasons kitchen !) into the van and set off on our way to Byron Bay.
The first thing we realised was that whilst the van was funny to look at in the setting of Sydney it wasn´t quite so funny when we were driving through small-town Australia where it drew looks of fascination, amusement and downright horror from the locals ! Still nevermind eh.....nonetheless after spending the first night in a "family campsite" and seeing young families guide their children away from us we decided it would probably be better if we just camped up in fields from that point on
After a couple of days we reached the "hippy mecca" of Byron Bay which we discovered had become a kind of "hippy theme park" in the 10 years since Matt had last visited, complete with boutique shops and hippy wannabes. This aside we loved it there and set up camp just outside town in a camp site that came with Charlottes one essential extra - a swimming pool ! And here we stayed for the next few days.
During our time here we ventured out into the surrounding countryside to find Nimbin a town which is famous for embracing the "alternative lifestyle"....or as Matt put it "they smoke LOADS of weed there"
Needless to say the van went down a treat with the locals but after we´d been there for an hour or so we found it all to be a little bit odd and not the tiniest bit depressing as kids and crusty old hippies alike desperately tried to sell various drugs to us. So we turned the van around and headed back for our last night in Byron and Charlottes first taste of barbecued kangaroo (she loved it by the way).
Whilst packing up the van that night we were acosted by a sunbaked aussie named Terry who told us all about his surf school that was running a beginners lesson just 30 mins down the coast the following day. Matt was keen but Charlotte told Terry that she´d tried before and had never succeeded in standing up, at this Terry swore to get her standing or we could have our money back ! Thus it was that we found ourselves sitting on a beach in Lennox Head the next morning kitted out with rash vests and surf boards
And true to his word Terry got Charlotte to stand and surf !!
Which was a bit of a bugger as Matt was secretly hoping she´d fail and they´d get the lesson for free.
From here we made our way back down the East Coast towards Sydney taking in some of New South Wales´s national parks along the way.
With the van being unobtrusive as ever !
Finally after 8 days of fun and over 2000 km´s of driving we pulled back into Sydney and said goodbye to our little van.
We now had one day to recover before our next adventure which was a 60´s themed boat party round the harbours of Sydney that Matt´s friend Jim was DJ´íng on and which he had kindly got us free tickets for. So with our quickly assembled 60´s garb thrown on we headed down to Darling Harbour ready for the mayhem to begin.
Of course the night went off in the usual fashion....
The party was amazing but as Charlotte was still in recovery mode she made her excuses and headed off home around midnight telling Matt to stay out and enjoy himself.....she probably wasn´t expecting him to "enjoy himself" until 10:00 the following evening but still no harm done eh !
The following week Frendo suggested to Charlotte that she might like to visit the set of Home & Away. Being a soap opera maniac Charlotte naturally jumped at the chance....
....and then proceeded to tell Matt that it was "the best thing she´d done on the whole trip" (apparently the Taj Mahal, Komodo Dragons, Angkor Watt, etc have got nothing on a crappy Aussie soap !!).
Now whilst Charlotte had been in hospital Matt had made her a promise that when she got better they would fulfill one of her lifelong dreams and go the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch a match. True to his word he had found out when the next international was being played (Australia vs Sri Lanka for those who are interested) and booked flights to Melbourne. It was here that we took up 2 very generous offers from some of our new friends that we had met on our travels, the first being free accomodation from our friend Annabel who we´d last seen in the garden of Goba guesthouse back at the very start of our trip in Northern India and the second being tickets for the Members Section at the MCG from Muggs (aka Andy) who we had spent a week partying with in the infamous Oocha bar in Cambodia !
On our first night in Melbourne we were joined at Bel´s house by another Goba resident Josh and we spent the evening eating, drinking, reminiscing and having a good old jam session in Bel´s kitchen
We woke the next morning both very excited about the cricket and after collecting our tickets from Muggs we set off for the MCG to watch the match
All the while respecting the fact that cricket is a reserved sport with highbrow fans
Of course being English we naturally sided with the Sri Lankans whose fans were out in force and were also completely bonkers !
After an incredibly close game the Sri Lankans came out on top winning in the final over with 3 balls remaining ! We were ecstatic, Muggs and his friends less so but everyone had a good day and the night was just beginning....
From the MCG we headed into Melbourne for yet another reunion, this time it was with the Bournemouth Boys - Elliot, Ginge & Delly - who we´d first met in Northern Thailand and then spent a great week with on Koh Chang just after Matt´s birthday.
Whilst we´d been watching the cricket Bel had been in touch to tell us about a massive house party that was happening so once we´d found the boys we all piled into taxis and headed for Brunswick. When we arrived we realised that we were in the mentalest house any of us had ever seen complete with crazy hippy types and a live band in the garden ! Words can´t descride how wierd this house was so here are some pictures instead.
After a crazy night of partying we went back to Bel´s and passed out on her living room floor and before we knew it we were back at Melbourne airport flying back into Sydney for our last few days of Aussie life.
By now Sharon & Jason had returned from their month long trip to find that we were still in their appartment ! Luckily they are both lovely people and they weren´t bothered in the slightest (we love you guys !). All that remained now was for us to say our various goodbyes to our Sydney-side friends and for Frendo to cook us one last amazing meal.
So 12 days turned into 6 weeks but what an amzing 6 weeks it was (aside from the illness of course !). Thanks to all our Aussie and non-Aussie friends for making it so fantastic......South America here we come !!!!!!
Our first stop was Jason & Sharon´s flat, Charlotte´s friends who had kindly offered to put us up for the 3 nights we were in Sydney, which was situated right next to Darling Harbour. As Charlotte was still feeling a bit ill we immediately hit the sack to recharge our batteries.
The following morning a familiar figure appeared.....yes that´s right Jukkis had joined us (AGAIN !) and later that evening we were reunited with another old face when Charlotte´s friend Marc (or Frendo as he´s better known) came to join us at a party that Sharon & Jason had arranged for us to go to
Despite Charlotte´s continuing complaints of "feeling not so good" and being covered in a layer of icy sweat she put on a brave face and we had a great night partying until the small hours.....meaning that we pretty much missed all of the next days Australia Day celebrations bar the amazing fireworks which we managed to drag ourselves out to the roof of Sharon & Jasons appartment to watch.
By the time the next morning rolled around Charlotte was still feeling bad and her temperature had started to rise in conjunction with some serious convulsions so Matt finally accepted that it wasn´t a chest infection, as diagnosed in Singapore, and off we went to the hospital (again). After several hours of examinations and another round of malaria tests the doctors discharged her and recommended some bed rest. This being the case Matt did the obvious thing and decided to go and hook up with some friends from the UK for a p*ss up leaving Charlotte in Sharon & Jason´s care. Upon waking up on Ben & Nickys floor Matt was a bit shocked to discover a text message informing him that Charlotte had been readmitted to hospital overnight and was now being transferred to the infectious diseases unit....shit !!!
What followed was 8 days of hell for Charlotte and some serious worrying for Matt as her condition worsened - although she did enjoy her personal tour of Sydney Harbour courtesy of the ambulance drivers!
The situation wasn´t helped by the fact that the doctors had no idea what was wrong with her, on the bright side however we did discover the "Bristol Stool Chart" which cheered us both up a little bit
Eventually on the 5th day of Charlottes incarceration a breakthrough was made and the doctors diagnosed her with e-coli, but not your normal every day e-coli (nooooo that would be too simple for Charlotte !) but e-coli in her blood stream ! God alone knows how she had managed this but at least we were finally getting somewhere. Now that she was being treated properly the next step was to get her out of hospital and one morning when Matt arrived to discover that the old boy Charlotte was sharing a room had pooed on the floor during the night we agreed that this was the final straw (this and the fact that Charlotte had launched a one woman complaints campaign against the entire nursing staff) and we convinced the doctors to discharge Charlotte.
Unfortunately as we had now been in Australia for 2 weeks our original plan of hiring a campervan with Jukkis had to be scrapped as he had a flight to catch so we bade him farewell for the final time. The next 2 weeks were spent in Sharon & Jason´s flat (who were fortunately both out of the country for a month) with Charlotte gradually building her strength up. This gave Matt a chance to take a trip down memory lane and visit his old stomping ground of Bondi where he caught up with his friends Jim & Gen (although this time without getting sh*t faced !)
It also gave Frendo the opportunity to play his favourite role, that of "Jewish Mother" whereby he bombarded Charlotte with huge amounts of food and attention and generally did everything in his power to keep her alive !!
Eventually Charlotte felt well enough to leave the flat and we embarked upon a test run excursion to the Opera House to see how her stamina was coming along
Matt, naturally, maintained his 100% record of embarassing her at cultural monuments....
With this trip out under our belts we both agreed that Charlotte was well enough to undertake a roadtrip (especially seeing as the campervan company had refused to refun our deposit of $500 !) so one sunny morning we set off to Wicked campers to collect our new home for the next 8 days. Upon arriving Charlottes jaw dropped with horror whilst Matt laughed with glee.....
Still what could we do ? So we piled all of our stuff (and half the contents of Sharon & Jasons kitchen !) into the van and set off on our way to Byron Bay.
The first thing we realised was that whilst the van was funny to look at in the setting of Sydney it wasn´t quite so funny when we were driving through small-town Australia where it drew looks of fascination, amusement and downright horror from the locals ! Still nevermind eh.....nonetheless after spending the first night in a "family campsite" and seeing young families guide their children away from us we decided it would probably be better if we just camped up in fields from that point on
After a couple of days we reached the "hippy mecca" of Byron Bay which we discovered had become a kind of "hippy theme park" in the 10 years since Matt had last visited, complete with boutique shops and hippy wannabes. This aside we loved it there and set up camp just outside town in a camp site that came with Charlottes one essential extra - a swimming pool ! And here we stayed for the next few days.
During our time here we ventured out into the surrounding countryside to find Nimbin a town which is famous for embracing the "alternative lifestyle"....or as Matt put it "they smoke LOADS of weed there"
Needless to say the van went down a treat with the locals but after we´d been there for an hour or so we found it all to be a little bit odd and not the tiniest bit depressing as kids and crusty old hippies alike desperately tried to sell various drugs to us. So we turned the van around and headed back for our last night in Byron and Charlottes first taste of barbecued kangaroo (she loved it by the way).
Whilst packing up the van that night we were acosted by a sunbaked aussie named Terry who told us all about his surf school that was running a beginners lesson just 30 mins down the coast the following day. Matt was keen but Charlotte told Terry that she´d tried before and had never succeeded in standing up, at this Terry swore to get her standing or we could have our money back ! Thus it was that we found ourselves sitting on a beach in Lennox Head the next morning kitted out with rash vests and surf boards
And true to his word Terry got Charlotte to stand and surf !!
Which was a bit of a bugger as Matt was secretly hoping she´d fail and they´d get the lesson for free.
From here we made our way back down the East Coast towards Sydney taking in some of New South Wales´s national parks along the way.
With the van being unobtrusive as ever !
Finally after 8 days of fun and over 2000 km´s of driving we pulled back into Sydney and said goodbye to our little van.
We now had one day to recover before our next adventure which was a 60´s themed boat party round the harbours of Sydney that Matt´s friend Jim was DJ´íng on and which he had kindly got us free tickets for. So with our quickly assembled 60´s garb thrown on we headed down to Darling Harbour ready for the mayhem to begin.
Of course the night went off in the usual fashion....
The party was amazing but as Charlotte was still in recovery mode she made her excuses and headed off home around midnight telling Matt to stay out and enjoy himself.....she probably wasn´t expecting him to "enjoy himself" until 10:00 the following evening but still no harm done eh !
The following week Frendo suggested to Charlotte that she might like to visit the set of Home & Away. Being a soap opera maniac Charlotte naturally jumped at the chance....
....and then proceeded to tell Matt that it was "the best thing she´d done on the whole trip" (apparently the Taj Mahal, Komodo Dragons, Angkor Watt, etc have got nothing on a crappy Aussie soap !!).
Now whilst Charlotte had been in hospital Matt had made her a promise that when she got better they would fulfill one of her lifelong dreams and go the Melbourne Cricket Ground to watch a match. True to his word he had found out when the next international was being played (Australia vs Sri Lanka for those who are interested) and booked flights to Melbourne. It was here that we took up 2 very generous offers from some of our new friends that we had met on our travels, the first being free accomodation from our friend Annabel who we´d last seen in the garden of Goba guesthouse back at the very start of our trip in Northern India and the second being tickets for the Members Section at the MCG from Muggs (aka Andy) who we had spent a week partying with in the infamous Oocha bar in Cambodia !
On our first night in Melbourne we were joined at Bel´s house by another Goba resident Josh and we spent the evening eating, drinking, reminiscing and having a good old jam session in Bel´s kitchen
We woke the next morning both very excited about the cricket and after collecting our tickets from Muggs we set off for the MCG to watch the match
All the while respecting the fact that cricket is a reserved sport with highbrow fans
Of course being English we naturally sided with the Sri Lankans whose fans were out in force and were also completely bonkers !
After an incredibly close game the Sri Lankans came out on top winning in the final over with 3 balls remaining ! We were ecstatic, Muggs and his friends less so but everyone had a good day and the night was just beginning....
From the MCG we headed into Melbourne for yet another reunion, this time it was with the Bournemouth Boys - Elliot, Ginge & Delly - who we´d first met in Northern Thailand and then spent a great week with on Koh Chang just after Matt´s birthday.
Whilst we´d been watching the cricket Bel had been in touch to tell us about a massive house party that was happening so once we´d found the boys we all piled into taxis and headed for Brunswick. When we arrived we realised that we were in the mentalest house any of us had ever seen complete with crazy hippy types and a live band in the garden ! Words can´t descride how wierd this house was so here are some pictures instead.
After a crazy night of partying we went back to Bel´s and passed out on her living room floor and before we knew it we were back at Melbourne airport flying back into Sydney for our last few days of Aussie life.
By now Sharon & Jason had returned from their month long trip to find that we were still in their appartment ! Luckily they are both lovely people and they weren´t bothered in the slightest (we love you guys !). All that remained now was for us to say our various goodbyes to our Sydney-side friends and for Frendo to cook us one last amazing meal.
So 12 days turned into 6 weeks but what an amzing 6 weeks it was (aside from the illness of course !). Thanks to all our Aussie and non-Aussie friends for making it so fantastic......South America here we come !!!!!!
