A mid trip holiday!

Kellie's parents had flown to England the previous Thursday to see some of her father's family. His immediate family moved to Australia when he was young but there is still a large Hairsine clan up in Yorkshire. This meant that the house was likely to be pretty empty, although Kellie's two younger brothers, Rohan and Alex still live at home they are both old enough to have active social lives which mean they come and go quite a bit. One member of the family who is pretty much always at home is their dog Zeus or Zu Zu as he is affectionately known.

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He is a very lovable doggy and very sturdy. A cross between a German Shepherd and a Dingo he has a massive head, and is generally pretty powerful. Adam and I liked him immediately. Kellie's parents live South of Brisbane near a town called Cleveland. They recently rebuilt their house and now it is a very modern building with lots of glass, an upstairs terrace area and a pool. There is a view to the ocean as well, yep they've got it all!

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The first day at her parents we headed out to the beach. We walked out to a little island which is accessible at low tide and ate a huge pile of chips for our picnic style lunch.

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We were all feeling a little bleary eyed from the night before and it was a nice relaxing day. Back at the house we had a swim and then I read a book, Adam played Xbox and Kel mooched about as she slowly evolved into holiday mode. This wasn't like travelling at all now, it really was like being on holiday and we were loving every minute.

The next day we all walked down in to town for the weekly Sunday market. Zu Zu strode out ahead, although he was well behaved and didn't pull too much. Kellie had invited a couple of friends over for lunch, Ruth and Matt who got married a few years ago. We bought a few items, drank a slush puppy each and then headed home again. It was another really lovely day, Ruth and Matt were both very friendly and Matt is from Colombia so we quizzed them a little about South America and they had some helpful things to tell us. We munched down yet another lovely meal that Kellie had prepared and Ruth had brought homemade scones, homemade jam and cream. It was a good food day. Adam then got some proper boy time as he and Matt played Xbox for most of the afternoon. Kel, Ruth and I chatted away, played a board game and then went outside for a spot of croquet. I am please to say that I did England proud and beat them both fairly convincingly, twice!

Soon the day came to an end and we waved goodbye to Ruth and Matt. We did talk about maybe meeting up with them in Colombia around Christmas as they have a trip planned but having really had a good look at how big South America is it seems highly unlikely that we could make it that far North in time.

The following morning we were packed up once more and driving South to Kellie's parent's unit on the Gold Coast. The beach runs on for miles and is therefore divided up. The main hang out for the young kids, a whole host of which descend when they finish high school and are aptly named Schoolies is Surfers Paradise. We were based a little further South at Broad Beach. The one bed unit was on the seventh floor of a lovely apartment block. It had a sea view from the two balconies and a bright and airy kitchen/living room area, a bathroom and a spacious bedroom. We set up shop on one of the very comfy pull out sofas and couldn't really believe our luck. As Kellie wouldn't let us pay towards it we were getting all of this luxury for free! There are lots of similar apartment blocks along the coast and most, including this one has a pool, a jacuzzi, a sauna and a tennis court. We made good use of the facilities.

The first day at the beach we wandered down to the ocean but it was actually quite cold so we opted for a swim in the pool a little later. More book reading, tv watching, sea gazing, good food consumption and it was time for bed. The following morning Kel went off as she did every morning to get a cup of coffee at her favourite coffee shop while Adam and I slowly started our day. A little while later we were on the balcony, my nose in a book and Adam suddenly exclaimed that he'd seen a whale.

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I jumped to my feet and peered out at the ocean and soon enough there was another eruption of white as a humpback slapped his fin or tail into the water. We saw lots of them over the next couple of days and we never got tired of watching. Even Kel was pretty impressed when she got back as she said she'd never seen them that close to shore before. When they seemed to have passed on we drove over to another beach further down the coast, parked up and walked down some trails which ran along the coast. After a while we came to a little inlet and went for a swim. The water was quite nippy but once in you got used to it pretty quickly. We splashed about for a little while, then took the longer route back to the car before driving off in search of some good fish and chips.

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That evening Kellie made roast lamb, our first roast since we left home and it was lovely. I bought her possibly the most expensive bottle of wine I've ever purchased as a thank you and we all munched away happily. The next day we went to a large outlet shopping complex as Kellie needed to buy some new work clothes and Adam managed to find a bargain priced pair of jeans and some shorts. We also bought Kellie another little gift to say thank you as she really had treated us so well and whenever I'd tried to offer money she'd always told me to put it away. As we sat in the jacuzzi when we got back I began to feel a bit concerned about how we were going to get back in to the swing of travelling. Especially as we were now going somewhere which had such a mixed reputation, we didn't speak the language and we were a bit out of the flow of backpacking. Kellie did remind me though that I was lucky I didn't have to return to work on Monday morning like her, I felt better after that!

That evening we sat down to watch some tv and Kellie had noticed that it was the second reunion show of Hey, Hey It's Saturday. This programme was on for about 25 years and is/was a kind of mix between the Generation Game and Live and Kicking. It appears to be a bit of an Australian institution and Kellie was keen to watch it. For us it all seemed a little dated, whether it was largely lost in translation I'm not sure but I don't think it would be getting prime time viewing in the UK. The reason I mention it and I'm not sure how news worthy this was back home, was the Jackson 5 sketch which we watched in live horror. In case you didn't hear about it basically entailed four guys initially coming out in white suits, black afro wigs and their faces painted black. A few seconds later a fifth man appeared wearing a Michael Jackson thriller style outfit with his face unnaturally white. As soon as they emerged Adam and I said almost in union, 'they can't do that.' Kellie seemed equally shocked and we all watched as they went about their little routine. They were part of a small talent show and there was a panel, which could hit a gong when they had had enough. Part of this panel was Harry Connick Jr, the AFFABLE American singer/actor from New Orleans. When it came to scoring he looked absolutely horrified, quickly gave them 0 and said 'if they came out like this back home, it would Hey Hey There's No More Show.' At the end the main presenter apologised to Harry on air and they seemed to have seen the error of their ways. Although how they were ever allowed to go on stage like that in the first place still completely baffles me.

We woke up the next morning and packed up our stuff as we were catching a night bus to Sydney from Brisbane. On route back to the city Kellie took us up in to the Hinterland and we walked through some woods to a little viewing platform that looked across to a waterfall.

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We had our lunch here, as Kellie, continuing to mother us had prepared sandwiches. How were we going to survive without her?? A few hours later we were outside the bus station and saying our goodbyes. It would Kellie's turn next to make the trip over to England, so we knew we would see each other again in the not too distant future.

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With a few hours to kill before our bus we stowed our bags in some lockers and walked around the streets of Brisbane once more. I had now been bitten by the reading bug and ended up buying two books to satisfy my need. Soon enough though it was time to start our 17 hour journey down to Sydney.

More Soon,

Laura & Adam