Woodford - The Beginning

We have now completed a week of work on site of the biggest festival in the southern hemisphere! This place is huge! (if I had my camera I could show you...) When we started it was a mess, but in just over 6 days the grounds have been transformed into what should be the greatest show of the year. It will be a nice way to spend new years. My crew has been hanging the street lights, which turned out to be a mint job! All of the people, including the 20 year old girl, have been attending Woodford for all 15 years, they are all friends, and....all hippies. Megs, you'd love this place! Crazy easy going and hilarious.
I've also been bartending, as I'm the only one with the required courses (out of the 100 people they hired haha). It's a great way to meet everyone, plus you get free beers at the end. Win win.

Hope winter isn't so bad. Summer has really hit today with the mid day temp getting to 38 degrees.

We will be spending xmas on the gold coast (hopefully in an apartment, the last one just bottomed out on us...again), either that or in a tent on the beach!

Cheers

Workin

I am just about to leave for Woodford after being on the Gold Coast for two weeks. I got a lot accomplished somehow. Amanda came down for a couple of days to camp with us (cause we still haven't got the apartment...) and see some sights. Mike, Amanda and I went to the Dreamworld amusement park/waterworld. They had some pretty crazy rides, like the "Giant Drop"....which is what it sounds like, 38 stories high we slowly make our way to the top, then they play with us, not letting us know when it'll drop. We sat there for almost 40 seconds....great view of the Hinterland area. We also did a few hikes, I'll post some pictures later, this computer is older than me.

I hope winter is crazy over there and xmas is coming along. I hope my gifts for the family chinese gift exchange makes it in time....

Check out woodfords website. We leave in a few days...I'm getting pumped.

http://www.woodfordfolkfestival.com/main/index.php?apply=&webpage=woodford_2008&PHPSESSID=&cID=2073&menuID=368

But while I wait, I'm in Brisbane for the day to meet up with Amanda.
We have almost moved into our apartment, we just have to meet with the manager and discuss how we'll fit four people in a house with only one bathroom. I'm going to say I'll use the front yard...

We are still in Main Beach. We've been here for a week now, living beside the beach, just waiting for Woodford.
I signed up for a bartending course, it's every night this week from 5 - 10pm. We learn how to open and close a bar, how to prepare drinks, take orders, close up, and deal with the patrons. It's hilarious, the first night we had to practice poring a pot, schooner, and a pint properly (smallest to largest glass of beer). We had a couple hundred beers sitting on the counter......
This course is actually manditory over here, they are more strict in Queensland. Last night we covered how to kick someone out of a casino.
...and tonight is cocktails...

amandas blog- www.amandalblog.blogspot.com

Surfers

This place is insane! I believe this is what Miami would look like, auzz style. The tall high rise apartments everywhere, the insane downtown core bustling with people. Everything is new, hot, busy, and beachy.
I met up with Mandy again, she got a job at a local pub in the district of Main Beach, kind of like a Stony Plain or Sherwood Park. She also has been working as a telemarketer selling lottery tickets.
We are camping in the middle of town for now, but we found some auzz college girls needing some roomates, and it's looking like we can move in soon. It's in a condo complex, first floor, directly in front of the swimming pool, and a five minute walk from the beach. And best part is it is dirt cheap! Mandy will stay and work for a few months, I will stay for the next two weeks and then head north of Brisbane to a small town called Woodford. Mike and I will volunteer, setting up street lights for the Woodfork Folk festival. We work for 7 days, and in exchange we get free entry (the tix are $400!) free camping, and free food. The festival runs Dec 27th - Jan 2nd, and has attendance in the 50 000 mark...should be an interesting new years.

So a few more pics to look at. There are more on facebook, but this blog is limiting my pictures.
I'm in Bundaberg right now, just started picking red peppers today (our jobs are at random, we are sent where ever we are needed). I made a serious $43 big ones! They pay us $1 for a 10 galloon barrel worth of the stuff. We were rained out early (it's the wet season, so rain everyday now). I'm hoping for a tomato job as the pay is better and the days longer.
We'll stay for a couple of weeks or until my back breaks in half.

Just back in from North Stradbroke Island, which is directly east of Brisbane.
It's a beautiful little island where frequented by Auzzies during their summer months. It's still spring so we were able to find a camping spot close to the beach.
For mike and I we took our second surfing lesson, and the girls had their first (even though our instructor turned out....wasn't an instructor and wasn't actually legally able to teach...) surf lesson. Water was crazy, sun was hot, and we got up a few times. After that we watched the Melbourne cup (thought it was a rugby game...turned out it was a national holiday where the entire country shuts down for a 5 minute horse race....and then everyone gets drunk.) But we only had one beer and went sandboarding. Basically snowboarding on a huge sand mountain. Same "instructor", he turned out to be a ex pro surfer who "rode the circuit in the late '90s". Pretty cool guy.
We just dropped off Mandy, she'll tour south looking for work while the rest of us continue north to Cairns (another 1600km). If the van makes it we'll skydive/snorkel along the way.

Brisbane

We made it to Queensland! Just in time, before the reigistration office closed. And there.......we found we probably shouldn't have been driving at all....but no worries, things are looking up. It's just that after our plates got stolen we would have gotten new ones mailed to us, but as we don't have a permanent address that was out of the question. Plus our names aren't on the vehicles registration (we have to be in queensland to do that), but we only ran into the cops once, only getting a scolding. But tomorrow we should be set.
Brisbane is a pretty crazy city, I'm liking it so far. They have an amazing man made beach in the city centre, it's disgustinly clean, and our hostel is right in the middle of everything.
We'll meet up with amanda when she flys in on wednesday, and probably camp for awhile.
I found a flight to New Zealand for $350 return, so I may spend a couple weeks over there before I have to find a job.

We woke up this morning to....wild turkeys, cookaburas, and wild pythons destroying our campsite. It was an early morning, especially beacause sleep was hard to come by after we spotted our first large spider, directly above my head. It might have been the size of my fist, he decided to hid just out of reach in the wall of our van. I'm trying to be manly, but those F***in guys are huge!
We're in Byrons Bay now, still trecking up the coast to get to queensland and replace our stolen licence plates. We haven't been pulled over yet though!
It's been getting hotter...and hotter...and hotter, but as the insurance girl told me yesterday..."this isn't hot, just wait till it's summer time..."

Australia.....

So we've toured around Sydney quite a bit already. We've been to the Opera house, the Harbour Bridge, the City Centre Tower, and downtown.
Mike and I took went to the Blue Mountains, and amazing area covered in hiking trails. We hiked to an abandoned castle, then played shots and ladders all night!
The last pic is Mike and mandy with our bling, purchasing our '94 Mazda E2000 Camper van.

Made it!

So I've made it. Took awhile to get a blog set up, but I've found some time and a place.

We flew in after staying in Calgary for a couple days, flight wasn't too long even with a baby sitting directly in front of me. The short story so far is, my buddy mike and myself stayed in Sydney for 2 days on Kings Cross (the Downtown Vancouver of Australia), then moved to the beach. We stayed by Bondi Beach, a world class beach with plenty of surfing and beaching.
We met up with Mandy, bought a camper van, and am now driving up the east coast camping. I'll fill in some more details later, but for now this internet is smiliar to dial up and am having a hard time even typing.