Living the Dream Down Under: From Brisbane to Alstonville to Sydney and Lake Conjola

It’s been awhile since I have written and I’ve decided to break this blog into three... the first one is more of an overview of January, the second one is what happened when we left Lake Conjola and the third will break down the Great Ocean Rd and the marvels we saw along the way.

Tys and I jamming!

Gavin and I in Caloundra - Thai Restaurant

In January we stayed with Gavin’s friend Tyson in his house in Sandgate, Brisbane. While we were there I had a job in Caloundra for 2 weeks about 40 minutes north on the Sunshine Coast. While I was working Gavin got stuck into Tyson’s garden with his brother Will and that helped cover the costs of our stay. We did a few day trips while staying in the area. We went to Noosa and the Eumundi markets and visited my cousin James who was staying in Noosa and also a friend Lousie who I used to work with in Merrigal and has relocated to Noosa. We also did a walk in the Glass House Mountains and climbed Mt. Beerburrum which said a 700m track but was really more of a vertical climb up a mountain and initially caused a lot of complaining until we saw the view at the top! On our last day in Queensland, we visited the city of Brisbane. We went down to Southbank and wandered through the markets and along the river taking in the gardens, statues and monuments that were part of World Expo in 1988. We went to the Museum which was celebrating its 150th birthday. It was a great way for us to finish our time in QLD because it took us through all the places we had visited over the past 4-5 months.

Meeting Louise in Noosa

Gav and I - Brisbane

Glass House Mountains Walk - View

We packed up mid January and headed towards Alstonville to visit my Aunty Anne and Uncle Graham.

Graham, Anne, myself and Gav

Alstonville for those that don’t know is in the hills above Ballina and quite close to Byron Bay and Lennox Head. It rained the entire time we were there, but we still had a great time. Visited Byron and Lennox Head and did a drive to Bangalow. At this stage we heard that parts of northern NSW had started flooding and after spending an awesome Australia Day with Anne, Graham and friends we decided make tracks and head south to get out of the rain.

Flooding on the road south

First bit of sun... just outside Gloucester, NSW

Drove west towards Lismore then through Casino to Tenterfield, because the Pacific Highway was closed between Grafton and Coffs Harbour. The whole way to Glen Innes it rained and it didn’t stop raining until Armidale where it became a drizzle. We pressed on and ended up at Gav’s Aunty Lisa and Uncle John’s house in Freshwater, Sydney. We stayed here only a couple of days and caught up with family for my brothers 30th.

Mum and I on Tim's 30th

Eddy and Tim on his 30th

First Market Stall

Then we drove south to Lake Conjola to see Gavin’s family and catch up with them. We had a good time down at Lake Conjola, went fishing and caught really big whiting, and I caught a cuttle fish when we went bottom bouncing with Joe in the ocean. Had our first market stall in Batemans Bay, which looked very professional and I was very pleased to sell some of the earrings that I had made. Gavin and I also did some work cleaning roofs on Joe’s resort buildings... put it this way, neither of us are made for physical labour haha, but at least we made some money. We wanted to stay for the birth of Gavin’s new nephew Billy but knew we had to keep on going. Billy has since been born - big congratulations to Kristen and Jeremy!