Beautiful days on the Sunshine Coast

We finally had some nice weather yesterday, and so we spent the morning at my favourite beach along the Sunshine Coast: Mooloolaba (pronounced moo loo là bas). We spent three hours in and out of the water (did I mention we got another body board??!?) and reapplied sunscreen twice, but sadly it was not enough. Ryan got BURNT and I mean he is really red. My face got burnt and is still a little link today, but nothing compared to Ryan :/ we parked at a hostel in noosa (the most northern beach on the Sunshine Coast) and did laundry today, since we couldn't go to the beach because of the burns ... Which is a crying shame, because today is GORGEOUS and I really hope we have more nice days like today..especially on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (please god!!!!)
So we are leaving the hostel right after I post this, and heading up towards bundaberg, where we will find somewhere free to spend the night. I just took a dip in the hostel pool because it is 30 degrees and very humid so now I feel better. Mais pauvre Ryan!!!!!! Il se plaint pas mais je vois qu'il n'est pas confortable :(
En plus, j'ai rencontré ma première québécoise hier soir!!!!! Dans les 16 mois que je suis en Australie, j'ai seulement rencontrer des français de France.
Alright c'est tout pour l'instant. Je vais vous donner d'autres nouvelles dans une couple de jour. J'ai essayer de rejoindre mes parents aujourd'hui mais peu être qu'ils était parti quelque part pour le week-end??! J'espère que tout est correcte.....
Gros biz xxxooo
Ah oui ici quelques photos:
(Je saute sur la plage à Surfers Paradise, et la dernière est pris dans le muséum de Nimbin)

My father is my hero

Did you read his poem???!???? It's in the comment section of my last post. BRILLIANT!!!!!!
In other news: we are off to the zoo today, staying in the Sunshine Coast tonight and off to the beaches tomorrow. Surfers Paradise was alright....great surf but it rained the entire time. We ended up getting a room at the hostel since we couldn't stay in our van anywhere for free, except for a rest area that probably ended up getting flooded; it was raining a LOT.
Brisbane was nice, but the backpackers we stayed at (read: parked at) had the messiest kitchen in the world: no-one seemed to clean their pots or pans after having washed them!!! And we had trouble sleeping the first night because there was a huge party going on in the room directly above where we had parked. Last night was better, at least :)
We go on our Whitsundays boat in exactly one week!!!!! Please pray for good weather on feb 28, march 1 and 2 because it is supposed to rain the entire time we're heading up the coast. Summer weather, indeed!!!!! My tan is starting to fade, so mother nature better get her sweet butt in gear and bring the sunshine and warm weather to Airlie beach PDQ ;)
Ok we've been at macca's for long enough....time to finally show Ryan some kangaroos and wallabies!!!! Love to you all xoxoxo

Free Fraser Island trip!!!!!

I have booked my free (retail $389) Fraser Island trip for April 16-18. Three days, two nights...driving a 4WD on one of the worlds largest sand islands :) I have to pay $84 when I get there, and I've booked two nights accommodation for $48, but my food and accom are taken care of during the tour (minus the $15 I have to spend for renting a sleeping bag). All in all - great prize and thank you, BFA in music theatre!!!!!
We leave Byron Bay today. Nimbin was not what I expected it to be. Yes, it still had a hippy-vibe to it, but now there are a lot of heroin addicts slinging weed in order to feed their habit. It's one thing to have an aged hippy with dredlocks approach you to ask if you wanna buy cookies, but quite another when there are four sketched-out, thin white people in front of the museum harassing you about buying their weed and/or shrooms. Needless to say, Ryan and I did not enjoy our experience, although our lunch at the iconic Rainbow Café was excellent, and the Nimbin museum was very colourful and educational (museum about the history of Nimbin and the/their weed culture).
I forgot I had purchased a healthy-eating living social deal for Byron, so we're heading there now. We went out for breakfast today to treat ourselves, as we did in valentines day (we ate at the brewery resto across the parking lot, since it was buy one meal get one meal free and it was DELICIOUS and we had some beers and it was nice).
I will update once I have Internet again. My phone is out of credit, so I have to talk to Telstra about that tomorrow. We're off to Surfer's Paradise, so well-wishes that we find somewhere free or extremely inexpensive to park for the night.
GROS BIZ!!!!! xoxoxox

Valentines and bananas

Byron Bay is gorgeous. Lovely little hippie town, really laid back and HUGE waves!!!! Today is valentine's day, which I am celebrating with the photo below ;)
My toe still hurts but it had greatly improved, only to be replaced with a never-ending blocked nose. Sudafed does not help, so today I will go in search of harder drugs, since its been four days and I am OVER it. Perhaps allergies? I think so....
Ryan and I are going to Nimbin today, which is a smaller, even MORE hippy town. I will be very careful not to catch any hippy ;)
And now I leave you with photos of Ryan and I at the Big Banana in Coff's Harbpur (a huge banana growing area) xoxo

Byron 'Mozzie' Bay

Hello everyone. My toe is still messed up, but at least I can walk!! I taped it this morning to my fourth toe, but I don't think it's helping.....it might actually be worse, so we'll see about that.
On the plus side, I won a trip to Fraser Island!!! Last night we went to see an aboriginal show at one of the bars in Byron Bay and they chose volunteers to go on stage with the guy and basically follow and re-inact was he was doing. All those years at theatre school paid off!!!!! Today we shall go and see
1- if I can book for march
2- how much it will be for Ryan.
The ticket says it must be redeemed within seven days and cannot be an open ticket. We've paid our hostel until Sunday morning, and have our Whitsundays trip booked for February 28, so we really dont have time to do it before, unless we postpone our trip a week. Anyway, that is all probably moot cuz I doubt I can book it for anytime past next week and/or it will be more than $300 for Ryan.
So the mozzies here are REALLY bad, since The Arts Factory is located around a forest/bog (ryan adds: PROPER JUNGLE with lizards and snakes and wild turkeys) and it is very humid here. We're still sleeping in the van, so the first ten minutes of bed-time is spend killing mosquitos. I hate mozzies. HATE!!!!
It is supposed to rain for the next week, everywhere up the coast, but it's sunny right now so we'll probably go to the beach today. We've got internet until we leave, so I'll be posting more during the week, and hopefully getting some more photos up as well. GROS BIZ!!! xoxoxo

Three Sisters photo

The Blue Mountains get their name from the blue-ish tint seen at the far end of the mountain range.....can you spot it?

Broken Toe

Ok....before you all freak out: it may not be broken. But if it's not broken, then I've F-d it up 'real bad'.
We were walking up to our van from the 'beach', (which I deemed unsafe to swim in), without thongs (flip-flops) on, when I told ryan to be careful...and in that same instant I crushed my left baby toe into a rock. PAINFUL!!!!!! Since I could still touch it and walk, I didn't think it was broken....Ryan got some ice for me {we had purchased some today for our eskie (cooler)} and it was ok, but now hurts more and I cannot point my toes or put pressure on my foot (aka run or wear my birk sandals). So...I'll keep you posted on that. Fingers crossed its just badly banged up. Not that they can do much with a broken toe in terms of fixing it, but OH SWEET MOTHER OF GOD I just pressed down on the spot just below my baby and 4th toe and yea, I do believe its broken/shattered/something not good. Ryan is getting his tensor bandage for me (yes, mom, I also have a tensor bandage but both of ours are wrapped up and this way he can leave with his unwrapped one and I can still keep my wrapped one in case (please god NO!!) i need it from April-September).
Alright. So our trip in the campervan has been nice so far...we're on day four. The first night was spent in Newcastle, in the parking lot of the waterfront pub that we had dinner at. If you've ever been to Hamilton, Ontario then there's no need to visit Newcastle, NSW; they're pretty much the same town. OH and that being said, sydney reminded me WAAAY to much of Toronto. But it was still nice.
On Friday we blew our budget buying groceries and beer, but made it up when we got to Port Macquarie. We stayed in a parking lot facing a river that led into the ocean, and there was a fish co-op nearby, so the next morning we witnessed nine or ten pelicans flying and resting on lamp posts and behind the co-op, no doubt waiting for guts but not realising that it was Saturday morning ;)
Last night we stayed in Coff's Harbour, and bought a body board (boogie board) that has already earned the $10 we spent for it. We slept in a parking lot adjacent to the jetty and therefore the ocean. This morning we were greeted with an entire little farmers market that is held every Sunday!!! :) we bought fish at THIS fish co-op and decided to stay for another night, instead of getting to Byron Bay at 5pm and probably be turned away at the Arts Factory, where we want to stay for the week. Fingers crossed we get in tomorrow (Monday)!!!!
It's starting to get chilly so I'm going to put a jumper (sweater) on. There are two Frenchman throwing a rugby ball around in from of us, and a very eccentric gentleman who lives out of his van beside us. His doppelgänger lives in padbury, since I had a regular at liquorland that is the EXACT duplicate of him, minus the eyes.
Wish me luck with this toe!!! I'm gonna wrap it and put a sock on it. Xoxoxoxoxo

ALSO----- vote for my friend Kelly Winger so she can travel the world for six months, all expenses paid, and blog about it!!!

Our new home for the next 45 days!!!

Hello from Coogee Beach, where Ryan and I have parked our new home and have enjoyed a fabulous pub lunch. We are about to go swimming in the ocean now, thankyouverymuch. Have a wonderful night, everyone!!! More photos and posts to follow. The Blue Mountains were lovely :)

More photos!

- Ryan and I in Sydney (x2)
- Federation square in Melbourne, where everyone gathered to watch the men's final of the Australian Open on a huge TV screen (je m'excuse, mais mon t-shirt est DRÔLE!!!)
- The Three Sisters at the Blue Mountains. Aboriginal legend is that their father, a witch doctor, turned them into mountains to protect them from the evil monster while he hunted, but they remain in stone form forever because their father dropped his magical bone and couldn't turn them back.

Tall Ship cruise.... in the rain!!!!

Well, at least it was open bar!!!! LOL

Greetings from Sydney!!!

Ryan and I had lunch at the Opera Bar, recommended to us by our friend Mick. What a gorgeous view of the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge!!!
See you next time I have free wifi ;)