We are finally back!!

I have been told by quite a few people to hurry up and write another one of these, so here we go......We have had quite the week full of adventure, excitement, and crazy times. We left Saturday morning to travel to Brisbane where we were to board the Pacific Star! First of all our bus to Brisbane was an hour and a half late, we were very worried we weren’t going to make the ship! We arrived at the wharf and saw the ship….it was soooo big! It was so exciting when we first boarded, we went and toured the ship and got lost too many times. hehe. There was a big disembarkation party on the top deck so we spent the next couple of hour’s sun tanning in 35◦ weather on the top deck. We were so looking forward to the next worry-free, work-free, and relazxing7 days. We were a little off on that one, a few hours after we sailed away from Brisbane I found out that my luggage had been dropped in the ocean. So I went the next day and a half without my clothes, make-up, and my most valuable thing-my camera! It was so annoying having to deal with the crew on the ship and I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to get my camera back, but other then that we had an awesome time. Our first stop was in Airlie Beach in the Whitsunday Islands which is probably the nicest part of Australia. We never got to go to the nice resort places but we toured around the city and went swimming in their lagoon. When you travel up to northern Queensland the ocean is full of boxed jellyfish which are so dangerous they can kill you. So you can’t swim in the ocean up there. The town was full of backpacker hotels, and travel places so we got to look into some things we wanted to do in the next few days. Tuesday we arrived in Cairns early morning. We spent the morning touring around and seeing what the town was like, we really liked it there except for the weather, way too much rain because it’s so tropical. We found a good travel agent who found us something to do all afternoon…..white water rafting!! I cannot believe we did it. It was so fun and scary and so exciting! It took four hours and we traveled down the Barron River which was so beautiful, we basically traveled through the rainforest. Everything was perfect until Tandri disappeared! We were on the last rapid which was the smallest one when Tandri fell backwards and under the river. We all laughed and waited…and waited…and waited for him to come up. He got stuck under the boat and came down the current with us! It was a short time but I think we all had a second of panic. He came up with a shocked looked saying “Good thing I took a breath before going under!” haha I am so glad that we decided to go. We went back on the ship for supper then headed back out too experience Cairns at night. We didn’t have to be back on the ship until 3:30am. We woke up the next morning early so we could get off to see Port Douglas. We liked it there the most; it was a cute little town. We got on this huge boat and traveled an hour to the outer Great Barrier Reef. We spent the whole day snorkeling and swimming and had the best time. It was so so cool snorkeling and seeing all the animals and coral. Tandri really loved it. The next couple of days we were just sailing and hanging out on the boat. We both got a little sea sick during the week so that kinda sucked but we loved being on the boat. We ate so much good food, and met a whole bunch of really nice people. We played bingo one day for fun and almost won $4000, we were only one number away. We were very ready and excited to be back home Saturday morning. We realized we definitely picked the best place to live, we love Surfers Paradise. Today was our first day back at work and now we have to get back into the old swing of things. We are going to go surfing tomorrow. I have loads and loads of laundry to do…….hope your week was good.
Tandri and Brittni

Almost Cruise Time!!

Its been a while since I have been able to update this, as our phone line was disconnected. We haven't done too much this week, just working a lot to make some money for our cruise!! Exactly one week from today we will be sailing Tropical Queensland suntanning on our cruise ship! We are both so so excited! Especially to see a new part of Australia. So far everything we have seen has been more then perfect so we can't wait to see what else they have to offer!! We had two days off and were such fun days. The first day we went to HarbourTown which is a 20 minute bus ride from here. They have one of the larges outlet shopping centers here and wow was it ever huge! Tandri was tired out after about 20 minutes, and it didnt take me much longer. There was stores after stores with so much stuff! So we spent all day shopping then went to the theatre for an afternoon movit to relax. We saw Wild Hogs, ate some gross movie theatre popcorn and almost fell asleep. Its funny here because they get movies like so much later then we do in Canada. So movies that we own are like just getting to theatres here. The next day we went to a town called Coolangata where there was a Roxy/Quiksilver Professional Surfing Competition (Where Matthew Maconhey was two days ago!) but to our dismay when we arrived we found out that it was over! I guess the waves were so good the other day they decided to just finish the competition then. So we just spent the day on the beach there, its a lot more secluded and not so busy so we really enjoyed it there. The waves were so strong but we had heapes of fun swimming! Some exciting news from today...Tandri bought a SURFBOARD!! So we are heading out to the beach tomorrow to have a go at it....apparently its like really hard, I guess we will see! hehe. We also took a journey to Southport to find the Harley Davidson store for the sake of my cousin Ricky and also Gail Irvine. Its quite the trek but we made it and it was pretty cool. We have had so much fun visiting all of the nearby towns, there are so many of them. The "Gold Coast" here consists of heapes of suberbs that are all like almost connected they are so close. Each one is so different and has cool things about them. We wanted to post a picture of this truck. These vehicles, I do not even know what they are called, are EVERYWHERE! I think every family and person who lives on the gold coast owns one of these things. I think they are extremely ugly. It looks funnier in person! hehe. We find out more crazy stuff each day about this place. I am using an internet cafe right now until our phone line gets hooked up again. Some 30 year old just asked if I wanted to go out for supper, hmmm nice but no thanks. I better get out of here. hehe. Off to eat supper. Miss you all tons.

Tandri and Brittni

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BRITTNI

Look at all of these wonderful presents I got!! My birthday cake was these waffel things filled with ice cream and chocolate....mmm they were sooooo good! I got a wonderful card and the coolest outfit from Tandri (the blue one im wearing in the picture). My mom sent flowers all the way from Canada to me! hehe. Being away for my birthday was hard, as I missed spending the day with my family and friends! Tandri kept me busy all day though doing fun stuff! We woke up early and had some cake and opened presents then we got to call home and talk to my family and tandris. First surprise we headed off to a town nearby called Broadbeach and shopped and had a nice pizza lunch! I swear it was like +50 degrees! We came back to the apartment to change then headed out to surprise number two- a massage!! One thing I learned was to never underestimate the power and strength of a little chinese women. Yikes we had the hardest massages of our lives! hehe But we certainly felt a lot better this morning. I guess working all the time standing up has taken a toll on our backs. After that we came home to have a swim to cool off. Tandri had told me he was going to make me supper and that we had one more quick activity to do before he started. I was so curious to what we could do that was so quickly- he said this was the best one. So we hopped on a bus and came off about ten minutes up the road. I had to keep my eyes closed and then opened them to one of the nicest hotels on the gold coast "The Mariot". I knew exactly what we were doing and I was sooooo excited! We had talked about going out for supper to the hotels restaurant as they had the best cuisine where the chinese guys cooks it in front of you! It was one of the most entertaining thing I have watched. He did tricks with his tools and threw stuff in his hat, he even had us catching prawns in our mouthes! hehe. It was such good food too, I had the chicken and steak and Tandri had the steak and king prawns. We were so full after we had to come home and relax!

It was so exciting hearing from everyone at home- thank you so much to all my friends and family who remembered it was my birthday and took the time to email me! It meant so much! We both had to work the next day so we went to bed and woke up early to head off to work. It was another scorching hot day today too. We havent been up to too much just working still and enjoying this hot weather. We are starting a countdown until we go on the cruise! Only 17 more days.....thats also how long it is until my sister goes to New York City! I think my mom is going to go crazy with me in Australia and Becky in New York! hehe. We have had fun getting ready to go and planning out everything! I cant believe it is already march! We have officially been here a month and a half already- only three more monthes to go. Im signing off as a "19" year old now...hehe. What a fun day we had.....i think I have one of the best boyfriends! agree?!