drewhansen

Welcome, Are you sitting comfortably? Then Ill begin.

So, I was in Byron. Chilling out as the 12 days of solid surfing had left me with aches in muscles I never new existed, sores all over and generally nackered. So I took a few days of self appointed R and R. Sunbathing. Chilling on the beach and, of course, Partying.

I had heard of a place near by called Nimbin. Famed as being Australia’s equivalent of Amsterdam, so I thought it a necessity to visit. Turns out its just one street full of stoners, where every second person Is trying to sell you something, of course, I obliged, when in roam, aye? So I found myself devouring as many hot dogs as I could manage, then returning to byron feeling a little bit nimbly bimbly.

In Byron I tagged on to a companion and travel buddy, Together we left byron, she on the OzExperience Bus And I managed to blag a free lift on the Mojo Surf Bus.

Ariving in brisbane with an early start the next day, we made the most of our free dinner then hit the hay. We aoke to pouring rain, which didnt relent for the entire day. but we didnt let it dampen our spirits. as this was my first ever Zoo visit. The one place in the world where Steve Irwin still lives on. We saw all the animals. stroked Koalas and Roo’s,  fed the elephants. had water fights in the rain. So, all in all, it was an enjoyable day.

After alot of deliberation, of where we would go next, how long we should stay. we decided our best course of action was to head straight to Rainbow where we would do our Fraser Island Tour.

Tune into the next Blog to Find out how it went.

Peace out. Look cool. Have fun.

But most of all “Live the Dream”

Drew x

Hello my avid readers, I must apologise for my Radio silence, though I haven’t really done much worth mentioning up untill now.

In my last post I left you at the Jackaroo training. after which I headed back to Sydney with very little money to Find a job, after a gruelling week of hunting and just as I was running out of cash, I had a phone call off a Farmer in Katunga, who ran a Dairy farm, so I said sweet! Ill book my tickets! no sooner Had I booked my tickets that I recieved a text off chris david, a childhood friend who lives in Australia, offering me a ticket to see BonJovi in Sydney. “Alas”, I told him, “I cant as I am flying to Melbourne tomor” so missing out on a childhood dream of mine, I headed to Katunga to learn how to be a dairy farmer.

Dairy Farming wasn’t hard work, you rise before the sun, Milk 400 cows (takes about 3 hours), go home, Ruturn in the Arvo, Milk the same 400, Then go home and go to bed. this is the same routine, everyday, 7 days a week. most of my time was spent in solitude. I lived on my own for 6 weeks of the time with the cat, Rufus, as my only company. Fortunately I had company for xmas. My colleague and friend Ashleigh, Invited me to spend xmas with her, so we had turkey dinner cooked in a wood burning stove. followed by cricket with all the family. The famer and his wife (Phil and Anne Rothwell) were very Kind, I even took to baking them welsh cakes, hell, I baked everyone welsh cakes and wern’t they just the finest welsh cakes in the world!

2 months past. and no sooner that needed, came the time to leave. I felt I had seen enough cows to last a life time. now came the time to travel. So I headed back to Melbourne for a few weeks. Had some very Drunken times meeting up with old friends, some unexpectedly. Whilst walking through Woolworths buying groceries I saw a very familiar face. It just so happened to be Laura Thomas. A girl who used to be in the same college and university with me.

After Melbourne I returned to Coogee bay to await the start of my surfcamp. The Mojo Surf Bus, (the coolest bus in the world) picked us up on the Monday morning at around 0615, so half asleep we loaded our bags and headed for crescent head, we stayed at a surf shack a short walk from the beach, we had a camp fire, food cooked for us, as much as we could eat, and we had surf lessons every day. After Creso we headed to Spot x. A sick place, again we had food cooked for us, there were parties every night. new faces every day. This is the place where I really improved my surfing. by the end of the week we were learning bottom turns, cut backs, floaters, and enough Info to improve our own surfing on our own!

After a hardcore week, covered in sores and bruises. every muscle aching. we left spot X and headed to Byron, The most chilled out town In Oz. which is where I am now. time to soak up some sun. chill out and relax, maybe even get a bit nimbly bimbly in Nimben.

Peace out. look cool and have fun.

but most of all “live The Dream”

Drew x

To quote the Famous Rockstar Kid Rock “Im heading out west sucker and im gonna be a cowboy baby” , Is exactly what Ive done, tho prbably not in the same way that Kid Rock is refering too.

I headed out to mylandra farm 3 weeks ago, jumping on a train and two busses from sydney, traveling 290k west of sydney. Mylandra is one of a few properties that is run by Murray Thomas, head stockman at Kaloola farm. In total Murray works over 8000 acres, with both sheep and cattle and some crops. What Im doing out here isnt work, as such. We exchange our labour for board, Lodgings and most importantly, a real outback experience working as a Jackaroo/Stockman.

The first week was litteraly thrown in at the deep end, I arrived with a German Fella called Phillip. his goals were much the same as mine and his experience just as limited.  on the tuesday we were introduced to over 1600 lambs and Ewes,  which needto be draughted (separated), then all the lambs needed to be vaccinated, drenched, and Jetted. So each of us given a task set off 1 lamb at a time. this was one of the rare days where you Work Solid for 11 hours. however despite the Hard work, It was a fun and invaluable experience! other duties of our induction week were learning to use the quad and the bikes, and some labouring work on the new cottage which we were rushing to get completed so we could move out of our very “basic accomodation”

With regards our accomodation, we live in a small 2 room cottage, one was a Kitchen the other sleeping/living area, and also and outhouse which existed as a bathroom, also the home to some smaller invertabrates, i.e. a redback spider we dubbed Freddie, saddly he is no longer with us, as he decided to become a bit too adventurous for our liking,

as a Jackaroo, one of our duties involves Mustering sheep and cattle. murray uses what is called “low stress stock handling, which involves moving stock with as little stress as possible, this makes them easier to handle and prevents too much weight loss (money). we frequently head out on quads and bikes to move sheep or cattle, either to another paddock, or to the yards for draughting or other tasks.

The family consits of Murray, his wife Emma, the three children, Otto, Coley and Aidee. they are a friendly bunch. and very welcoming in their homes. Not forgetting the Dogs Fizz and  Faby, and the cat Fuzz, who are forever Pining for Attention

No day here at mylandra is the same, there are many challenging tasks, and also plenty of fun work. the surrounding scenery is breathtaking. and there are spots of paradise right on the farm. It is deffinately worth the hard labour!

Mackey Out!

Well I cant think of a more perfect way to end my first week in Ozz.

after spending the saturday blowing all my cash on My activities for the year. We headed out into town for the messyest night ever. the theme of the night was 118, so we botched some vests together with gaffa tape. I didnt have shorts small enough. so one of the girls kindly lent me her hot pants. which barely covered my manhood!! The best party bus in the world picked us up at coogee bay. Music Blaring. Widows open, Look out sydney!! the bus took us to 5 bars. in each was a free drink and whatever else we could pour down our gulletts. The costume was kind of obselete ass no one knew who the 118 fellas were.

Sunday morning began with the beast of all hangovers. the only way to get over it was to dive head first into a few waves. then sleep it off on the beach. After a cheeky power nap. we headed into the city. and up to the to of sydney’s revolving tower. we enjoyed an all you can eat buffet, while watching the sun set over the city as day turned to night and the city started to light up.

Monday was a sad day. it was the day where people started to disappear. some to the city, some flying to the other end of country to start their travelings. for me it was the begining of the job hunt. which is still on going. tho I have applied for 5. just sitting, waiting, wishing.

Mackey Out!

Better than my freshers week in swansea?  the answer is yes!

landed at sydney airport 0900 on monday the 11th, a bit jetlagged, jaded, pretty standard after such a long flight, met the OzIntro guys at the air port, all smiles, a welcome sight.

We headed on to coogee bay. a picturesque little beach on the oytskirts of Sydney. checked in at the Surfside hostel and met my fellow backpackers, whom I would be spending the following week with. Without any time to chill, we headed straight into Sydney where we took a walk through Sydney park, fed the cockatoo’s and tooks some pictures of the bridge and the operahouse. Next we headed rond the harbour, to the jetty where the Thunder Jet boat was, we all hopped on. deciding we were too masculine to need a Kagool, Bad move. The captine of the jet boat was intent on getting us wet. we saw some fantastic sights around the harbour, some of the most expensive housies in Oz, ranging 10 - 15 mil. as tey look across the bay to the bridge. Tried to get on it in the night, but Jet lag had the better of me by 2000, shame.

Day two, we headed out surfing with the mojo surf crew, what an amazing bunch of guys. they picked us up in the Mojo surf bus, treated us to some surfing videos, and taught us some lingo, Shacka Malacka!! they took us to a secluded bay, with no one around. the surf was small and clean, perfect learning conditions! we spent the entire day carving it up, I was frothing! as they say. In the evening we headed to the Best Bar In sydney - The Gaff, cheap drinks, free food. stripper for the girls, coyotes for the guys, It was Siiiick.

Day three started off with a Hangover, which was quickly cured as we sprinted into the ocean, which was very chilly. the rest of the day was an admin day. we needed to go to the bank, get our taxfile numbers. and our medicare cover. then to chill out we lunched at darling harbour. the ment to sydney aquarium to see some sharks. Again the jetlag took its toll, and we were in bed early again.

Day four started with a traveling and work talk, where we were shown all the sick things to do in Oz. Theres so much to see and do, I want it all. In the afternoon we headed to bondi beach. to soak up the sun. then we walked back around the coast to a secluded bay, where we had a BBQ and played some Beach Volleyball. when we eventualy got back to Coogee. we decided to head out to the Palace Bar. for some Live music and many drinks.

Day Five was an early start. Oz Experience Picked us up at 0715. for a Long drive to the Blue mountains. Thankfully our driver proved to be quite entertaining, however his tounge was afraid of the Dark! at our first stop we popped out to see some Kangaroos. Unfortunately the stop was cut short by a spider Bite!!. we rushed Emily to the nearest clinic, It turned out to be completely harmless, Phew!! We then continued our stroll. saw some amazing waterfalls, beautifall sights and tooj a ride on the worlds steepest train. (after climbing down 900 steps).

Day Five(today), started with a well deserved lie in. after “minging” around in the common room I decided to go job hunting (to no avail). later I am going to spend all my monies on activities for the year. woo!. not that I know what I want to do!

well thats all folks.

Mackey out!

wow, what a busy day. Must have had about 2 hours sleep last night, not the best idea when traveling for nearly 30 hours. maybe Ill get to sleep on the plane? one of them at least!

Waiting around in the airport at the moment, just got ripped off for burger and chips! £12 for a cold burger and about 5 chips! they saw me coming. Only another 2 hours till take off! phase three of the journey.

would have been lost without strange foreigners to show me around the airport, didnt have a clue! It was kind enough of him though.

will blog again in Kuala lwmpur I guess.

Mackey out!

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