Christmas !

Merry Christmas Everyone !
We hope everyone had a relaxing holiday spent with family and friends.
We had a fantastic Christmas, one we will remember forever.

Carlo and I woke up bright and early to prepare a breakfast for the staff...eggs, bacon, pancakes and toast...mmmm....we had to make a special trip off the island to get the ingredients but it was sure worth it.

That morning we went down to the ocean and surfed because there were gigantic waves from the ocean swell.....we were down there for hours.

All the staff pitched in and helped prepare a traditional Christmas dinner for 40 of the campers....ham...turkey...roast potatoes....veg ....Yorkshire pudding and plum pudding  and get this....it was all done in a traditional wood fire pizza oven. The meal was fantastic.....sure beats our daily kangaroo and spaghetti. ( We rotate between eating two meals every night because we eat what the campers eat. The camping groups rotate every three days....I don't think we will be eating spaghetti for a long time after this.)

It was a bit odd not having a Christmas tree, snow and family to celebrate but we will forever remember our Christmas on Fraser Island.


Happy New Year Everyone!

Carmen and Carlo

Christmas Dinner ( kind of looks like a soup kitchen)

Beautiful Xmas evening on the beach

Merry Christmas Everyone

Our favorite tour guide Jake

So excited about the waves !

We did a secret Santa, we had to make our gifts and my secret Santa made me a coconut cup.

Boxing Day hike to Lake Wabby

Fraser Island Continued !

We are loving, loving, loving Fraser Island. We have been going on a few of the tours and we can't believe how beautiful the island really is.

We have decided to stay until the end of January, we figure we won't find anywhere better to live. After that we may head up to the Great Barrier Reef to get our diving certification.

Our boss is actually going away for two weeks in January and offered us a paid position while she is away. We couldn't resist!

We hired three new English "lads" to help out over Christmas and New Years. We just found out we are having a traditional Christmas dinner...turkey....ham...Yorkshire pudding and more! We are so excited. Our boss got us Santa Hats and we made a make-shift tree.

It's a hot one today ( We tend to not even check the temperature), time to head to the beach and cool off.

Cheers,

Carmen and Carlo

Fraser Island, Australia !

Hello from our new home, Fraser Island, Australia.

Fraser Island it the worlds largest sand island and it stretches 75 km wide and 25 km long. It is located on the Southern coast of Queensland and was named a world heritage site in 1992. Fraser Island is home to one of the worlds most famous lakes, Lake Mckenzie as well as Lake Wabby and Lake Birrabeen. There are sharks ponds, sand blows, rivers, champagne pools all surrounded by lush rain forests.

We are volunteering at a tour company called Fraser Island Trailblazers. We are situated at a basecamp (seconds from ocean) and look after the camp and the guests. There are no stores, no roads (only sand roads) and only a handful of residents. We are loving it here. Morning runs on the beach, afternoon adventures and evening fishing......it can't get any better.

We have met some fantastic people from all around the world and we love chatting and sharing travel stories with them. We are looking to stay here for a month but it is tempting to stay longer.

We will update you with more pictures soon as we are going on a tour sometime this week.

Cheers,

Carmen and Carlo

Our Backyard

Beautiful

Beach soccer with the crew

Lightning Storm

Baking cookies in the pizza oven

Lake Mckenzie

Fisherman

Fishing

Trying to teach the Aussies Beer Pong..I think they liked the game

Trying to get over my fear of snakes

Bus got flat tire on the "highway"

Saarlouis, Luxembourg, Paris

Internet hasn't been easy to come by these past few weeks but we want to update you on our three last stops in Europe.

Our amazing friend Megan ( she was in the bridal party) recently moved to Saarlouis, Germany on a professional basketball contract so we couldn't resist going to see her. We had a wonderful day exploring Saarlouis, it is a small, quaint town that holds a lot of character. We had a few beers and went for dinner at a schnitzel house, it wad Megan's very first schnitzel. It was great to visit her and see where she will living for the next year. We miss her already.
The next day we headed to Luxembourg, it is about an hour from Saarlouis. Luxembourg is beautiful, especially in the autumn months. It is very classy, prim and proper but still holds its European cheer. We didn't spend as much time as we would have liked  because we think we got a small dose of food poising. Yuck!

It took the majority of the day to drive to Paris, but the drive was one of the most scenic routes we have seen. We drove through tiny villages , rolling green hills, and sunflower farms.

We were pleasantly surprised with how much we enjoyed Paris. We came in with no expectations but in the end it was one of our favorite cities.

We were fortunate enough to be there when the annual Christmas market was taking place, 300 booths of gourmet foods, Christmas trinckets and festive treats. We stayed well into the evening so we could capture pictures of the Eiffel tower and wondered around with warm red wine.

Sadly, our European journey has come to an end. We flew out on the 27th to China and had a 13 hour lay-over before we landed in Sydney.

We are currently in Noosa, Queensland where we are relaxing on the beach before we start our new jobs. We are working for a tour company on Fraser Island, check out the link below to get a better idea what the company is all about.
http://www.trailblazertours.com.au/

Cheers!

It's 29 degrees and  stunning here in Noosa. We will update you again when we can.

Cheers,
Carmen and Carlo