Bundaberg farmlife

Yep, now I have been here for a week and I've been working hard. For those who drink rum Bundaberg might actually sound familiar. It is probably the most famous Australian rum and it's made here in the city where I am at the moment. I came here to work on farms picking fruits and vegetables and that is what I have been doing. The first day here I didn't go to work and it was a really boring day. I walked around a bit here, but this is not a big city and the closest beach is 15km from the city. I was worried that I wouldn't have anything to do here, but when I started working I haven't had energy or time to do anything.

I am in a working hostel, which means that the owners of the hostel agree with local farmers about how many persons they need to work the following day. The first day I was planting sweet potato for six hours. We had one 10 minute break during which we were able to drink and eat. It was so hot and I thought that I would never survive working here. The next day I was planting watermelons which was really fun because I was sitting at the back of a tractor and just putting the plants on the ground.

This week I have been picking watermelons and pumpkins. I have been to work for almost 12hours per day and when I come home I'm usually really tired and my body is full of bruises. When we are picking them the girls usually get to be on a trailer and put the melons or pumpkins in cardboard boxes. The guys pick the melons and put them on a conveyor belt and then someone is at the end of the belt throwing the fruits to us (sometimes at us). I just calculated that on Monday I did put 12000 kg's of watermelons into the boxes. Today I was planting trees. The work was quite easy cause we were inside a shed and planted small trees and we only worked for 8 hours.

I am also travelling on my own at the moment and I was afraid that it would be very lonely. Luckily the people at the hostel are really nice and I have a lot of new friends, mainly from Korea but also other countries. In the beginning I wished that I could leave immediately cause the hostel isn't that great and it is really crowded, but now I whish that I could stay longer. I will be here for one more week and then I'm going back to Sydney by bus (only about 24 hours).

Now I'm running out of cash so I have to leave the internet cafe. I'll be back and hope to hear from you all as well.

Byron Bay & Australia Zoo

If you did not see enough of the seventies during the seventies go to Byron Bay. That is the place were we spent Christmas with all the hippies. It was a quite small place with beautiful beaches and we were actually able to swim. For some reason it seemed like entire Sweden would have been in Byron Bay, at least our hostel was full of swedish people singing Christmas songs. The hostel were we stayed was not the best place due to the rats and cockroaches (my friends). Still we had a nice Christmas. In the morning we made some riceporridge and in the evening our dinner consisted of salmon, potatoes and rosolli (don't know what that is in English).

After just spending some days on the beach we tried our luck with surfing. We took surfing lessons one day and the next day we rented surf boards and tried to ride on the waves... It was an incredible feeling when you actually were able to stand up on the board and be on for a couple of seconds. Well surfing is something I definitely would like to continue with and I can recommend it to everyone.

After Christmas we came back to Brisbane with Juha. Here we have spent our time by doing some souvenir shopping and by going to Australia Zoo. You have probably heard of Steve Irwin (crocodile hunter) who got killed last September by a stingray. Well that is/was 'his' zoo. It was really exciting to see crocodiles, tigers and cuddle some kangaroos.

New Year we spent here in Brisbane on the 'beach'. The beach is constructed almost in the middle of the city so it is not a real beach to me. The event at the beach or Southbank as it is called was nice. There were lots of things to do and see. There were breakdancers, latin dancing and naturally fireworks. Surprisingly.. there were also a lot of drunken teenagers fighting.

Today and went with Juha to the airport and I watched him fly away. Tomorrow I'm travelling to Bundaberg with my new strawhat and the story continues there.