After Bryce and I had been in Aus for over a month we started to look for work, we had a bit of luck as I have wrote about in previous updates. But not as much as we thought, it turns out you need to be qualified for almost every kind of work here, that's a decent pay at least. So as we both didn't have working visas anyways we couldn't apply for some things necessary to get qualified for proper work. But none the less we still searched for work in between going to the beach and adventures. Once I got back from the sailing/Melbourne road trip I stayed in Byron for one week and ended up finding a job. The job is working for a guy that has bought a few houses that he wants fixed up so he can rent them out. The houses are in Gold Coast about an hour north of Byron, so I decided to hit the road to find some work. Bryce wanted to chill in Byron for a bit longer because he had some plans later that week.
 |
| My ride to work for a day, thanks to my mate Dillon! |
I headed up to Gold Coast on a Friday evening to stay with some good friends I met a month earlier, and they had found jobs up here as well. My friend Dillon and I went for a surf at Burleigh Heads just a few km's down the road from there house. The waves were ok head high and a bit walled but fun to get in the water at a new spot none the less. After a lil surf sesh we headed up into Surfer's Paradise where his girlfriend Roxanne was working in the mall. We hit an Australian classic food spot called Nando's, basically really good bbq/smoked chicken, beef, ribs, etc accompanied by a handful of chips (french fries). Later that night I went up to Brisbane to go to a friends birthday party, it was nice meeting some new people, a majority of them being french! I always try to learn a bit of french so that when I get home I can speak some to my grandparents who speak it fluently.
 |
| D-Bah in Coolangatta! |
Sunday was a fun day I spent roaming the city of Brisbane with my friends Emilie, Roxanne, and Dillon. A pretty clean city with lots of good lil food joints, a beautiful botanical garden, and great beaches along the river the city is built on. On the other side of the river is an awesome lagoon style beach themed watering hole that hundred of kids and families gather around on the weekends. I've never seen anything like it, all man made but gives the feeling of being in paradise with a sky scrapper backdrop in the distance. Had a great time in the city but it was time to go back to the Gold Coast to have my first day of work in the morning.
The house this guy had bought is beyond a fixer upper, termite damage everywhere, and nothing was put together right the first time. But it is work that I know how to do and all I can find at the moment so I'm giving it a shot. For the first few days me and another guy working Luke, just tore out existing kitchen/drywall and reinforced some of the rotten walls the best we could. Put up all new drywall, installed a kitchen he bought at a salvage yard, put in a new toilet, and did lots of painting! I worked for 8 days and saved enough money along with some money from another gig to go to Bali. Between working for a week and a half I got a couple fun sessions in at Burleigh Heads and D-Bah, both waves I have heard about and always wanted to surf. After finishing work on Tuesday I headed up to Brisbane and started packing my bags for my flight to Bali then next day!
