Return to OZ...

The Farm




After our 5 or so weeks in Thailand it was time to return to the mighty country of Australia, so after a few last meals of pat tai and spring roles, we boarded a plane back to western civilization. Upon arriving and smelling the amazingly fresh (by comparison to central Bangkok) air we were off to stay with our good friends the Penner's for a week or so. It was there that we searched and found a job that every backpacker has experienced and most dread, the almighty fruit and vegetable picking job.

Our choice product was vegetables and our choice location was a little town called Forest Hill about an hour or so outside of Brisbane. I'll tell you the metropolis that is Brisbane fades very quickly into back country Australia. We stayed at a quaint little working hostel called "Woodstock" where we met loads of great people, some there to make a little cash, some there to extend their visas (which takes 3 months of farm work in this country) Slave labor, I tell ya.



Life on the farm is a world unto its own folks; 4:30am wake up calls, long days cutting cauliflowers or lettuce or sugar loaf or cabbage or whatever in the hot sun... It is not for the faint of heart. But as good Canadian "blokes" we were not about to be deterred by a little back-breaking labor. As time tends to do, it passed, some days quicker than others, but it passed. The main thing that helped? People people people, Irish friends Allan, Fergal, Mullarky, Jane, Laura, Barbarra, Sean, Paul (there was a lot of Irish), English friends Senghi, Caroline, the Scots Jon and Kenny, The Koreans and Japanese (Nikki and Jimmy), Sarah and others....Great Memories!





One things for sure, our tans are better for the experience, we now have intimate knowledge of where our produce comes from and we know every native Australian swear in the book (though we never use any of them). After 3 weeks though, it was time to say goodbye, we had picked our last vegetable in this great country and more adventures beckoned...