Hinterland Honeymoon

Grey, wet, cold, gloomy; just a few adjectives you could use to describe the day we’re having in our neck of the woods at the moment. It’s miserable. And you know what it reminds me of?

My honeymoon.

If it sounds like I’m describing this brief period of celebration after the wedding as a less than pleasant experience because I’m lamenting the loss of my freedom and carefree bachelorhood, I’m not (I’ve lost all of those a long time ago). The entire trip was practically mired in terrible weather, and Mrs. PWW and I spent most of the days under a small umbrella. Nonetheless I was thankful we had an incredibly sunny weekend for an outdoor wedding, and figured we can deal with the inclement weather for the honeymoon.

It comes as no surprise to me that we had no set itinerary for the trip because a) I was the one in charge of organising the trip and I didn’t do a very good job, and b) my procrastination was justified by historical evidence that some of our best travels involved no concrete plans at all. We did manage to agree on our first (and only definite) stop: Byron Bay.

Bringing Your Bike to Australia

Last Saturday, I went on my first (relatively) long bike ride in here Australia. I got dressed, hopped on the bike, and rode. Sounds simple, no? It’s quite interesting what needed to happen from leaving the Philippines before I could get that first ride in. This post is dedicated to any Pinoy Weekend Warrior who will be moving to Australia and is desperately trying to figure out how to get a mountain bike Down Under. I’m sure there are smarter ways to do it, but obviously, that’s just not my style.

Step 1: Getting the bike ready

Prior to packing your bike into a box, unless it’s a brand new bike, I highly suggest you take it to your local bike shop first to get it serviced: lube job, change of cables, brake pads, tune up, the works. Why? Because you’d pay only a fraction of the cost compared to the shops here. Case in point, I had two mountain bikes fully-serviced and ended up paying Php 2000 (AUD 55.50) which already included a generous tip. I don’t even want to think how much that’d cost here.

Also, before you pack your bike, you should at least buy it dinner and a drink first.

Just Married

In spite of a gray, wet and freezing winter day before the wedding, the sun and the blue skies came out just in time (thank you, Mama Nature) so we happily stuck to Plan A and got married at Girraween National Park.

The entire weekend was filled with much laughter and copious amounts of food and drink. But what made it very memorable is the fact that we were able to share this milestone with family. Many others sent a lot of love our way (even before we left the Philippines) which made our day even more special. To you all, we are very grateful. Thank you all so much for everything.

With all our love,