Byron Bay

---

After very nearly missing our night bus up to Byron Bay, we arrived the next morning and booked into a place called the 'Arts Factory' which had been recommended to us by a few friends. It was querky and it taught Poi and fire sticks, which I had missed playing with since Cambodia. So I was more than content! That evening we ended up having a girly night in, as we were knackered after the bus journey, which we found was almost impossible to sleep on-especially when we had been blessed with a chatty driver who just loved to fill us all in at 4 in the morning about a change in driver...
The next day Leez and I decided to split up in a few days for the next 10 days as I had especially wanted to visit Fraser and the Whitsunday Islands, however Liza had only wanted to devote half of her time to doing Fraser Island and the rest to diving; so we agreed to meet up in Cairns, where we would catch a flight down to Melbourne together. After all that decision making our heads were feeling a little tender, so we went to the beach, which was definitely the centre and the main attraction of this small surfing town.
Relaxation time over and a shock was in store when we arrived back at the hostel. As I opened the door to our dorm there was an almighty bang, which turned out to have been a surf board leaning against the inside of the door. It had fallen forwards and a nice little chip is now accomodated along one of it's edges...
Anyway the next morning we got up pretty late as we were both suffering from colds-not that we need excuses... and on my way to the beach I felt a little tap on my shoulder, turned around to see Rob, a guy we'd met in Sydney and so joined him;seeing as leez wasn't feeling up to much. On our return and after following orders from Leez to buy some food, she cooked us all a special meal, because it was my birthday the next day, which was really sweet.
Then came the morning of my birthday...I woke up, wondered outside where Rob was, followed swiftly by Leez who had gotten me a MASSIVE breakfast with carrot cake, everything you can imagine that is banana flavoured(it appears that I have a banana fetish), popcorn and so it goes on! So after rolling out of the Arts Factory and saying goodbye to Rob, we headed up to Brisbane to meet our friend Oscar, who had very kindly picked us up from the bustop and Leez cooked spag bog to show our gratitude for putting us up which went down quickly! Later on we headed out to Brisbane, where a few birthday celebrations were in store. However being a Sunday night not a lot was going on, so after talking to mum and dad, we actually ended up sitting in a tree in the middle of a park...A week or so later I was told that Take That were actually playing in Brisbane the night of my birthday-dammit!
The following day we were beach-bound and after an hours drive we arrived at a beach where, like so many Australian beaches, you could only swim in a narrow strip of water where the rip wasn't too strong. On the way home we rented a fantastic film called 'Little Miss Sunshine' which had us in stitches-we all highly recommend it! Then everyone took me up on my offer to make omelettes, which I believe Leez and I followed with just a little bit of ice-cream...hmmm!
Liza and I had a fantastic lie-in and carried on the theme of doing very little all day, until Cat showed up in the evening, who had met Liza when the two were backpacking around Italy a year or so ago. Oscar then pitched up later, after he'd been at uni(in Oz they go to uni at nightime...which does mean they can hold down a job as well) and we had a good night yabbering!
The next morning I woke up at 10ish and found Liza tucked up in bed, coughing, as she announced that this was the beginning of her favouritist thing ever... tonsilitis! So after making her some easy to swallow brekky, I thought I'd leave her to read, as Liza's do best, and headed out into the centre of Brisbane, seeing as I was only there for one more day. I went to the most mind numbing museum ever, which was trying to be a zoo but instead of using live animals it had needlessly killed and stuffed a huge number of the poor cherubs. So after promptly leaving, I hit the shops and ended up buying a lovely little dress. Feeling very pleased with myself, I caught the next bus back to Oscar's. Unfortunately once I'd recognised the road which leads to Oscar's road, we were flying onto the next stop, which meant I had a little walk on my hands...
My 10 day adventure started the next day, with an early bus up to Hervey Bay. At first it seemed very strange being apart from Liza, but I soon met loads of great people and spent less time on the internet to my friends back at home! That evening the group that I would be travelling to Fraser Island with had a meeting, where we were told wild dingoes would be roaming around us all, scavenging. These wild dogs were dangerous if in packs, which was demonstrated to us using a little anecdote...a little while ago two 7 and 9 year old brothers went about half a kilometre away from their campsite when a pack of dingoes started to follow them. The brothers ran away, but when the little one tripped up the dingoes jumped on him. Although the elder of the two tried to help his brother, he just couldn't so decided to race back to their campsite. The parents were quick to react, but by the time they had reached their other son, he was already half eaten...As a result nobody on our trip could go to the loo by themselves etc..
After all that light heartedness, we watched Neighbours and the australian version of 'deal or no deal', which was absolute crap compared to ours, honestly!!
We set our alarm for 6.30am and set off to get the 4x4 we were renting as a group and then drove to the ferry. Here I found a bench inside and fell asleep instantaneously, apparently missing a few dolphin sightings, but I had the journey back to see those! Our first bit of manic driving lead us to Lake Wabby, where we parked(not on a hill as the handbrake didn't work) and walked to the lake, paddled a bit and continued to drive onto our campsite for the night. We erected the tents, made some sandwiches for lunch, then walked for a good hour to a far more beautiful lake and had a well deserved swim and play on the sand dunes. On our way back to the beach we saw at least three signs which claimed it was '1km to the beach', so we started to ignore these. That night I slept surprisingly well in a tent I had shared with two others and woke up pretty early. After brekky one of the three designated drivers(who unfortunately had to be over 21)drove us to 'Happy Valley', where we ended up having a few jugs of beer on what was meant to be our water stop.... On our way, we stopped at a little creek where you could walk all the way up it and then float at quite a speed all the way down it which is underatedly fun! Then we headed to Indian beach where we saw a few sharks, stingrays and someone claimed to have seen a dolphin... That night a few of the 8 of us lay and stared up at the stars, when I saw my first shooting star!! As you can tell it was a hugely momentous night.
Lake Macenzie is the most famous place on the whole island and this was where we were heading the very next day; it was beautiful with crystal clear water and sand so pure(made almost completely from silicone dioxide) and white that it squeaked as you walked on it-at first I thought I was hearing things! So after spending a looong time swimming here, we had to go to catch our ferry back to the mainland, where we all relished in hot showers and clean clothes! That evening I was booked onto the bus up to Airlie Beach(which strangely didn't seem to have a single beach), where my sailing trip around the Whitsunday Islands would leave from the following day.
Twenty-five of us jumped onto 'Habibi' who turned out to be a really good bunch. We went to Whitehaven beach, which I can only describe as being very white, where we donned our stinger suits, saw a few stingrays inches away from us, screamed quite a bit and hopped back on the boat! That night it was too hot to sleep downstairs, so upstairs it was, until i woke up once, moved, woke up again and then decided may be downstairs was the best option after all...
On the second day of our trip we went for two snorkelling trips where I saw some beautiful coral and fish! Then came an interesting game of ring of fire-which included a rule which meant that if you picked up a certain card you had to swap clothes with someone of the opposite sex...quite amusing!
Our sailing trip was to end that morning and once I'd settled back onto mainland in a little cafe, I saw an old friend who I had worked with in Waitrose! It had been a bit sad to say goodbye to everyone that day, but we kept bumping into each other in this tiny little town and ended up spending the day together and I managed to find someone who was about as eager to catch the next episode of neighbours as I, so that took up my last half an hour before catching a bus up to Cairns.
It was tipping it down, so I plopped in an internet cafe all day and felt quite guilty about this, considering I only had one day to see this city...
After arriving at Cairns airport the next day, I discovered that my flight had been cancelled, but that I had been moved to a slightly later Qantas flight, which offered food and free drinks unlike my original 'virgin blue' flight-so I pretty much received an upgrade! Once in Melbourne I found a very social backpackers on Kings Street and this triggered my love of this relaxed, yet energetic city. I loved the vibe within minutes of getting there.
That night I walked to the pub where the neighbours stars go every Monday night and after seeing Dr. Darcy, Karl's band played who included two really talented musicians(not including Karl himself though) and I was impressed!
The Warner Bros shop is an excuse for adults to be children and it managed to draw Michael, a querky South African who I had met in my dorm room and myself to it the next day. Then we went to the small harbour and finally to a playground which was awesome! We especially loved the twirling sticks, a spinning ring that was set at an angle to the ground and it honestly recreated the feeling of being on a rollercoaster.
After much consideration of whether I could justify spending $40 dollars on going on the Neighbours tour, I booked it for the next day, where we went to Ramsay Street which was tiny, we saw Grease Monkeys, Erinsborough high(it's name is an anogram of neighbours!), but you couldn't get into Lassiter's complex unless you were famous... After that huge disappointment, we met Susan who was such a nice lady and she loved my pink camera!
I headed up to Canberra the following afternoon, which was a complete ghost town with whole stretches of freeways empty except for a car or two. I visited Old Parliament House, the National Portrait Gallery and I saw Parliament House, which was only 10-15 years old, but looked brand new. I caught the train up to Sydney the next day, which turned out to be cheaper and far more comfy than the bus. Actually just to show how insignificant this city is, when I arrived at Canberra station the train that I would be catching in 45 minutes time was sitting on the only platform there was-so at least you couldn't get the wrong train. While I was on the train I met a fantastic guy who had been visiting his daughter's new baby. We got on surprisingly well and he pointed out a flock of kangaroos on the way, which I was ecstatic about; having not seen ONE during my entire stay in Oz.
Leez and I met each other again with a humungous hug, but I was unfortunately informed that she had tonsilitis again. We had a quiet night ready for the next leg of our adventure!

---