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Published: August 19th 2009
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So the time came to pack up our rucksacks and hit the road again. We had our dinner on our last night in a lovely Irish bar, steak mash and gravy of course, and said a final farewell to Sydney. It was a strange feeling leaving ‘home’ again and we were a little sad, having made some great friends and really settled in, but we were really excited to start the next leg of the adventure.
We decided that the best way to get to Cairns to catch our next flight would be an almighty road trip. We collected our rental car, a very nice Holden (Opel) Astra, and headed north towards Port Macquarie. The first day of driving was quite long and we covered a distance of over 400km. Port Macquarie felt like quite a sleepy town, geared towards families and older crowds but nevertheless a very pretty place and not a bad first stop.
Next morning we hit the road again and made our way as far as Coffs Harbour. And what else would you do first in Coffs Harbour except visit the Big Banana!! Yes that’s right, one of the main tourist attractions is a Banana
themed café with a banana themed gift shop, and also ice-skating & toboggan rides in the same place- Yes very random and quite cheesy but it was good fun for a quick visit. The idea behind it is that growing bananas was and still is a major industry in the area. We also walked along the beach and alongside the marina. Having already covered almost 600km, a nice relaxing afternoon was just what we needed.
So the next day we headed further north another 220 km to Byron Bay. On our way into Byron bay we stopped at a lookout for a picnic and we spotted a big pod of dolphins about 300metres offshore so we had a little entertainment watching them while eating lunch. Byron Bay is a really nice town and has a very very laid back feel. The local were all very chilled out and the beaches were the nicest so far. We spent the day between the beach and the shops and went out for a gorgeous Thai dinner that night. We stayed in an amazing guesthouse with hammocks and a lovely garden and all in all Byron Bay was somewhere we could have stayed
for weeks!
But we do have a flight to catch so next morning off we went again. This time only driving 70 km to Coolangatta. Once we checked into the backpackers, we jumped back in the car and headed to Wet and Wild water park about half an hour away. It is technically ‘winter’ here but seriously it was 24 and sunny so we were not expecting to practically have to park to ourselves! Apart from once when there was 2 people in front of us we didn’t queue for anything and we had a splashtastic time! Haha cheesy I know! After about 4 hours of acting like kids, we were knackered but it was also time to head back down the freeway to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary for our Wildnight Tour. The park is open all day but at night they do a special ticket which includes a buffet dinner and then a tour of the park in the dark. It was a great time to see the nocturnal animals and also got to hold a baby python and crocodile, cuddle a koala and hand feed kangaroos. Very cool experience!
Once again it was time to hit the
road again the next morning and we headed a little bit up the coast to the resort town of Surfers Paradise. The town is lovely with some fab beachside cafes and restaurants and the beach is lovely but we mainly wanted to stop off and head up 77 stories of the Q1 tower to the viewing deck called Qdeck. From the viewing deck there are 360° views of the gold coast and it was well worth the popping ears.
After our morning in Surfers Paradise we headed up the coast to Brisbane. We checked into our hostel and sat by the rooftop pool for a little while and then headed into the city to see some sights. In the evening we met up with a mate from Dublin, had a few drinks in a local bar and some good irish Craic was had by all!!
The river really dominates and it seemed like the best way to see Brisbane was from the water. What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than cruising along the Brisbane River. When we disembarked we went for a walk around South Bank Parklands, through the craft markets and along by Street Beach,
a man made beach in the middle of the park, and had lunch and an ice-cream by the river. A very relaxing day in preparation for hitting the road again the next day……
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